as the tittle says,which do people prefer. ive always use fox coil forks on all bike but all manufacturers seem to be moving away from coil, i don’t,i think fox even do a 140mm coil fork as of this year.i was just wondering if people think air forks can match coil forks it terms of performance?

Had both – always been happier with coil. Using air as a spring is the Devil’s work…

Rachel

air but I am an xc whippet and the springs are all too heavy to work for lightweight me. Better adjustability and control. Friends [ who have both] say coil are plusher/more uniform.

Air springs are getting better.

Lots of people told me that coil was better than air… When I converted to coil I was expecting this famous difference in performance and suppleness, but I can’t feel any.

On the other hand, the coil’s not as likely to explode as the 2-step but it’s a reliability improvement at the expense of a load of extra weight and reduced tunability, and as far as I’m concerned no performance advantage. Still worth it til Rockshox make a 2-step that works or air u-turn Lyrik though.

Same seemed to be true of my air 140mm Revs vs coil Pikes, though all the pikes I’ve used have been older so possibly a bit past their best.

I’ve swapped back & forth between the two but rarely can tell much difference.

the problem with Pikes isn’t the spring it’s the poor damping

True that. Though the Revs I was comparing with were motion control too so a fair comparison I reckon.

Gary, did you ever try my Boxxer WCs before I ‘upgraded’ them to Teams? They were horrific, seemed to sit 2/3rds of their way into the travel all the time. Trying to counter with more compression ended up with them spiking instead – awesome

not properly.. any fork you have sits at least 2/3ds into their travel with me on it. 8)

I have just bought myself some air sprung forks 😯

You riding anywhere tomorrow?

Should be. Might be tweed valley bound so i’ll give you a shout.

I’ve got air sprung rebas, which seem fine. The Boxxers on the other hand….. 😯

er, which fork have you bought?

20mm axle reba (gonna try and stick a pike spring in it and lower it to 95mm) been swithering over getting an XC bike (hardtail) for ages as the STP is overkill for round here but decided to just switch to a lighter fork and back wheel (Flow/ProII) instead.

just got my car back from the garage so should be up for riding tomorrow.. you riding DH or trail centre mincing? Haven’t ridden my Sunday since September.

more likely some form of XC(Trailcentre) mince – Kt’s choice on a sunday 😉 Rode the Commencal for the first time in about 6months last saturday too

er back on topic. Stu’s got a 20mm Reba too, in 120mm form though. Cant see why you wouldn’t be able to convert it to coil. Might need a new spring rod though

first impressions of my new rockshox revelation rl 140mm 20mm air forks after 3 rides is that they are not as supple as my fox 32 coil forks.ive tried different pressures on each ride but ive noticed less traction and ive had sore wrist by the end of each ride.
ive read about the revs feeling more plush after beding in.as anyone else experinced this?

Mr bump, I think most forks are a bit tight in the seals out the box. I’ve just got my first set of air forks for a while and notice the lack of small bump compliance and slight but repetitive jarring as the fork resist moving for a split second. I’m running float FITs. I think its just one of those things you adjust to, run your front tyre a few psi softer to compensate for the grip maybe?

yes i could lower front tyre pressure for a while but i don’t want to leave it the way.the reason i got the air forks is because they are lighter to make the bike quicker ,so less tyre psi will canel that out.
also i have wrist and elbow injuries which are now being agravated.
how long do the seals take to loosen? if the revs don’t loosen up i’ll be sticking my old fox vans back on.