Sea Otter: RST Champ Forks

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RST has been in the fork game forever, though at the more affordable end. It’s now trying to fill more of the upper middle ground with some sensibly designed forks that come in at a decent weight.

2013 Champ 26in.

The Champ 26in fork is an XC fork that’ll come with a 9mm QR axle or a 15mm QR. It’ll come in 80/100 and 120mm fixed lengths. There’s a choice of tapered or straight steerers and the stanchions are 32mm. There’s a cartridge damper and an air spring. RST is clear about making a bit for the RockShox SID market. The fork weighs in at 3.3lbs and there’s a remote lockout option. The US price is going to be around $600/$650 so hopefully a little less in £.

A pair of Champs in their rifle case (the best way of transporting forks on planes apparently)

 

Air spring where you'd expect it.

 
Manual lockout. A remote is available. Not sure about the 'cool' carbon print.

 

Steerers in flared or normal...

 

RST has its own 15mm QR system that seemed to work well.

 

A far cry from the semi-neon RSTs of old

 

Champ 29in

There’s also a 29in version of the RST Champ fork. It’ll come in 15mm QR or (why?) 9mm QR and with the same 80/100/120mm options as the 26in fork. In fact the internals are the same… All up weight for a 15mm version will be 3.8lbs including axle.

26in or 29in. Both forks have the same internals and the same 80/100/120 option.

RST will also be offering an air spring swap-out kit for its existing coil spring fork. This lets you lose a ton of weight without having to upgrade the whole fork.

 

 

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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Comments (3)

    warpowarpo May 10, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    Holy OEM, Batman!!

    StonerStoner May 10, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    $650? and we all know it ends up $ for £,
    And they want to fight with the big boys?
    Not a chance.
    Where are Suntour and X-fusion aiming?

    warpowarpo May 11, 2012 at 7:49 am

    Stoner… I don’t know where they’re aiming but X-Fusion is in direct competition with the “big ones”. My Vector Air HLR is every bit as good regarding quality as any other shock I’ve had (RS, Fox, Manitou, 5th Element Marzocchi, Romic). Regarding performance, it’s impressive for an air shock. Definitively blows the Monarch 4.2 well out of the water and hangs up really well against the Romic (without the weight).

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