Are Manitou or Rockshox rear shocks poor or are they worth considering? Just about every bike seems to come with a fox shock these days, what are the competition like?

i had a swinger6 shock on my demo9 for 6yrs and it was faultless

a mate had a RS monarch on a 5 and he rated it.

Rock Shox Monarch is supposed to be very nearly as good as the Fox. I’m about to order up a Monarch for my Prophet, just unsure about compression tunes.

I had a manitou x3 on my 2005 Orange 5 and it was easily as good as the current rp23 XV boost valve thingy on my 2011.

It had 3 platform damping settings and a completely off. the completely off is more “off” than the fox, which still feels a bit damped (though it is still very new so may not be worn in).

I think its a massively underrated shock that seems to have been ignored by the popular bike press. As a result you can often pick them up fairly cheap.

EDIT: I’ve also had a RS Pearl (now discontinued) and tried a Monarch. Both were very noisy – no idea why, but they both sounded asthmatic.

Obviously Elka, Cane Creek and Bos are pretty good.

I LOVE my Manitou Revox!

It’s on my 222 and it works flawlessly. I really like the Manitou SPV system. It allows you to get the basic tune custom to your needs. The more air you put in, the more propedal you have (and consequently less small bump sensitivity). You can then adjust the bottom-out resistance to make a very progressive shock. If you just want that, buy a swinger 4-way, but if you splash out on the 6-way, you can fine-tune the compression stroke (both high and low adjusters!)

You don’t get that sort of stuff on Fox bar the higher end DHX stuff!

Oh and Manitou Swingers have a fair bit of scope for modifications. A classic one is to gut it and put the shim stack from a Manitou Metel in to create a more supple shock with better small-bump responsiveness. However a far easier mod is to replace the main O-ring seal in the body with a softer one. Its stock at about 100 Durometers, but if you replace it with a 70a ring instead you get far less stiction.

Oh, and you can home service manitou shocks
IN YOUR FACE FOX WITH YOUR SILLY FIXATION WITH (near) POINTLESS NITROGEN CHARGING!!!! 8)

As for Rockshox, Peaty’s been running a Vivid Air, as has his team mate Greg Minnar, so they can’t be that bad!

EDIT:
Mildred, that’s just oil moving through the damping system. Nothing to worry about, Manitou Swingers tend to make the same kind of noise if you push them deep into their travel.

Diverse Dueler(?) available from Loco look good.

Yeah Dueler is amazing 😉 The Rockshox Monarch and Vivid are both pretty good although I think a Fox may last a bit longer due to build quality. The boutique coils from Cane creek and Bos are good to but pricey.

TF really don’t rate the Monarch, apparently they are horribly unreliable.

RS Vivid Air is reasonably available now too – people seem to think its the best air shock yet.

My point exactly, with the Monarch v Fox Rp23. The Vivid air is supposed to be good but not been out long enough to see about longevity