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hi,
i see there are 2 options for my specialized camber comp - having killed my rebas in less than 6 months..... i was looking at the x fusion option. I mostly ride XC (just rode the fantastic ruthin night ride and 50KM) but my mates make me do bike park wales and we are heading for festiniog in 3 weeks.
budget constraints are the driving force..... usual story i'm afraid. just bought hope hope as the wheels died in same time frame, the wife would be livid if i spanked a fat wedge on fox!!!
thanks folks.
andy
What is the question?
I love my slides, very efficient fork, I just don't notice it, it sits on the front of the bike and gets the job done, a bargain at 300 from freeborn.
@bikenell
in essence, which fork is best suited to mostly XC with an occasional beasting on downhill trail centres.
cheers.
Sounds like you'd be better off with the Trace with 34mm stanchions if you're riding things like BPW.
Great forks, run mine reduced to 120mm, ride mainly in the peaks.
I have had slides on my solaris and now have traces. The traces are much stiffer and more direct.
I have had slides on my solaris and now have traces. The traces are much stiffer and more direct.
Traces were out of my budget but liking my slides so far ( on a Giant Anthem). They seem stiffer than the Rebas they replaced.
As unklehomered said, set up right, you won't notice the Slides are there, which is surely the sign of a good fork?
thanks for the comments - i think slides, the trace would be nice, but the "not noticing they are there" sounds ideal and within budget!
are they easy to set up? any tricks of the trade i might benefit from?
thanks again folks.
Lockout, rebound and one air valve. Piece of p155!
What was wrong with the Rebas? Can't you warranty them (presuming you are the original owner)?
I bought the bike from primera in bournmouth and they were terrible - sorted nothing on the first service and things went downhill from there. i then asked RIDE in bournmouth to help and they were great, sorted as much as they could (i paid - as it was new BB, HS, other consumables) but not a specialised dealer for warranty on wheels, forks etc.
rebas sent off, 3 weeks later got the news, £275.00 bill to fix as they wouldnt warrenty them.
so basically specialized were useless, Primera were useless and rockshox were useless. at the time the bike was 4 months old with under 500 miles on it!
Just trying to get it going to enjoy the trails again.... but on a really small budget -
To be honest I'm having a similar experience with mine after replacing the stock Recons on my 26er Camber with a set of 2013 Rebas.
The forks have never been plush like the old dual air rebas. 6 months in and the whole fork creaks and cracks like its going to fall apart. Need to get them back for warranty as well but if you say that didn't sort yours then I might look elsewhere too.
SRAM / Avid / Rockshox stuff is all a bit duff in my opinion. I wish Shimano made forks.
I really like the Slide forks. They're a solid bit of fit and forget kit, plenty stiff and function without complaint on anything I've thrown at it including DH runs at Forest of Dean, rock strewn singletrack of Sierra Nevada and the small stutter bumps and roots of my local trails. Also, the lock out is very good. A friend of mine has the Trace forks on the same frame and really rates them to but the hefty bump in price put me off.
18 month 140mm trace dlr mini review
good:
stiff
cheaper than fox
bad:
developed a tiny bit of a clunk when lifting the front wheel
can't seem to get them soft on the small bumps without giving too much on the big bumps (this is of course the age old problem) so usually go harder rather than softer
Overall:
fairly satisfied, they are a decent fork, and imo far nicer for rougher riding than revelations or fox 32
But probably would have bought pikes if they were available at the time (although I have no experience of them)
good luck - hope you have a better time than i did - get them off sooner rather than later! i'm going to go slide i think.....
thanks mate, after reading that i'm certainly off the boil with the trace - if the review was a bit more "worth the divorce" then... mmmmmm...
@egb - sounds like i'm making the right choice
thanks for the 'front line info' at least i feel i'm making a well informed choice now.... now whats my paypal password.... daren't ask the wife!!!!!
Been running a Slide on one of my bikes for about 8 months now. Not ridden it more than about 15 times probably as I've got 2 MTB's and ride road more often these days, but have been thoroughly impressed with it. It's a very simple fork, but IMO it's performance punches above it's price tag. Mine is a 2013 model with the Syntace X15 axle.
