RS Sektor, any early opinions?

GHill

The new RS Sektor "budget" trail fork sounds pretty good to me. Weighs about 1 lb more than the Rev, but at half the price (incl. Motion Control and Maxle).

Big talking point for me is that there is a 15 mm Maxle option. Beginning of the end for the 20 mm Maxle on trail forks, or will both be continued to be offered?

ride_whenever

Yeah, i thought 15mm maxle was a stupid idea. I really doubt it'll ever replace 20mm though. I cant imagine many DH riders wanting to downsize! I think they'll just run them both in parallel.

Very interesting little package, i reckon we're going to be seeing a lot of these on bikes.

peter413

So is this goig to replace the Tora then?

If the Tora is anything to go by that will be a VERY good budget fork

GHill

ride_whenever wrote:

Yeah, i thought 15mm maxle was a stupid idea. I really doubt it'll ever replace 20mm though. I cant imagine many DH riders wanting to downsize! I think they'll just run them both in parallel.

Ooops, not sure I got my point across totally. I was thinking that xc/trail forks may be QR or 15 mm Maxle only, where 20 mm will only be seen on DH or very burly (such as Fox 36) forks.

Certainly tempted to put the Sektor on my (still in my head) steel hardtail build. Along with a 2 x 10 drivetrain. I'm a marketing man's dream!

The Northern Monkey

ride_whenever wrote:

Yeah, i thought 15mm maxle was a stupid idea. I really doubt it'll ever replace 20mm though. I cant imagine many DH riders wanting to downsize! I think they'll just run them both in parallel.

Very interesting little package, i reckon we're going to be seeing a lot of these on bikes.

This.

joshtp

basicly just a heavier version of last years rev with 150mm travel then.... should be great!

although, personaly 15mm is a poor move.... the more that takes off the more the standard will move to the IMO inferior sise. however having it as an option is no bad thing i supose... its still way better than QR IMO...

GHill

joshtp/mbukman wrote:

basicly just a heavier version of last years rev with 150mm travel then.... should be great!

It has the power bulges of this year's Revs too. The upside of 15 mm Maxle is that it makes it easier to move between different forks without having to replace wheels.

supersonic

I bet next years Recon will be very similar. In fact this should probably be the Recon.

The Northern Monkey

GHill wrote:

joshtp/mbukman wrote:

basicly just a heavier version of last years rev with 150mm travel then.... should be great!

It has the power bulges of this year's Revs too. The upside of 15 mm Maxle is that it makes it easier to move between different forks without having to replace wheels.

:?:

jay12

i like them. i might actually buy them for my bike next year

Northwind

Seems like Rockshox have made their already overcrowded fork line even more overcrowded?

peter413

Northwind wrote:

Seems like Rockshox have made their already overcrowded fork line even more overcrowded?

I do agree.

Why can't they be like fox and have one fork for each purpose?

If you don't like it then you obviously don't need suspension

supersonic

I think RS have too many foks, and fox too few.

This Sektor is just a budget Rev, or a Recon Trail.

peter413

Fox have 11 forks in their line up. Thats enough for me.

Thats 11 base models not RLC, RL, R models etc.

supersonic

But no budget options.

But then again they have always been viewed as a 'expensive' fork.

I would say less then 11 platforms - the 32 van/float/talas are the same fork with different springs. (same for 36).

GHill

bigbenj_08 wrote:

GHill wrote:

The upside of 15 mm Maxle is that it makes it easier to move between different forks without having to replace wheels.

:?:

Fox, Marzzochi, Suntour etc. all make forks with 15 mm axles. This means you can now buy a RS fork to replace whatever fork you had, without having to change the front wheel to accommodate the new axle.

supersonic

Many cartridge hubs have inter changable axles though.

I think the reason for this 15mm 'u turn' is the fact Shimano have committed themselves to it, and we will see more budget 15mm hubs to counterpart a fork like this.

Why the hell they couldn't just offer a 15mm rev, recon, tora, reba though?!

GHill

supersonic wrote:

I think the reason for this 15mm 'u turn' is the fact Shimano have committed themselves to it, and we will see more budget 15mm hubs to counterpart a fork like this.

Nice pun sir!

I've a feeling other 15 mm RS models will be on the way, depending on how well this fork catches on.

supersonic

If I were RS I'd probably completely do away with the Recon - just have the Reba and Rev available without motion control, and 15mm axle and coil option. Many bases covered here. That is two less forks if no Sektor.

