Mountain Biking - RockShox Tora 318

Hi,
I'm not really familiar with suspension forks, so excuse the 'newbie' style question.
I have this for on my Trek 6700. I checked the pressure in the fork, and it came back around 80psi. I checked it again right after to confirm and it dropped to 70psi...yikes. I'm assuming because it is such a small space, that the pressure relieves quite quickly..
Anyways, i'm a big dude and the recommendation is for 200+ psi in the fork (seems high, but that's what it says) I went to the gas station to use their pump, and i'm thinking that it can only go up to about 90psi. Do I need a 'high' pressure compressor to get such a high psi into my fork?

For low-volume/high-pressure forks, just attaching a pump increases the pressurized volume enough to noticeably reduce the pressure. You should find a low-volume/high-pressure pump to use to set your fork's air pressure; I wouldn't bother with a compressor.

Yea, you won't be able to get half the air pressure you need unless you have a shock pump. Topeak's Pocket Shock DXG works pretty good. Get one that has a mechanism that lets you push down the valve after it's screwed on in a two step process. That's the most accurate way to get the right pressure.

It works like:
1. Screw on shock pump to the valve.
2. Twist secondary twisty thing to depress the valve.
3. Pump like you're 13 and just found a copy of Playboy.
4. Untwist valve activation thingy.
5. Unscrew pump from valve.
6. RIDE!

That'll let you get the pressure exactly as you need it without a huge bunch of it leaking out when you're trying to pull the pump off the valve. The valve is already closed at that point.

Hi,
I'm not really familiar with suspension forks, so excuse the 'newbie' style question.
I have this for on my Trek 6700. I checked the pressure in the fork, and it came back around 80psi. I checked it again right after to confirm and it dropped to 70psi...yikes. I'm assuming because it is such a small space, that the pressure relieves quite quickly..
Anyways, i'm a big dude and the recommendation is for 200+ psi in the fork (seems high, but that's what it says) I went to the gas station to use their pump, and i'm thinking that it can only go up to about 90psi. Do I need a 'high' pressure compressor to get such a high psi into my fork?

Yes the 200PSI version is correct for the 80mm 318 forks. Since there is such a small amount of air in the fork, it will loose pressure quite easily by just putting and removing a pressure gauge since you will loose a small amount of air doing that.

If your fork/bike is new, you will find that you will need to do about 3 - 4 hours of riding of it compressing and that for it too loosen up before you pick a desired pressure to run on.

Go to the LBS, pump it up to the table on the back of the fork. Have a bit of a ride with it and find something thats right, your own shock pump would be helpfull but its not nessessary since those forks shouldn't loose air too quickly. I"ve pumped my 318 up twice when i first bought it and havn't touched it yet (a few months).

hey guys,
Thanks alot for all your help.. i really appreciate it.
I guess I will be heading to my LBS today...
Take care.