Purchased to try as an alt to the Charger 3 in my 150mm Lyrik on my Stumpy 15. I'm 224#'s and went with the Blue tune. Advanced/expert level rider. My local trail network is loamy, doesn't have much in the way of rocks or roots - Though we do have a lot of big well built berms, medium size mandatory gaps and up to 4' drops. We also build holes & compressions into most of our trails just for some added spice.
TLDR the rest - Basically my review below is a whole bunch of blah blah blah to say, the Lift is a great damper, it works really well for me and I'm stoked!
Being on the heavier side and also a fairly hard charging rider, fork setup with stock dampers is a game of compromise, and I've always wondered about a custom/weight specific tuned fork damper. I found the charger 3 to be an ok damper. In stock form, I ran my lyrik with the RS Trailhead recommended PSI and rebound - on the compression side, I ran HSC at +1 from middle (neutral for the Ch3 & 3.1 dampers) and LSC at +2 to +3 from middle depending on the trail. Always felt I'd like even more damping/support, but going further on the Ch3 = harsh & spikey IMO.
Lift setup:
Performed a lowers service while installing the lift - extremely straightforward install process if you're even remotely familiar with a lowers service. My only complaint would be the 1.5mm set screw on the rebound knob - I personally wish it was a 2 or 2.5mm...only because I didn't have a 1.5mm and had to run to the HW store to grab one LOL.
PSI - Stuck with the trailhead recommended PSI for my weight in the lyrik. I really don't understand the folks that feel they have to drop a bunch of pressure when installing the lift...I'm a firm believer in running proper PSI for a target static sag around 20%. Running less = spending more time in a "harsher" portion of the spring curve where you (well, I) don't want to be. It's my opinion that folks that go this route are obsessing over and tuning for two things, which I believe to be the wrong way to go: Small bump/off the top sensitivity, and use of full travel (seems like a lot of people stress over not using full travel on EVERY ride) at the expense of an ideal overall setup.
On the lift:
LSC - Started out at 6 clicks from closed, wound up at 5 clicks from closed
LSR - started out at 6 clicks from closed, wound up one faster at 7 from closed
I don't agree with anyone that says you "need" to run less pressure than normal with the lift, nor do I agree at all with anyone claiming it's overdamped.
Ride feel - Fantastic. As compared to the stock damper - felt both more supportive and much less feedback at the bars/my hands when riding at my normal pace on my go to trails. On the same trails/features I ride ALL the time, I used a little bit less travel than usual, which is TOTALLY acceptable to me (see above). The lift is fairly quiet - not overall as quiet as the Ch3 as you do hear the HSC blow-off (not sure that's the proper way to describe) when hitting square edge bumps or landing flat. Overall, after the first couple runs with a click here and there fine tuning, feeling things out, the damper kinda disappeared under me, and I didn't really think too much about it and rode my trails at my normal pace - Which is all an overwhelmingly good thing IMO. After a couple days riding the lift on my stumpy, I went for an ebike ride on the Levo. I have a Zeb on that bike with the stock Ch3 damper. While the lift pretty quickly disappeared and just plain worked as noted previously...getting back on the Ch3 really opened my eyes as to how good the lift works (for me) as compared to the Ch3. Normally swapping between these two bikes/forks is a seamless transition...On the levo after spending time on the stumpy/lift, I felt out of sorts on my normal trails. The fork felt harsh, and I felt like I wasn't getting the same front end feel/traction as usual. I was uncomfortable and riding hesitant on trails I know like the back of my hand. So much so, I really wasn't having much fun, and cut my ride short. What I'm saying is, while the lift worked well for me straightaway - it wasn't some mind blowing experience. It just worked, and worked well. Where my mind was blown was when jumping back to the stock damper - then I really noticed the differences (for me) between the two - the Lift, for me, is overwhelmingly better.
Anyway...that was a lot of rambling...so yeah like I said above...TLDR - In summary, the lift is awesome in my opinion. It just works.
My biggest issue now is that I probably need to spend some more $$$ and grab another lift for the Levo. Maybe this review will earn me a discount code to lessen the blow to my wallet...wink wink MRP ;-)
