My Loco modified Monarch has gone wrong after a hard weekend in the Lakes. So I either get this fixed, £80 or treat myself to a different, new or 2nd hand shock.
I'm a trail rider (or is that Enduro?) at heart so I'm thinking air shock but open to ideas. I understand the Monarch plus is good but has reliability issues. Anybody using an RP23?
I'm happy to get it tuned if need be but it's not money no object.
What's everbody running?
Monarch RT3 for me.
Fox factory CTD BV
RP23 BV Adaptive logic, M rebound and comp. Works a treat. Plusher and better control when things get rougher and faster.
Monarch plus rt3 on my 275 mega no issues whatsoever
RP23 transformed my mega. bike feels so much more how it should compared to the RT3. i'm trying to think of ways to describe it without sounding too cliched, but the back end just feels so much more active - it tracks over rough ground better and certainly has added more 'pop' to the bike, making it feel more playful.
i'm not even sure it has the correct tuning, as i just did a cheeky swap when i bought the mrs a new frame (she will never know!). it feels like it is going to blow through its travel though without any propedal, but it rarely pops the o-ring off the end of the shock though, so must be alright.
rebound adjustment is substantially better. i like quite a fast rebound and the RT3 could never quite provide what i needed, but the RP23 does - perhaps why it has more 'pop' as i mention above.
propedal beats floodgate too.
just a much better shock in my opinion.
I reckon the rp23 with the correct tune would be spot on for you mate, i've got an rp23 on my alpine 160 (yep i went back to an orange 😳 after finding the dh bike too much bike), the tune when i got it didn't have enough mid stroke support, put a spacer in to make it more progressive but was using the travel far too easily so sent it to jtech for a revalve, difference is night and day. Also had the rp23 on my old enduro push'd and that transformed that bike, it's about knowing what you want and getting it tuned how you want it. As you know i'm not soft on kit and once set up right i haven't had any issues with the rp23.
Try and get an older pre ctd one if you can.
Fox DHX 5 here. Weighs a ton but is far and away better than the RT3. Its great going down, bobs a bit climbing overall very happy with it and you can tune it to your hearts content. When funds allow I'm thinking of upgrading to the Monarch Plus to save a bit of weight, as in its current guise my Mega is heaavvyyyy
PUSH modified RT3 done by tf tuned. Its much better than a standard rp23 or monarch.
I even had the ending stroke rebound sped up a bit.
The Monarch that came on it blew through its travel too easy. This was improved once Simon tickled it but I don't feel like it's done enough miles to have let me down (that's not aimed at Loco, more at the quality of the shock).
Monarch Plus are a bit of a lottery reliability wise with the odd bad example. Pretty sure I don't need coil so maybe a 2nd hand RP23. Thing is though, how do I choose which tune? Monarch plus would be medium/medium..
I'm tempted to look at the x fusion O2 shocks for mine if they monarch is no good (Only just got it, not ridden it yet!)
Give it a go, you might like the Monarch. If not I'd be interested to know what you make of the Xfusion, I hadn't even considered it. Forks seem to be well liked.
My thoughts exactly, I've just got a set of slants for it which look decent and were a good price so who knows, if I don't like the monarch they will likely be my first choice.
You guys aren't going to get a much better shock if doesn't have external high and low speed rebound adjustments or if it isn't custom tuned for you in particular. I don't know why everyone has hard on's for off the shelf RP23's, they're worse than monarchs.
Get a custom tuned shock set up for how you want it to ride, if you have a monarch or RP23...have the internals ripped out and replaced with the PUSH ones.
There's no point in swapping the monarch for a monarch plus, the only time you will notice a difference is on extended downhill runs in the alps. If you're going to replace it with anything, replace it with a vivid air or CCDB air (with the lockout lever).
I don't know why everyone has hard on's for off the shelf RP23's, they're worse than monarchs
well i rode my mega for a year with the RT3 before i swapped to an RP23. the Fox made a massive difference - bike feels much better.
