MTB Fork Advice - Rockshox 2005

in message <[email hidden]>, Andy

(') said:

Looking for some advice / info on getting a new fork,i'm currently
borrowing a friends.

Orignally (2 weeks ago) I ordered a Rockshox Duke XC 2004 with U-Turn
for £160, however the people I ordered it from said they didnt have
any 2004 left and said if I wait I can get the 2005 edition of the
Duke XC for the same price. They also suggested that the 2005 will be
pretty much the same as the 2004

However I've come back from holiday and now its going to be another 3
weeks until the fork is available (its already been 2) and I also
checked out the updated rockshox website www.rockshox.com and found
that it seems the 2005 Duke seems rather different :

1) there's only a XC version, no SL etc etc
2) It seems to be air sprung rather than coil

Air sprung is much better than coil, much easier to adjust to your
weight and riding style, and much more progressive. And lighter.

Quoted message said:

3) U-Turn seems to have dissapeared on the feture list.

I'm not surprised. It basically didn't work - I know two people who had
their forks back to RockShox not once but twice, for periods of about
two months each time, in both cases because of the 'U-Turn' slipping.

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know if this is correct ? Also I looked at the lower down
Pilot SL and that seems to have alot of the newer features on (Pop
Lock etc) that have not been included in the Duke ? why does a cheaper
fork have more stuff ?

The RockShox forks I've stripped have been very cheap and nasty inside.
More features on cheap forks is not a good thing, because features take
engineering and engineering which is any good costs money. Manitous
seem to me a lot better made; Black Supers are a very nice fork.

But £160 for an air sprung fork is a good price.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; better than your average performing pineapple

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

3) U-Turn seems to have dissapeared on the feture list.> in message

<[email hidden]>, Andy

Quoted message said:

([email hidden]'😉 wrote:
I'm not surprised. It basically didn't work - I know two people who had
their forks back to RockShox not once but twice, for periods of about
two months each time, in both cases because of the 'U-Turn' slipping.

U-Turn is featured on the '05 Pike (maybe others, but I can't be arsed to
look).
From the accompanying blurb:
"Last, but certainly not least, our Award Winning coil U-Turn spring system
allows the rider to quickly and easily adjust the travel from 95 mm to 140
mm of travel".

So not only is it not dropped by RS but it also works, this I can attest to
by owning a set of '04 Duke SL's.
I did purchase them with some trepidation as RS don't have the greatest
reputation for reliability and originally was going to get Marzocchi
Marathons, but so far I haven't been disappointed.
AFAIC the U-Turn feature suits my needs brilliantly, YMMV, which is good as
it was the main deciding factor at time of purchase, not price oddly enough
for me ;-) (but it helped).

Quoted message said:

The RockShox forks I've stripped have been very cheap and nasty inside.

This I can believe and accept, after all I paid £206.00 for mine, half the
price of some others which also reputedly have reliability issues.
How long will they last? watch this space ;-)

Pete