Submitted by
danny
a Cross Country Rider
from porterville
Date Reviewed: November 18, 2005
Strengths: stiff, light
Weaknesses: I wish I could get it with 100mm travel
Bottom Line:
I was leary of Rock Shox before, having only fidden Fox previously. I've ridden this fork HARD for 2 years. I bought it used on ebay. Still holds air great, dual air is very compliant, light, lots of tire clearance, and laterally stiff. Everything I want in an XC fork.
Similar Products Used: manitou x-vert, skareb, fox vanilla, marzocchi marathon
Bike Setup: 2002 Stumpjumper FSR comp,Crossmax, stylo gxp cranks.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Jason Dreger
a Cross Country Rider
from Colorado Springs, CO
Date Reviewed: September 30, 2003
Strengths: Color, Stiffer than the Sids,
Weaknesses: Still flexy, And SRAM has the worst customer service dept in the industry.
Bottom Line:
After 6 months, negative and positive air both leak. Slowly, but still have to check every ride. The pump that came with it blew and rock shox said they would warranty it, but turns out the guy who agreed to warranty it was fired, and somebody else at r. shox said they won't cover it. Alright big deal, dealer hooked me up with replacement from their shop. Kudos for dealer. Now both dust seals are leaking fork oil. Ordered replacement parts from dealer, except they tell me that neither r.shox nor distributors have the all important/elusive crush washers for the bottom of the legs. So, how does one service their fork without replacement parts. Rock Shox and Sram are headed for disaster. Moving manufacturing overseas and horrible c.s. this company is the equivalent of H.D and AMF in the 70's/80's. Hopefully, Paul Turner and his gang can pull off a rebuy. Untill then R.shox has lost another customer.
Submitted by
daniel hackett
a Cross Country Rider
from Essex, UK
Date Reviewed: September 19, 2003
Strengths: Does the job & hasn't gone wrong yet. Little flex, no wheel scrubbing, easy to tune up, you can pump them up to near lockout for road use. Look nice if you've got a yellow stem and headset (like me).
Weaknesses: Paint comes off on axle mountings after frequent wheel changes, jelly stickers came off pretty quick, but nothing some glue hasn't sorted.
Bottom Line:
Stepped up from a relatively crappy fork (Indy XC) and found a huge difference. I'm about 90-95 kg and haven't bottomed them out. These are much plusher, much stiffer, les 'boingy'. Best thing I can say is that you don't notice them in the woods. No problems with air loss, oil squirting, seals, squeaks etc. I'll give them 4 - if they made the uphills easier I'd give 5
Similar Products Used: Indy XC (owned), tried a few others, can't remember which. They weren't yellow.
Bike Setup: GT Zaskar LE
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
1500MPG
a Cross Country Rider
from MI
Date Reviewed: August 10, 2003
Strengths: Light
Weaknesses: OH, blown seal after 7 months and about 10 rides on my wife's bike. OEM 2002 Trek Fuel 98. She never beat it, only rode mild XC trails with me. After storage in a heated room all winter (stored resting on wheels upright) the shock would not hold pressure at all for an entire ride and leaked oil out the negative air chamber.
Bottom Line:
Skip this fork. I will have to purchase a decent replacement as I will no doubt play the blame/wait game with the dealer and Rock Shox. So disapointed I will wait till the repair/replacement outcome before I decide ever to purchase another RockShox
Similar Products Used: Never tried an air fork till this one. I've owned a couple of Marz Atom 2's and a Manitou elastomer without ever a single problem. Not impressed with RockShox.
Bike Setup: OEM 2002 Trek Fuel 98
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Gabor Herman
a Cross Country Rider
from San Diego
Date Reviewed: July 25, 2003
Strengths: Holds air well. No Slop!
Weaknesses: Seals are good for 100 hrs, just like the manual says. In a weeks time my LBS couldn't get original replacement seals, so we they upgraded the better ones. But this is Southern California! Doesn't speak well for the manufacturer.
Strengths: Very nice adjustability, and very stiff. Smooth stroke, and is very good on big and small hits.
Weaknesses: This one is minor. Color choice all you is either yellow or duke blue. Also when you fill the negative air chamber oil may shoot into your pump. To fix that just tip your bike upside down when you fill the negative air chamber.
Bottom Line:
Sweet fork. IT may be a little heavy but the stiffness makes up for that. Buy it!
