This 2023 RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate RCT coil shock is a completely ground up new shock for this year, with a brand new chassis, new RC2T damper and plenty of features.
- Price: £487.00
- From: SRAM, sram.com
- Weight (w/o spring): 488g
- Adjustments: Rebound, Low Speed Compression, High Speed Compression, Threshold, Hydraulic Bottom Out
The Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate is available in either progressive and linear rebound options, and five base compression tunes. After consulting with RockShox we were sent a Linear shock with ‘L’ tune. To get things fully dialled in you get high and low speed compression, both with five clicks of adjustment, along with twenty clicks of low speed rebound. The ‘Threshold’ setting is basically RockShox’s term for pedal platform.
With the new damper RockShox has put a lot of time and effort into eliminating what it calls ‘crosstalk’ of the high and low speed compression adjustments, meaning that making changes to one shouldn’t affect the performance of the other.
The other significant new adjustment is the addition of a Hydraulic Bottom Out (HBO). As the shock is compressed into the last 20% of the travel, oil is trapped within this system, and a five position adjuster lets you control how much and how quickly the oil passes into the main piggyback area.
Climbing on the Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate is fine, with no exaggerated bob, and even out of the saddle sprinting didn’t cause any particular wallow. The Threshold does a good job of firming things up, but the shock performed impressively stably anyway, so we never really felt the need to use it much.
Point things downhill, the Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate does everything you’d want from a hard-hitting coil shock. With the low and high speed compression fully open, it floats over rough, rooty tracks, soaking up the chatter and tracking the ground well. The suppleness and sensitivity adds grip across off-camber sections, letting you hit high lines with confidence, but there’s still plenty of support for hitting fast and steep turns or loading the back and popping off stuff. Big hits and chunky rocks are all taken in its stride, with the damper doing a great job of keeping things under control.
After trying all positions of the HBO we settled on one click back from the middle which added a nice little ramp at the end of the stroke when barrelling through big hits or heavier landings, with no harsh bottom outs or weirdness. While we ran the compression fully open, if your riding is mainly bike parks, or your bike is a bit more linear in its travel, then the adjustability is there to add support or damping and get things just right.
Overall
The RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate RCT coil shock does everything you want and has loads of useful adjustability should you need it.
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Review Info
| Brand: | RockShox |
| Product: | Super Deluxe Ultimate RCT Coil Shock |
| From: | SRAM |
| Price: | £487.00 |
| Tested: | by Ross for Issue 145 |
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