How I got a Longer, Stiffer Front End
No, no, no, it’s not what you think, I haven’t been buying little blue pills from the internet! I’m talking about my bike.
The Fox TALAS forks on my Commencal Meta 5.5 have seen better days. Despite looking after them and keeping them well serviced, one of the stanchions was badly worn and was getting worse with each ride and they were beginning to feel less than plush. I looked up the cost of replacing them like for like and similar forks from Fox were close to the £900 range. Silly money for a set of forks as you can get an entire bike for that.
I could have had them repaired and new stanchions fitted, but by the time I did that and had them serviced that would have cost around £350 and of course I would still have had the same lowers that were a bit bashed and would be paying out quite a bit of money for nothing new.
So, I decided to jump ship and move to forks from a different manufacturer as quite a few people around here have had poor wear issues with Fox Forks. I liked the TALAS system on the Fox forks though as it allowed me to change the travel whilst riding along, so that I could change the geometry of the bike on the fly. 140mm of travel for the descents, 120mm for the climbs and very occasionally (almost never) 100mm for really steep climbs.
I managed to find a pari of 2011 RockShox Revelation XX Dual position forks that offered a similar feature, allowing you to change between 150mm and 120mm settings. This sounded ideal, I’d still have the 120mm setting that I like for the fire-road climbs and my longer travel setting would be increased from 140mm to 150mm giving me more travel for the bumpy descents. What’s more, despite being a similar type and quality of fork, a high end trail fork, they were quite a bit cheaper than the Fox Forks at around £500 (RRP was £799) and they had 20mm Maxle Lite drop outs which would provide a much stiffer, more positive feel compared to the standard QR axles on my old Fox Forks.
This sounded better, a new pair of forks and what would feel like a bit of an upgrade, slightly more travel and a bolt thru axle. At least now I’d feel as though I was getting something extra for my money rather than just replacing like for like. Unfortunately when they arrived, Merlin had sent the wrong ones and they didn’t have the dual position lever so I had to arrange to send them back. By this time, the ones I had ordered were out of stock so Merlin decided to rectify what was their error by offering to send me a set of 2012 Rockshox Revelation XX Dual position forks instead at no extra cost.
I don’t think there’s a huge difference between the 2011 and 2012 models to be honest but getting next years forks always sounds better. They also have 15mm Maxle Lite drop outs rather than 20mm ones of the 2011 models, but as that is supposed to be the new standard I guess that will be fine.
Whilst at it I bought a new Hope headset as well. I’ve needed a new headset for a while so while I’ve got the forks off to change them over I may as well fit a new headset too. They haven’t arrived yet but once they do I’ll get them changed over and let you know how they feel. Hopefully they’ll be better and last longer than the Fox Forks.
