Anyone ever seen this before?

[Andy R]

The Crosstrack has true balancers. That was a trick for air forks on MX bikes BITD. The ones on the Manitous mfh got are pressure vents.

Except that the fittings just look like standard grease nipples, in which case they have a non-return valve built in (as grease nipples always do), in which case they wouldn't vent any pressure anyway.

 

[BoyBurning]

If I ever saw someone riding a Crosstrac i'd remove my rear skewer & shank them for the bike.

Did I just type that out loud just now?...

I think jeroen has a couple doesn't he?

BB

 

[mechagouki]

Hey Andy! see you in a couple of days!

As you say, they look like grease nipples - I think this is probably part of some open-bath conversion - no oil (or air) seals on manitous so you'd have to add fresh regularly - not too enviromentally friendly either. Not to mention the fact that Manitou top caps would pop out if any kind of pressure could exist inside the legs.

 

[Andy R]

Hey Andy! see you in a couple of days!

A couple of days - is that all it is? Yes, of course it is, time just flies when you're having fun.....

The weather's nice at the minute and the trails are in really prime condition - have a safe journey Anything that you need, just shout.....

 

[mfh126]

OK, so here's the scoop:

The bike originally was built by a shop owner in CT who was into all the high end mtbs during the early 90's. He was known for replacing parts on his bikes with the latest and greatest...titanium bolts, springs, anno chic parts, etc...

The fork mod was done by him during the build of the bike as part of a ti spring kit. With the elastomers gone, a large air space now existed, which created internal pressure during compression between the lower wiper seal and the upper top cap o-ring, causing the caps to pressurize. The zirc fittings and tubes act as a pressure relief valve of sorts, allowing air to escape during compression and light oil to be introduced occasionally to keep the springs quiet.

The fittings don't have the normal "ball" that prevents grease from flowing out, which is how they allow pressure to escape from the forks. Unfortunately the ti springs were poached from the forks before I received them. :evil:

 

[We_are_Stevo]

It's also an effective form of pneumatic damping...

 

[FMJ]

The Crosstrack has true balancers. That was a trick for air forks on MX bikes BITD. The ones on the Manitous mfh got are pressure vents.

Except that the fittings just look like standard grease nipples, in which case they have a non-return valve built in (as grease nipples always do), in which case they wouldn't vent any pressure anyway.

OK, so here's the scoop:

The zirc fittings and tubes act as a pressure relief valve of sorts, allowing air to escape during compression and light oil to be introduced occasionally to keep the springs quiet.

The fittings don't have the normal "ball" that prevents grease from flowing out, which is how they allow pressure to escape from the forks.

I forgot to mention the part about removing the ball/guts of the zerk fitting for the pressure relief mod in my post

 

[Arran]

OK, so here's the scoop:

The bike originally was built by a shop owner in CT who was into all the high end mtbs during the early 90's. He was known for replacing parts on his bikes with the latest and greatest...titanium bolts, springs, anno chic parts, etc...

The fork mod was done by him during the build of the bike as part of a ti spring kit. With the elastomers gone, a large air space now existed, which created internal pressure during compression between the lower wiper seal and the upper top cap o-ring, causing the caps to pressurize. The zirc fittings and tubes act as a pressure relief valve of sorts, allowing air to escape during compression and light oil to be introduced occasionally to keep the springs quiet.

Pfffttt.. If that was all it was for then it's massive overkill & counter-productive to boot. He should have just 1/2 compressed the fork before installing the caps. Then he'd have had a solution to his compression issue & negative air to boot, thus eliminating the classic Manitou top-out (which is worsened by the addition of coil springs...) :roll: