• This topic has 35 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by LoCo.
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  • Fox 34s – at last I am very happy with them!
  • hughjayteens
    Free Member

    Got a new bike earlier this year which came with 150mm 2014 Talas 34 CTDKs. They were a big improvement over the 2013 models with none of the Talas stickiness of old and I was generally happy with them (preferred Pikes once I tried them but not enough to justify the hassle and cost of changing). However, I did have an issue when in Portugal on a week’s uplift holiday whereby they jammed down to about 100mm (Talas still worked dropping them down to 70mm so it wasn’t that). Took them to the local service centre and the guy told me it was an o-ring of some sort blowing out internally (he was a WC DH racer and knew his stuff) and he fixed them up and I was back on my way a few hours later.

    All was then fine until I was at Aston Hill recently and bottomed them out heavily again on the drop at the end of the black run and they jammed once again.

    Rather annoyed it had happened again, I took them into my LBS and asked for some advice. Cut a long story short, it was agreed that they’d go to Mojo and have the Talas part replaced by a 2015 Float version and have the travel increased to 160mm. Mojo also did a special fettle of some sort to the damper (the parts list included something from a 34 29er fork and also something from a 36 I think?) all for the rather princely sum of £200.

    Picked the bike up a couple of weeks back and to say I am very happy is an understatement! They are so much plusher over the small stuff, but stay say nice and high in their travel and really do have a bottomless feel now. I rode Swinley a couple of weeks ago and smashed loads of Strava PBs on the downhill sections as it just felt so confidence inspiring. On the Carnaga DH/Blue 14 section I totally overdid one of the rollers in the first section and nose dived quite heavily, but the forks just swallowed it up and I didn’t bat an eyelid (ended up in 8th place overall on Strava which was up about 300 places on last time!).

    In short, the forks now perform as I feel they should. Should I have had to spend £200 on making a £1000 fork perform properly? Arguably not, but they came on my bike and it was £200 well spent.

    There are a lot of unloved 34s out there but before people give up on them and fit Pike’s I’d seriously suggest sending them off to Mojo and letting them work their magic (I think the new Float bits added £60 or so to the cost which wouldn’t be needed if you already had Floats I assume).

    singlesteed
    Free Member

    I’m wanting a set of Mattoc pros as they seem to have a great bottom out feature. Plus theyll have no stiction whatsoever as theyre Manitou and bonus is they are £400 cheaper than a set of 36s

    Theyre looking rather appealing but my X Fusion Velvs will suffice for a while longer as am satisfied with their progressive feel.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Glad to hear you are happy, the 2013 range didn’t help Fox and most people who believe everything on the internet didn’t notice the changes they made from then. I went the avalanche route, probably the same cost but sold on my damper to someone who just had the basic one who is really happy with it.

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    JCL
    Free Member

    Wait till the crown starts creaking like a barn door.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    Glad to hear you got it sorted. Whichever chassis I choose for my next fork, the choice will be based on what’s compatible with avy dampers. The two I’m running at the moment are fantastic.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    I’m still not convinced that its worth the hassle over the pike, of riding/racing mates 3 have pikes 1 has 34s. 3 of us just ride the other one keeps throwing cash at his 34s

    Obviously new you’d be mad to pay for 34s over German priced pikes or even 36s if you are desperate to spend a grand
    But even on a new bike I’d pass over one specced with 34s in favour of 1 with pikes.
    Spending 200 quid on a new fork is very unreasonable imho

    sharkattack
    Full Member

    …and smashed loads of Strava PBs

    That’s the point where I stopped caring.

    chestrockwell
    Full Member

    I have always been a Fox fan and would have been happy to pay more for them but having tried 34’s back to back with Pikes recently I can see no reason why anyone would pay more for the 34’s.

    Even second hand 34’s come in at nearly Pike money so spending an extra £200 would make the second hand ones more expensive!

    Fair play if they came on your bike and until I did the demo I’d have been happy with a Fox specced bike but I won’t be buying a bike with Fox any time soon unless they improve.

    tenacious_doug
    Free Member

    My understanding is that the changes Mojo make to upgrade to 2015 spec are only £40 on top of normal service price, so from that perspective it’s pretty good value.
    If you consider you can pick up 34s for as little as £350 at the moment, it’s more tempting to take a punt on them for building up my new bike.

    LoCo
    Free Member

    We’ve done a few 2013 to 2014 conversions (more compression in trail setting) 2015 aren’t available quite yet. As well as adjusting air volumes which gets them working better.

