You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
The pike upgrade has been a revelation. However I'm now eyeing up monarch plus debonair shocks to replace the standard monarch. Waste of money or will it be the perfect companion?
The debonair is a good upgrade, depending on frame. It increases small bump sensitivity and it much plusher. High volume needs tuning tto get the best out of it, either DIY or with the RS reducing bands.
Plus is only really helpful on long downhills (Alsp etc) as it just gives more oil volume for better control and less fade.
Nice shock, I went from a 2012 Monarch to 2015 Debonair plus and it feels far better with my RCT3 Pikes.
Id have sent them back and demanded they send the correct fork 😆The pike upgrade has been a revelation
There are also some pretty vocal reviews online (Dirt and Pinkbike are two I know of) where the debonair concept has been criticised as difficult to set up, easy to bottom out etc etc....my Trance ran a Monarch Debonair, it was fine, didn't really notice any difference over the last FS I owned which had a Fox RP23....anyway I changed the shock to an X-Fusion item to match the forks (OCD is a terrible affliction!) and haven't noticed any difference in performance again....maybe I'm just not 'sensitive' enough?....maybe most shocks are good enough now that what you choose depends on what badge you want visible on your bike?....cynical view perhaps.
I'd research the forums for the bike you own and the suspension type it runs and see what other owners are reporting, I know some suspension designs like a shock to behave in a certain way and if the Debonair version doesn't allow that then it'll just be throwing good money after bad.
The fork upgrade was a "goodwill upgrade" gesture from crc after my revelations 😉 went into creaky mode. They only cost 120 quid so it was a no brainer.
I don't care what it looks like or having the latest kit to be fair as my last full suss would testify as it was known locally as the "rat bike". It's all bolted on to a nukeproof tr275.
Are you unhappy with the current shock in any way? If so how?
Are you riding very long descents?
The pike upgrade has been a revelation
Id have sent them back and demanded they send the correct fork
😀
The current shock sometimes feels a bit pogoey if that makes sense. Local loops are very rocky in parts with some of that being smallish, sometimes loose stuff.
There are also some pretty vocal reviews online (Dirt and Pinkbike are two I know of) where the debonair concept has been criticised as difficult to set up, easy to bottom out etc etc....
How on earth did they come to that conclusion? All you need to do to tune it is slide the sleeve down and put some bands around the can. No taking the shock fully off and inserting volume reducers like on fox.
If you've got your rebound set correctly and the shock doesn't need a service then it sounds like an upgrade could be a good idea.
I just picked up a lightly used monarch debonair for just over 100£. The non-plus version.
It feels very composed on fast rocky trails.
Ok, let's all be honest. Who read that as the upgrade was from Pikes to Revelations?!? I certainly did!