Looking at a new bike which comes with a Fox 34 Rhythm. From what I can find it shares internals with the Fox 34 Performance, but a little heavier from a lower grade aluminum body.

Looking at possibly upgrading the internals I've found an open bath cartridge from Avalanche. Are there other options?

This fork has been out for almost 4 years now, who has some feedback on its performance? Any setup advice?

I searched, not much about this fork on the forums.

I have a 2017 130mm travel 29er fork. Surprisingly it has been pretty much set and forget on my trail bike. The air pressure chart was in the ballpark but I did add a couple extra volume spacers. It gets mostly favorable reviews, some aggressive riders might say it spikes a little but then you should probably be on a $$$ fork or damper.

 

Most reviews on that fork have been good and surprised many folks-----generally the input for most riders is to just ride it as the upgrade makes little diff for the vast majority of riders---the really picky and aggressive may need more---I do not have one but this seems to have been the skinny

 

Looking at a new bike which comes with a Fox 34 Rhythm. From what I can find it shares internals with the Fox 34 Performance, but a little heavier from a lower grade aluminum body.

Looking at possibly upgrading the internals I've found an open bath cartridge from Avalanche. Are there other options?

This fork has been out for almost 4 years now, who has some feedback on its performance? Any setup advice?

I searched, not much about this fork on the forums.

The 34 Rhythm is way better then it should be. I replaced the one that came on my 2019 trance 29 with a 34 factory with a luftkappe and to be honest, the rhythm 34 was pretty much every bit as good in retrospect. Avalanche is the only one doing aftermarket dampers in the US that I am aware of. Overall I think that would be your best option for maintaining the rhythm chassis and upgrading the damper performance. IMO, the only complaint I had with the rhythm was that it had a tiny off balance between LSC and HSC at what was for me, the optimum compression settings. To be honest, this gap was smaller then I have experienced in far more expensive forks (looking at you pre 2019 pike and lyric). This small gap in what adjustments were available and what I wanted for it to be perfect was so small that it's offset by the ease of setup of the rhythm 34. It's a lot easier to find the optimum setting on this thing with volume tokens and the compression/rebound adjusters.

Overall, I would ride the 34 rhythm as is until you feel it's a limiting factor. It's worth while do to a lower leg service and air spring service on them, even if brand new as fox can get sloppy with their brand new builds. Other than that I'd ear mark it for eventual upgrade and tackle other things on the bike that you are annoyed with first. I'm a bit of a suspension snob, and even I am hard pressed to say that dumping money into a fork upgrade over the rhythm 34 is going to have diminishing returns and will at most, provide a 20% value proposition over the stock rhythm performance.

 

[SUB]​[/SUB]This review of affordable forks includes the Rhythm and is a good read. https://m.pinkbike.com/news/ridden-and-rated-four-affordable-trail-bike-forks.html

I agree with what y'all have said. Though when paired with a DPS shock the Rhythm works hard to compensate so replacing the DPS with a performance shock allows the Rhythm to perform to its potential. Just to note, Vorsprung is working on a Luftkappe for the 34 Rhythm and Diaz is working on a Runt cartridge for the Fox 34 both for 2020.

 

Thanks for the replies guys, very informative. I was not expecting people to praise the fork. Now I need to decide between the new Tallboy and Hightower. Hightower comes with a Yari which can be easily upgraded to a Lyric for cheap.

 

My 2018 Tallboy came with the Rhythm fork. We have a lot of tree roots & rocks on trails in the Kansas City area. Back in April I demo'd a couple bikes with the Fox Performance fork. Let me tell you that fork was day & night different from the Rhythm. It would soak up the roots & rocks! Very plush! I had a ton more confidence with that fork.

About a month ago I went up about 5psi on air pressure & slowed the rebound one click on my Rhythm. While I seemed to like it better, it's still nowhere close to the Performance fork. I plan to experiment with it some more. Will look into volume spacers as well.

Me= about 160-170lbs kitted
Fork= 75-80psi
Rebound= anywhere from 7 - 11 clicks from open.

Even when I get the rebound on the money it's still not as plush over the "chatter" as the Performance fork.

Curious to hear feedback.

 

Fox Performance fork. Let me tell you that fork was day & night different from the Rhythm.

The damper is the same as far as I can tell from Fox and the 2018 and newer Rhythm forks have Evol air springs (although not the same part as the more expensive versions) so any difference is likely to be seals and lubricant.

I've got Manitou Mattoc seals and Motorex Supergliss in my Rhythm and it's pretty smooth.

