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that brain thing on the back of the bike


lorrie's picture

By lorrie - Posted on 13 October 2008

Hey Everyone,

Ok the bike has just gone in for a service and the diagnosis is not good. The Brain on the back of the stumpy needs servicing they say that is about $300 for the sevice of the brain and not the RP float. i have been recommended to go for a Fox Float RP 23 to save on $$ and servicing of the brain.

Some thoughts:
Obviously the brain has infinite adjustment and the RP23 has just 3, but you can do it on the fly. Thats cool.
The bike will also weight less as a result of losing the brain. (i dont mind shedding a few hundred grams of weight)
Fox 23 costs about $645 (ouch!!!)
A service on the brain should last a few year. It actually lasted me three!
Infinite adjustment on the brain is cool, even though i have to stop riding to do so.
The float has already beens serviced.

Any thoughts anyone (no jokes please)

Andrew

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Alysum's picture

There was a thread recently where someone asked if it was worth upgrading from RP2 to RP23 and everyone thought it wasn't worth it as most RP23 owners leave it on the same setting all the time. So perhaps look how much a new RP2 would be instead of RP23?

By the way what does a shock service consist of?

Tom

Gary's picture

Hey Lorrie
Just be very carefull with changing the shock on the stumpjumper it is not a stock size, both the eye to eye length and the stroke are non standard. I blew mine up a while back, though it was only the triad, I could not buy an off the shelf rp23 to suit. Cant remember the exact sizes involved but I think the nearest standard size is 200mm length and 50mm stroke which is slightly longer and an increase in stroke length, so make sure it will fit your frame.

craigs's picture

Lorrie, Specialized spend a lot of research and design dollars designing bikes around suspension and vice versa.
I seriously wouldnt go messing with it if you want the bike to ride anything like it did. If it were a Huffy it might be worth the risk and saving a few dollars.
We ride fine tuned machines so the (sometimes) costly servicing is part of the deal. Would you put crap oil in your Bugatti?
At the end of the day you ride a lot of kay's over a lot of weekends so $300 after 3 years is pretty good really.
Go get a service ya stingy bugga.
Craig

Peter R's picture

Keep the brain!.

Peter

delicious's picture

Very valid points from Craig. However a 2009 RP23 from tbsm.com.au is $539. I can't imagine it doing any real harm to the overall performance of your bike, regardless of Mike Sinyard's feelings. Measure your shock's eye to eye and stroke using only the metric system please, post it up here and I'll give you my thoughts.

Stuart M's picture

atleast one thing attached to that bike should have one. Actually this is probably a silly question, we all know that no matter what you put on there, it will be broken in a month.Eye-wink

Ok, seriously now, keep it. A new shock will probably end up costing more and not perform as well

lorrie's picture

The comments are indeed food for thought.

Yeah i'm now leaning towards the extra service. I think the infinite adjustment on the brain is cool and worth the weight. Maybe its a bit oudated now but whenm im mucking around and look at the top of the oaks I can adjust it!

Anyway here is the deatils of the service

"First off the situation with your shock feeling bad is to do with the brain fade, the brain fade is filled with oil and then charged to 400 psi with nitrogen, This nitrogen and oil needs to be serviced every 12 months in order to keep it working properly and doing its job. the Issue is it is a complex process which takes a while to do and has to be completely done in a tub of oil, due to this the service is $249 and then with postage to the centre it starts getting close to a $300 process every 12 months"

Howver it been three years of riding at 2-4hrs a week and i do know the guys at the bike shop. (cue Stuart! haha)

Andrew

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