Got a brand new 04 20mm sherman firefly with SPV in the mail yesterday as a warranty replacement.
What a sweet looking fork. I'll post pics later.
So, the need to go beat the hell out of it this morning was non-debatable.
I had thought that SPV in front wouldn't really do much, but since I was getting a free fork, I
figured I'd get the latest and greatest. Well, if you like to stand and pedal, then you need one of
these. Single speeders need not point out the other option :-) It felt just like a lockout climbing.
Looking at the fork while I had all my weight on the bars turning a slow 40 cadance and trying to
bounce it, I got less than 1/2 of movement.
It made my fox coil in back seem that much more springy. I _need_ SPV in back now. Gotta see if the
swinger from the AC fits.
There's 2 spots on this trail where I can bottom any fork that I've had, until now. One is a 45
degree rock face that you just kinda ram into and it pegged the stops on a black air and the dorado.
On the black it would then launch you vertically as the feeble rebound dampening tried to cope with
the situation. With the firefly, I swear I could almost hit that with a beer in my other hand.
The other is a steep rocky face about 8' tall that you have to hit at warp 9 to make it over. There
is some fear of pancaking into this wall if your weight's not right as the approach gets steep very
fast. Either way, fork always bottoms. It was sooo smooth today I had to go back and do it a few
more times.
I know this isn't a long term durability report, but the initial impressions are very favorable.
Haven't even tried the travel adjust yet, it's just not needed.
-Bruce