I think I'll have bought a steel hard tail by the spring

In the MBR steel hard tail review last year they said that of the 4 bikes they tested (altititide, P7, 456 , duster) they liked the p7 because of the Vanila fork. They said the forks on the other bikes (recon, reba, revelation) were comfy but that the vanilla was miles ahead on confidence inspiring "support" entering berms and under braking. Presumably this relates to compression damping. I think singletrack some times refers to Fox forx being less divey

So have you experinced this? Is it real effect worth paying more for? Does the float do it as well as the vanilla….

You can easily tune out dive on motion control damped rockshox.

The blue dial is effectively lsc adjustment, and the floodgate allows you to tune the point at which the lsc opens up into the hsc.

I run mine at 80 percent closed blue dial, and with a very light floodgate setting. It doesn't dive or bob but is still fully active over bumps.

MBR reviews talk complete tosh most of the time to be honest. I wouldn't take anything they say that seriously!

retro83 or anyone else

So it doesn't have to be fox. But for what you described do I need an adjustable flood gate (atleast a reba or rev0, or will this work on a fixed flood gate (recon)

Mbr would be referring to low speed compression for holding the front up in berms and under braking. The float will have the same damper cartridge so the same compression and rebound characteristics but not the spring characteristics as it's an air spring (obviously sorry!?)
Other fork makes are available (!) and have a range of damping option to tune the low speed compression as described by the members above.
Personally I ride fox vanillas but have found others like the Rebas, Revs e.t.c ok too, All maintenance, reliability issue aside.

As with any review they are subjective and rely on the testers interpretation of what the fork is doing, there are plenty of very quick racers out there who haven't got a clue on set up their just naturally talented

Yes, the adjustable floodgate and compression is key to them performing at their best imho.

My Reba has got the remote lockout & a floodgate adjuster (little gold twiddly thing).

I was under the impression that the floodgate on mine only affects how locked out the fork is; set it at one extreme & it barely moves, set it to the other and there's a good couple of inches of travel. Or have I got that totally wrong?
The blue compression dial is either open or shut (as dictated by the remote), although there is a remote with a dial as well that perhaps performs as described above so you can alter compression damping (on remote equipped forks).

MBR always go on about the excellent small bump sensitivity of Fox forks, & I think to try & achieve the same feel with RS, they run them softer so they react to small bumps better.
This means they dive a lot more and seems to be the wrong way to go about setting the forks up. If the RS forks are genuinely do have worse small bump sensitivity, they shouldn't try to improve that, but compromise other areas of the forks performance.

I have found that my Fox F100s dive a lot more than my REBAs. My vote would be dual air rock shox with floodgate…but beware they will get less kudos in the carpark than Fox.

the lockout is on or off on your rebas and the floodgate controls the force/size of the bump it takes for your forks to become active. With the lockout open it's the internal valving that determines how the fork behaves, that and your spring rate/air pressure.

The blue compression dial is either open or shut (as dictated by the remote

If the fork isn't fitted with a remote lock-out, the compression adjuster can be positioned where you like- it's not just on/off. Makes a noticeable difference to the feel of the fork. I leave mine about half-way most of the time, and fully open on steep downs.

In my experience, with simple coil forks such as the Vanillas, you just fit and forget. There's no adjustment except compression (for setting sag) and rebound. Job done. With air forks, there seems to be a multitude of faff and because you CAN faff so much, you do, and to be honest you never just forget about it and get on with riding.

And Fox get car park kudos because they are very good forks, simple.

yep both true without remote is it a bit more adjustable and as he was asking about a fork with the remote used that as the example. However it's preload that adjusts the initial spring compression/rate to set your sag (sorry pedant!)

Don't give kudos a thought, ride what you like and suits you sir!

kit : you don't set sag with LSC, you set sag with preload.
fox damping is very good. excellent in fact.
my only criticism with Fox is the limited range of adjustability provided out the box, but they are sublime performers ime.

Kit – Member
In my experience, with simple coil forks such as the Vanillas, you just fit and forget. There's no adjustment except compression (for setting sag) and rebound. Job done. With air forks, there seems to be a multitude of faff and because you CAN faff so much, you do, and to be honest you never just forget about it and get on with riding.

And Fox get car park kudos because they are very good forks, simple.
Kit, thats not correct at all. Vanilla and Float forks are pretty much indentical, APART from the springing medium, they can both share the same damping setup, which can be basic (R = rebound only) through to complicated (RLC = rebound, low speed compression, lockout which threashold adjustment). The springing medium is completely independant in terms of damping set up.

nevermind all that.
P7 with pikes 😛

Car park kudos, couldn't give a monkeys…

Less taking apart to clean lowers good

I didn't imagine that I'd have a handle bar remote for anything

Yes I fancy the vanillas as simple but. On the P7s the option is for floats at 230 extra over basic. If you want vanilla then you have to go for the hope hub upgrade and bolt through axle, which is virtual the price of the pro. I'm not ruling the pro out just trying to work out what I'm paying for…

Obviuosly the Altitude is Rock Shox onle but with Rebas on the 20 model

thanks all. Any other opnions welcome

I hope to organise some test rides soon

Kit, thats not correct at all.

Yes, apologies. I forgot that my F120's are air pressure and rebound adjustable only 😳

I still stand by what I said though – when you can so easily fiddle with air pressures, you do, whereas having to change the spring is not practical on the trail or indeed for most people at home, so you just accept what you've got and ride accordingly. No one ever complains about the performance of coil forks, whereas there's always someone who can't get sag/compression/whatever set up properly on air forks to the detriment of their enjoyment.