Looking at buying a solaris in the next few days. I’ve always had Rockshox apart from one pair of fox which I really liked.

Either SIDS RCT3 120mm or fox same travel with the CTD damper

Budget of around 400-450

X-Fusion on the list too?

They easy to service/get parts for?

Rock shox every day of the week. Work great and look great too.

Not sure but they were very quick to respond to a couple of questions I had.

I’m swaying torwards the rockshox. Do x-fusion do tapered steerer on their trace?

Yes

Rockshox = reliability, shrugging off uk winter conditions, readily available spares and easier to home service.

Fox = marginally better performance at the edge of the envelope.

You won’t be disappointed with either, but I prefer my bike to be under me on a muddy trail than up in a workstand.

In recent times, I gather, the gap has narrowed somewhat, but you need to ask yourself:

“What do most riders in the north of England (particularly gritty Pennine and peak) swear by?”

“What do most riders in the north of England (particularly gritty Pennine and peak) swear by?

Pork pies?

Pork pie as elastomer replacements? 😯

Seriously, I’m a Rockshox fan and Revs are going on the 275 I’m building in the new year when it ships, but XF are getting a good reputation quickly. SRAM are pretty unbeatable for parts and warranty if needed though.

based on the forks ive had the RS (Pikes) are better in terms of cost, performance and looks. Having said that they’re going off for warranty after xmas whereas the Fox’s had no issues in 4 years use with minimal maintenance

“What do most riders in the north of England (particularly gritty Pennine and peak) swear by?”

Marzocchi coils mainly.
But not sure what the short travel current options would be

We have a Sid and 2 Rebas and in this far-off part of the world reliability and home servicing is v helpful. I can service all 3 in an afternoon and they’ve each done more than 5,000km without a hitch, been to TF Tuned for a proper job once each. So I’m an RS fan! And one Reba is on my Solaris 🙂

Rs for me too. Had revs, Reba’s,sids and now lyriks. Have had fox talas which I hated and some floats.

Fox = 1 year warranty

Rockshox = 2 year warranty

personally? prefer my Manitou forks, but have owned many Fox and RS some with problems, some without.

dannyh – Member

Fox = marginally better performance at the edge of the envelope.

Though Fox’s XC forks- nowhere near the edge of the envelope. SID all day.

Fox all day.

I find RS have cheaper finishes and lose their quality of ride after a short while.

RS are not bad at all but I’ve fox on four bikes and don’t even follow their insane servicing schedule.

Also the RS Axel for their fork is a dreadful design whereas the fox is a great example of how a better design wins me over.

Fox did drop off the map during 2013 though. But mojo have brilliant support so all was good in the end.

I thought this would make things easier :D. More food for thought.

In the 2 yrs I have been regularly servicing forks the only forks I ever have problems with are fox. They constantly require parts that are worn or broken. Never have that with rs. Personally I’ve never got on with fox either. Don’t like the way they ride.

Got a deal on some Rockshox for a bargain so that made my mind up!

rone – Member

Also the RS Axel for their fork is a dreadful design

In what way? It’s simple to operate, and lighter than the Fox one. Neither is bad but the Rockshox one is a little better imo.

If you just slightly over tighten it then you bend the metal lip around the edge turning it into a skinning ripping knuckle remover. Crap. Happened on two. And once it gets to that stage it’s a bugger to undo.

I’ve been using Rock Shox maxle for 6 years and never had an issue- sounds like user error!

whilst the pikes must be great with all of the current reports, I’m yet to be happy with a RS fork which caused me to look further afield. I am a fan of fox, but their pricing has got stupid so my most recent purchase has been marzocchi. I won’t get a chance to try them for a few months so they could be shit mind you.

rone – Member

If you just slightly over tighten it then you bend the metal lip around the edge turning it into a skinning ripping knuckle remover. Crap. Happened on two. And once it gets to that stage it’s a bugger to undo.

You’re talking about an older model maxle- but in any case, pure hamfistedness. And “slightly overtighten” is rubbish, it’s supposed to be barely tight then the cam takes up the tension so if you gorilla swing on it and it breaks…