Bike Setup: 2001 Gary Fisher Tassajara with Shimano deore compnents.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Franco Rillo
a Racer
from Rosemere, Quebec, CANADA
Date Reviewed: April 15, 2003
Strengths: Sexy looking ice blue, strong, light!! + and - air chambers!! Super adjustable. Missing lockout :-(
Weaknesses: doggy toy noise, for the first 2 strokes. A little movement, but not enough to bug the cray out of me.
Bottom Line:
It squeeks, ya so what, only for the first 2 strokes! Then ok. Online manual says to hang bike upside down so oil flows everywhere and to add teflon based oil after every ride on the upper tubes.
Submitted by
Jesse VOZA
a Racer
from Marigot, St-Martin, FRANCE
Date Reviewed: March 25, 2003
Strengths: + Good looking + Stiffer + Adjustable
Weaknesses: - No lockout - Always squeeks the 1st 3 bumps - Poor stickers - Poor internals - Dry foams
Bottom Line:
I will never buy a ROCKSHOX fork anymore. I moved to this fork after such a bad time with the SIDs (even if RS sent me a brend news 2003 model in exchange of my dead 2002). I said : "I'll never ride a SID anymore". I Thought the DUKE was light and bombproof enough. Dreams ! After 6 months - The positive air was going to the negative chamber changing my travel from 80 to 50. To get back my travel, I just had to press the negative valve. Better than a PSYLO, uh ? - The XXX seal started to crack under the sun - The bushing started to have play - The rebounf damping cartridge exploded lettnig all its oil out in the right leg...
You know what, I have 2 bikes and change them every year. I will never buy a bike with a RS anymore even if RS send me a brand new fork every time. Now that my other bike have play in its FOX FORK bushings. I ordered a MARZO MARATHON from SUPERGO.
Submitted by
C N
a Cross Country Rider
from Austin, TX USA
Date Reviewed: March 4, 2003
Strengths: High value for $240 mail order fork, esp with the dual air pos/neg spring, and decent weight. Fork is stiff, easy to set up, and 100% reliable to date. Upgraded from a Manitou SX on my Sugar 2, its only a 80mm travel fork so choose correct for your bike. I got a second one for my Moab 1 hardtail, seems the price went up $20 since 9 months ago.
Weaknesses: Seems like full travel is hard to get out of fork. While Ive worked with the sag and neg pressures, seems like there is always the last 1/4 to 3/8th inch of travel still left. Also, feels like fork has compression spike on hard edged hits and drops, the damping may not be refined enough to deal with wide variation of hi/low speed hits. Wish it had more supple feel of coil fork, but cant have it all.
Bottom Line:
Ive used this fork over nine months in varied conditions including two solid weeks biking in New Mexico and Sedona AZ and a forty mile 100 % rain and mud slog in the Ouachita Challange, AK. Do date not one problem, no air leaks, no oil leaks (yes, oil blows by neg air valve) and no play in bushings that I can tell. While not as plush or refined as higher end Fox forks from what I hear, its all around a good performer and great value for the money. I think the 2002 Duke Race dual air is with its adjustability is the best of the Dukes, I wonder if RS needed to cut costs by not offering the dual air version. Four out of five Chilies for overall rating just because I think the compression damping could be smoother and more progressive.
Similar Products Used: My first dual air forks, and back to back with older style SIDs, Dukes flex less due to larger fork tube size, and longer bushes.
Bike Setup: 2001 Sugar 2 with Fox rear shock, Duke race up front, with Lizard Skin fork boots from day one.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Jorge Vega
a Cross Country Rider
from Puerto Rico
Date Reviewed: February 25, 2003
Strengths: stiff,light and looks good.
Weaknesses: Play in the stanchiors.
Bottom Line:
I don't like how it fell.
No absorve bien las imperfecciones del terreno y no te hace sentir seguro en condiciones tecnicas.
Strengths: -Stiff for a RS -Kinda Light -Ok Race/Aggressive Riding -Looks
Weaknesses: -Its a RS -only 3cm total bushing materal -Red Rum outta -valve
Bottom Line:
Good overall fork from RS. Have no cosmetic problems or problems with the stantion coating. Not as stiff as my Marzocchi and does have "busing play," but is "normal" says RS. Good for XC trails/races. Not too bad for aggresive XC but rather have my Marzocchi.
