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I want to buy Jnr a fun 140mm ish bike. He's nearly 14 and about 5ft 7, so I don't want to buy him anything expensive cause it'll be too small soon. I was looking at the Vitus Mythiques, but they come with X fusion suspension.
Any good or best avoided in lieu of a second hand bike?
I think Cotic used to spec them many moons ago. I guess like anything the bottom of the range ones will be poor and the top of the range ones good.
My only concern would be service parts availability.
Best forks I've ever had but I'm not exactly rad.
If anything like my HILO SL dropper, absolutely fine. Dead easy to service and has been fault free in 6 years.
I had some Trace on a mk2 Solaris and thought they felt nice. They were 100mm and had no travel adjust so sold them and bought a set of fox 34 120mm. I'm not sure I could tell any real difference apart from the fox we're obviously better as they said fox on them.
I had trouble getting hold of basic spare parts for mine, don't know if that situation has changed in the past couple of years.
I’ve a brilliant set of Trace 36 I got from Cotic. Easy to service, adjust. More metal than plastic parts too.
I know a nine year old who hits huge gaps, whips etc and his Marin was xfusion front and rear.
Also, you’ll notice a fair amount of DJ bikes run them.
Got them on kids' trek ex junior. Seem OK...
Lasted 4 or 5 years with zero maintenance.
The ones on my Ibis Mojo weren't so great. Think they stopped working after a similar amount of time or perhaps a bit more... 8 years?
Again with zero maintenance
They use all metal parts so are well engineered. I’ve had a few sets and the mcqueens I have are miles better than equivalent rockshox (revs) I had at the same time. These have the roughcut damper.
Personally I think they’re excellent, and that’s not confirmation bias because I’ve had/have forks from most of the players.
FWIW Upgrade bikes do servicing.
I had a pair quite a few years ago, rode Afan, Peaks, CyB, and fine then the first day in Spain, and they blew. Got them warrantied when back home then sold them. Up to they blew, they were a nice fork. At the time it took Chainreaction ages to get the parts to fix them.
I've got Slides on my 29er and Revs on my 650B both hardtails . Just had them serviced by my suspension guru mate who's not a big fan . In his words I can't make them as plush as the Revs , there is a difference to be fair not much granted but as my 29er is used as a " gravel " 🙄 bike it's not an issue.
Seals etc were easy to get hold of as well .
The boy ran on his DH bike and loved them, he exploded his lowers, but they were in a massive crash.
I'd have no issues buying a bike with them
Upgrade bikes are the service guys
The Mythique I'm looking at has XC32's. He's very light, 8 stone.
Like others they are fine, but getting spares can be a pain.
And the fact upgrade bikes do the service would put me right off..
my experience was they were utterly utterly hopeless..
Pretty sure x-fusion was run by a load of previous fox engineers.
I had a 140-170mm x-fusion on my old full sus. Can't remember what the fork or damper were called, but it had adjustable high and low speed everything. It was incredible. Just a bit heavy. Much better damping than the pike I replaced it with. I'm a more dh oriented rider and quite specific with suspension setup.
I've a pair of sweeps 120-160mm with the roughcut damper. They've had new seals, an oil change twice and done about 4500 miles, still running fine.
Easy to service and change the travel if you want.
They sorted my dropper when it was still in warranty when it was stuck down.
As others have said, spare parts are difficult to come by, but ok if you send them off to Upgrade bikes
I had a Trace on my Solaris which worked fine . My only objection was the threads on various components seemed to be made of cheese. I changed travel and nearly stripped the thread on a foot bolt. You also needed a special tool to locate the damper rod when refitting lowers.
I had a Trace on my Solaris which worked fine . My only objection was the threads on various components seemed to be made of cheese. I changed travel and nearly stripped the thread on a foot bolt. You also needed a special tool to locate the damper rod when refitting lowers.
Same ones as mine - oil changed 6 times and three sets of seals (Fox 36 and RaceBros). Never stripped anything and never used a special tool. Don't even use a seal driver. Cotic has a video on the travel change which i've used a couple of times.
They're a good brand for those who don't want to pay for premium products.
Regarding spares, X-Fusion UK distributors (Upgrade Bikes) have some rules about what they will and won't supply to service centres. Basic seal kits for routine servicing are available to suspension service centres like myself, however other items such as complete dampers they insist on forks being sent to them. This is partly to keep the quality of repairs consistent and also due to availability issues.
Upgrade offer great support and are always helpful. Martin in their tech department is always great to deal with.
Own Sweep Roughcuts. Good no nonsense kit I wouldn't hesitate to recommend and are IMO the best long term VFM on the market!
When the Roughcut dampers first came out they were up there with the best, now a bit more middling. They still offer decent damping and well proportioned air chambers out of the box. Something RS took many revisions to improve with their 35mm forks!
From my experience and what I've seen from other riders, X-Fusion forks seem to handle abuse and lack of servicing better than the big names.
Are you getting the best most sophisticated damping profile in the business no. But it's only a notch or two down and you are getting amongst the least hassle and most reliable air forks out there!
IME they make excellent droppers and forks. But very average shocks.
I have a set of McQueens that have never been serviced in the 6 years of ownership that sits on my bikepacker bike. Never given me gyp, done their job for what is a cheap, basic fork. No complaints.
I had a Roughcut damper set for a while but being a FF I found the HSC (which is done by a mini coil IIRC) was out with my weight limit and the always felt a bit harsh. I sold them on.
I’ve a set of Trace 36’s on my SolarisMAX and they feel better than my HELM1’s (HELM2 being a significant improvement with improve seals) but they were £750 at the time so not cheap. More than happy with them as they do what I need them to do.
I’ve a couple of Manic dropper posts, they rattle but they’re cheap and relatively problem free otherwise (I did have an issue with the post not staying up once as I headed over the Burma Road but nothing other than that). Do their job, I’ve since started buying OneUp droppers which are nicer but are not really functionally any better…
Never servicing any of them (but cleaning and lubing after every ride) I’ve not had any spares issues… 🤪
Brilliant forks for the cash
A friend has them and rates them highly. Hes no slouch either
Mrs LJ had some XC32s on her Mythique which had an annoyingly clunky top out which I never managed to eliminate. It was nicked before it was a year old, so can't really comment re. durability.
Jr now has the same fork on his Nukeproof which doesn't seem to have the same issue and seems way nicer than a budget Rock Shox.
Slightly on a tangent, the Mythique is a fab bit of kit, you'll not get better at RRP, like for like.
I've got an old set of 170mm Vengeance on my Shan, had them on my Enduro before that. Brilliant forks
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I had Sweep RL2s on a Mythique. Lasted 2 days before the damper cartridge hydrolocked. It is not servicable. I had to buy an emergency pair of Yaris while on holiday. CRC replaced them with some Z1s which have been excellent.
I really rate the Mythique as a vfm bike. Did a week with Switchbacks in Spain, and it was out on the trails with bikes that cost 4x the price. It never missed a beat. Mine cost £1449. Incredible.
Some 36 Metric R's at 160mm that were great for a couple of weeks of XC and then stopped working somewhere in Chatel bike park.
Repaired under warranty by Upgrade but months later when I finally used them again they were awful. Bounce like a pogo stick being particularly awful on rough climbs and the rebound adjustment barely seems to make a difference and they have quite a top out clunk.
This thread reminds me I really need to get them off to Upgrade to be looked at... unfortunately now well out of warranty so £100+. Might upgrade to the roughcut in an attempt to make them rideable again.