Rockshox Revelation 150 v. Fox Float 32 150

notax

Most of my bikes have been fitted from Fox forks over the years but I bought my most recent bike, an Orange 5, secondhand having been barely used but with a Rockshox Revelation 150 fork. The fork has coped well with a year of riding but suddenly jammed recently ruining a weekend break. I had a lower leg service and the same thing has happened again. I was previously put off Rockshox about 7 years ago when a brand new top of the range fork of theirs jammed on the first day of an Alpine holiday, meaning I had to hire a crap bike for the week :evil:

I am entering the Megavalanche in July and am determined not to have my forks ruin another trip. I ride a Blur as my light ish weight XC bike aqnd the Orange is more AM and the one I'm taking with me. I want to stick with a 15mmQR as I'm using new Crossmax SX wheels so I can't upgrade to the Float 36. Would you recommend selling the Rockshox and buying the Fox Float 32s? Or shall I just get the Revelations fully serviced and hope they last? Any other ideas appreciated...

supersonic

You have not mentioned the models you are looking at: which Revelation and Float?

notax

The Rockshox fitted to the bike is a Revelation Dual Air 150 with a 15mm QR, I think a 2010 model. I would be happy with any Fox fork so long as it is 150mm with a 15mm QR and as far as I know the only one that fits the billis the Float 32 RLC 150. There may also be the option of a Talas but I don't think I'll need to change the amount of travel so I'd proably go for the RLC. Any views on which is more reliable/better appreciated or any other forks you would recommend that are 150mm (or maybe 160mm if this won't bugger the geometry) witha 15mm QR. Thanks.

benpinnick

Depend on what you want to spend, if it were my money I would get the bos devilles. Worth looking at for sure.

rockmonkeysc

Revs need less maintenance than Floats. I think the Revs ride nicer as well. Talas are definately not as nice as even a basic u-turn rev, even a Sektor is a lot better than a Talas.
I tried a Bos Deville, they look nice but I didn't think they felt any better than anything else

notax

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Revs need less maintenance than Floats. I think the Revs ride nicer as well. Talas are definitely not as nice as even a basic u-turn rev, even a Sektor is a lot better than a Talas.
I tried a Bos Deville, they look nice but I didn't think they felt any better than anything else

My LBS suggested avoiding the Talas due to the extra complexity and the fact I never use the travel adjustment I have on my other bikes. I've been happy with the ride quality of the Revs just concerned by reliability, interested that you think Floats are less reliable! Any one else got any views?

Northwind

What do you mean it jams? What did they do to fix it? Lower leg service does very little so won't usually fix any fault other than being full of dirt or water tbh- it's just a clean and oilchange.

Revs are reliable forks usually- more so than 32s from what I've seen. Mine have given me a bit of bother with leaking air from the positive chamber but that seems to be sorted now, and they've had some stick.

They're also stiffer than the 32- which always feels like a short fork stretched, rather than a ground-up 150mm design, to me. But the best Floats perform just a little better than the best Revs IMO. (they should, at the price!)

Shame you're stuck with 15mm as it's a pretty substandard standard. But not the end of the world. Really surprised crossmaxes can't be changed to 20mm!

toasty

One of the mags (WMB?) had a big roundup this month, the Floats scores the same as the Revs. Seems to come down to the smoother travel on the Floats vs the stiffer chassis on the Revs, which is how I've always found it personally. I've always perfered the Floats, I know a lot don't.

To be honest, Revs needing less servicing isn't a given. I've broken about 3-4 sets of forks, amazingly ALL have been Rockshox.

We've got a set of Rebas at the moment that leak oil out of the top, and need a new seal up there, it's very easy popping the motion control cartridge out, but awkward actually finding a bit to fix it.

I had some Revs that knackered when the 2 air cartridges broke, meaning air leaked between them.

I've had Toras that came pretty much shafted out the box, very stiff and even with a 15 stone rider, didn't ever get past about 50mm travel.

I've also had a set of Pikes, set of newer Revs and a set of new 29er Rebas which have never had issues. Similarly none of my Fox have ever had issues, about 5 sets, over a 10 year window.

We've got some 3 year old Talas with stanchion wear at the moment, they still ride fine though. They have also been a bit neglected on the service front, it's on the missus bike so I often miss little niggling things I'd have spotted on my own. It's not a hugely complicated job undoing about 2 bolts and stripping down Floats either to be honest!

notax

Yes, Northwind you're right, they jammed up initially as full of water and the LBS took apart and cleaned them. Not sure why they've jammed again so soon but although we ride in all weathers it hasn't been that wet and we don't use a pressure washer on the stanchions. I think I may send the Revs off to get them fully serviced and keep riding them for the next few months and just hope they don't let go at the Mega. Reassured (and surprised) to hear Revs are more reliable than the Floats. I bought the Crossmaxes in 2011 and they cannot be converted to 20mm, although the 2012 model can be... very annoying, but since they cost over £600 I think i'll stick with them!

lawman

Imo the whole "rockshox are more reliable than fox" business is just pure bull! They read the service manual and think they need it more, as it states every 100 hours, but in my experience this is simply not the case. Of the 3 rockshox forks I've owned, they've all had problems, the rev's were great when new, but since a good winter of riding 2 years ago, in which they completely seized, sent them to tf tuned for service and they have been awful since, and are now showing signs of the problems before the service, despite having only done a dozen rides since then, if that...

