Revelation offers a combination of light weight and stiffness at 130mm that is superior to all other standard dropout forks on the market today.
Key Features:
-All New chassis design optimized for 130mm travel
-Ultra stiff 32mm straight wall aluminum upper tubes
-Forged 6061 T6 aluminum crown, integrated remote cable stop
-Butted aluminum steerer
-Long Travel Dual Air or Air U-Turn spring options
-Motion Control Damping with adjustable Floodgate
-Compatible with all PopLocs
-Aluminum control knobs
Weaknesses: More travel. Ok, Rock Shox has a new 150mm Revelation but U-Turn mechanism does not work as well as in this fork. Maybe a bit linear but I like that!!
Bottom Line:
This is a great fork for the money. Really solid, not flexy as my '08 Fox F100RLC nor as progressive. Impressive and responsive enough to go as far as you can take it in XC/Trail tracks!!
Weaknesses: A little time consuming to adjust the travel on the fly.
Bottom Line:
Great all around fork. I purchased this after having sore wrists on a cheaper fork. After putting the Revelation through a solid test in Southern Utah, my wrists didn't feel sore in the least due to the Revelation's smooth and quick absorption of bumps. The shock is lightweight and fast, giving me confidence in everything I do. I have no doubt that I purchased the right fork for my riding style.
Strengths: GREAT fork! (85-130)426 U-turn and lockout are awesome though a little time consuming, well worth it. Very versatile! Endless ways to adjust travel and dampening depending on riding style and/or trail. Agressive XC rider...SMOOTH! on small jumps and decent downhill runs as thats all that ive tried with my riding style
Weaknesses: little noisy until broken in but otherwise FLAWLESS!!!!!!!
Bottom Line:
with limited experience...kicks ass! no need for anything else
Bike Setup: gt i drive 5, sram x.9/x.0, m545 pedals, sun rhyno, velociraptors
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Submitted by
mig
a Cross Country Rider
from Scotland
Date Reviewed: March 26, 2007
Strengths: adjutsability, Lockout
Weaknesses: Kicker type jumps
Bottom Line:
Love these forks, I held off for some time before submitting a review, no reliabilty problems, experienced bottoming out a few times so started running them 10psi higher that the chart indicated. the only recurring problem being the shock trying to soak up the lipp of the jump even with compression before take off resulting in scary front wheel landings. (anyone advise on this one please). New frame next and will keep these forks.
Submitted by
Clinton
a Weekend Warrior
from Jacksonville, FL
Date Reviewed: February 15, 2007
Strengths: Plenty of adjustment to get what you want out of it. Soaks up alot of punishment.
Weaknesses: Stickers used for the writing are coming off
Bottom Line:
Great all around fork for cross country or getting alittle crazy. The lock out is great. U-turn is a great tool to talior the shock to the type of riding you will be doing at that particular moment. Forks are a pricey component so it is nice to be able to say I got my moneys worth with this shock.
Submitted by
Jared Kinder
a Weekend Warrior
from Mission Viejo, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: January 6, 2007
Strengths: Many
Weaknesses: Have to stop to adjust travel with U-turn, no a big deal. I'm fat and have to stope before climbs anyway.
Bottom Line:
Great trail fork, set it up on the supple side I use about 20lbs more in the negative side and it feels great. Very stong, will accept an 8 inch rotor if you want it too.
Weaknesses: Dives too much (linear travel) for my weight
Bottom Line:
This is a review of a 2006 RS Revelation 426 U-turn Air + poploc remote.
The forks travel is very plush for a air based system, feels smooth and nice. Reasonably stiff for its low weight. Nice to be able to adjust travel between 100-130mm. The remote poploc is a "nice to have" feature but not really needed in my opinion, depends on what kind of trails you ride on I guess.
I agree with a previous reviewer that the travel feels very linear and dives too much on slower technical sections on the trail. Tried with different positive+negative air pressures but no improvement. Considering to swap to the coil version of the Revelation and hope it will handle better in this sense.
Can't say much about long term reliability but during these 3 months I haven't had any mechanical issues or problems.
Submitted by
Steve
a Cross Country Rider
from Belgium
Date Reviewed: December 11, 2006
Strengths: Well made, value for money, stiff, adjustable.
Weaknesses: Remote Poplock with dial, U turn jammed.
Bottom Line:
I bought these I had a RS Reba which came on my full sus bike which I liked plus I needed a fork which was adjustable between 100 and 130mm. This just seemed perfect and you know what, it is. Does what the Reba does, ie you don't know it's there, it soaks the stuff up and lets you get on with the riding.
I have had two problems though:- 1) After a crash the remote poploc snapped off the handle bars into two pieces (awaiting a new one), but I will only get the lockout, didn't really notice the benifit of the dial thingy and all I really want is lockout for climbs.
