Any Öhlins RXF34 m.2 riders?

decent small-bump sensitivity that rides high in its travel, but I’m also looking for better, plusher damping especially on square-edged hits. Would the Ohlins be suitable?

My personal view is that small bump is work for your tyres not your fork. But...the Ohlins is very heavily damped out of the box, most folks find after a bit of experimentation that they run the damper almost turned off, but it depends on your weight and what you want from it I guess, it's got lots a tuning routes (LSC HSC, rebound) but they're tuned to work when the fork's working hard. Any of the tuning companies J-Tech TF Tuned will give it a lighter tune if you can't get it to where you want.. IME Ohlins work best when your wringing it's neck, everything else is just a bit compromised.  I put up with it as becasue when you need it, and you're a bit out of your depth, it's supremely composed and very reassuring.

Think of it like a track day car, you can drive it on roads, but it's not much fun

Chain Reaction have 34 Stepcast 120mm for near half price, they are factory Kashima though

@honourablegeorge oooh thanks for the head's up.

Bought a 'minimally' used Ohlins RXF second hand, sent it away for service and the stanchions were through to metal. The service centre seemed quite open about them being a bit more fragile and requiring regular attention.

I keep on top of the lower leg servicing on mine, but I disagree that they're inherently more fragile than any other fork I've owned. You can get any fork to rub off the coating on the stanchions if you abuse it and don't look after it.

Sure - I have no way of knowing what the fork had been through so good to know others have had a better experience. Like I said it was the service centre that made the statement about the coating.

Yeah, the mechanic who assembled my bike back in 2018 said pretty much the same thing. I wonder if it's just one of those things that just gets said that many times that folks just repeat it without really thinking about it. It's certainly not been my experience

Regarding premature stanchion wear, by habit I drop the lowers on every new fork I buy. It's amazing how under-lubed they come from the factory.

@devash - FLASH15 code no longer works, sadly, but still a bargain

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/p/fox-suspension-34-float-sc-factory-remote-boost-fork-2022?color=matte-blackblue&wheelSizeTravel=29%22+%7C+120mm+Travel&axleSpacingOffset=15mm+x+110mm+Axle+%28Boost%29+%7C+44mm+Offset

Pike Ultimate, really rate mine, have them set at 130mm on the front of my Stumpy. They tick all of your boxes.
All the small bump, plenty of support and never think that they are flexy

I ran an old Pike ultimate on my Spur which was great & a new Charger3 Pike on my Element, which is also great.

That’s where my money would be going.

2023 Pike Ultimate also now a potential option. Thanks!

You won't find a GRIP2 in a Stepcast Fox fork. Apparently there isn't space in the Stepcast forks.

I am on a similar lookout for a great handling fork in all situations with the added twist of trying to find something with as much high speed and low speed compression adjustment as possible to try and get my SS supportive out of the saddle but not be overly harsh descending.

Fox 34 Grip2 is one option but will always be pricey. Other downside on stepcast versions of the 34 (eg FIT4) is not a huge amount of tyre clearance if you like big tyres and/ or mudguards (yes to both for me)

Pike with a Charger 3 seems like the obvious option and better value.

XFusion Slide HLR could be a left field option but added weight.

Another left field option I've been trying to find out more about is the DT Swiss F232. Light, supposedly tested stiff enough and looks highly adjustable. It seems like a great fork in theory

I've been struggling to find good information on this fork but this page seems to have a good run down: Bike Rumour Link

Very minimal reviews as well. Only a handful of first ride reviews and this is about the longest one I could find: Review

https://nsmb.com/articles/the-r7-pro-fork-manitous-magic-toothpick/

something a bit different?

@rstephenson I looked at the R7 Pro / Mara combo last year. Couldn't really get past the 32mm stanchions. Seems more like an XC race fork but there's a couple of people on various Transition message boards and FB groups who have that combo and seem to like it.

Cane Creek Helm Mk2 plus the new Cane Creek Coil IL is another leftfield choice I've been looking at. Heavy but seen a lot of love for that.

New Pike Ultimate top of the list at the moment though as I can pick one up for about 400 quid cheaper than anything else.

Yeah Andrew Major's write up seems pretty positive but he does seem to go for more left field choices that might be considered a bit on the niche side of things...
At first I read you could get a new pike ultimate for £400 which would have been a no brainer! But even so that's a considerable saving over anything else. Enjoying the rs kit I've got at the mo tho it's not the latest stuff.

I guess on a Spur, you want to keep the weight down. However, small bump sensitivity and riding higher in the travel screams coil spring to me. You can always tweak the damper later.

Pike Ultimate 2023 120mm is around £650ish via the Euro stores at the moment whereas I haven't seen the new Fox 34 south of £1,000 anywhere. I don't know why but Fox stuff is prohibitively expensive in Europe at the moment.

@Onzadog apparently a coil setup on the Spur works really, really well but yeah, will push the weight up. No such a big issue though as I'm not racing on this bike.

Maybe worth looking at a cheaper pike and a Smashpot. Minimum requirements there are 130mm travel and 35mm stanchion. The trouble with a lot of other coil forks is not having the small increments of spring weight.