Best high end XC fork options?

xc62701

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Im looking for something light, stiff, dependable, and preferably with a remote lockout. I've been on lefties for a bit and now going back to a traditional fork. What's yer recommendation? I've had good/bad luck with rock shox and fox before and know there are a couple newer brands out there.
 
Lefty
Everything else is a noodle.
Actually the Fox 34 I had upgraded to the solo air spring by Fox actually felt great. They retrofitted the Fox 36 internals to fit the 34's and it actually felt great. It's hard to compete with the soft bump compliance of the lefty, everything else is pretty terrible in that department. And stiffness too, you can really feel a traditional fork bend when going into hard corners. Actually you don't feel it bend, but when going TO a lefty you notice how drastic the change in precision of the steering is. It actually turns when you want it to, the turn in is totally different because of how much flex a "traditional" fork has.
Edit:
You couldn't pay me to run a rockshox on anything other than downhill type bike. Their cross country stuff is so awful. maybe they have improved after the Reba but holy crap I can't believe they sold a fork that was so bad. I'd really have to be convinced otherwise.
 
xc62701 said:
Im looking for something light, stiff, dependable, and preferably with a remote lockout. I've been on lefties for a bit and now going back to a traditional fork. What's yer recommendation? I've had good/bad luck with rock shox and fox before and know there are a couple newer brands out there.
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Just curious why you are ditching the Lefty?
 
To be fair... lefty's are some of the most finicky forks made. One ride can feel great, the next they feel like poop.
Fox forks may not feel as good, but every fox I had was a set it and forget it (until the stancions wore away 🙂 )
 
I am curious but being completely snide at the same time.

Where is your awesome 200 mm lefty because as you describe it it's everything a real downhill biker wants.

Isn't the lefty just filled with the same parts as a pike?
 
jShort said:
To be fair... lefty's are some of the most finicky forks made. One ride can feel great, the next they feel like poop.
Fox forks may not feel as good, but every fox I had was a set it and forget it (until the stancions wore away 🙂 )
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You actually need to service fox forks way way more than people do. It's actually really easy to change the fluid, which NEEDS to be done. It's seriously as easy as setting up a tubeless tire. But once the oil goes to hell, it eats up the stanchions. Changing those top seals too, they just pop out.
I feel the main disadvantage of the Lefty is that none of them offer the adjustability of some of the traditional forks in the compression department. It kinda sucks having to set compression via air pressure since it screws up the sag. A compression knob would be awesome. My Fox 34 has one and I use it quite often. The Fox 34 also has a CTD lever (climb trail descend) which is also nice. But 97% of the time I just left it in "trail" mode. But depending on what park I was at I would change the compression adjustment.
 
mattybfat said:
I am curious but being completely snide at the same time.

Where is your awesome 200 mm lefty because as you describe it it's everything a real downhill biker wants.

Isn't the lefty just filled with the same parts as a pike?
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The thread clearly states XC Matty. It's not news that there isn't a DH Lefty fork. 😉
 
jShort said:
The thread clearly states XC Matty. It's not news that there isn't a DH Lefty fork. 😉
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Completely aware but since this is such an awesome fork then why are there no 200mm, serious question.
 
jShort said:
To be fair... lefty's are some of the most finicky forks made. One ride can feel great, the next they feel like poop.
Fox forks may not feel as good, but every fox I had was a set it and forget it (until the stancions wore away 🙂 )
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I've heard this same thing about the Lefty from a number of people. I have a buddy who has scared me off them forever because he's had a terrible experience with getting his fixed after it sh*t the bed on him. I know of a couple different people who have a common complaint with them too - they say the lockout breaks very easily. Again, I've never had one so I can't speak from personal experience and my own experience seems to be that all things Cannondale are completely polarizing with passionate arguments from both sides.

