[Closed] BlackBox vs FIT damping

Both are quite over-rated perhaps, and just a successful marketing campaign convincing us the 'old' damping system is rubbish?

Both are quite over-rated perhaps, and just a successful marketing campaign convincing us the 'old' damping system is rubbish?

What I was asking do the 2 different branded systems essential perform the same function? Ie stopping the fork packing down on repeated hits?

Well they're entirely different things?

FIT is a fancy name for what RS were already doing with the damper in the upper part of the fork rather than being open bath.

BlackBox is an extra shim stack in the compression part of MoCo forks.

Both work, pick the one you like the feel of most and/or gets the most cooing over from people in trail center car parks.

Thanks for clearing that up then!

The FIT and Blackbox systems are quite different, the FIT unit being 'semi' pressurized using a bladder to do this.
The Blackbox is a closed system i.e the oil only carries out damping work.
Both use separte oil for lubrication of the lowers and bushes.

Personally I prefer the FIT system when used with the Kashima coated forks and newer seals, the damper is also alot better than the older Open bath units.

Yep my forks are 2012 160mm Van 36 RC2 Kashimas - I have only just bought them recently and hope I made the right choice over a Lyriks with Mission Control.

Yes great forks, just make sure you keep up with the seal and foam ring maintainance and they'll be fine.

It's funny how everyone thinks BlackBox is RS's best damping system.

All of the high end long travel forks use Mission Control [b]DH[/b] don't they?

My Lyrik RC2DH's have MiCo DH and personally I think it blows FIT on a 36 out of the water..

Aye, I prefer Mission Control to Blackbox moco personally- not so different in use but the ease of setup of Mico is superb and the properly seperated high and low speed damping is great too.

As far as I can tell, the big difference between my old Moco Revelations and my newer Blackbox ones isn't the BB anyway- it's the improved rebound circuit.

But tbh all these systems are pretty damn good these days. Going to go out on a limb slightly here and say that most people's forks are, at various points, set up wrongly and overdue services and generally not functioning at their best anyway, and that makes more difference than the original spec most of the time.

Northwind, tbh there isn't alot in it between the BB and FIT stuff, I just prefer the new FIT stuff personally.

With the 36s there are the new and old FIT carts. the newer one having the bladder at the top and working considerably better.

No fork is going to work properly if it's not set up properly either.

No knowledge of FIT vs Blackbox but I can certainly agree with the point about getting your fork set up correctly.

I've finally settled on a rebound setting for my forks that works for me- its much slower than I expected but the result on fast, rocky downhilly-singletracky bits is night and day different. Feels so much smoother now, I love it 🙂

I have had my 36 RC2s Kashimas for a bit now, I still don't think I have them set up properly yet, still trying to get the optimum low/high speed compression settings right, I did have them dialled in one day and had them working soo well but I reset them when I put a firmer spring in...back to the drawing board I guess!

I have recently tried experimenting with slower rebound and must admit on loose rocky single track going down it does feel a lot nicer as though it is absorbing everything as opposed to my arms absorbing the hits.

From personal experience I would say that the top end forks (as BB and FIT equipped fork are) are pretty similar. They may have different design and subtly different adjustments but both can be made to achieve the same result. I am by no means an expert but the difference of a well set up BB or FIT fork isn't noticeable as others have already said.

P.S. LoCo, do you now offer servicing/ set up help/ or even tuning on FIT forks?

Hi Dan, yes I offer servicing on 32mm FIT forks(just updated website to that affect 😉 )

Setup help's also on the site http://locotuning.co.uk/tech-info.html

and tuning is also an option if needed, any issues drop me mail or call the workshop 😀

Loco - are there any tuning options for my forks not that I need any tuning.

They are 2012 Fox Van 36 RC2 Kashimas

Yes 'base settings' for the damping can be adjusted, giving you more or less of each as necessary.

Thank you for the extra info LoCo. I missed the update to the website, sorry!

I will send an email shortly. Thanks!

It's funny how everyone thinks BlackBox is RS's best damping system.

It is, for the XC forks, in the same way FOX fit RLC dampers to their forks.

It's also funny how many people 'need' dampers more suited to DH race bikes to ride round some woods.

Dan haha did it just after you posted, alot of updates to add soon 😀

Spoon the valving in xc dampers will be completely different to the longer travel forks, if that's what you meant 😉

pretty much

LoCo- That is why I missed it then! I have sent a message and apologise in advance for the length!

Thisisnotaspoon - indeed but people do seem to bang on about black box a lot!

I don't 'need' Mission Control DH but it's got me out of some very sticky moments where've I've hit very lumpy things very hard and was braced ready to go over the bars!

A few observations in no particular order........

I've got the latest Revs RLT Ti Dual Position forks which I think are branded Black Box, and they are vastly better than old Pikes and revs of two/three years back. Repeated hits are dealt with, the older RS Forks struggled.

When FIT first came out I preferred the older floats without it. I thought they were more active. I haven't ridden the new FIT forks with the Kashima coating though.

These new Revs don't have the endearing small bump sensitivity of the pre FIT Fox forks, or of Pace RC41s, but they are very impressive on rocky descents. You don't get pinged around.