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Pairing the above photo with this photo from Steve Jones' Instagram of an Ohlins cartridge ramjammed into a Fox 34, does this mean they're really going to release a fork?
I don't know, but one of the members of TEAM ROBOT has been on an Ohlins shock all season and is pretty impressed. And the ROBOTS that are not easily impressed.
Me personally, I'm still a Fox4Life kind of bro, but at this point there are only two real options for suspension anyway: Fox and Rockshox. You can make a good argument for either one, and by now both brands are clearly offering top level performance, but anything else is unrideable. Like if this were a Pepsi vs. Coke argument, the guy who runs in and argues the merits of RC Cola is the same guy who rides a Manitou in 2014.
"In my humble opinion, I think RC has a smoother finish..." blah blah, kill yourself.
In light of Ohlins increasing threat to break into the mountain bike fork universe, here's a ROBOT breakdown of the front suspension universe as it stands in 2014.
DVO:
Clearly unrideable. Are you serious right now? Next question.
X-Fusion:
Seems to be doing alright for Bernard with another banner year.
I've heard good things about X-Fusion from riders who I respect, but I've also seen a lot of these go back for major service problems after one or two rides. The main sticking point for me is that their downhill fork in 2014 still runs on springs made of metal. Pretty weak. Air spring tech has come a long way, and it's pretty hard to argue for a coil on the front of your bike. At this point when companies don't offer DH air springs it seems like less of a performance-based decision, and more like a "it was really hard to do an air spring well so we just stuck with the coil for this model year" kind of reason.
Another easy choice.
If you had to choose between two springs that were equally supple off the top and both offered consistent performance, but one of them weighed a pound less and had a progressive spring curve to keep you from dying when stuff gets real, it's a no brainer choice. In 2014 and 2015 that's the choice that Rockshox and Fox offer. The 2015 air sprung 40 and air sprung Boxxer are both clearly better in every respect than their coil sprung variants, the only reason not to choose the air spring version is money.
Also, stuff like this sets your brand image back a couple years or decades:
Custom made for Camaro guys everywhere.
Manitou:
Mike Levy seems to like the new Manitou stuff, but he also runs Kenda tires. Unrideable.
I have no personal experience with any of the modern Manitou products, but that's sort of like when you go digging around in some bands history and you're like "hey I've never heard any of these songs." So you start listening to all these songs you've never heard, and even though you keep an open mind for the first couple, four songs in you realize they all suck. If you've never heard those songs, there's probably a good reason. It's not like all the people who were into that band conspired against you to hide all their best material. The reason you haven't heard all those songs is probably because they suck.
SR Suntour:
Morlando making the new Suntour stuff look good.
Honorable mention here. Being in the upper echelon of super pros, SR Suntour is obviously unrideable for me, but for the average consumer Suntour might be a real contender. The pricepoints they're hitting with the features they offer are no joke. That said, they're playing catchup and still have a big confidence deficit, and their marketing strategy is not doing them any favors. Garrett Buehler's a great guy and RAMPAGE!!! is rad, but I feel like his suspension requirements roughly break down to:
1. Goes up and down.
2. Doesn't kill me.
"I'm real happy for you Garrett, and imma let you finish, but you need a high profile race team that's winning races if you want consumers to take your suspension components seriously. Seriously."
BOS:
Those Riding Addiction guys are doing alright on this stuff, and everybody who rides it raves about how good it is. Also if you ask half of Pinkbike, they'll tell you that Remi Thirion won Andorra because he was riding BOS suspension, so ignore the collective wisdom of Pinkbike readers at your own peril.
If you live in France, BOS is totally rideable. Kind of weird that they don't have a closed damper system, but it seems to be working so whatever.
On the other hand if you live outside of France and you have to mail stuff back and forth to all ends of the earth for service and wait weeks and weeks to ride your bike? Unrideable. Also, remember that buying French products means that you're supporting socialism, which is basically the same as spitting on an eagle while peeing on the flag, so think about that next time you toss an Orangina or Mini Babybel's in the shopping cart.
If you're buying this stuff you might as well set fire to the Constitution.
Marzocchi:
Markus Pekoll's had multiple banner years riding for the big red M, but his forks and shocks get the gucci treatment from this Pedro guy that's apparently pretty smart. If you're some off the street jamoke buying aftermarket, who knows what the performance gap is between what Markus rides and what you can buy? That gap can be HUGE when we're talking about suspension internals.
Maybe the new stuff really is great. I keep hearing good things about their new stuff, but I've seen and heard that same pitch about Marzocchi so many times."No dude, I know what you're saying, but the new stuff is good." I'm not sure I can get burned again. It's like that friend that keeps coming out of rehab and saying they're better now. If I'm going to believe that you've changed, I need to see more than words:
8 comments:
Ok, I get the Marzocchi hate, maybe even Manitou. But the rest on your list? Do you even ride bikes?
They have a fork...it's real. Mitch was testing the day after Nationals this year on one. Looks like a showa only gold.
Who was on an Ohlins? Funk?
Also worth mentioning re Marzocchi that the last rider to win a world cup rocking their suspension was Brook and he had a 40 cartridge rammed into his fork.
Yo bitch what about the lame lefties.
You are right on all of those lower brand forks. But don't forget both Rock Shox and Fox have issues.
Let's start with the 34 which was going to be the ultimate trail fork until you hit a big compression and you could see your life flash before your eyes! Oh and then there is the creaky crowns! It was for the crow issue that got me, I lost count on the amount of times I had them replaced!
Then Rock Shox isn't perfect. The pikes perform faultlessly on the trails but durability isn't all that. I have had issues with leaky cartridges and creaks.
What Fox and Rock Shox do offer is excellent after sales service! Fox have always sorted out any issues and if you have a problem with a SRAM part there's a good chance you will just get a brand new replacement!!
That's what the other companies are lacking is confidence in after sales service.
Out of those lower brands it's Marzocchi that have my interest. They were the market leader, then they just went shit but their new stuff is looking good. But to buy now is a gamble but one that might worth taking. Like you say there is only this mythical Pedro guy that knows anything about them!
Basically the holy grail of forks is durability and good damping. For that I would happily take a weight penalty. Because one week without your bike because your forks are off getting fixed is one week too many!
lol,definitely not everyone thinks FOX has "excellent after sales service."
Any non-USD DH fork from any manufacturer should be considered unreliable. It's just that FOX has to make one before you jump on the bandwagon.
"the only reason not to choose the air spring version is money."
Or if you don't want to service your 40 every month so that it won't start to feel like shit on small bumps.
"Also, remember that buying French products means that you're supporting socialism"
And you think America is still capitalist? If it was everything would have collapsed in 07-08. Instead the Fed cooked the books and created ponzi scheme capitalism to keep everything afloat so you could keep racing your bike. Too bad ponzi scheme' s don't last forever. The French have an honest economy compared to the completely illegitimate financial scheme we have created. Even Soviet-style communism had more legitimacy than what we are living under.
^ Sometimes the robot overlord makes hyperboles and jokes, just testing the waters of this complicated set of brain impulses called feelings and creativity.
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