My GF has a 2014 version on her bike with their own QR axle. IMO this is a big step backwards. It tries to emulate a Rockshox Maxle but does a very poor job of it. Also, for whatever reason, her forks suffers from a much stickier initial action than mine does, which might be down to my extra 2.5 stone, or the fact I'm quite a lot harder on them than she is hers, but by the same token she rides her bike a lot more than I've ridden this bike (she only has one and 98% of the time we ride together), and both have been subject to the same cleaning/maintenance ritual and sprayed with Juice Lubes Fork Juice after every cleaning.
Also have heard that the Trace suffers from poor small bump sensitivity too. Now IMO this is far less of a worry than a fork blowing through it's travel too quickly, or having poor damping control, but it's the reason I haven't yet pressed go on a new fork for my HT to replace my older Revelations... My Dual Air revs give up their travel too readily in my view, but my god they're supple!
It tries to emulate a Rockshox Maxle but does a very poor job of it.
In what way? I much prefer their newer axle compared to the older Syntace one.
In what way? I much prefer their newer axle compared to the older Syntace one.
We'll have to agree to disagree then sadly... The new lever is never secure unless you lean on it so hard, it's difficult to then release to get the wheel out. My GF can't tighten it up enough so that the wheel doesn't wobble in her fork, but when I tighten it up hard enough, of course she then can't release it!
The new axle lever also hits the fork lower on every revolution as you're undoing it (exactly as described in Bikeradar review of the Trace) which winds me up! Basically, the fork is great, but the newer axle is a poor piece of design work, and though simpler, the old Syntace axle is much more effective IMO.
Each to their own I guess. I never take much notice of magazine reviews though. Especially whatmtb. I mean, take this months review of the Solaris. Completely contradictory to the review that Steve Worland did for the mag only 18 months or so ago.
Anyway, I will say that the axle does contact the lower leg but you can screw it in by hand with the lever pointing out and then just finish it off and snap the lever shut. Great forks though.
Any update on this?
Sorry for being late to the party but I was away last week and internet free! 😀
I've got the Slides on my Solaris. The only downside I've found is that mine 'stick' when left (overnight for eg) and take a few hard pushes to get them moving again. Although I'm told this is normal though.
I've run mine at slightly lower pressure than the fork leg sticker suggests for my height and found them very smooth. In fact, today I didn't notice them at all which is a good sign in my book.
Also, slightly OT but at @ bikeneil - I'm playing catch up here, so what did Whatmtb say about my bike? Sorry, the Solaris?
I've got Slides. They're ace for the money. As above I run them at a lower pressure than recommended. Great fork!
I've been using Trace on my Yelli basically went or them after using the Slant on another bike, the Trace have performed faultlessly for the last 10 months and have now probably done about 2000k in the FOD and Wye Valley. Mate bought some for his PYGA and also happy with them, for the money they outperform Fox all day long.
How do they ride? There stiff, don't dive, small bump could be better, point them downhill and it's never the fork for a limiting factor..... Excellent value.
Liking my Slides but the X-Fusion recommended pressures are way too high.
The suntour auron forks look good. Fox 34& 32 look quite a bargain on ebay at the moment also
I'm also considering some of these. Ideally 120 travel to replace my fox 120 32s. They're ok most of the time but I could be spending more time in exmoor next year, where the trails are steep and rocky. The fox's are quite flexy on this type of trail so something stiffer would be good. Pikes with reduced travel also an option but possibly a bit overkill.
Re the LockX lever, the stiffness can be varied. There is a little Allen bolt on the rod the lever attaches to. On the other end of that is a metal cone, which moves up when you close the lever to push the four wee plastic wedges out of the axle against the non threaded side fork hole. Mine went very loose somehow (not while riding, while fettling) and I broke the plastic bit trying to fix it. New axle was £25 🙁 . But if you're a bit more gentle than me you can probably loosen it a little to make it easier to do up.