 

I've got Manitou Mattoc seals and Motorex Supergliss in my Rhythm and it's pretty smooth.

What oil did you put in the damper side lower since the damper re-injests the fluid in the lower? What oil are you running in the damper? Did you do anything else while you had her open?

 

I use supergliss in the damper side too. All sliding seals pass a bit of oil so I don't see why Fox are recommending damper fluid for lube here.


I changed the damper fluid (to Maxima 5wt as that's what I had) and the old oil wasn't noticeably thick or dirty so I don't think the sealhead actually passes that much oil. It also feels quite tight so it doesn't look like Fox went for a deliberately looser seal to reduce friction.

 

Yea, seems fine as the Motorex dist mentioned to me that their fork oil contains supergliss as well. This Vorsprung video describes how the Grip draws in oil over time then the volume compensator expels excess oil out the top holes. So Fox may have created the new fork oil with Teflon to serve both purposes in support of this oil cycle. I was considering Max Plush 3wt.

 

This Vorsprung video describes how the Grip draws in oil over time then the volume compensator expels excess oil out the top holes.

Maybe but it's not enough bath oil to make much difference to the damper oil so I'd rather have good bath oil.

 

I have a '18 34 Rhythm about due for a damper rebuild. What can I do to make it more better? If I want to use motorex, what weight? Shockwiz says the high speed compression damping is far too much.

 

^^^ yeah, between two bikes I have a 120mm '18 Rhythm and a 130mm '18 Factory fork. They are very similar in performance. If I was riding blindfolded, I don't think I could tell the difference, at least not before I crashed.

 

Curious to know what settings you are using- air pressure & rebound adjustment on the Rhythm. Also, what you weigh & about how much actual travel you use.

I'm not an aggressive rider thus my fork never has bottomed out. Maybe I need to drop the pressure down to 70-75 & play a little more with the rebound adjustment. I also want to try adding a volume spacer.

 

Curious to know what settings you are using- air pressure & rebound adjustment on the Rhythm. Also, what you weigh & about how much actual travel you use.

I'm not an aggressive rider thus my fork never has bottomed out. Maybe I need to drop the pressure down to 70-75 & play a little more with the rebound adjustment. I also want to try adding a volume spacer.

At 160lbs w/small jumps/drops, I've added 2 volume spacers, dropped to 60psi, rebound 9 clicks and slight turn from open on LSC...

 

Thank you!

 

Rode this fork today for the first time on a new Trek Fuel EX----At 170 riding wight Trek says 80 pounds----after a bit I went to 70 and in a big g-out used all but an inch----so I bet around 60 pounds would have been ideal----I sped up the rebound a couple of clicks as I let pressure out----no idea how many spacers were in the fork----overall I was impressed and could not tell the diff to my Pivot with a factory fit 4

 

At this point this is just to pile on. I have a 2018 Rhythm 120mm and a 2020 Factory Performance SC. I actually prefer the Rhythm. Better bump compliance, and it seems a little stiffer while just working everywhere else. After over about 5000 miles on the Rhythm I'm still not looking to "upgrade". I also like the thing better than my Wife's Pike on her Stache as well.

 

Took a couple laps last night. First one at 67psi, second one at 62psi. I will say the first lap felt better. Still not as buttery smooth as the Performance fork. We have a lot of rocky rooted trails in my area. Below is a clip of one section just to give you an idea. I will say running 67psi feels much better than 75-80.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

 

I have a '19 Rhythm 34 on my 5010. I'm 145lbs geared up. Looking at my latest notes, last time I messed with it, I had 95psi, MRP Ramp Control at ~1 volume spacer, and 6 clicks of rebound. I ride a good mix of trails and jumps and find this setting to be the best for me. I prefer the fork to be a bit stiffer.

 

How do you like the Ramp Control? Does the adjustability serve well on the trail? Have you tried dropping the pressure and dialing up the Ramp? Do you think a Diaz Runt cartridge would further improve this fork?

 

Diaz Runt is now available for Fox 34...

https://diazsuspensiondesign.com/shop/fox34

 

Diaz Runt is now available for Fox 34...

Rhythm too? The air sides are not the same.

 

That "custom tune" looks like it's just making the rebound stack stiffer. No change to compression via the base valve or mid valve. It's a little hard to tell because that document is terrible.

Would be nice if there was a way to get some more compression damping from the mid valve. I'd also love it if Fox or DSD or anyone at all could explain why the wave spring on the base valve stack isn't necessary any more but was considered necessary for the first (up to 2018) GRIP 1 dampers.