DVO Topaz Rebuild | Tips Tricks and Lessons Learned
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- čas přidán 17. 11. 2022
- Just me figuring out DVO's tech document. I'm in no way trained or affiliated with DVO. Any screwup that I did during this is entirely my own fault. That being said, went together alright!
Topaz Rebuild Document: tech.dvosuspension.com/servic...
Give the guys over there a call, 661-295-9500, before you start, make sure you have all the right tools, parts, and documents for your rebuild!
Here are some of the tools I used:
Bleed Kit: a.co/d/4rPOmOx
Soft Jaws: a.co/d/bn1vibc
Hobby Vice (similar) was clutch
Ask the guys for 2.5wt oil
#dvo Topaz
great tips and like the clever method to get the shaft off using paracord. About to take my damper body off the head to remove the travel spacer on gen 3 topaz and this helped me feel more prepared!
Heck yeah. That’s why I made this, hopefully it helped! Stoked your attempting it yourself!
I’ve done 3 rebuilds now and the paracord trick works every time. Takes a little practice to get it to cinch up well but it’s possible and you don’t need a special tool. Thanks for the feedback!
@broken spokes nice vid. The inconsistencies in the manual is indeed the worst part. The paracord trick was pretty clever. I used soft jaws to get my shaft off, but was paranoid about debris. DVO also told me you don't need to take the shim stack apart, though I have heard of people using that nut to get the main shaft assembly off. Finally, you had your kid parked behind you while you were filming this! I love it. I've got a kid too, the struggle is real.
Looks like we're just two dads trying to make our squishy bits feel good :) And yes, I get it though. They make money selling shocks and I bet 95% of people don't do anything other than adjust air and rebound. Dumping time into those manuals when they are 'good enough' is tough to justify from a small company perspective especially when there's multiple versions of the shock. And nobody wants to do documentation, nobody. It's boring
Hey brother!
i got a weird problem on my topaz air.
on their site, it says i need 140 psi in the shock and 170psi in the bladder.
the problem starts when i pump into the bladder. the moment i get over 120 it spits out air, making it impossible to get to the 170.
its fresh out of service. any ideas or tips?
thank you and keep up the nice vids ! ride on!
Thanks for the comment and checking it out! Yeah, so I've had the same thing happen, hopefully this makes sense - Extend the shock before you do this so no air is being utilized pushing oil back through the rebound. Pull the bladder back out, double check it's seated on the cap correctly, top the reservoir off w/ a little oil, then gently put it back in, I find a small circular method works well. As soon as it can clear the clip (I usually press the bladder/cap in w/ the clip right on top to do this quickly) install the clip and pull up on whatever you're using on the valve stem, trying to seat it against the clip as quickly as you can. then, put that shock pump on there and try and get pressure in it as quickly as possible. It's worked for me - hopefully this will help out. You might also want to grab a new bladder as that rubber gets WORKED after a while of riding. Good luck and HMU if it's successful
Helpful tutorial but that's not a valid final bleed - when you had to open the reservoir again you should have also attached the syringe with some oil in. When you press the pin in and go to install the bladder, the syringe should be attached to catch oil because some volume will be pushed out of the damper when installing the bladder.
Bro tip: after bleeding and sealed, add air to bladder immediately before testing it on bike otherwise cavitation might happen if compressed suddenly as is. Some slurping sound is okay before adding bladder pressure as long as stroke is consistent, make sure to draw the syringe with stanction leaning both backwards and forwards after cycling it
Thanks for the feedback! Appreciate the in depth response to help myself and others learn more on this.
Something I run into with these videos is cutting the important bits down into digestible bites and getting all the important information in there. I’ll definitely revisit my shock bleed with your feedback. It’s still cold AF here and I’ve got plenty of time to optimize. Thanks again! 👍👍👍👍
@@brokenspokesMTB Any time. I was going through the forums on it so was obliged to when I landed here. Welcome
can you increase the travel of dvo topaz t3 shock? will it be possible?
Hey man, thank for checking it out! All the shock sizes I've ever had never were on the small side of an eye to eye size (example: 185 x 50/55, I've always had the upper end of stroke length). I am not totally Sure if you can increase the stroke length of your shock. I believe it has to do with the bumper thickness shown in step 15 of the rebuild document but am not sure. There's a lot of aspects to consider if you do that and may want to reach out to DVO to double check. They've got a pretty active FB page where someone else likely tried what you're looking for. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
@@brokenspokesMTB thanks for the response! really helped!
How exactly did you go about bleeding the shock from both sides, since there's no bleeding point on the bladder. I got air in my system and find it extremely difficult to get it out.
Ah, there I go being imprecise with my language (another commenter pointed a similar note out). Ok, so in the tech document, tech.dvosuspension.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/topaz_fullservicev3.pdf
When I got to step 71, one thing I did to help there, as it seemed air was trapped in the damper shaft, I didn't fill the reservoir all the way (initially) as shown. I filled it partially and cycled the shock up and down a few times. I found there were air bubbles that more easily escaped when having the reservoir open for a few cycles. (move it slowly so it doesn't overflow and spill everywhere or pull more air in when extending the stanchion). Then as it went from totally compressed (reservoir as full as possible) as I was extending the stanchion, I slowly added oil back to the reservoir to get a similar picture to step 71. That's when I put the bladder back in, sealed up the bladder side, and moved to the stanchion bleed port. I found this to be the most effective way to remove the air bubbles. Hopefully that made sense. Thanks for the comment and let me know if that helps!
want see more clear
Hi, if spotted correctly you have 1 band in positive and 2 negative? How much do you weight? I'm struggle to set my one right. And so far I don't find any baseline how much bands you should use by riders weight. I'm 185 pounds.
Hey Martin, backwards. I have two positive and one negative. My bike is a linkage driven single pivot and I weigh 155 lbs, 165 or so kitted up.
Have you referred to their setup guide? There are some good guidelines in there. I also take a day or so with my shock pump in hand trying a few combos out
You won't find a good " baseline" starting point, as there are so many factors to consider (frame kinematics, weight, where you ride, how fast you ride, style, etc.). It's more important to just start somewhere, and make note of where that somewhere is. Keep it simple and start with no bands, then spend some time on your bike (weeks?). Only make one change at a time and let your body adapt to it. Doing this takes longer, yes, but you learn how the shock behaves and how you should adjust. In the end, I aim to have a shock that I don't even think about when I'm riding. If I'm aware of it, then to me, it needs adjusting.
@@TheSaucyMTBr well said and I completely agree. It’s part of the fun. Try it for a while, physically write down what’s good and bad, refer to tech documents, make the appropriate change, and then revisit your notes. You’re making me think of an idea for a video…