Submitted by
hkmeup
a Cross Country Rider
from Redondo Beach, CA USA
Date Reviewed: February 26, 2012
Strengths: Super plush, controlled ride. Ordered it with the HV air piston kit. Very fast turnaround and excellent communication throughout the whole process.
Weaknesses: None.
Bottom Line:
Unlike so many "upgrades" that don't do squat, this one transformed my bike. Smooth, supple ride with so much better control. I'm less beat up at the end of my rides. I ordered the HV air piston kit (I'm a wee guy at 130 lbs) and for the first time, I'm getting full travel on the fork without any mushiness off the top.
PUSH completed the rebuild and sent it out on the SAME DAY they received it: thanks Aaron!
Bike Setup: 03 Santa Cruz Superlight with Fox Float 100 RLT with push factory tuning service and HV air piston kit
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Submitted by
Ash T. Abula
a Downhiller
from Rocky Mountains
Date Reviewed: April 5, 2011
Strengths: Tuned to your stated ride preferences. For me that meant the fork is more supple while also diving less under braking.
Weaknesses: I don't imagine any, they do fantastic work at PUSH. Maybe if you didn't know how to describe yourself or your riding style, you might get the least-best tune for your purposes, but it wouldn't be PUSH's fault.
Bottom Line:
I had PUSH give a Factory Tune to the Fox DHX 5.0 on my 05 Turner 6-Pack and it did such a great job in improving that already-great bike's trail feel and wheel-stickiness that when I needed suspension work several years later I chose PUSH, to rebuild my RP23 on my current bike. The rear shock performed much better and that meant I would use PUSH when I needed the 36 TALAS overhauled.
I had no problems with my TALAS from the moment it was new, it always worked very well, very smooth in the 130 and 160 settings, and the adjustments all were noticeable. The fork needed an overhaul though and I popped for the Factory Tune to match the rear shock.
The fork is now even more small-bump supple (initial travel suppleness) while actually diving less under braking. The wheel tracks the trail better in all conditions.
I will use PUSH again. In fact I have a 3-yrs-old F29 fork that needs an overhaul and I'm sure it will go to PUSH for a factory tune.
If you ride a lot and have enough experience to notice suspension improvements, this is a valuable improvement. If you are a casual rider, it may seem expensive because you may not notice any difference.
Bike Setup: 08 Yeti 575 with PUSH Factory Tuned 36 TALAS RC2 and PUSH Factory Tuned RP23
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Submitted by
beatfarmer
a Cross Country Rider
from Appleton, ME
Date Reviewed: August 13, 2010
Strengths: Fork is an 05 TALAS 130 and I had never really messed too much with the adjustments other than to put them at factory defaults. Blew a seal on the TALAS leg and decided to have it PUSH'ed; talked to a couple riders and decided to go with the full service including a factory tune, which with shipping all added up. However, after riding with the serviced fork it's like a new bike (and me like a new rider). It climbs better, commutes better, descends like a dream. At every speed and in every condition the fork just performs. In fact it just disappears as it keeps the wheel glued to the ground and on the line I steer into. I've easily cleaned both uphill and downhill sections with ease that were previously elusive. And the lock out now makes the front end feel rigid. It's pretty close to magic. Shipping was fast and easy, Rich @ PUSH totally cleaned the fork and replaced the peeling decals. When I opened the box I thought perhaps they had sent me someone else's fork!
Weaknesses: none; little spendy though get what you pay for. Not super wild about having the legs machined to accept only their wiper seals though it's a small tradeoff for a big gain.
Bottom Line:
totally killer. I'm not a racer, nor a super hard core rider. I ride for fun and joy and to not break me or my bike. In other words, I'm pretty happy to tell the techs at PUSH all the details and have them dial in my stuff. That all said I've already ridden harder and faster in the last couple of days than in the previous year since getting this bike, and all with higher confidence and more control. Now I just need to save up for a RP23 rear and send it off to get PUSH'ed ;)
Similar Products Used: none, though I have over the years ridden a lot of forks, many of them by Fox. None of them come close to riding this one tuned to my bike, my weight, and my preferences.
Bike Setup: 05 horst link Turner 5 Spot, king, sram, thompson, race face, formula...
Amazing work. Attention to detail and pride in their work. I had to wait a bit for the parts to come in for their Rebound Assembly but it was well worth the wait. The fork tracks amazingly in the corners and feels sweet on the fast-rocky descents. Shreds down Tiger Mt and jumps beautifully on SST in Bellingham. In an industry that often gets overly marked up, it's nice to have such custom work available and affordable.
Bike Setup: Turner 5 Spot with PUSHed RP23 and PIKE
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Submitted by
boogenman
a Downhiller
from East Aurora, NY, USA
Date Reviewed: December 28, 2009
Strengths: works better than expected, easy to install and a great bargin.
