WP Cone valve forks (info wanted)

The newest gen of the WP pro fork is about two years old. Prior versions have different mid valves and seals.

The 52MM fork uses the exact same internal components as the WP 7548 cone valve fork, the tubes are just a larger outer diameter for more strength.

I can tell you from experience that the most difficult part of owning this fork is the initial set up.

Each WP pro fork needs to be set up with a knowledgeable suspension technician if they are to perform to their potential.

It has taken me six months and 5 changes in shim size to get to my sweet spot with my fork- but when they are finally set up correctly you can hit the gnarliest chop and jumps and have no fear.

No, you still have the mid valve piston but the cone replaces the shim stack on the BCV

Also why are so many cone valves for sale all the time? What are people generally switching to?

maybe they switched bike brands, or are getting out of racing.

Maybe they are national privateer pros who used them up for one season and they cost more to rebuild than buying a new set.

Those components are expensive, mine cost more the bike all told.

Or maybe they stopped racing and didn't want all that money to be sitting unused on a practice bike/ garage queen. The fork requires service every 10 hours by a qualified tech or else they don't work very well. It const about 200 to 600 to service them properly.

Maybe they are selling the older version of CV components - just like motorcycles they get better with each model release. The new stuff is named WP Pro and has different part numbers than the old stuff.

Cone valves are very hard to tune as damping is super sensitive to the piston/cone tolerances and cone valve spring rate/preload which in turn are very difficult to measure/predict. A valving spring and or piston/cone from one production run may differ from another even thought the part numbers are the same simply due to mfg tolerances. Now all parts have mfg tolerances, but the WP design is extraordinarily sensitive to them. Therefore, the same setup on two different bikes may feel different.

All that means is it might take a few tuning iterations from whatever "baseline" setting to get them right whereas standard shim stacks tend to be more consistently representative of the desired intent. Doesn't mean you'll necessarily be more prone to liking them, just that they'll probably be closer to what the Tuner intended. .

You can convert the cone valves to standard shim stacks pretty easily. I'd say many of the Factory bikes cone valves are actually running a standard piston/midvalve setup.

This is incorrect. MVC.

Yes, the cones take the place of the mid-valve shims (which is what you said). Enzo converted mine to a shim stack mid-valve. All Craig had to do was remove the Cone and Cone-Valve adaptor and replace with the shim stack. The piston is still there.

Here's 2 videos I made with WP explaining their parts. Full breakdown of the fork and shock.

2 years old:


5 Years Old:

yes sorry you're correct

this isn't my explanation but its a good one, if the owner is on here come claim it i have a feeling i remember where it come from but I'm not 100% as its old.

In very basic terms

A cone valve allows you to have a stiffer fork until a high enough strike speed where it is softer than a normal fork utilizing a "mid speed valve" with a shim stack.

A cone valve is an attempt at a design that feels stiff/firm but supple. AKA under braking and jump faces it feels firm.
On high speed strikes it feels softer than a fork that feels AS firm on the other hits.

A cone valve would be the exact opposite of "soft at the top of the stroke" for most situations.

In reality - a highly digressive damping curve that provides the SAME total damping for any given bump AKA wheel response distance will be the same - actually produces MORE force at the handle bars than a fork that is normal. However this force builds gradually and doesn't produce a "spike" felt at the handle bars.

A good analogy for a cone valve is this - imagine trying to catch an egg thrown at you without breaking it.

It breaks at some known force (a deceleration rate) and rule 1 is dont break the egg.

Thusly - to slow it down without breaking the egg - you will need some minimum distance to keep that force below it's threshold.

Now let's make this a perfect world where you can have your cake and eat it too.
The other rule is to stop it in the shortest distance possible.

Lastly - the egg can be thrown at different speeds.

This last factor provides a challenging problem. With a constant speed egg - the solution to the question is quite simple.
But the variable egg speed makes it really challenging. A cone valve tries to limit the peak force initially by "bleeding off damping" then catching up with lots of damping later.
So example speed 10 force 5. Speed 1 force 4.

A conventional mid valve with shims tries to provide a relatively linear force vs speed. More speed on the egg - more force you provide but in a linear manner. speed 10 - force 10. Speed 1 force 1.

Old school forks (like really really old) were non linear. They provided more force with highest velocites - to a v^2 rule. AKA speed 10 force 50. Speed 1 force 0.5. These are basically worthless and gone for good reason.

On the cone valve a negative is when you hit it hard enough to be OUTSIDE it's design range - and the fork blows through. An example would be over jumping a large rhythm into the next face (common in sx - even intentional). This will cause it to bottom (or damn near bottom depending on it's bottoming control methods) causing massive harshness and unpredictable performance leaving the face.

It would be like catching the egg thrown very fast and only have X amount of space - call it 12 inches like your forks. damping is minimized due to speed and it never slows the egg down

On normal mid valve shim forks - the negatives can be at either extreme of speed. Ultra low speed shaft speeds and it can be too soft - makes it feel mushy.
Ultra high speeds and it feels really really stiff. feels harsh. But it provides maximum safety and predictable performance in over jump or casing situations.
Different piston designs shift the damping curve around sometimes in regions we want. OEMS aren't stupid here.

People don't realize that the reason you bottom you forks on little drop offs - or they feel softish/use large amount of travel - is you dont have any shaft speed so you aren't producing much damping. Like jumping feet first into 3 feet of water.

But they don't bottom or feel soft on a 10 foot drop/jump - because you now have speed built up.
A cone valve would feel stiffer in the little drop - and nice if you want that feel. But on the 10ft drop it would allow you to go further into the pool - maybe good maybe bad.

I had the Cone Valve/ Traxx shock setup on 2 of my bikes. They were ok. Just OK. Not as good as i would have hoped. Support for this suspension is limited IMO.

The good news: i got 85% of what i paid for the suspension back when i switched bike brands....good overall deal in that regard.

And the main reason we don't see those WP cone valves on production bikes. It would be impossible to set them up for the masses or wide range of riders.