[ignite]

I have just placed an order for my first FS bike. I comes with a Fox 32 F-Series Remote RL w/Fit cartridge, 100 mm in front. I am thinking of mabye swapping this with an DT Swiss XRC 100 Air RLREM. Any thougts on wich of these forks i should go for?

Rear suspension is Fox Float RP 23 with "new race cam". What the he... is race cam? cant seem to find information about this anywere.







English is not my native language, but i`m doing my best.

 

[GT2005]

Did you ever find any info on your questions? -Gt2005

 

[ignite]

Well, not on this forum. But i posted the same thread on another forum. There i got several answers. They all told me to go for the Fox fork.

 

[dropadrop]

I had a DT Swiss EXC150 on my old bike and a Fox Float 140 (new FIT damper) on my new bike. I preferred the DT Swiss, but can't really say about those shorter models.

 

[bad mechanic]

I don't know if DT Swiss has upgraded the damping system on their forks, but their old damping system were fairly primitive. There have also been a couple issues of getting parts and service in the states. Last I hard, you had to send them in for any service.

 

[ignite]

My mind is made up. I`m going for Fox. shock and fork.

 

[dropadrop]

I don't know if DT Swiss has upgraded the damping system on their forks, but their old damping system were fairly primitive. There have also been a couple issues of getting parts and service in the states. Last I hard, you had to send them in for any service.

I heard somebody say that before, though I'm not quite sure if they where speaking from hearsay or had actually tried an EXC150. I went from a Wotan -> Pike 454 -> Revelation 426 -> DT Swiss EXC150 -> 2010 Fox Float RL -> Fox Van 36 RC2. out of these I prefer the RS dual air, EXC150, Wotan (when it's warm) and the Van (in no particular order).

It might be that fox has more advanced internals, but you sure as hell can't feel it when riding. I have a few other friends who went from a Fox 32 to an EXC 150 and all of them felt it was better in the following area:

- Smoother initial travel
- More supportive mid travel
- Can use all of it's travel
- Stiffer (though we all have / had 20mm axles)
- Adjustments make more of a difference

Only negative I can think off is the rebound easily is moved if you use the "launch control" (travel adjustment).

 

[bad mechanic]

Which part are you talking about, the damping or difficult service?

Now, their new dampers might be different, but the DT Swiss used what amounted to a port orifice damper. To me, the difference in feel between a ported damper and a shimmed damper are readily obvious on the trail.

 

[dropadrop]

I never did service to the fork, it was stolen before I needed to.

 

[bad mechanic]

I never did service to the fork, it was stolen before I needed to.

Bastards.

 

[dropadrop]

Bastards.

Yeah, it was my mistake though. While my bike was locked you should still not leave a 4500€ bike outside for the night (especially in a big town). I forgot it for 24 hours thinking I had put it on our balcony, and by the time I noticed the balcony was empty it was gone...

Luckily my insurance also covers stupidity so the only thing I lost was a bike that I had finally gotten just where I wanted, and two months riding.

But back on the subject...

If you look around at people who have ridden DT forks I think you'll find that just about everyone seems to like them very much. I don't think there are a lot of perfect forks around, you will always be making a compromise in one way or another. If it had a port orofice vs. shimmed damper then I sure could not notice it while riding. On the other hand I noticed a lot of things the competition did not have at the time.

I spent a lot of time tuning my previous Rock Shox dual air fork to be just where I wanted and really liked it. However I felt the DT was surprisingly similar (maybe slightly more supportive on the mid stroke) right out of the box.

I would definitely not dismiss their products just because you feel that the damper is not good (on paper). Have a ride and be surprised at how good it feels.

 

[bad mechanic]

If you look around at people who have ridden DT forks I think you'll find that just about everyone seems to like them very much.

I people I've talked to who've ridden or owned them haven't cared for them too much.

I would definitely not dismiss their products just because you feel that the damper is not good (on paper). Have a ride and be surprised at how good it feels.

A ported damper can only be tuned to work well in a specific range, so you've either missing low speed compression control, so you have brake dive and it wallows around, or you're missing high speed compression, and the fork will spike on high speed hits. I've ridden a lot of forks, and every fork with a ported damper runs out of performance fairly quickly; I don't need to keep trying them to keep making sure they're inferior.