Hi all
I’m thinking of changing forks from 160mm 36 Van RC2’s to some 170mm RS Lyrik RC2DH as I’d like a bit more travel with a bit of weight saving. I mostly ride on the Malvern’s but do regular uplifts at FoD and trail centre days out..

Anyone done similar? Thoughts?

the best thing is you can set them to how you are going to ride/how heavy you are
i doubt you will regret it Some say there is a small drop off in performance but i am so light the forks barely moved me for me tbh

I dont think you can beat the performance of a good coil fork.

I recently went the other way from an air fox 36 to a coil sprung marzocchi 55rc3 ti. The performance of the 55 blows the air fox 36 away. I certainly wouldnt go back to my old fork.

Having said that, not all forks are equal, so maybe im carrying around a load of weight when I dont have to, dunno, im happy enough though.

I dont think you can beat the performance of a good coil fork.

No but I can get performance I am happy with without all the hefty weight, life is a compromise.

Yeah, then no, then very no… let me explain.

I went from a coil Fox Vanilla to a Dual Air Rockshox Rev, the Rev was either one extreme or the other. Then I went to a Coil Rockshox Lyrik which was ace but I never fully got on with the MiCo Damper. It’s good but you needed to set it for whatever you were going to attack next. Now i’m on a Marzocchi 66 Air and it’s utterly brilliant at everything, with the exception of getting the front wheel out which now requires 5 bolts instead of a QR/Maxel. I ride it in the lakes with the exact same settings as I had in les arcs. I swear I could put some random settings into it and it’d still be the best fork ever.

I think the damper matters more than the spring type.

Not so much regretted it but I have an assortment of coil and air forks and I prefer the coil forks any day

The air forks (Revs) are good but I think they try too hard to emulate the characteristics of a coil fork. Like a sophisticated diesel engine that tries really hard to be a petrol engine, sometimes in some situations it doesn’t quite work. Setup is a faff as well

I’ve never been able to tell the difference between air versus coil springs, but the damping quality is something I’ve felt (as referenced above). The air chambers in forks is a lot bigger than on rear dampers so the ramp up effect is far less pronounced, as is the effect of heat on the damping oil. The consequence is that you can get pretty close to parity in the springs performance in a fork.

Put it this way, for a long time and maybe still the case, World Cup DH races were being won on Boxxer World Cups, which were mostly air sprung.

I dont think you can beat the performance of a good coil fork.

There no bloody good when you weigh 55KG. 🙂

I converted my lyrics from coil to solo air. Not quite as plush but still pretty good, and saved a stack of weight.

I think the damper matters more than the spring type.

wise words.

The air chambers in forks is a lot bigger than on rear dampers so the ramp up effect is far less pronounced

Which can be a problem in itself, many air forks have a non-existent mid-stroke, something I really hate!

For those that tried and didn’t like air Revs, a quickly coil spring conversion makes a hell of a difference.

I didn’t like the old revs but coil might only solve one of the issues, the flexi as hell part was fixed by getting something else.

There are plenty of good forks out there and plenty of bad ones, the presence of a coil spring isn’t the difference.

I go back and forth, coil on 2 bikes, air on 2. IMO the difference is much smaller than most people think (I was actually pretty disappoined when I converted my air lyriks to coil)

I prefer air just for ease of setup really. I should fit a standard rockshox spring but they never feel right to me, always feel a little bit too soft but I like my suspension set up a bit harder than normal I think. A firm spring is a bit too much. My air Pikes were some of the best feeling forks I’ve owned, though the old (2001 or something) Boxxer World Cups are definitely the nicest feeling and somehow the coil fit my weight perfectly, maybe the older ones were a bit firmer.

Ti coils limit the wait gain though Shirley?

I personally dont notice the difference between a GOOD set of air forks and coil.

Low end rockshox and fox air springs do suffer that lack of mid stroke support and are divey, run a new set of pikes or revs, problem does not exist.

I swapped from coil to air on my lyriks, i was happy with the swap since i run my forks hard, thus getting no dive, if you were setting them up 25%+ sag, they are still a bit divey.

Thanks for all the replies fellas. I reckon I’ll be giving either the Lyriks a or 55’s a go..

My new Pikes feel like coil. That’s coming after years of running vans

I’ve always preferred coil to air, but my Deville’s are convincing me that a good air fork can be very good. They lack the outright plushness of the 36 Van RC2’s they replaced bit have better mid stroke support and don’t bottom out as harshly.

Some of the worst air forks I tried were 36 Talas. They were really sticky and not interested in moving for much at all.

Good compression damping is a must with air forks. Sensitive to small bumps, like a coil, but wont bottom out when hitting bigger stuff. Rebound only just doesnt cut it for air forks IME.

Hard to argue with the reliability of coil over air – especially where Fox and stanchion wear is involved

Small sacrifice in weight doesn’t make much difference to me….

But I would like to know what is the best option In case I change my mind 🙂

I shall bookmark this thread