Ultimately, you may want to refine your criteria a bit before you consider anything. For example, some folks may not like Reba, but there really isn't an easier fork to maintain out there and it's components will always be accessible. It's kind of like the Honda Civic of forks. So if maintenance is the most important quality, it shoudl probablt be high on your list. But if performance is more important (and I'm guessing it is) that would probably push it further down. You'll get different advice from different folks based on their own criteria. Personally, since I'm on a SS my thoughts always go to how anything handles going uphill. So my primary criteria is control. I look for a fork that allows me complete control - when I want it locked out, I want it totally locked out - none of that bullshit little feedback. I want - and need - zero inefficiency. And that's actually really hard to get, so my options were limited. But everything else was secondary - price, maintenance, bump compliance. Hell, I spent years riding rigid, so any suspension performance is always better than where I started. What I want is to feel rigid when I'm going up. So that guided my choice. Think about what you really want most and choose based on that.
 
More than happy with 2015 rock shox sid world cup xx. Installed a couple tokens and keep your bike clean. Carbon fiber uppers and steerer. Light and stiff
 
If you put a lefty on a frame (non cannondale) that is not designed / reinforced for the lefty, won't the rigidity you gain in the fork cause the head tube and frame to flex and eventually break? Basically using the lefty as a stiff lever to twist the head tube / frame past its breaking point?

If you have a cannondale frame, lefty makes sense. Non Cannondale frame, my vote is Fox. I demo'd the Lefty on a scalpel, the RS1 on a Scott and Fox 32 on an Anthem. I loved the lefty over the other two - hands down felt way better at XC race pace but was too touchy for non race pace. The RS1 was light and I love the inverted design but it was a noodle. I had high expectations for the inverted design but for me, it came up short and for the super high price, I wasn't buying an expensive noodle. The Fox didn't break my wallet and it's a little heavier but it felt decent. Overall - I picked fox because of it's overall price . quality and dependability.
 
Mountain Bike Mike said:
If you put a lefty on a frame (non cannondale) that is not designed / reinforced for the lefty, won't the rigidity you gain in the fork cause the head tube and frame to flex and eventually break? Basically using the lefty as a stiff lever to twist the head tube / frame past its breaking point?
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No. You actually have less of a twisting force on the bottom. If everyone used lefty's we probably wouldn't see a 1.5" standard.

And before anyone asks, the 1.5 from Cannondales comes from their original headshock which needed a larger head tube to fit the damper.
 
@mattybfat because cannondale doesn't make a 200mm bike, so they don't make the fork. The biggest they have is a 160mm 27.5, which is what I have on my Ibis.

@Mountain Bike Mike no, opposite. Because the lefty is a "triple clamp" setup, it equalizes the load on the head tube. A standard fork actually puts a ton of pressure on the bottom bearing, and hardly any on the top one. which is why the tapered headset works and nobody is pushing for a 44mm top bearing.
 
I'd love to see how much Matty argues his football team is better than everyone else's.
 
mattybfat said:
But they have and no lefty
https://www.google.com/search?q=cannondale+downhill+bike&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=sivn&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&fir=oCD9aaXsaPiRXM%3A%2CPyk2GArQEukQCM%2C_%3Br3wpx5lgIVI_iM%3A%2CkV7_dTs134iLlM%2C_%3BgNf1bpKXN-rRxM%3A%2CGoVtd9GHYFPHJM%2C_%3BLyXu5FudGvqBpM%3A%2CNK0IiAMlH2AhYM%2C_%3BGR-jPIImDlw3WM%3A%2C5cnMfGgzHEhczM%2C_%3BwKTsfLRWTMbVSM%3A%2CeO0WnsoChM0hvM%2C_%3B7RxSOY2jc_NAdM%3A%2Co77fLpKKA3HsaM%2C_%3BuN5iwpFgL_ZliM%3A%2Ctz__E9Rgk84OgM%2C_%3Bm8hX-4tzCHZONM%3A%2CA6Ok_TLDmh0OgM%2C_%3B8j7MnuKPA3DeXM%3A%2CBslhI-yJbx3lfM%2C_&usg=__E3dyRK3LMfCCZxSBQHLqJnJMr9E=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjurePhmfPNAhXH2R4KHU19BcYQ7AkISA&biw=320&bih=529
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none of those bikes have more travel than the 160mm Jekyll, that's the most DH bike they ever made. Well they had the 180mm claymore, but that had 26" wheels, So it's the same axle to crown as the 160mm 27.5
Cannondale doesn't even sell 26" bikes (that we would buy) anymore. And they actually don't sell any big hit 29ers anymore either. The supermax is only offered with 27.5 bikes. They only sell XC 29ers
 
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