The Monarch that came on it blew through its travel too easy.
That was the biggest problem with my Mega/Monarch too - the high volume can was too linear so too little pressure leads to it blowing through the travel and upping the pressure lost the small bump sensitivity.
I improved it by adding material to the gap between the air can and high volume sleeve. This volume between the air can and high volume sleeve is at the end of the stroke, so filling it up makes the shock ramp up quicker.
Quite easy to try - depressurise, roll off the large o-ring and slide off the outer air can sleeve. Pack the gap with something - I used 3 layers of inner tube cut to length and stretched over - then replace and pump up.
I was able to drop pressure, speed up rebound and get more grip and feel while still not bottoming out.
The shock's still not great and seems to need frequent air can seal service so also looking at options to improve it. Tempted with a PUSH tune.
Any shock won't feel great if the tune isn't correct. Mugboo's Momarch was tuned (damper and air volume) 12/18 months ago.
What we've found is as mention above that the Monarchs do need regular air can services as the seals on the air can need to be looked after, possibly more so than on the fox units.
Might as well start by getting this one fixed, it's worthless as it is and will do as a spare if I buy something else.
It's great most of the time but take it somewhere proper rocky like the lakes and it could be better.
Pushed RT3
&
custom valved Van R
The Van R is really good...but heavy!
And not so good for climbing
pushed RT3 is much better than the original, but still could do with abit more mid travel support.
Basically a coil will always feel better for descending. Just got to weigh up if downhill peformance is the most important thing. hence I swap mine depending on the riding
It's great most of the time but take it somewhere proper rocky like the lakes and it could be better.
We can tweak that at the same time as a service to get it spot on 😉
Freeridenick, send it back to tf tuned if you are unhappy with the tune. They may do it for free if its within a certain time limit. Ask for faster ending stroke rebound to keep it riding higher in its travel.
I had an even more aggressive compression tune as well as there is loads less stiction in push tuned shocks. Less stiction = damping can be properly tuned to do the work.
Tom_W1987
what sag do you run?
had it done 1 month ago, I think there is a 3 week limit, but will ring them tomorrow see if they can have a look..
I run 25 percent sag, seems perfect but I like an aggressive rear shock setup. I find that the push can is sensitive enough to run it at that instead of 33 percent.
Would much rather have a more linear shock that opens up on medium to larger square edged hits, than an initially soft progressive setup that pedals badly and reduces rear grip feedback on hardpack. Tuning mid range support with end stroke rebound. Although i prefer a progressive setup up front. But maybe you could play around with an air can spacer. Tf tuned gave me some but told me not to bother with them. I might try a more aggressive setup by adding spacers but keeping the sag the same, so that the bike is "poppier".
At the end of the day my shock is still more sensitive than the standard model. So I feel its a nice balance.
Yes, I run mine at 25 percent. Hardtail gene in me.
TF did say that it would never be as good as a coil and I tend to agree.
Eventually im just going to get a custom shimmed 2014 vivid air - nom nom nom. Theres some nice tech in that shock and they are very sensitive.
Coils are just to impractical unless you need resistance to fade/spring rate change..... all out grip on the back is for knobbers lol. With air cans you can tune out the lack of support if you are willing to lose a tiny bit of all out grip. The trick is to also get that high speed or ending stroke rebound as fast as you can handle before you play with compression...to keep the shock in its nice cushy zone where that mid range spring rate support is lacking a little compared to a coil.
I also run the beginning stroke rebound a bit slower than average to help keep the ending stroke rebound in check keeping the shock feeling more controlled. Minimizing any bucking sensation from large drops/hits.
To back up my thoughts...Rock shox came round to the same idea with their 2014 product range.
Tom, stop it, your confuzzling me!
Bought a Fox Factory CTD off the classified brand new for £130. Fingers crossed it'll perfect once Loco has tuned it to suit my bike.