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Vorsprung Luftkappe Air Piston Upgrade [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

The Vorsprung Luftkappe is an innovative air piston that enlarges your fork's negative air chamber in order to reduce the initial spring rate for super plush off the top suspension performance, and who doesn't love that? Our friend Ian recently upgraded his fork and loves the added suppleness. Check it out!

Overview

After some time riding my new Trek Slash 9.8, I found that my Fox 36 Performance fork wasn't as supple as I would like on the small bump stuff. I would have loved to upgrade to a 36 Factory fork, but that's too rich for my blood!

Another option I considered was the Grip2 damper upgrade. This would have been a great upgrade, but I wasn't prepared to spend that money at the time. I needed something a bit more affordable.

After doing some research on the different fork upgrades you can do, I came across the Vorsprung Luftkappe. It works by replacing your air spring piston and increasing the volume in the negative air chamber on your fork. This is supposed to help with small bump sensitivity and result in the fork being more supple in the first bit of travel.

With it being under $150 for the part and tool to install it, this was the upgrade I was looking for and seemed to cater to my needs for what I was looking to get out of my front suspension.

I waited to install it until I had all the parts required for doing a service/rebuild on my front fork. I normally do most all of the work myself on my bikes, but all of my previous bikes had RockShox suspension. This is my first bike equipped with a Fox front suspension fork. I watched some YouTube videos on it, but still wanted to get the guidance from someone who had done these forks before. I worked with a local bike shop that was helpful in pointing out some tips during the rebuild and showing me everything involved and how they go about tackling the task.

The Luftkappe air spring piston installation was pretty straight forward. The process is exactly as described as it was shown in Vorsprung's YouTube video guide. Make sure you have the right kind of grease for lubricating the seal on the piston and every other seal in the fork. Slickoleum or Slick Honey grease works well for this in my experience.

...I can tell that the fork is a bit more compliant over the small bumps or "trail chatter" when you're ripping along at a decent speed.

I only have a few rides on it so far but I can definitely tell a difference. I was originally worried that the upgrade would result in me blowing through the first bit of travel too easily, but I can assure you this is not the case (at least on my 36 performance fork). I still need to play around with fork air pressure and tire pressure a bit more to get it to where I like, but I can tell that the fork is a bit more compliant over the small bumps or "trail chatter" when you're ripping along at a decent speed.

I think Vorsprung did a good job at making a product that increases the sensitivity of your fork just the right amount. Not to mention at a good price point as well. Any more and I could see it maybe being a problem at the beginning of the stroke, then making it tricky to balance the progressiveness of the shock.

If you have access to a ShockWiz tool (wireless data logging unit for suspension), perhaps that could aid in the tuning even more to get your setup even more dialed.