More of a storyboard than individual picture.

An exploded view of the new Rockshox Charger Damper


Big chunk of metal missing from the threads on the low speed compression needle


This base plate, spring and shim were wedged up inside the the damper tube


The bolt and a few washers from the picture above came loose and caused this damage to the mid valve


This is part of the lockout mechanism and the bottom corners were damaged by having shims, washers and other bits of metal floating around both the bottom and top of the damper mechanism


No idea what happened to the top end, but all of the bottom end damage was caused by the bolt and washers floating around while riding. The entire shim stack was loose inside the damper and didn't do anyone any favors as well. Fork is 4 months old and I have a feeling that the shim stack has been loose for a while. At least the last month. Hopefully I will get a warranty out of it, but it does not look promising right now.


[moved discussion from Picture of the Day to Garage - O.D.D.]

good luck dude


always liked rock shox because of a simple design that translated into a smooth, functional and cush ride. tried fox early on, and can see how it works for some, but wasn't for me. or i just couldn't dial it in.

heard of issues w/ charger damper. hope they don't go south like marzocchi.

x-fusion?

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

A friend of mine had an x-fusion fork (whatever their 160ish fork is) on his Mojo and it didn't last very long under his abuse. Their customer service seemed good to great, but the product was lacking for aggressive trail/AM/hard XC/whatever riding by a ~200# person.

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It is not enough to fight for the West; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. -Edward Abbey

Seems like a freak thing, but will definitely be watching it. The change was subtle enough that quite a few rides would not have even said anything.

What made you take it apart? regular maintenance or performance issue?

It felt like the headset was loose because of the bolt rattling around in the lower leg. It was not the regular top out clunk that all RS forks have.

As a follow up, once I sent pictures into Sram they agreed to replace the damper. I think they believed I wanted a new damper because of a loose bolt, but once they saw the amount of damage there were no more questions.

Overall happy with the customer service