Will a DHX RC4 fit a 08 RFX?

tald said:

Avy is top choice. But want to understand the options. The goodf thing about the RC4 is that it has a local importer. On theother hand the same logic got me a DHX previously which was a bad decision... so pretty close to pulling for the Avy.

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Sounds dumb, and you've heard it a thousand times already, but today's ride really reinforced my love of the Avy. I had been doing some tweaks on the adjusters, and felt like it was wallowing some and blowing through the travel on low-speed stuff, so I increased the low-speed a few clicks, and it just continues to blow my mind how much more "damping" this shock has, it's just so much more support and it increases control a lot. I especially like how it rides off of low-speed stuff, because it just firms up and doesn't blow through the travel, without making the high speed feel like crap. If I rode off of a curb, the fox setup would blow through the travel if I had it tuned to react well at high speed. It would eventually be overcome by the damping and spring force, but not before it went way into the travel. Do the same with the avalanche and it firms up a lot, preventing you from just blowing through travel. It's just one of the differences, but to me it's huge. I'd imagine the Fox RC4 has similer features, as they seem to have the same adjustments and probably a similer compression valve in that body, but I definitely wouldn't take the chance. Also, when going mach-5 through super-chunk, it just gets better the faster you go, doesn't get overwhelmed, etc.

On the other hand, I could see that some people may not want the Avy. If you don't ride very agressively, you won't open those circuts as much. The Avy can be set up from the factory with less damping, as well as tuned that way, but the people who think the DHX Air is tits probably wouldn't like the Avy. The DHX Air blows through the travel, but on medium and small hits at relatively slow speed, it feels super-plush. It's when you push the Avy that it shines, and where I find the most problems with other shocks. When I pushed the Curnutt and 5th, they got super-harsh and the time-delay/intial force required to open the SPV circut made it seem like there was no shock for the impacts. The current fox stuff doesn't seem to be tunable to have good high and low speed traits at the same time. The fox air shocks can actually have a lot of that compression damping I was mentioning above, but the high speed circut doesn't open up easily, which makes high speed pretty harsh-combined with the firm low-speed it makes for a much harsher setup than a coil. I've had many more different kinds, but the idea is that the seperate low and high speed allow you to set the damping, and sort of the threshold at which it opens the circuts. Miles and miles ahead of everything else (maybe not the RC4) in my opinion.

tald said:

Wow - strong words exactly at the right time .
Jayem, how often do you need to reservice the Avy?
What type of info did you find important to tell Craig when ordering?

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The reservicing thing is probably the same as any other popular shock (fox). The manufacturer will probably recommend it at an interval that will prevent any seal failures, but you can usually stretch a little longer (or just go until a seal fails and then get it rebuilt). I know I"m being vague here, but I'd say a good bet would be ever other season, and again not that it flat-out "needs" it, but that would help keep it fresh, prevent the nitrogen from leaking into the oil (probably the most common seal failure with time) and of course you'd get fresh oil. That is my plan at least. So, it will be at least as reliable as anything else, but probably moreso.

As far as craig, tell him how you ride and what your weight is. With the high/low adjuster you can get some pretty good low-speed compression, so I wouldn't be telling him that I want my bike to "pedal great", because that parameter should be tunable no matter what he does, but as far as how plush it is, it depends on how agressive you ride and what your weight is, which is some of the info you tell him. I don't remember everything I told him, but it was all a factor. The only problem you could run into is that he doesn't offer the steel springs in 50lb incriments, only 100lb. With the Ti springs this is not a problem. If you are trying to keep the cost down, but you are "in between" spring sizes, you may need to buy a RS Vivid spring (running one on my avy DHS now) or a Romic spring. Both have the ID to work with the avalanche.