[Closed] PSA: Suntour Aion E45 Boost Forks on CRC - £150

Pre-cut steerer ? But no mention cut to what 🤣

Answer lies in the first review?
"For those presuming these are used please contact Suntour and you will see the pre-cut steerer is their own invention according to father-Google. Suntour added a star nut & cut 3cm+- off the steerer tube but there is still 21cm of steerer and still has to be cut down during installation"

IN Q&A on the 2nd page theres a bit about pre cut steerers from some buyers and although it says one was 210, the other QA says he got 2, one at 170mm and the other at 180mm.

Yeah, the review also thinks:

I can only presume these were meant for their "Demo To Your Door Program" (DTYD) where Suntour send you 5 forks for testing with starnut installed & slightly shortened steer tube and you keep one of them. It seems they realised it's not cost effective on forks under $1000 and removed the Aion from the program. I presume that one or two of them was actually used and hence there is one review mentioning an installed crown race and been used, the rest have not.

https://www.srsuntour.us/pages/dtyd

Sweet PSA thanks.
Forks for the jump bike sorted.

Just dropped the price to £99.

Can you really fit 2.4 29er tyres in these? If so they might suit a Hello Dave (which I keep having to stop myself from buying).

[img] [/img]

Out of stock.

Can you really fit 2.4 29er tyres in these? If so they might suit a Hello Dave (which I keep having to stop myself from buying).

I hope so as I've ordered one this evening and am hoping it'll clear either a 29 x 2.4 or 27.5 x 3.0

Out of stock.

Not surprising at that price

Mine arrived today but have seem to have had a crown race fitted and removed.
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seem to have had a crown race fitted and removed with a claw hammer.

Drewd had one show up with a race still attached, he removed it, but wasn't happy about it.

Drewd had one show up with a race still attached, he removed it, but wasn’t happy about it.

This. The crown race was the most stubborn one I've removed so far, and my fork crown ended up looking similar to the above.

Aside from that though it's ok. It still had the tag on the thru axle, a star nut was fitted and the steerer was about 180mm. I opted for next day delivery as I'm impatient and wanted to try the forks over the weekend. Fitted on Saturday and ridden on Sunday for a 20 miler with around 2400ft evelavtion. They track rocks and roots better than my Rockshox Recon RL and ride well enough for the price paid.

There's loads of room for a 27.5x3.0 Nobby Nic, barely any room for a Continental Trail King 29x2.4 (although they're a massive 2.4) and reasonable clearance with an Ardent 29x2.25.

The QR code on the fork leg suggests they're a 27.5+ boost Aion 35.

First impressions are positive, thanks OP.

oof... I got a pair for £149, but at £99 that's a proper bargain!

Now.. my dilemma is that they WERE to go on a Trek powerfly e-bike.. Originally the model i WAS going to buy had crappy 30mm RS Judys on it. However, i managed to find a small powerfly women's 5, with RX Recon RLs.. however, they are 120mm for the small women's size.

Now... AM I (my OH/kid)
a - going to notice a difference here? Are they lighter for example?
b - able to reduce them to 120mm??

If the answers to the above are 'not really', then I@m kinda tempted to either return to CRC, or see if anyone here wants them for the £149 I paid...

DrP

Now… AM I (my OH/kid)
a – going to notice a difference here? Are they lighter for example?
b – able to reduce them to 120mm??

The Recons I have are 29er boost Recon Silver RL, fitted to a 2017 model bike so I presume 2017 model. Motion Control damper and silver stanchions.

A - My experience is yes, but to get the best out of them they need a bit of work. I've only had 1 ride out of mine and they're as they came.

The Recon is lighter but I think it was only 75 grams or so. It also has substantially more tyre clearance. Bags of room for a 29x2.4 Trail King and mudguard. I wouldn't feel comfortable running that tyre on the Aions.

However the Aions have a lot of adjustment for compression and rebound whereas the compression and rebound adjustment is limited on the Recon.

Having ridden both I think the Aions do ride nicer, they track better over rough ground and offer more support when braking. They feel more composed but I can't say whether it's the damper or beefier stanchions that help. I'd happily ride either though.

B - You can adjust the travel. There are videos on YouTube and the Suntour website. They use plastic spacers that clip in to place to reduce travel.