Weaknesses: NONE
Bottom Line:
I purchased the DIY Boxxer upgrade kit from Push around October and could not be more pleased. It works better than than I anticipated and was even easier to install than I thought. Worth every penney!
Anyone with a 2006-2009 Boxxer should buy this upgrade, it makes the fork 100% better
My fork is a Fox F100x when I got it back from Push it was "the magic fork" I wont go into details here but Push was on it, calling me making sure every detail was as I wanted.
I've seen a few negative reviews about them here. All I can say is these guys would not be happy if God had done there fork. I am now sending in my F120RLC and My RP23 and I will bee leaving a feedback on them. And I think it will be *****
Submitted by
cafam1
a Weekend Warrior
from Staten Island NY
Date Reviewed: November 12, 2009
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: none
Bottom Line:
Stock, the dhx coil felt sluggish, so i assumed the 199$ service from push would wakeup this shock a little bit. I was never happy with the rebound and that was the sole reason on sending this shock to be pushed. I was a little dissapointed with the rebuild. The shock needs more rebound for the studder bumps and square edge hits. The old system that push offered opened up the valving allowing a larger range for rebound tuning. This new system maybe for a downhiller its noticeable not for an all mountain rider like myself. I specifically mentioned on my invoice that I want more rebound and that request was not fullfilled. Thinking Darren rides the same rig he would know what the shock needs to perform best. When I reached out to push I kind of got the runaround, and started to question if the parts that they give you in that bag where really in my shock. I was tempted to take it apart and see, because it performed exactly like the old shock. Darren seems like a good guy and I would do business again but for this service I was not impressed. I had taken the shock off the bike and replaced it with a DHX air that seems to work much better and we all know that a pushed DHX coil should perform better than a stock DHX air.
Bike Setup: Turner sixpack dhx coil marz all mnt 1 xt all around, chris king
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Submitted by
rqukrawler
a Cross Country Rider
from Orcutt, CA
Date Reviewed: August 14, 2009
Strengths: Cheap and effective.
Freshens up an older fork.
Does what it says it will do.
Weaknesses: None.
Bottom Line:
Do it. If you ride a Fox fork and it's been kind to you, be kind back. I paid a little extra and had the bushings replaced as well and my fork feels brand new. I did nothing to my fork for nearly 4 years and after the Push servicing she's strong as ever. One heck of a lot better than paying $600+ for a new one!
Submitted by
SCUBAPRO
a Weekend Warrior
from Laguna Beach
Date Reviewed: July 29, 2009
Bottom Line:
Best bang for your buck. The mods work as advertised. If you think your current fork works great, wait till you get yours worked on by Push!!! The difference in night and day in terms of performance. Small bump compliance is amazing, mid speed control is improved and high speed control is really good. Imagine riding your favorite DH section and thinking your not going fast due to the smoothness of your suspension. The tires also feel like they're glued to the ground. Excellent product and great customer service.
Submitted by
MultiRider
a Cross Country Rider
from Colorado
Date Reviewed: April 7, 2009
Strengths: Staff has a lot of experience and very definite opinions on what needs to be done
Quick turnaround
Weaknesses: Staff has a lot of experience and very definite opinions on what needs to be done which means they will probably do whatever they usually do instead of what you ask them to do
Bottom Line:
I sent my shock and fork in, talked to them on the phone, told them that I ride a lot of technical content for fun and race in local cross-country and endurance events. I wanted the smoothness their services are known for but wanted both the shock and fork valved stiffer for racing purposes. In particular, I really wanted the ProPedal on the shock and lockout on the fork to be pretty close to hardtail/rigid for racing purposes.
The person I talked to kept saying "Yep, yeah, got it, we know exactly what you need". Because I had read some reviews here that indicated PUSH errs on the side of softer, I specifically told them I wanted them to err on the side of stiffer because I would be racing the bike and I wanted good pedaling efficiency and bottoming resistance. "Yep, yeah, got it, we know exactly what you need".
Sent fork and shock in, very rapid return, very pleased to have it back in a week. Bolted back on, liked the results. Mostly. Except the ProPedal and the fork lockout didn't seem to make much difference. And it was a little soft overall. But I really wanted to like it and I really wanted to not have to send it back for a revalve. So I kept making adjustments to try to get it to perform like I wanted it to perform -- I increased the air pressure and turned the clickers in various ways and combinations. Unfortunately, I played with the settings long past the PUSH 30-day-revalve guarantee. When I finally decided it was not what I wanted and called PUSH, the customer service guy said "you've had it too long, you have to pay us to do it again, that will be $270".
I called and talked to Darren, the president, told him my story, told him I had won races in the Sport class, moving to Expert, perhaps he could give me a deal on a revalve. He looked up my information and said "Oh, we did the trail bike valving because it is a 575 -- that's more of a trail bike than a race bike, so we did the trail bike valving. We could set it up for racing if you'd like." I said that is what I asked for originally, would like that now, and asked him to either do it for free or at a discount -- both because they didn't do it correctly in the first place and also as kind of a sponsorship deal.
