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I'm a fox guy, have only had fox since my RS psylo on my 2003 Giant VT. Rode a pike once on a rental, but aside from that, nothing else.
My new bike comes with an Ohlins RXF36. My normal MO is to tear off anything without Kashima and swap the fork for a Fox factory, but I like Scandinavian things, so is it worthy of a departure from the norm and running the Ohlins?
Bear in mind that I've normally run Fit4 forks and my tuning tends to be 'set the sag' and run it like it was out the box.
I personally think Ohlins is a big upgrade from Fox but it comes down to your preferred ride feel and tune. Having said that though, Ohlins stuff is hugely tunable so won't be too hard to get it dialled.
Ohlins stuff is hugely tunable
Yeahbut...The damper is pretty full-on for normal humans*. I've a coil RXF, and I run anywhere from zero to 1-2 clicks of LSC, and about the same for rebound, Ohlins, for reasons only known to themselves use HSC for "lock-out" and for me on a flat out climb it just needs to be flicked on to keep the fork still. Living with the fork otherwise is pretty straightforward, servicing is 50/100 hours and it's a doddle to do, it's stiff enough (most forks are these days) and the axle is simple to use.
* It's tuned as a "race" fork, and performs hugely well when you're going as fast as you can, very composed and predictable. It's overdamped in pretty much any other circumstances.
I've had Lyriks, Zebs, 36 Grip2s and Ohlins (RXF36) and the Ohlins are by far my favourite, with one caveat. Setup/tune. There is a bank of tunes available, and if it isn't tuned for your weight by the supplier then it may feel harsh - as mentioned it is a race fork out of the box. It is absolutely worth spending the money on a tune to get it right, as even taking into the cost of the tune for any forks, it outshines the others IMO.
Yeahbut…The damper is pretty full-on for normal humans*. I’ve a coil RXF, and I run anywhere from zero to 1-2 clicks of LSC, and about the same for rebound, Ohlins, for reasons only known to themselves use HSC for “lock-out” and for me on a flat out climb it just needs to be flicked on to keep the fork still. Living with the fork otherwise is pretty straightforward, servicing is 50/100 hours and it’s a doddle to do, it’s stiff enough (most forks are these days) and the axle is simple to use.
* It’s tuned as a “race” fork, and performs hugely well when you’re going as fast as you can, very composed and predictable. It’s overdamped in pretty much any other circumstances.
Exactly that. My RXF36 Evo was overdamped to the point where it was basically useless to me. I had to peel my hands off the bars after every trail. I had much better results with a Lyrik, but my 38 Factory is the best fork I've ever used. If you're a big unit or particularly fast, the Ohlins might be great.
I had to peel my hands off the bars after every trail
On big days or alpine holidays I fit a spring that's one stage under the weight Ohlins recommends for me, add a bit more compression damping and it's buttery smooth, no arm pump on any trail...but, yeah you do need to be going as fast as you can to get the best from it
I just replaced my 36 Grip 2 with an Ohlins RFX 36 m.2 coil and it is night and day better. A big part of the difference is down to the coil spring I'm sure but the damper has proven to be very easy to get along with too.
I brought it second hand and immediately sent it to J-Tech for a service and a tune where they dropped compression from their C60 tune (stock for a coil fork) to C40. I didn't ride the C60 tune but I'm running the C40 tune at 9 clicks from closed (6 from open) compression and it feels spot on.
I'm sure that if you brought it new from somewhere like J-Tech or TF they'd retune it for you and if you buy one second hand then a retune is only about £40.
I'd highly recommend trying the Ohlins if you're curious (and if you're not curious then I'd highly recommend buying my 36 which is in the classifieds).
Good to know. It's an air spring version.
I run my current 38 wide open to reduce that finger peel on bike park days.
I've all winter to sort my strength though as I've been off the bike for a few months following a big off and busy work schedule once I've been mobile again.
At 75-80kg my Grip2 damping is proper shite. HSC open, LSC open, rebound pretty quick otherwise it's packing down rapidly.
The range must be set up for proper chunky people.
I find the recommended sorting in my ohlins was a bit much. Dropping the spring weight one level made it spot on
I have had 36 Grip2 VVC which has been excellent on bike parks, unfortunately I only ride parks for maybe a three days per year.
For slow rides wet roots I don’t seem to get it work to my liking after year of trying, despite trying many adjustments and combinations with tokens and different air pressures. Seems like the target audience is somewhat different to my riding and only options are new fork or Avalanche cartridge, the price would about the same.
The new fork is now being delivered.