Hi all, i want to upgrade the forks on my giant full sus to something lighter, and air forks (im not v heavy so the adjustability is useful). I have been looking out for some 2nd hand forks, in region of 100-120mm, so like Reba's, older revs u turn, minutes etc but not having much luck ( not helped by fact the giant has a rediculous 210mm ish steerer, so need at least 200mm steerer which is hard to find 2nd hand!
Anyway, came across these forks on crc, seem a lot of fork for the money (air 100-140mm adjust, under 1900g and £190 on special. Just wondering if anyone has used them though and if they are any good? As i know the entry level suntours you get on most bikes are pretty poor! Not sure if their more upmarket offerings are any good or not.
Cheers;
Harvey
Had Epicons on my Carrera Fury. It was a great bike, and the fork was pretty decent. Seemed as good as any other basic level air sprung jobbie. Bolt through axle and everything - don't you love Halfords?
I've put some of them on recently, seem okay so far (pipedream sirius, so meant to be 100-130mm fork). Swapped from a reba because I wanted something a bit longer and was concerned the reba was on the way out without very expensive servicing. Can't say I've noticed a massive difference, apart from them being a bit longer, which is probably a good sign. Not quite as adjustable as some, only got the one air chamber and rebound adjust, but I think I tended to have everything set to average on the trends anyway.
Bit early to comment on durability, but it seems well enough made. I think it's grease lubed, so the stanchions seem more 'sticky' after riding than they were on the reba which maybe isn't ideal in terms of mud sticking to them, but probably not really an issue.
I have tended to use the travel adjust to switch between the longest and shortest setting, I think using middle settings might be a but odd - there's no dial like on u-turn forks, you just press the lever while compressing or releasing the fork to the required height, and there are no travel markings on the stanchions to guide you (I have considered adding my own, but I'm not quite that bothered.) Also, it needs to be unloaded to adjust, so it can be done on the fly, but only if you can manual while you do it.
Also bear in mind that the through axle they use requires a hub with a continuous 15mm sleeve, hubs with adapters might be no good - there's a sort of sprung mushroomy thing that expand as soon as it clears the axle, which with adapters happens in the middle if the hub. It can still work worth a 15mm diameter poking tube, but that sounds like a faff. SLX is fine, and cheap.
Suntour which I think are French were on the up last year in terms of main components. Mbr did a review and they scored fairly well for a newbie. you'll have a warranty so I your having trouble finiding s/h forks why not go for it.