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Are these shocks any good and what type of riding are they good for?
Basic but solid shock (I'd choose one over the majority of alternative brands available), use it for any type of riding you want (ok maybe not the best fro full on DH)... at worst send to a suspension tuner to dial it in specifically for 'you'.
Depending on how old it is, it might have pro-deal tune (no option to disable it), if really old... maybe not (should be labelled)
Good basic shocks. On a long travel bike they can suffer mid stroke wallow when run with the required 30%-ish sag. This can easily be sorted though via custom tuning. Mine is now on a 145mm 29er and it's bahaving much much better than it did on my 170mm bike. I really can't be arsed with pro-pedal or CTD or whatever else rear shocks come with today so a basic shock like the R tuned to suit my riding style is nigh on perfect.
Great stuff
Monarch RT3 is a much, much better shock imho.. i'm comparing to RP2 also which is above R. RT3 and Monarch Plus (not ridden but going on reports) are stunningly good air shocks with none of that wallow and bob. Assuming you can get them to hold air..
Basically in car park Fox R/RP feels good, and Monarch feels harsh. but the faster you go the better the SRAM ones get, whereas Fox, i've found the opposite.. depends on frame and tuning and lots of things i guess.