Building up an NS surge over the next few months, and I’m currently having a debate with myself on what forks to get…

Price is a big factor, so it’s going to be second hand, and probably a few years old, but I’ve as yet narrowed it down to some Lyrik U-Turns or Revelations U-Turns. (U-Turn so what the travel down for jumping or to keep the front end under control up steep climbs – the HA is slack!!)

Lyriks are the obvious choice – super burly, super stiff, lots of adjustment and good amount of travel on the U-Turns, but those boys are HEAVY!

Revelations – obviously a lot lighter, most likely a bit cheaper giving me an extra £50-80 to spend on other parts, but of course no where near as burly. There’s also the fact that in my head, be it true or not, the Revs are just nowhere near as cool as the Lyriks.

Going to be using them on light DH tracks, bikeparks, messing around on jumps, usual trail centre stuff. Not so much on all-day epics or races, just a fun play-bike. Thoughts on the two forks? Will the revs be enough for that kind of thing? Worth ponying up the extra for the lyriks and just putting up with the extra weight?

Ive been runnung REv’s on my Cotic Soul for 6 months – they are superb. Enough travel stiff and light (ish. Ideal really. I replaced Some Rebas with the Rev’s – and never looked back.

I would definitely not recommend Lyrik 2 Step as they are always **** up. 😕

As another option consider some U-turn Sektors – same chassis as revelations but coil rather than air.

I have 150 revs on my steel 45650b and don’t mince about, they’re great.

From the website (what more could you want)

It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to see the Revelation has a serious split-personality disorder. Thanks to an all-new Dual Position Air spring system with 30mm of sag-to-sag, on-the-fly travel adjustment, one minute the Revelation is an ultra-lightweight, lethal trail fork, the next it’s a long-travel cross country fork. This identity crisis is perfect for riders who can’t decide whether they want to be cranking up lung-burning ascents, or blasting down banger descents. Because either way, our lightest trail fork (or heavy-duty cross country fork) fits the bill.

Revs on mine for years, the old Team/Blackbox 2010 version. Same chassis but slightly different damping to today’s. I like ’em, they’re not amazing but they’re good performers, consistent, it’s blasphemy on here but I prefer the damping to the new Pike. They’ve not been bombproof- they’ve had a new damper and the air spring’s needed rebuilt twice- but then, they are old. Sektor is basically the same but with cheaper damping- very upgradable.

Just about to swap to some 44 RC3 Tis though.

Love my Lyriks, the mission control’s a brilliant damper, very effective and easy to adjust too, the damping’s all very clear and easy to understand/relate to. Mine are coil uturns so weigh a ton, but worth it. I didn’t really like them on the hardtails though, they’re just a bit much, I don’t get into the performance the same as on a big full suss and the weight distribution’s more nose heavy. So they stay in the full suss.

And I think the Sektors were available in 20mm for longer than Revs – might be worth considering.

150mm Rev’s on my Bfe. I ride the balls off it. Never given them a second thought.

Coil lyriks on my stanton slackline. Had fox 150’s. The Lyriks are so much better.

Downhill the front end feels amazing

Does it have to be RS?

I had the 150mm Fox 32’s. The Rev’s are a big improvement. You don’t have to jump all the way up to Lyriks.

And is it just me or do Lyriks look really out of place on a hardatil? They’re fatter than most downtubes.

I’ve got Lyrik on the front of my Shan. It’s not so much the travel, but the stiffness that I like the most. I know that when I stuff the thing into corners that fork will go where I point it. Mine’s an air RC2L so Dual air which is a massive improvement over 2 step, and as NW says up there. it’s super easy to set up and adjust. Just over 2kg

TBH either fork is going to be good 😀

Old skool pike u-turns on my blue pig. Great fork and can be had pretty cheap nowadays.

Got lyriks on my 45650b, had revs previously but wanted bit chunkier. Figured if you’re going to do a burly little bike then weight isn’t much of an issue.

I’d suggest you avoid the 150mm 2010 air uturn revs as they’re getting old enough now that they are a bit problematic. You can convert them to dual position coil though.
Lyrik will be overkill unless you’re going to be dh ing it, and as above avoid 2step at all costs.

I know that when I stuff the thing into corners that fork will go where I point it.

this+1

coil Lyriks are indeed heavy but they are super tough forks, and work well with the MiCo damper.

I’ve had Pikes and Sektors in the past too and the Lyrik is stiffer and better damped than the Pike and the Sektor was just too XC for what I wanted it for. It felt plush sitting still but wasn’t as good as the Pike at speed. This is all on a BFe.

I leave a post unattended for a few hours and this happens!!

With regards to the tube width, it was something I was considering but after getting the frame through it’s definitely not a worry! They’re some big ass tubes! I had some old pikes on my old voodoo wanga and it looked a bit weird, rebas looked much better but don’t think I’ll have that problem with it.

It’s going to be for more dropping off things, jumping and decent sized decents rather than just trail stuff so part of me is still leaning towards the Lyriks… but…. it’d be the coil ones for the U-Turn which puts the weight somewhere near domains (which is a whole other thing to consider if I want to keep the budget down!)

Definitely going to be avoiding the 2-step Lyriks which is a real shame because if they worked… they’d be perfect but not taking that risk half way down a black run!

. Mine are coil uturns so weigh a ton, but worth it. I didn’t really like them on the hardtails though,

Yeah this is kind of my worry… there’s going to be times I’m running it single speed too so that front end is going to weigh a ton compared to the back.

