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I've pretty much always ridden air forks (bar a set of coil pikes) and have been happy with their performance for trail riding and the odd bit of DH. I am now building a mini dh bike for downhill days, uplifts and the odd bit of trail riding in wales and scotland etc.
The frame is a giant reign x, with a fox dhx 3.0, 521's on pro 2's, wide bars, short stem etc. It will be slackened off to about 65 deg with offset bushings to make it more fun on the downhills.
The bike will be peddled about so I don't want it to weight a ton.
Are coil forks worth the extra weight for more DH focused riding? I will be riding decent sized jumps on it (25ft+) and will give it a beating on uplift days and in the alps. I'm looking at lyriks and 36's.
On the Lyriks? Ive got the U-turns, they are almost marz buttery smooth. I have no experience of the Solo Airs, when it comes to the Fox 36's....I've got experience of the non-kashima Van vs floats. The Van coils were much smoother....but then again the floats might have had little oil in them or not been serviced properly.
Does 1lb of extra weight bother you that much? Also, I would stay away from 180mm single crowns. They flex like **** compared to 160mm forks, for the axle to crown height you may as well go with a dual crown.
I personally.... would say they are worth the extra weight. In fact I would rather have coils on the front and an air shock on the rear as traction on the front matters more than traction at the rear. Perhaps you could dump weight on the rear by running a Monarch Plus or Vivid Air.
It bothers me if I am hardly going to notice the difference. I had air lyriks on my old enduro and they were great. As I have not tried a pair of long travel coil forks I have nothing to compare them to.
I'm sticking with the rear shock, all the coil shocks I've ridden have performed better DH than air.
Coil feel nicer for the "car park test" but i can't feel much difference actually riding, i think the differenice is a bit over hyped. For me i actually prefer air as its easy to get the right sag without compromising if you sit between 2 coil weights like i do ( have to use the standard rock shox spring as soft would bottom out on bigger drops).
My experience is not far off. I've had both coil and air pikes and they were both very good. Coil was plusher and felt more solid, but not a massive difference.
I am now riding bigger and faster stuff, so am curious to know if the differences would be greater.
air forks are more adjustable...
you can set the spring rate just right for your weight.
add 20psi for pedally days.
take out 20psi for Dh days*.
that sort of thing.
(*unless it's really steep, and you want to firm them up a bit to help keep the front up)
Bos Idylle SC, end of thread!
I am now riding bigger and faster stuff, so am curious to know if the differences would be greater.
fwiw I've ridden the same "big" stuff on either my hardtail with air pikes, or my fs with coil boxxers (now domains), and again not much noticeable difference imo. Then again I'm more into jumpy droppy stuff rather than rough and techy so ymmv.
Air Lyriks are surprisingly coily... TBH I was disappointed when I changed to coil, everyone bangs on about the difference but it wasn't that big. Well, except that the coil hasn't blown up even once, while the dualair blew up before I ever fitted it 😆
Reliability is the one thing that coil forks seem to have in their favor. My coil pikes seemed bombproof.
I've always preferred air forks to coil, but coil shocks to air 🙂 Sorry if that doesn't help, OP
That's the one thing I don't get. Traction is more important on the front, perhaps air forks lend themselves to better sensitivity and dive resistance than air rear shocks.
Maybe because the damping circuitry in a shock has less space to work in than on a fork, heat buildup, multiple fast hits etc are better dealt with by a coil shock, but the difference is less noticeable in a fork? Just conjecture though, I have no idea if that is the case.
I've just taken a set of 150 air forks (TFTuned Talas 36) off my miniDH bike and will be replacing them with a coiled fork. I've had cheaper, less refined coil forks that don't have the initial nice/plush/whatever feeling that the Foxs have, but performed with more consistency. I'll happily trade a bit of weight for a fork that has predictable performance (even more so on the rear).
I've two pair of RS Revs (air 150 and u-turn coil) and i'd take the coil every time. Maybe air Lyriks are better?