Should I upgrade my fork?

John_Carter

Hello People,
I have a Cube Acid 2013 that came with a RockShox XC32 Solo AIr fork - i've been rising teh bike and slowly improving my skills. As many of you I too have an upgardeitis bug and constantly upgrade parts of the bike, most recently better brakes and tires.

I keep seeing amazing deals on forsk at Chain Reaction Cycles and am tempted to upgrade my fork, for around £300 I could get a Rockshox recon gold or Manito Tower pro fork...

Obviously teh FOx ones are the best bvut they are too expensive even with the discounts.

My question is would it be a noticable upgrade, say to the recon gold solo air? they both have the Solo Air abnd the gold is probably lighter but taht's less of a concern to me... Shoul I wait untilI can afford a Fox fork? Do I even need a better fork?

What do you think?
Thanks!

cooldad

Why do you think Fox are better? They make some excellent forks, and some not very good ones.
They just tend to be more expensive than the comparable RS, because people buy the name.

If your current fork is letting you down, then consider upgrading, but it's a decent unit. Recon Golds are good forks, but not £300 better than what you have.

Cqc

If you have solo air already it's not worth upgrading to something marginally better. Stick with what you got

kammybear

Yeah, that fork does the trick IMO. You won't really get a lot more without spending serious dollars.

rockmonkeysc

Have a look on the Merlin website. They have some great deals on Rockshox Rebas, I paid £250ish for mine. They are a lot lighter and better damped than the XC32.
Fox forks are just overpriced and no better than a much cheaper Rockshox equivalent.
2013 Fox forks are pretty poor and unreliable.

John_Carter

OK,
thansk guys, you've convinced me not to bother with upgrading the fork at the moment - at least until I can afford something much more expensive (£600?) and mainly feel that it's holding me back - I'm not at that level yet.

Am I right to assume that all Solo air RS forks are similar-ish in performance with most of the difference in weight and the like?

Also, what would happen if I install a longer travel fork than the one I got (say 140mm instead of 100mm) - the bike's geometry would change, no? For teh better? Worst?

Thanks,

cooldad

The bike would snap in half and you would die.

Until it did it would handle like a pig.

Otherwise no problem.

rockmonkeysc

Not all solo air forks have the same (or any) compression damper. There is quite a difference between a Tora with a very basic TK damper and a Reba with a very good motion control damper.
There's a bigger difference in that step up than the step up from a £300 Reba to a £600 Sid.

chrisw333

I think the Reba would be a good option for you.