Darren said he would consider it and get back to me. That was before Christmas. I did not hear back, so I emailed and then called again at the end of January. Darren said "very busy, haven't caught up from vacation and holidays, saw your emails, will get back to you." I've called and emailed multiple times since. Darren acknowledged getting my subsequent emails. He said he hadn't had time to look at them but would get back to me. But he never did. January turned into February which turned into March -- I emailed and vmailed and even talked to him briefly a few times. He has never returned a single email or vmail in spite of the fact that he promised he would. I even left a vmail saying something like "I know you're busy, you're running a multi-million dollar company, I'm just asking for a little help on a $270 service, please make a decision and let me know." No response whatsoever, either from Darren or anyone at PUSH.
So PUSH did not valve according to my requirements, my suspension is not what I wanted, the ProPedal circuit is worthless, the fork lockout is worthless, the overall suspension is too soft, and they won't do anything about it. And they won't even call or email me back. Very disappointing. Very, VERY disappointing.
They seem to have forgotten the "custom" part of "customize" -- listening to the customer. I guess if you like what they do for everyone else, then you'll like what they do for you. If you want them to actually listen and adjust your suspension for your requirments, you may be very disappointed. I certainly am.
Submitted by
Sablotny
a Cross Country Rider
from Santa Rosa, CA
Date Reviewed: September 23, 2008
Strengths: Finally got full travel from my 4" fork, damping control is sweet.
Weaknesses: Turnaround time was 7 weeks, I think because the shop was moving. Funnily enough, half way thru my wait I got a postcard advertising 48 hour turnaround. I paid over $400 for two tunes, but got a call asking for $20 more for new fork bushings. Valves make a little sucking noise now. Recommended settings were way off for me- I was only getting 1.5" of travel until I worked things out.
Bottom Line:
Great suspension is a subtle, hard to describe quality, but its a luxury I love nonetheless. I wouldn't spend the dough to PUSH a new fork or shock, but when its time to rebuild I'd do it again.
Similar Products Used: Only the stock Fox, which I thought were great to begin with.
Bike Setup: Hammerhead 100X with Fox F100RLC & Float Propedal, XT & XTR bits, Magura Martas & XC Pro wheelset.
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Submitted by
belljr13
a Weekend Warrior
from Mountain View, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: September 3, 2008
Strengths: feels way smoother over small bumps. Nice ramp up to full travel.
Weaknesses: This is minor but the o-ring travel indicator got sucked up into the fork seal. No problem getting it back out.
Bottom Line:
I let my fork go way too long with out service so any kind of attention would've helped. I have to be clear that the result far exceeds my expectations. These guys know what they're doing. I love my bike again.
Bike Setup: 2004 Enduro Expert. Platform pedals, speedball seatpost, intense lock on grips. Kenda 2.35 front WTB motoraptor 2.25 rear
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Submitted by
Alex
a Racer
from Flagstaff
Date Reviewed: July 18, 2008
Strengths: did the trick
Weaknesses: none so far
Bottom Line:
The stock fox RLC has too high compression dampening, even with the dial set to zero. It is too bad that a $700 Fox Fork has to be this far off. The air chamber is too small and I could never get 100mm travel even with the sag set to 30mm. The stock set up is harsh and on long rough sections I took a beating.
The Pushed set up is butter, their is no comparison. I am getting full travel and small bump compliance is remarkable. Also, the lock-out blow-off is much better than stock. I got the full rebuild with larger air chamber. Expensive, but worth it.
Similar Products Used: Stock 2008 F80RLC, 2008 F100RLC, 2002 F80RLT
Bike Setup: Giant Anthem Advanced, F100RLC Pushed, RP23
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Submitted by
KBA
a Cross Country Rider
from Tahoe Vista
Date Reviewed: July 7, 2008
Strengths: The Pushed fork does it's job so well that you can focus on terrain, tires, or anything else you want - the sus is just there doing its job.
Weaknesses: None, it's worth every penny.
Bottom Line:
I like the Pike from the start, but it always came up a bit short in comparison to the Pushed VanRC coil in the back mated to Push rockers. The rear sus just did it's job so well I never even gave it a thought. Now the front end works the same way.
It's been a long time (like 25 years) since my motorcycle road racing days, but I've clung to an impression of how my race bike suspension worked all this time - it was, and is my benchmark (OK, so it's a fuzzy benchmark, but it's still a 0-120 mph benchmark). This is as close as I've come to having a mountain bike suspension that could even hold a candle to that. It does it's job pretty much the way my race bike did. It just frickin works - smooth, effortless, transparent. The way a suspension should be.