    Although if you were buying new the 36 Float RC2 2015 is the way to go as stiffer, lighter, can adjust air volumes with spacer and has an easy internal travel adjust along wth the damping being ace.
    They are £909 RRP though.

    hughjayteens
    Free Member

    tenacious_doug – Member
    My understanding is that the changes Mojo make to upgrade to 2015 spec are only £40 on top of normal service price, so from that perspective it’s pretty good value.
    If you consider you can pick up 34s for as little as £350 at the moment, it’s more tempting to take a punt on them for building up my new bike.

    That sounds about right. I think a service was circa £100, the change to a float cartridge was £60 and then the custom tweaks were £40.

    Either way, the forks and bike are transformed and I have stopped checking out the price of Pike’s and turned my attention to getting another bike!

    daver27
    Free Member

    simpler route would have been get them fixed under warranty, flog them and buy pikes.

    As mentioned higher up, wait till the crown goes… CREAAAAKK!

    hughjayteens
    Free Member

    daver27 – Member
    simpler route would have been get them fixed under warranty, flog them and buy pikes.

    That was considered, but given the lack of love for them on the internet and the fact that you can buy new ones for £399 from CRC at present meant that it wouldn’t have been a cheaper option and being a tart, I love the look of the kashima forks! No creaking yet and they’ve taken a hammering – when does that normally start!?

    daver27
    Free Member

    you might be lucky and never have a creak, both sets i have had developed a creak between 2 and 6 months old and required new crowns. conversely to internet wisdom, my 2013 Floats performed much better than my 2014 floats.
    I had the 2014 ones repaired with a new crown and sold them (which did take a while) bought Pikes and could not believe the difference in performance, night and day better.

    RickDraper
    Free Member

    Wait till the crown starts creaking like a barn door.

    Like Pikes do as well….

    hughjayteens
    Free Member

    11 months old now and not a creak in sight/earshot so all seems to be well on that front at least!

    oscillatewildly
    Free Member

    haha was just going to add, ive had 2 sets of pikes creak and be replaced, so nice try on the pikes are amazing and fault free hard sell

    FWIW ive got 2014 float 34’s coming from pikes, and honestly the damping is better on the pikes, as in its plusher and feels smoother, but thats not to say the floats damping isnt good because it simply is, the FIT cartridge is a good damper/feel, its just not quite as good as the pikes imo

    however stiffness wise not noticeable in the slightest from 34’s to pikes (massive differnce from 32 to 34/pikes mind)

    mine have now settle in and running very nicely indeed, they have taken a while to bed in but they feel extremely smooth now without bottoming out going through the travel as easily as the pikes

    no creaks yet (fingers crossed), that area of the crown on the fox’s feels a hell of a lot more sturdy/better made than the pikes do when you put them side by side

    all in all id take either now ive used in anger but got fed up of the pikes failing (not just creaking but also blown damper unit which was buggered), and also

    fox = mojo 1-3 day turnaround

    pikes = sram 1 month turnaround

    ill be getting the new 36’s next time

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    nearly 18 months into 34’s and no creaks so must be one of those things that happens to all forks.

    LoCo
    Free Member

    must be one of those things that happens to all forks.

    True have seen virtually everything creak on a model or two.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    LoCo – Member

    must be one of those things that happens to all forks.

    True have seen virtually everything creak on a model or two.[/quote]
    ah crap da interwebz say all forks creak what do I do now 😉

    hora
    Free Member

    No forks are immune- all manufacturers have their problems. Sort of O/T: Funnily Manitou had a few and never really recovered did they? I’m sure going back 10yrs Manitou Black, Dorado, and Minute had a big slice. Where are they now?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I’m sure going back 10yrs Manitou Black, Dorado, and Minute had a big slice. Where are they now?

    On the way back by the feel of the new marvels, the thru axle takes a little getting used to but the feel of the fork is great. Nice simple adjustments and a good character really. I’m amazed to admit I like it a lot.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    daver27 – Member

    simpler route would have been get them fixed under warranty, flog them and buy pikes.

    Not everyone’s instantly happy with Pikes either. If it wasn’t for the weight and the fact I spent £500 on the bloomin things I’d have refitted my lyriks by now, but still trying to make them work for me. I think I’m just too damn svelte.

    chestrockwell
    Full Member

    No forks are immune- all manufacturers have their problems. Sort of O/T: Funnily Manitou had a few and never really recovered did they? I’m sure going back 10yrs Manitou Black, Dorado, and Minute had a big slice. Where are they now?

    Seemed to me that Fox simply became the default choice and the forks everyone wanted. Guess they had a purple patch performance wise (2006-8ish?) at the right time. Every other brand simply got blown out of the water with the majority of bikes at a price point coming with Fox.