Regarding getting the most out of them, from what I've read they ship with a firm negative spring, which isn't great for lighter riders. The soft spring is recommended for lighter riders and is supposed to make the fork more responsive. It can be changed when reducing travel as it's all the same assembly that's designed to be tweaked to suit the rider. I'll look into this for my forks as I'm no heavyweight.

Hmm... to be fair, my OH is pretty light (prob 45kg) and the recons on teh 2020 powerfly were tracking really nicely.
I guess the benefit of a light rider on a heavy e bike is that forks actually work as their combined weight is more 'normal'....

I think I'll be sending the suntour back, as I've already dropped a few £££ on the e bike, and no need for better forks at the mo...

DrP

Mine arrived today....
Crown race still on the fork, star nut fitted in the steerer at 210mm.

Still a bargain as they going on the hardtail, which is my winter bike and as such gets ridden in the mud mostly and not hammered at flat out pace. I might be selling this bike anyway, so now it can be sold with a new fork fitted.

the fork has quite a long axle-to-crown for the travel, which is not brilliant. Let's hope they ride well with my substantial bulk.

Finding exact info on these forks is hard because they are not listed on Suntours website; there is Aion E45 but it describes them as 100mm travel only and look quite different. The ones which look closest are 'AION35 EVO Boost' on Suntours global website; it has the most similar specs from what I could tell and looks the same except for the name and stickers on it. Could this have been some demo version of the fork intended for E-bikes?

Anyway I measured the travel of the fork as it came between full extension and compression (with about a 5mm gap between the lowers and crown, I hope that's the correct way of measuring it) and came out at 140mm as you would expect. I took the forks apart and sure enough there are two 10mm spacers in there, so they can be removed and it can be extended to 160mm travel I believe. Going on the Aion 35 EVO BOOST specs it can also be reduced to 130mm if you add another spacer. Some of their forks can go between 120 and 160 so it may go a bit further who knows.

So yeah, I think these can be extended to 160mm travel which for £100 (I paid £150) is insane. I think the main drawbacks are, its a tad heavy since its intended for E-bikes and doesn't have a lockout and the fact that many of them were demo forks pre-cut.

Meanwhile I was planning a new full suspension bike build. Went for a second hand frame on Pinkbike and I have ended up buying a 160mm travel enduro frame since they are not much more than trail frames which are harder to come by since they are popular I guess. I was going to buy 160mm 26'' Pike forks from the same guy until I thought about adjustment of these forks.

Going from a 80mm travel XC hardtail to a full 160mm front and back is a pretty big jump but hey when life gives you lemons. The build will probably end up around the £1000 mark although I will scavenge some parts from the XC. The seller has a video of him going down Mt Snowdon on it and the frame has the scars to show it but there are no cracks thankfully.

It's a 2014 Banshee Rune frame with interchangable rear dropouts (for 26'' and 27.5'' wheels) and 3 position flip chips so I can adjust the headtube angle between 65-66 degrees. Basically I could probably run a 650B with 3'' tyre on the front and a 26'' on the back and the geometry would largely be the same XD.

I've fitted mine today and was just going to have a look at setting them up, pressures etc. So will check out the manual for those EVOs to find correct pressures. Anyone have any tips as to where to start with the other settings?

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There was a QR code on the back of one of the fork legs on my forks, which I think suggested the forks were AION35 Boost RC PCS 150LC 27.5+. The image on that page has a different compression dial to my forks though, the image for the EVO Boost looks like a closer match.

I did let all the air out the forks to check tyre clearance as per the manual recommendations, and the o-ring suggests mine are set at 140mm travel.

Mine came with a generic Suntour manual with a basic air pressure chart, but no other information relating to fork settings. The latest Singletrack podcast has a feature where Andi mentions that he's testing the Suntour Durolux fork and he mentions that there's no information regarding fork setup so I get the impression Suntour are lacking in this area across their product range.

I'm only 55kg, which the manual suggests running 50-60 psi. I'm currently running 60 psi according to my shock pump with 4 clicks of compression dampening and 6 clicks of rebound. I've only done one 20 mile ride on them so far so not sure if these settings are what I'll stick with, but they're a good starting point for me.

Thanks, looking at the Suntour website they give a suggested pressure table and then a set up guide for sag. There didn't seem to be anything regarding damping settings so I guess I'll have to play around to see what works.
Mine came with nothing other than fork and axle in a plain box.