Similar Products Used: -Manitou Magnum -Zokes Zone -2001 Judy XC -Marzocchi MXR -
Bike Setup: Dekerf/Thomson bar+stem/Phil Wood/Hayes/XTR/RFTLP
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Jason Light
a Cross Country Rider
from Vancouver, Canada
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2003
Strengths: Stiff, light, adjustable
Weaknesses: Stanchion anodizing flakes off, stickers fall off
Bottom Line:
Fork was great until the stanchion anodizing began to flake off. Sent fork back for warranty and Rock Shox said it was not a manufacturing defect. If there is not scratch or mechaninal damage from a rock, etc then why is it flaking off? It has to be a manufacturing defect. Good anodizing does not flake off. DON'T BUY ROCK SHOX, they don't stand behind their products. It was at warranty for 8 weeks and they did nothing! If they did nothing it should have taken 1 day.
Strengths: THis fork is built strong. Front wheel goes right where u point it. Eats the roots and rocks
Weaknesses: This fork takes LOOOOONNNGGG time to bed in. The very cool looking rs stickers fall off, and then one gets lost and so u have to pull the other one off too!!! :( If u drain all the +tve air the seal lifts up and sprays oil :( Dampning just isnt as good as TPC
Bottom Line:
Great fork, despite the long bedin time it really has started to perform well, and i am really happy with it. the tunibility is amazing although the -tve air sucks in stanction meaning that getting your full 80mm is impossible.
Over all it is a great fork and comes highly recomended to anyone who rides a lot and wants strengh with adjusabilityl
Favorite Trail: The one in the montains,the one without the lions
Duration Product Used: 3 months
Price Paid:
$229.00
Purchased At: Supergo
Similar Products Used: SXR
Bike Setup: Giant atx 880 full xt. NUUF SAID
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
pimpbot
a Cross Country Rider
from oakland, CS
Date Reviewed: December 7, 2002
Strengths: Light, looks trick, fully tweakable, sqeaky toy noises (not a bug, a feature!) pretty cheap, smooth, stiff
Weaknesses: PTFE uppers chip easily, weighs more than advertised, damping too slow with stock oil, pillow stickers fall off easily, wrong color for my bike
Bottom Line:
I love this fork. Smooth as greased moose poop. Light blue doesn't go with my forest green bike. nice and tight! Upper teflon coating chipped my first ride out. After that, I got some lizard skins... problem solved. damping seems a bit slow on the slowest setting. Doesn't leak. I haven't had to add air in a month. I got no problems with oil blowback, probably because I invert the bike before I pump up negative air. This fork is a tweaker's delight. I bug the hell out of my friends when we ride 'casue I'm always tweaking my bike. I got it pretty well dialed at this point tho... Now I need to learn how to service it... not that it seems to need it
Similar Products Used: Rockshox Jett (POS stock fork)
Bike Setup: 2000 Giant Yukon with carbon bars, SRAM brakes, suspention post
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Tom Hong
a Cross Country Rider
from Pittsburgh
Date Reviewed: October 7, 2002
Strengths: Low Maintenance. Good stiffness. Doesn't leak air. Good quality paint and hardware.
Weaknesses: Plastic dampner top cap. Jelly bean stickers that don't stick on curved surfaces.
Bottom Line:
Wow! It sounds like as the year went on, RS manufacturing quality may have gone down. Headset like rattle????
Well, so far I have put on a year on my two forks. I have spent much more time on the Superlight than hardtail. First came the Dirt Rag Punk bike enduro. Rode into winter since it was so mild. I did Snoeshoe 24 then took it out west this summer... Colorado, Wyoming, Montana - you get the picture. Big ups big downs.
The fork on the superlight has become more plush as it has worn in. The bushings have been great and the damping right on. I currently run 138+ and 125- and weigh about 175. I have Hope discs and had to have Chris at Speedgoat surface the fork tabs to get the alignment right. RS thick paint. Very important with discs. Solid performance...
In August, I serviced the fork. I was happy to report that the oil wasn't too worn, the seals and foam rings looked great . Replaced all o-rings. They are common sizes available from o-ring suppliers. Used RS oil and redrum (expensive!!!!) In addition, used slick honey to help with assembly.
I have been very fortunate. My forks have worked very well. No leaks, very good sealing. Easy to service. Since I do not have enough hours on the hardtail yet to service I will report back later. I feel bad for others with problems.... RS has great engineering, but has not apparently gotten the bugs out of manufacturing. I wish I had not paid so much for my forks, but the business cycle in this country makes you wonder how these companies survive.
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