Looking for some advice on shocks. I’m thinking of doing a bad thing and buying a YT Jeffsy (I know the name is crap and many people hate it for that reason but I’m struggling to find a good value, fairly big travel 29er otherwise).

I’m thinking of going for the cheapest, which is far as I can see gets me the same frame, almost the same Pike fork (Pike RC vs. RCT3 – which doesn’t matter much does it?) and SLX instead of XT for €600 (£465) less. However, it has a Monarch R instead of a Monarch RT3.

QUESTION at last: I believe I can upgrade the Monarch R to something similar to an RT3 if I’d like?

2nd Question: I could chuck all that saved money at a Cane Creek DB Air CS instead, which on the face of it (but with no personal knowledge of it whatsoever) seems like a great idea as everyone seems to adore them.

Any thoughts about this? Thanks very much in advance.

Dunno about the rest, but you can’t upgrade YT bikes at order stage. I asked about having 180mm Fox 36’s on the Capra Pro Race, rather than the 160’s and got a flat ‘no’, they won’t sell to customer requirements, just to spec

Sorry, should have explained myself better – I mean I could upgrade the shock maybe by buying a Cane Creek or upgrading the Monarch (I believe there’s some sleeve that I think could give me the platform switch I desire?).

If you are already thinking of upgrading why not just buy the better specced one that comes with top of the range forks and xt. As far as I am aware upgrading the rear shock yourself is reasonable effort. Personally I would buy the better one and then you have the warranty if anything goes wrong

EDIT* Do you mean upgrade the shock by adding the piggyback yourself or simply buy a new shock? For me I would still just buy the better one if at all possible!!

I mean either upgrading the shock (I had thought that this was around £100 – £150 but can’t think where I heard that). The rest of the details are a fork, which isn’t something I think I’d notice and SLX vs. XT, which I’m not bothered about. Wheels are the same etc. so I thought get the cheaper bike, have a cheaper groupset (happy with SLX regardless) and put the money into the likes of a Cane Creek OR upgrade the shock so I have some sort of propedal/platform/whatever Rockshox call it and put the rest of the money saved to some new wheels…

I may be insane, hence the question, but I just can’t see a big advantage of one model over the other for £465.

Thanks for the advice, maybe best go for the slightly better one.

I Really want to order one, but the XL aren’t available until mid August.

PikeRC Vs Pike RCT3 – Unless you want the 3 positions rather than the 12 clicks of the RC, the performance is basically the same. You get the same chassis, air spring and fundamentally the same damper, just without the pedal platform, using instead a low speed compression adjustment to create a similar effect. Personally I prefer the way the RC works.

Monarch R is good, but the lack of platform adjustment means its often specced with a higher damping setting than say an RT3, which can make it feel a little wooden. You can only adjust the air can, changing the way the compression works (say adding a platform) would cost more than a whole new shock most likely. That said, if you buy a bike that pedals well, and has a decent tune on the shock, the R can be great. Fit and forget stuff.

Magical, thanks so much for that info – that’s what i figured – shock could maybe be improved on but all the adjustment of the fork is fairly unnecessary for me at least.

Much appreciated.

therag – I’ve seen XLs available in May – they’ve been updated with earlier dates recently so maybe worth a wee recheck?

The cf pro is still showing 17 August. I usually ride a large bike but they come up real small.