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Looking at getting the Canyon Spectral with the 2015 32 Evo's... I've heard horror stories from 2013/2014 - are the 2015 one's any better - were they really that bad in the first place?
Will I even notice?! I mean I'm not expecting Pike quality, but a 2015 fork is still a 2015 fork, right? No?
Any experiences appreciated.
Bike/Fork in question:
http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=3563
I don't know what the fuss is... I've got 2013's and they go up and down, less up and down in Climb mode and more up and down in decend... what's not to like?
The longer the 32 is the more out of the depth it is. It's an XC fork, the first batch were 2013, 2014 was an improvement and not may have had 2015 I'm guessing.
IIRC the problem was with the Performance (Open Bath) fork having an unrealiable damper in the first 2013 batch, fixed in the 2014 fork.
Beyond that the "people" issues were that the longer travel the fork was, the more out of its depth it got, but then what do you expect for a lightweight trail fork with less material trying to handle the forces generate by someone making full use of the type of riding a 160mm for is designed for.
I see - thanks.
At 140mm they should be reet, I'd hope!
They'll be fine, I had a Fox-32 140mm on a Saracen Ariel.
The problems reported are when Fox tried to make it a 150mm fork, it simply wasn't as good as Rockshox's Revelation at 150mm despite both having 32mm stanchions.
Fox effectively acknowledged this by bringing out the Fox-34 for 150-160 duties.
fox bought the 34 our because Scott didn't want a 36 on their mid travel trail bikes because, aesthetically, it looked too heavy - the 36 could, and can be made to a similar weight to the 34. Scott are a massive OEM customer, so Fox provided. from what i've been told by those in the know anyway.
fox's damping suffered from a lack of mid travel support - too linear and blew through their travel too easily (esp in the CTD format), 2015 are better in this regard, but the performance damper especially never felt that good really, imo. still, they're decent forks for sure, it's just that the equivalent RS forks feel better.
the spectral is a cracking bike anyway, esp with the new longer geo - a mate is purchasing the same model as that too.
I have a carbon stumpy 29er which had the 32mm Evolution series fork in 130mm. Mine had the rubbish damper cart which failed almost immediately, had it replaced with the newer cartridge. It basically works ok, at the end of the day as mentioned above, its two tubes designed to go up and down, the basics are the same in most air forks air in one side to act as a spring, oil pushing through holes in the other side designed to slow it down, its simple stuff. They hold air ok, so its sprung as good as any other air fork. Yes I think the damping side of things ain't that great, trail setting should be perfect for a lot of riding, but just feels wooden and nasty, Climb/lockout is inconsistent, sometimes it locks out at the top of the stroke perfectly sometimes 10mm into the travel. Its not a deal breaker but its just feels a bit budget to be honest. I think the stiffness factor is to do with the 32mm stanchions and obviously gets worse the longer travel you go, but thats not the issue with EVO series over factory, that just the dynamics of 32mm longer travel. I have a set of factory 32mm terralogics in 100mm on my hardtail and they are brill.
Well I've got a Canyon (Grand Canyon CF SL 6.9) getting delivered today with these on, so hope they have improved! Just 100mm travel on the 29er.
To be honest my last suspension forks were a 2004 Fox Float and a Cannondale Headshok from 2003, so hopefully should be better than those two.
FTM
nice insider info there hungry monkey!
You may want to also consider how aggressively you ride and how heavy you are many people say that fox 32 are not as stiff as 32 RS. I'm a light rider 70kg and I really noticed how much stiffer my Marzocchi 350CR are than my RS Sektors.
I've got a 2014 spectral with the 32 evolution's TALAS CTD 120-140
Stiffness wise they are ok but I have not been happy with the damping I have experimented a lot with pressure and they just blow through the travel.
descend mode is a waste of time so I run them in trail mode with about 10% sag, small bump performance is gone but at least there is some travel mor medium and big hits.
I don't know what the performance is like with the FIT cartridge,
thinking of swapping for some new marzocchi 350cr but reviews are thin on the ground.
the spectral is a grat bike by the way
I've got a 2014 spectral with the 32 evolution's TALAS CTD 120-140
Stiffness wise they are ok but I have not been happy with the damping I have experimented a lot with pressure and they just blow through the travel.
descend mode is a waste of time so I run them in trail mode with about 10% sag, small bump performance is gone but at least there is some travel mor medium and big hits.
I hired a Spectral in Mallorca this summer with the Float version of that fork and I found exactly the same, had to run them very hard to stop the front diving. Not even half as good as my old open bath Fox 32s and not in the same universe as my Pikes. Good bike otherwise!