Submitted by
Brian Johnson
a Cross Country Rider
from Minneapolis, MN USA
Date Reviewed: October 26, 2003
Strengths: Very Stiff Well built Excellent low speed responce. Makes good use of it's limited travel
Weaknesses: Stock oil too light
Bottom Line:
An excellent value. These forks work great for everything except big dirt jumping and downhilling. I have had no problems other than some oil loss when my bike was hanging upside down in the garage. It wasn't enough to affect the performance though. Switch the stock oil to at least 10w before steeing up the spring rate. This will give a good combination of low speed responce and still allow for 4 or 5 foot drops. Anything more than that and you will need more travel.
Bike Setup: Specialized rockhopper comp fsr, judy xlc, dmr chieftain mk2, lx r-mech, deore shifters, lx brakes, lx on d521's
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
sam G.
a Downhiller
from boulder,colorado,USA
Date Reviewed: January 4, 2003
Strengths: cool look,versatile,adjustable,good cushioning for little bumps and some drops, strong.
Weaknesses: not very much travel, I've seen single crowns with that much. possibility of bottoming out.
Bottom Line:
I weigh about 100 pounds (no, I'm not an adult,) and I can go big on this fork. Even if you weigh more than this you can definitly ride downhill, but not super aggressively. I use this bike for dirt jumping and other jumps too. I have flatted this out several times because of it's short travel if I clear a short landing from a big air or do a drop to flat (at least a medium height drop.) If you want a fork that isn't a super ton of money but you still want to hit fairly big things get this fork. Don't buy this fork with the intention of doing giant drops.
Submitted by
Byron Wallis
a Downhiller
from Ballarat, VIC, Australia
Date Reviewed: April 8, 2002
Strengths: - stiff - eats most things including landing jumps etc. - Durable - light - cheaper
Weaknesses: - yellow - stickers fall off easily
Bottom Line:
This fork is great for beginner downhill as it will eat up most things thrown at it. I hardly ever bottom out and when it does it is quite. A suitable for freeride bandits as well as they handle great when steering.
Strengths: -not too heavy -yellow -hydracoil -very few parts -pretty durn stiff -takes big hits decently -disc mounts -tunable
Weaknesses: -stock oil too light
Bottom Line:
Bottom line, I'm impressed with how much these forks have put up with. They'll probably never cause much envy at the DH mtns, but they took me to a few podiums at Plattekill, one of the roughest DH's there is. A friend with a Boxxer was impressed at the stiffness as well, so that's saying something. Stock oil is way too light for repeated small hits and rock gardens. Switched to 10 wt and was a lot better, will be switching to 15 soon. Takes big hits pretty well, just doesn't like fast fast rough sections. Hang on tight then. I must say though, I've never been very disappointed with these forks in the 2 years I've abused them. Buy a pair if you can get em. When I get my Boxxer, they'll make a great match for a hardtail.
Weaknesses: travel (4 is almost always enough freerideing, but not on sum large jumps) tunability (nitpicking)
Bottom Line:
This fork kicks @$$
Weight is no prob. (unless you are a wimp or scrony) lateral stiffness is great great for all around if you have it tuned right (i xc, dh and freeride all with this fork) probably one of the best all around go get speed springs for YOUR weight or you may have probs with it. i should get um cause i weight 200lbs but the current ones work for now.
Strengths: This fork is so rigid, for us latin lover types that is muy importante. It is also lithe and supple over the bumps like a fine senorita who only eats a little beans, 'cause too many beans makes for lots of air biscuits.
Weaknesses: What are you kidding, these forks are the apex, the perfection of the art of longtravel forx. The manufacturers might as well stop development and just produce these from now until eternity.... or at least until the chickens come home.
Bottom Line:
To conclude on a light note, these are really great forks if you don't mind a little extra weight for a rigid and forgiving very capable set of forx.As for the value rating, what the hell do you want, him to give you the da mn ed things? During my transcendental out of body holy mother of Buddha meditation last morning the following vision came to me in the form of a tumor: If you don't buy this fork from Michael you are throwing your life away. Don't do it! You'll only destroy yourself.
Similar Products Used: 13" travel upside down forks off of '00 Honda CR250 on my downhill rig, when you ggetttt abbbbbove a hundred on downhilllls, you nnneeeeddd at leastttt a fffoottttttt offf trrrravveelll.
Bike Setup: Paladium and platinum and titanium plated toothbrush built into steerer with nanoelectronic hemmorhoid repair units that nest in the tailbone cutaway of my $600 supergelomatticus ultrabarge 2000 downhill seat.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Nick Morozov
a Weekend Warrior
from Moscow Russia
Date Reviewed: September 2, 2000
Strengths: It works great, plush.It's stiff, it looks great.
Weaknesses: For forks sake don't remove dust books, or you will have to clean it every week.
Bottom Line:
It's a great fork for freeride, it also works great on hartdtail, when i"ll finish it i'll buy another one.
Bike Setup: GT LTS frame, formula disk breaks, LX/XT/XTR/Sram 9.0.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Dave
a Weekend Warrior
from Surrey, BC, Canada
Date Reviewed: August 24, 2000
Strengths: once setup properly, its great. stiff,
Weaknesses: stock springs are way too soft. cant fit wide tires on it
Bottom Line:
This is a great free ride fork that takes a bit of time to get used too. After I had one spring replaced with a heavier rated one, I havent bottomed out once which used to happen all the time, have had no problem with it since that upgrade. RockShox put another good fork on the market.
Weaknesses: springs are to soft for real downhill. it bottoms out all the time and i'm not even a heavy rider. i crashed onced and now it's all out of wack. GET A BOMBER!!!!
Bottom Line:
if you want a lot of travel for croos country this fork is good but for doing some serious downhill get a white brothers or marzocchi bomber fork.
Submitted by
Triax The-Best
a Cross Country Rider
from Slovenia
Date Reviewed: August 10, 2000
Strengths: It is L, its strongen than the xc it is good for freeride, but has also something downhill inside her hot price (ql one) long travel
Weaknesses: front is highno external dampening adjustment
Bottom Line:
it's set up for 75kg heavy riders, but you can set up it your self for your weight. Buy this fork if you are a freerider or crosscountry maniac and it's also good for weekend downhillers. Don't buy it if you want to do tricks with it and if you're long distance high hill climber. Bike's fornt goes a lot up and down ( for me just right ) Hot price for what this fork gives!!!
P:S: Oh yes, buy the yellow one, NOT the green one!!!!
This fork is still working out great for me. I changed the stock oil out with Bel-Ray 20 wt. fork oil for summer and am pleased with the performance. The hydracoil design is such a huge leap from the old style Judy cartridge that everyone should own the new type. What makes me mad is that Rockshox doesn't offer some kind of retrofit kit for the older forks. The lower sliders are the same as the older design and I believe (but am not 100% sure) that the upper tubes are the same as well. The reason I don't know is that in the 6 months I've owned this fork I've had no reason to disassembly and clean it.