My floats have been, and continue to be, perfect, no problems, just smooth, consistent performance that eclipses any rockshox fork I've ridden. You pay more for the name, but the gains imo are more than worth it.

supersonic

My Manitous eclipse any Fox I have ridden, don't think that is a summary of either brand in general though on reliability ;-)

WIth any brand, you hear reports of failures. Plenty with RS, plenty with Fox - there is a bit of luck involved.

RS main problem was damper o rings leaking oil into the lower legs, and the umbrella seal in the top of the moco, plus two step air. Seems to be better for the new 2012 forks.

Fox had pretty bad problems with main sealing and bushings, but again seem to have addressed them.

toasty

supersonic wrote:

My Manitous eclipse any Fox I have ridden, don't think that is a summary of either brand in general though on reliability ;-)

Well no, I don't think anyone would use that as an example. But then the above thread has about 6-7 examples of broken Rockshox, with fairly common faults. Yet not 1 example of Fox breaking with a common fault. All I can really think is the stanchion wear, which both get and can be avoided.

RS main problem was damper o rings leaking oil into the lower legs, and the umbrella seal in the top of the moco, plus two step air. Seems to be better for the new 2012 forks.

and the terrible issue with the air cans leaking into each other, 2 of those in here!

supersonic

I am sure given time the Fox failures will roll in ;-). Fast bushing wear, and loose bushings from the off which accentuated stanchion wear were common complaints, as was failing lockouts. But these can be sporadic, with later units somewhat better. The old adjusters were soft too, was pretty easy to strip the rebound adjuster from the tiny shaft under, did this on some vanillas (sent to Mojo under warranty, siezed rebound shaft) and very nearly did it on some 2009 floats too, had to free the shaft up with pliers! Crap gets under the cap too easily.

As for TALAS...

Either way I don't think one is overall any more reliable a brand than the other, both can be serviced at home, and both are definitely upping the game year on year.

toasty

supersonic wrote:

I am sure given time the Fox failures will roll in ;-). Fast bushing wear, and loose bushings from the off which accentuated stanchion wear were common complaints, as was failing lockouts.

Oh man, the RL lockout is rubbish, I'll give you that one, I think they'd actually do better not having a lockout option at all I would say I've seen just as many lockout failures on RS though, mine went personally when the oil level on the Moco dropped, due to the top leak.

Curious how kashima coating will do, I've seen a few worn down already, all covered with warranty obviously but it certainly isn't a magical solution to stanchion wear.

Crap gets under the cap too easily.

Same again, very easy to remove the caps though The same has happened with my 29er Rebas too, the crown motion control dial jobby is a bit loose already and gets dirt underneath. No oil leak like the old ones though. The Fox ones are easy to get like new on the plus side, you can order impossibly small bearings from Mojo and lose them under the fridge trying to sort them.

toasty

Fast bushing wear

Oh and another thing, easily replaced in a service for the Fox. Had a friend with some Sektors recently, who was told his bushings had worn (after 1 year), and weren't replacable? He's got some new forks now.

supersonic

They should be replacable as use Revelation lowers - though RS in their wisdom recommend you replace the whole lowers. Despite the bushings being available after market!:

http://www.petracycles.co.uk/product_in ... s_id=69294

http://www.farnhamcycles.co.uk/Shop/p/3 ... ower-30mm/

TF will replace them. They usually las very well though!

toasty

Oh indeed, I wasn't suggesting that was the norm. I've heard of Fox ones dying far more often, it's normally just a service job though as I say, rather than a potential new fork issue. I think the fact that it happens quite quickly actually worked in their favour on that one, hehe.

They were OE forks, maybe the cost of the lowers was greater than the cost of the forks.

Northwind

Notax wrote:

Yes, Northwind you're right, they jammed up initially as full of water and the LBS took apart and cleaned them. Not sure why they've jammed again so soon but although we ride in all weathers it hasn't been that wet and we don't use a pressure washer on the stanchions.

There's something really wrong there! FWIW lowers servicing is very straightforward and worth learning to do yourself- 2 bolts, a clean and a refill. But water just plain should not be getting in, never mind enough to jam the fork (tbh I'm really surprised it didn't blow the seals out rather than locking up)

Toasty wrote:

Curious how kashima coating will do, I've seen a few worn down already, all covered with warranty obviously but it certainly isn't a magical solution to stanchion wear.

Aye, it must be at least Fox's 3rd new improved mcguffin that'll totally fix their stanchion wear issues so no surprise that it doesn't really. To be fair though, it does work on the performance side at least- not as much as some would say IME but it's still noticable.

toasty

Northwind wrote:

Toasty wrote:

Curious how kashima coating will do, I've seen a few worn down already, all covered with warranty obviously but it certainly isn't a magical solution to stanchion wear.

Aye, it must be at least Fox's 3rd new improved mcguffin that'll totally fix their stanchion wear issues so no surprise that it doesn't really. To be fair though, it does work on the performance side at least- not as much as some would say IME but it's still noticable.

I've got a bit more faith in the new seals that they fairly quietly swapped to this year. We shall see.

notax

[There's something really wrong there! FWIW lowers servicing is very straightforward and worth learning to do yourself- 2 bolts, a clean and a refill. But water just plain should not be getting in, never mind enough to jam the fork (tbh I'm really surprised it didn't blow the seals out rather than locking up)

Maybe the seals did blow to some extent and that's why they failed so soon after the LBS serviced the lowers? I think I'll send the forks off and get them properly serviced and see how I get on. Miss Notax has mentioned a chap who has been recommended on here to service them rather than the usual Mojo etc so hopefully he'll do a good job