Wow - I'd have thought that someone from Suntour could have shed a little more light than that on what is a VERY confusing product lineup.
I have the
Dart 3 29er 100mm fork (28mm stanchions) on my bike and my son has the
Suntour XCR-LO 100mm on his 2009 Avalanche 2.0. Adjustable rebound and a blow-off valve on the lockout with the Dart 3 are pluses. On the other hand, the 30mm stanchions, better compression dampening and VERY slick progressive lockout lever on the XCR-LO make it a better fork in my opinion. I know, I know - everyone slams the Dart so saying "better than a Dart" seems like damning with faint praise. However, all Tora forks except the Tora 318's (Motion Control) have an unsophisticated TurnKey dampener, steel stanchions and non-serviceable bushings -
just like a Dart fork. Most coil versions of the Tora lack adjustable preload which the Dart 3 has and several Tora models are missing a lockout feature which, again, the Dart 3 has. The major thing that separates all Tora forks from all Dart forks is 32mm-diameter stanchion tubes vs 28mm. Not that I think a Dart 3 is all that great, it's just that I think most Tora forks aren't that great either and that a Suntour XCR can be a pretty good fork - especially given it's low price.
Perhaps the best way to get a handle on the features available in various SR Suntour forks is via this link:
SR Suntour Tuning Base
Bike manufacturers and Suntour themselves are often less than clear about what you're buying. My guess is that many consumers - after sampling the horrible Suntour M2025 pogo fork that comes on nearly every entry-level bike these days - write off the entire Suntour brand as junk but that's hardly the case. You can look through the exploded views of Suntour forks using the above site to get a better idea of what each model's properties are.
It doesn't help that Suntour makes many dozens of forks all with cryptic codes:
SF10 = Suntour Fork and the "10" is the model year
then comes the fork family (XCM, XCT, XCR, Epicon, NCX, etc)
then comes the fork's feature codes:
...P = Post-mount brakes
...D = Disc brake mounts
...D-P = Disc mount and Post-mount brakes
...E = ????
...DS = ????
...MLO = Mechanical Lock Out
...HLO = Hydraulic Lock Out
...RLO = Remote Lock Out
...LOD = yet another type of lock out unit?
sometimes there is a size (20, 24 or 26-inch wheel)
then usually comes a travel or travel range
sometimes there is an axle spec 15QLC or 20QLC (15mm or 20mm thru axle)
Not easy to figure out what you're spending your money on. Curiously, I haven't found that Suntour lists a range of springs for different rider weights. Unless you're of average weight, it would be nice to know before you buy any bike with a coil fork that a lighter/heavier spring is, or is not, available, no?
Perhaps Doug from Suntour can elaborate on what all those cryptic product codes mean and explain what the situation is with obtaining alternative-rate springs? What separates the NCX, Axom, Radion and Eipcon forks from other Suntour forks?