    It took Sram chucking loads of money at RS for development and advertising (+ mega discounts) for it to change. IMO by this point Fox had become complacent and greedy so when RS produced the Pikes….. Booooom. Fox are just coming back now with the 36’s but the price is simply far too much when you look what else you can get for much less. The years of charging far too much are coming back to bite them on the arse as they can’t very well price this years X much lower then last years Y.

    There’s always been good quality forks by other people out there but the mags and therefore the public ignored them, and still do. Plenty of people very happy with various Manitou, Marzocchi, DT Swiss (me included, much better then the Fox or RS of the time), etc but they never get a foothold.

    rickon
    Free Member

    I got my 2014 Fox 34 TA fork fitted with the PUSH Elite damper and the volume adjust air cap. Its totally transformed the fork, the spring curve is like a pike, there’s huge amounts of low and high speed compression adjustment and they feel really smooth.

    Before the best I could set the fork up meant I didn’t use the last 20mm of travel or they blew through their travel too quickly.

    tenacious_doug
    Free Member

    I got my 2014 Fox 34 TA fork fitted with the PUSH Elite damper and the volume adjust air cap. Its totally transformed the fork, the spring curve is like a pike, there’s huge amounts of low and high speed compression adjustment and they feel really smooth.

    Good shout on the Push upgrade too. Like I mentioned above, I’ve seen 34’s as low as £350, so even if you just look at that as a purchase of a chassis, then a Push or Mojo upgrade gets you a set of forks custom tuned for you at the same price as off the shelf Pikes.

    chestrockwell
    Full Member

    Again, I can see why you’d do that to forks that came on a bike but can’t see why you’d buy some forks then send them away again at £x cost just to end up with something that costs roughly what and performs almost as well as forks you could just buy off the shelf.

    Don’t get me wrong, if Fox produced a fork that was as or almost as good as the Pike for a similar price off the shelf I’d have ’em as I’m no particular fan of RS but having to send them away (34’s) or pay twice as much (36’s) just doesn’t work.

    Stevet1
    Free Member

    There’s always been good quality forks by other people out there but the mags and therefore the public ignored them, and still do. Plenty of people very happy with various Manitou, Marzocchi, DT Swiss (me included, much better then the Fox or RS of the time), etc but they never get a foothold.

    As soon as someone buys my Chromag frame in the classifieds I’m off to the LBS to buy some Manitou Mattocs.

    Think I got away with that.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    And even a German warranty on pikes is better than no warranty on s/h forks, what you gonna do when they start creaking !?

    tenacious_doug
    Free Member

    Again, I can see why you’d do that to forks that came on a bike but can’t see why you’d buy some forks then send them away again at £x cost just to end up with something that costs roughly what and performs almost as well as forks you could just buy off the shelf.

    I wouldn’t suggest it at full RRP, like you say, what’s the point. But given the price last years Fox are going for, you could get something that arguably performs better than a set of off the shelf Pikes and is set up for your weight and riding style. Or tolerate the performance for a few months, then get the tweaks done for only a little bit more on top of their first service.

    timidwheeler
    Free Member

    I currently have a 150mm 2013 32 Talas fit on my Canyon. I have been looking at the £350 160 Talas 34 2014 kashmina that are on sale at the moment. Does this sound like a worthwhile upgrade? I can’t afford to spend much more.
    (Sorry for slight hijack)

    rickon
    Free Member

    150mm 32s are incredibly over stretched, will be flexy and will lack direct tracking of a stiffer fork. The damper on the 2013 fork was very poor compared to the 2014 too.

    A 160 at 34 will be stiffer than the 32, and the damper will be better. I’d still convert it to a float, and get the elite damper put in. But as said above, you could roll this into the first service as I did.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Do you use the TALAS? If not, don’t get another one unless it saves a fortune, TALAS isn’t as bad news as it used to be but it still makes for an inferior fork to a Float.

    If the noodlyness of the 32s bothers you then yep a 34 will be quite a bit better. But still comes up short compared to a Pike. TBH it’s just Fox being Fox, they couldn’t make a competitive 32mm long travel fork so they invented the 34 and pretended it was exciting progress rather than an admission of failure. But it still competes more with the Revelation than the Pike.

    Are there still cheap Pike RCs out there? That looked like a brilliant package at the price.

    LoCo
    Free Member

    #cough# RCT3 26″ 😉

    timidwheeler
    Free Member

    Completely unrelated; I noticed a 2015 Pike RCT3 solo air 26″ 150mm 15maxle tapered steerer for £447.00. I understand that this is probably a better fork but I do occasionally use the Talas feature. I was also hoping that an extra 10 mm travel would make me far more gnarcore.
    Also they are £100 more which will mean no christmas presents for my nephew and niece.
    But would they be worth it?

    LoCo
    Free Member

    Drop me a mail and can do something with that 😉

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