2) After a 2 months the u turn dial got stuck, and I couldn't wind the fork out past 115mm. Nothing needed replacing just needed a quick service, I'm hoping this isn't going to be a long term reliabillity problem.
If it wasn't for the fact it needed a service so soon I'd give 5/5 chillis.
Submitted by
Mike LeBlanc
a Cross Country Rider
from Plymouth, NH
Date Reviewed: November 2, 2006
Strengths: Light! Extreamly adjustable, So many diffrent ways you can set this fork up to accomidate many diffrent conditions. U-turn is great albiet time consuming. Excellent build quality, have had no issues with service or warranty problems.
Weaknesses: Low speed damping is pretty much Bad. Mid to high speed its great. Unfortunatly for 90% of the riding I do in the Northeast US this fork simply does not work that well, mainly in low speed tecnical terrein; it has atendency to blow through the travel or dive abruptly in these situations, sending your weight to far forward.I guess it feels to linear. I do not find this fork to be as stiff as everyone is claiming.
Bottom Line:
I really want to like this fork, and I do, but I cant get over its poor low speed handling in the techy situations we have here in NH. Rock gardens, roots, etc. where you are using your 1st or second gear. My Marzocchi mx pro was sooo much better in these situaitons that I am switching back to a Mazzocchi coil/air fork. I actually think the Marzocchi was stiffer as well. I have tried every possible neg/pos air combination but I think the bottom line for me is that an air fork simply cannot match the feel of a coil, and Marzocchi's air and coil is the best of both worlds for my type of riding. The fork (Revelatoin) just feels to linear for my taste. Aside from this gripe, I think this fork is great. I was in CO for 2 months this summer riding fast single track and the fork was perfect over just about any type of terrrein I encountered. This fork is deserving of the great reviews it has recieved as it is a great value compared to Fox's offerings and it has excellent build quality. However for me Marzocchi makes the best handling fork out there.
Similar Products Used: rockshox mag 21,Judy xc. Specialized future shock, Marzocchi z2, xfly and MX pro eta 05' Fox vanilla 130
Bike Setup: Specialized fsr 120 expert with Rev. (great match)
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Submitted by
Simon
a Weekend Warrior
from Montreal
Date Reviewed: October 31, 2006
Bottom Line:
It is my first 'real' fork and so far I love it. It is very rigid, very plush and quite light. I have a 426 Air U-turn and so far the locking works well, as the adjustment. Overall the fork have a nice solid feel and gives me a lot of confidence. I would recommend this fork!
Weaknesses: I guess this is a generic rockshox dual air problem - the negative air valve is very close to the disc rotar. Let air out and you get a bit of oil squirted over your disc. As long as you're aware of it, this isn't really a problem though.
The infitesimally small travel gradations mean you have to spend approx 20s riding one handed turning the dial to go from 100mm to 130mm of travel and vice versa. This doesn't sound like much hassle, but it's enough to make me only adjust the travel if I know there's a really long climb coming up.
The solid german car feel doesn't extend as far as the poplock! It works fine though.
Bottom Line:
Buy it! Unable to comment on durability, but have had no problems in 3 weeks.
With the negative air set right you just glide over the tree roots & smaller rocks like you're floating on air, while the 130mm travel still allows it to take the big hits. Turn the travel down to 100mm and the front end of your bike is lowered making the riding position and travel perfect for x-country riding and long climbs.
Personally, I would rather sacrifice the fine travel adjustability and just have a 3 position switch to go instantly from 100-115-130 mm travel. The current internals would require this switch to have very high gearing though, so this maybe not be practical.
Submitted by
Kurt
a Weekend Warrior
from San Diego
Date Reviewed: October 13, 2006
Strengths: Plush, stiff, strong, remote swtich lock out
Weaknesses: None
Bottom Line:
Bravo, Rock Shox, Bravo! This fork is amazing. Considering I wrote you off 3 years ago after have a POS unnamed product of yours, this one tops them all. Fox has nothing that touches this fork right now. Much stiffer and plusher, its all about the set-up. I throughly impressed. I'm a true fan once again, you've brought me back.
Bike Setup: Ellsworth Epiphany, fox RP23, Chris King all around, Sram.
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Submitted by
Mark
a Weekend Warrior
from Chandler AZ
Date Reviewed: October 9, 2006
Strengths: Light, stiff, buttery smooth, and amazingly adjustable
Weaknesses: none
Bottom Line:
I had a Marz AM-2 on my bike first, and it might have been slightly stiffer, but the damping of the Revelation is far superior. Since Sram took over, Rock Shox has come full circle and produce some of the best forks on the market. The adjustability of the Revelation is incredible. You can tune this fork to be whatever you need it to be. I have had this fork for just a short time, and have just recently started playing around with it's adjustments. All of the changes you make can be instantly felt, unlike my AM-2. This is easily the best fork I have ever ridden. I really can't say anything else that hasn't already been said about the Revelation. This is truly an amazing fork!
