As title, i'm upgrading my rear shock on my Heckler and wondered which would be the best, a fox dhx 5.0 coil or a fox rp23?

I'm trying to keep the weight down but at the same time like the feel of a coil.
Would the rp23 be a good medium and would it take the big hits in welsh trail centre riding
I ride all mountain, trail centres, and a small ammount of road, fire roads and woodland riding to and from work etc.

does anyone use the rp23 or dhx and if so a little feedback would be nice.

Cheers 🙂

I ride an RP23 on mine…

Set up right and it feels very plush.. No dramas in my opinion..

I Really like it. Coupled with some Float 36s up front it feels very well balanced..

And being air you have the option of locking it out.

I ride the lakes nym Wales and never had a drama with it..

preferred the coil on mine.

Too subjective for us to help you IMO. Am fine with my std float. Others NEED coil shocks. Doesn't seem to slow me down tho 😛

Yeah think i'm swinging towards the rp23 now cheers mate 🙂

the coil is better though 😉

Coil if pre-2007 heckler. Mine came with a float which I swapped for a DHX coil, and the difference was night and day. The coil could easily be set up plush yet not bottom out on bigger stuff – never could do that on the air.

Have I just replied to your ad in the classifieds btw?

Pimpmyride,

I ran a DHX5 Coil for a couple of months, which was good as to be expected but I now run a Float R of all things and to be honest there's not much difference. I would say the float R even climbs better, the recomended damping for the Heckler is the lowest so the DHX was probably overdamped. Also low volume air cans are also recomended.

For the money i'd go for a Float R and send it to TFT and get it PUSHED. TFT don't PUSH the RP's though.

rocket – Member
Coil if pre-2007 heckler. Mine came with a float which I swapped for a DHX coil, and the difference was night and day. The coil could easily be set up plush yet not bottom out on bigger stuff – never could do that on the air.

Dream on – the 07+ model is significantly different?

I prefer the dhx coil on my old heckler to the float snd dhx air on friends hecklers.

What shock you got now? If it's the Float R, then getting it PUSHed could be exactly what you're after.

Got mine done recently (on my Trance, which isn't a Heckler I know) and it does feel remarkably like a coil, but obviously much lighter.

It rides better than any shock I've ever tried, including DHX and RP23. I'm very impressed.

(at cynic-al) huh? I've only owned / ridden the pre 07 model – can't comment on 07 +. All IME only obviously.

rocket, yeah replied mate.
Is a 400lb spring enough for my 183 lb weight though?
What did the tf tuned upgrade include?

The only real benefit of running coil over air is that on long decents the coil will act exactly the same throughout the run. The air will actually stiffen slightly at the air heats up which increases pressure in the can(You can feel the can get warm). Large volume air cans like the DHX Air (Which I have also ran) will blow through the travel on big hits easily on all single pivot bikes, unless you over damp but that will give seriously poor performance.

Sorry to hijack – currently run an 08 Heckler with a 09 HV RP23 which I was not overly impressed with – I will explain -When i run the recommended sag (13-15%) the small bump compliance was shit and it was very easy to blow through all the travel on big hits, the pro pedal was not noticeable even in the firmest setting. I read on mtbr about this problem and a few people have put a shim inside the HV air sleeve which in effect reduces the air volume, it is a very easy, no cost mod to perform. I did mine (if anybody wants the link then i can email) and the shock was a lot better – I run 10-15 psi less which means run more sag so get more small bump compliance and the shock now does not blow through its travel and on the big hits I fail to bottom it out which is a great improvement. Incidentally it is a 2009 HV RP23 with low compression tune & rebound.

However I have spoken to TF and they say if I want to go for a Coil then the Van R is plenty good enough for the Heckler rather than spending more on a DHX5!

I am going to try a Van R Coil (£210 @TFTuned) and expect a significant improvement over the RP23!

Konastoner – Coil will always feel smoother over air!

5th Coil 🙂

coil !

float rl normally od vanilla rc for real mountains without climbing

I have an RP23 pushed by TFT ( for a lighter weight – i.e. under 10 stone rider) on my old shape Heckler – so yes they do! Pro pedal works very effectively and doesn't blow through travel – although obviously you have to expect it to do so every now and then otherwise it wouldn't be doing its job eh. 🙂

There are big hits in Welsh trail centre riding? 😉

I run an RP23 and a coil on my depending what I'm riding. Easy to switch them over and the coil is so much smoother on the long dh's.

i run both as well – rp23 (and air rev's) for general riding/trail centres/peaks/xc and i'll stick the dhx coil (and my coil pikes) when heading somewhere more dh orientated ie: innerleithen/ae etc. ps: i got a rp23 from merlin @ £175 – can put the savings towards getting it tuned/pushed etc

I have a nearly-new heckler-sized RP2 available… 🙂

SBrock, did not say anything to contrary. Just said that there was not that much difference.

Stevomcd I assume you have ridden Whites, as most on here have. You will find the last but one jump on Windy Point (Before Energy) is actually 3.5ft to flat static, at speed you will probably get around 4ft. Now I ain't no freerider by any strecth but that jump alone certainly gives any suspension a workout.

KS

I have both an RP23 and a DHX 5. Coil is obviously better DH but on rocky trails and even uphill it can give a bit more traction and smooth things out enough to offset the weight, however the RP23 is a very good shock whenset up right and the difference isn’t huge between the two, but the static weight is. If you already have an air I would suggest getting it Pushed unless you will be riding natural rocky stuff alot more.