Chuck the Dart and have the Tora as the budget option. Three less forks.

peter413

supersonic wrote:

Chuck the Dart and have the Tora as the budget option. Three less forks.

TBH I think they should chuck the Dart anyway. Useless pile of poo and costs nearly as much as a tora.

ilovedirt

Hmm, i'm liking the look of this, maybe a replacement for when my pikes start to face retirement (could be a while yet) though i still don't understand why anyone would go for 15mm over 20mm, as there seem to be more downsides than upsides... Two steps forward and one stop back and all that...

peter413

ilovedirt wrote:

Hmm, i'm liking the look of this, maybe a replacement for when my pikes start to face retirement (could be a while yet) though i still don't understand why anyone would go for 15mm over 20mm, as there seem to be more downsides than upsides... Two steps forward and one stop back and all that...

It's for people that want to shave a few grams

ilovedirt

take a dump before you go for a ride, easy.

peter413

ilovedirt wrote:

take a dump before you go for a ride, easy.

But it will shave you an EXTRA few grammes :roll:

Actually thats a point, why don't XC racers shave their heads bald. Now that would be funny :twisted:

The Spiderman

Blame Shimano for this.If they hadn`t invented and invested in 15mm with Fox 20mm would have been ithe standard instead.Availability of wheels/hubs is the problem.

lawman

The Spiderman wrote:

Blame Shimano for this.If they hadn`t invented and invested in 15mm with Fox 20mm would have been ithe standard instead.Availability of wheels/hubs is the problem.

i think they are both good systems tbh, but i agree that finding wheels is harder now. for example if you want a maxle lite 2010 rev you need a 20mm hub, which rules out the lovely new easton haven wheelset, and industry 9 xc/am wheels are only avaiable in 15mm, not 20mm, yes these are high end wheelsets, but the i RS have done the right thing from a marketing perspective, after all, 15mm has on face value been a huge sucess. most high end trail bikes have fox forks with the 15mm, and the rev's are resevered most times, barring the marin attack trail and a few others, to the lower end models, like the basic commencal meta. by going to 15mm, RS is trying to steal OE sales from fox. its keeping 20mm because it knows it sells well aftermarket, so the buyers of RS forks, like me, are happy, and it gives the bike companies more options when it comes to speccing forks

Northwind

I quite like their comments, "We don't really want to make a 15mm fork, it's not very good, but people want it so here it is". If they make it in QR it might be the first opportunity for loads of riders to try all 3 and then try and convince themselves they can tell which is which

peter413

Northwind wrote:

I quite like their comments, "We don't really want to make a 15mm fork, it's not very good, but people want it so here it is". If they make it in QR it might be the first opportunity for loads of riders to try all 3 and then try and convince themselves they can tell which is which

I can tell the difference between QR and 20/15mm axels but TBH the difference in stiffness between 15mm and 20mm is so miniscule you hardly notice it (yes it was foxes I rode the 15mm axel )

Northwind

peter413 wrote:

I can tell the difference between QR and 20/15mm axels but TBH the difference in stiffness between 15mm and 20mm is so miniscule you hardly notice it (yes it was foxes I rode the 15mm axel )

The question is, was it the same fork, and was it a strong fork in the first place? Like, with the Revs the QR ones are pretty sturdy for trail use anyway, so adding the maxle's not as big a deal as it would be on a spindly fork. And these ain't spindly forks! I can tell the difference between my maxle and QR revs but it's pretty trivial, there's more flex in my wheels.

peter413

Northwind wrote:

peter413 wrote:

I can tell the difference between QR and 20/15mm axels but TBH the difference in stiffness between 15mm and 20mm is so miniscule you hardly notice it (yes it was foxes I rode the 15mm axel )

The question is, was it the same fork, and was it a strong fork in the first place? Like, with the Revs the QR ones are pretty sturdy for trail use anyway, so adding the maxle's not as big a deal as it would be on a spindly fork. And these ain't spindly forks! I can tell the difference between my maxle and QR revs but it's pretty trivial, there's more flex in my wheels.

TALAS on Andy's Chameleon, PIKE's on Rich's Chameleon and QR F100 on ma stumpy.

Wheels were different but they are hardcore with the PIKE's but XC with the foxes and I couldn't relly tell any difference between the talas and pike but could from the F100

supersonic

So 3 completely different forks lol.

Stiffness is more than just the axle.