Wondering if I can get some new(ish) revs to try avoid issues with older forks and them needing rebuilds. Probably going to stay away from sectors unless I run out of money and get bored waiting…

Old skool pike u-turns on my blue pig. Great fork and can be had pretty cheap nowadays.

also this…. this is tempting me. I know they’re relatively bombproof, but I kind of want to go the full 160,mm travel which is a shame for the pike U-Turns, unless there’s a version I don’t know about

NickKC

I’ve got Lyrik on the front of my Shan

Any pics of your Shan just to see what it looks like? If it wasn’t for the fact I’d quite like the adjustable travel, I’d lean towards just getting air lyrics to shave off a few bags of sugar!

.

I had marzocchi 44 rc3ti forks on my ns surge. They were ace.

I miss that bike.

They can look good, especially on a fat tubed bike

[url=https://flic.kr/p/aUWfD6]It was all yellow[/url] by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

I’ve got the 2010 Rev U Turn Air’s on both my Pitch and my hardtail.
They’ve been as reliable as any other fork I’ve owned.
TBH I rarely use the U-turn function any more, great forks though.
Can be found cheap as they are out of date wheel size 🙂

Loving the yellow! Yeah it’s a pretty fat tubed frame, the black surge always looked a bit skinner I thought. It might just be a case of what comes up when. Not ruled out the revs still. Good thing is at least the hubs are hope so can take whatever axle

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/11043192_10152926380802771_3843440627494382106_n.jpg?oh=9dba96eba0fb80650e73d75c56d8905b&oe=5578B100&__gda__=1436974061_d4d71f59b931968f36f192bcacf607ff

no 😆

If you’re just using it for ‘razzing’ lyriks are probably the better bet then.

Uturn coil with mission control best option, only issue is finding springs if you need a higher or lower rate as they’re starting to get a bit rare as Rockshox de-listed them a while ago. Also bushings can be a pain if the forks have had a hard life.

Nickc did you land that? 😉

yeah, course 😉

😀

Pic looks awesome… I hope you landed that or those posh lyriks might look a bit worse for wear lol

It’s gunna be a burly build, big 2.5″ tyres, tiny seat, flats (if I can figure out how to not fall off and suck using flats), that kind of thing

I’ve owned an NS Core 2 for a few years now. It was, I believe, the predecessor to the Surge line. Came with Marazocchi 55RS up front. Heavy as nuts. Unfortunately, due to scratches they needed replacing. Last weekend I picked up a set of Sektor Air forks from 2011. Now, the Air is likely to be a tad light if you’re going all in ‘Hardcore Hardtail’ as you’re implying. I’m building mine up to be a burly all day machine because it’s all I’ve got. I will say this. 150 vs 160mm… so far the only thing I’ve noticed is that there’s less pedal bob, it’s lighter, and that’s about it.

So if you can find some spring ones with a 20mm axle they’d certainly be a goer. I know the sliders are thinner, but all my mates swear by them and I know a pair of Sektor coils that did a 15ft huck and are still going strong. I wouldn’t rule them out. I’ll let you know if I notice any other major difference in handling and the like over the next few days too.

I’ve gone from old school Pike U-turns to 140mm Revs. I’m liking the small bump sensitivity of the Revs, they seem just as stiff too.

Wouldn’t mind trying an extra bottomless token in them, struggling to find any though..

I know price is an issue but imo you shouldn’t skimp on forks as they’re the most important part of a hardcore hardtail. Plush, smush – you want stiffness and beef on this type of bike or you may as well just get a standard HT and go cross country.

Maybe something from x-fusion or older 34 talas if you really need the adjustmment?

Built a HC HT with lyriks a few years back, just felt like a lot of fork to be hauling about when not pointing down. Never really enjoyed riding it that much. Switched to some Revs and some less burly wheels and it transformed the bike, felt much better balanced and a lot more fun to ride. Stuck the lyrik on a FS AM bike where they had much more fun 🙂

Oh aye, as far as use goes mine is on a ragley ti, I’m racing it all this year in the scottish enduro series (unsuccesfully) and it gets used a lot at inners dh, been down fort william wc (slowly), the Revs have never been the limiting factor and never will. I’m light, to be fair so if you’re a beefer or riding harder than me that might become more of an issue but it’s no xc bike (well, it is my xc bike too. But that’s because I don’t have enough bikes)

I’m no featherweight… I reckon I’ll be tipping up to 90kg with all the kit on, and although I like to think of myself as quite a hard rider, I’m probably not.

Finished in the bottom 25% at my first enduro a few weeks back (but certainly wasn’t last!) and that was on fox 32s on a 575. Everyone says how massively flexy they are but they seem to do the trick for me, although I’ve not really got much to compare them to.

I know modern forks are built to take more than what more people throw at them. I think part of me wanted some coil forks for the hard tail… but I know that comes with a penalty

I have two longer travel forks 150mm Sektor RLs and 160mm Marzocchi 350CR the Marzocchi are stiff as hell plush and well damped.

The Sektors are plush but are not as stiff and get out of shape when pushed hard on the rocky stuff. Probably a rebound issue it is a bit basic on the sektor.

Can you start doing things like swap the revelation damper into a sektor or is that just getting a bit daft?

mbqwerty – Member
Can you start doing things like swap the revelation damper into a sektor or is that just getting a bit daft?

Depending on the model year you can do so the MoCo part of the damper if fairly decent it is the rebound damper you would want to replace.

It doesn’t generally make a lot of sense to buy a Sektor to upgrade, I think. But yeah, like Frosty says the biggestdifference is the rebound damper, the basic moco is perfectly decent (bottom end sektor Rs are pretty rubbish)

When my Rev Team damper blew up and turned out to be basically unservicable, I thought about buying an RCT3 damper… But then I saw the price, and then I saw some Revs with worn stanchions on here, bought the entire things, swapped in the dampers into my good chassis, kept some parts for spares, sold the lowers and the old rebound damper, lovely.