coils or air for a smooth ride?

tompsk73

Well the title's the question, I was just wondering if air or springs in the forks give you a smoother ride, specifically over the small stuff, xc, 100mm business, Im in the market for new forks, and thought Id better suss some technical stuff out first

dirtbiker100

I was about to say coils are smoother but if you're doing XC then the lower weight of air would be better. depends on what your priorities are really.

tompsk73

priorities would be under 200quid!

Random Vince

i'd recommend marzocchi MX comps tbh

cunning-stunt

tompsk73 wrote:

I was just wondering if air or springs in the forks give you a smoother ride, specifically over the small stuff,

No doubt the techies and/or air users will pounce on me,but pretty much all the mags have said at some point or other that coils are plusher than air due to the seals on air forks needing to be tighter to er,keep them airtight (pretty sure someone says it in this months MBUK actually).

While it's probably not noticeable to us mere mortals,you can see what they're getting at..
Personally,I've always had a thing against air forks for precisely that reason,even though the difference is probably negligible.Oh,and I don't want blown seals 30 miles from home

Admittedly I've only had limited experience with air forks,and the truth is they bounced and I noticed no difference to my RS/Vans.

Go with what you're more comfortable with.Coils may weigh a tad more,but have reliability in their favour.

Random Vince

cunning-stunt wrote:

tompsk73 wrote:

I was just wondering if air or springs in the forks give you a smoother ride, specifically over the small stuff,

No doubt the techies and/or air users will pounce on me,but pretty much all the mags have said at some point or other that coils are plusher than air due to the seals on air forks needing to be tighter to er,keep them airtight (pretty sure someone says it in this months MBUK actually).

While it's probably not noticeable to us mere mortals,you can see what they're getting at..
Personally,I've always had a thing against air forks for precisely that reason,even though the difference is probably negligible.Oh,and I don't want blown seals 30 miles from home

Admittedly I've only had limited experience with air forks,and the truth is they bounced and I noticed no difference to my RS/Vans.

Go with what you're more comfortable with.Coils may weigh a tad more,but have reliability in their favour.

my coil forks collapsed twice,
my 2004 mx comps (air) are waiting for their first anual service, i've jumped on them, done downhill courses, street, xc and used it for commuting

cunning-stunt

That didn't take long

dirtbiker100

cunning-stunt wrote:

That didn't take long

rockshox tora solo airs here and i could not have asked anything more of them. xc, dh, jumping and riding to the pub. had some nasty front wheel landings into upslopes and they've been amazing.
*touching every piece of wood in sight here *
I'd notice the difference bouncing on coils and air in the street but get onto a hill and i couldn't tell the difference, i'd be too busy holding on. weight on the other hand I could. If I was doing only DH or jumping etc I'd get coil but my all mountain bike has air forks.

monkeypants

Personal preference I'd say, personally I like coils, others like air. The only way to find out which you like more is to ride them and find out.

paulym31

I have a pair of RS Revelation U-turns.
I went for the coils 'cos they seemed less faff to set up properly.
At the end of the day the weight difference between them and the air u-turns was about 200g, and I can save that by having a pre-ride poo.

Paul

supersonic

For 200 quid you can get an RS Reba from Merlin. Has a Dual air spring, so can tune initial sensitivity, plus the other raft of adjustments. Over a pound lighter than the MX Pro too.

clarkson

beware though, merlin remove the serial numbers; all servicing needs to be done through them. just found this out the hard way!

on subject though, coils are smoother, but air is more adjustable and lets you run it at the spring rate you want. and they're lighter. for these reasons i prefer air, although for heavier riding, id probably go for coils. reliability isnt a problem that ive found; the oil leaks more than the air in my experience!