Vorsprung Fractive in a Fox 36

I have one in mine. Great upgrade, just do it.

should be evol not evil

@cakeandcheese what do you like about it in particular?

I have the very same fork. Had both the Fractive damper upgrade and Luftkappe fitted after a year.
Couldn’t tell you exactly which is responsible for improvement in various areas of performance but the fork is both more compliant and more supportive, compared to standard 36 internals.

I’d love to try the Smashpot coil, but the weight-weenie part of me says “Nooo!”

Better off spending your money on a grip 2 damper - it transformed my fit4 36

@jonk A grip2 upgrade is £500 versus £80 for the fracture though.

I got Jtech to put an andreani piston into my slightly older 36 fit 4s, pretty cheap along with a service and made a big difference to how it deals with chattery stuff, without transforming how it worked the rest of the time- which is pretty much exactly what I wanted, but ymmv.

Akers
Full Member

I’d love to try the Smashpot coil, but the weight-weenie part of me says “Nooo!”

It's bloody brilliant. Other coils are available of course and they'll probably be bloody brilliant too. I've put coils in a few forks over the years and yeah there's a weight penalty and it's not so easier to adjust but I'ev never regretted it.

I’ve had mine installed for a good few years now so can’t quite remember what my main gripes with the FIT4 were. I seem to think that it lacked responsiveness even when open in compression and was wallowy as a result.

Every time I ride that fork now I’m still in awe of it. Sensitive, supportive, controlled. I find myself looking for chunky lines to plow the front through just for the fun of it. I haven’t yet managed to get the rear feeling as good, despite having a custom tuned Ohlins TTX.

I’ve no doubt a grip2 could be even better, but the fractive is leagues ahead of the standard damper and great value as an upgrade.

Thanks guys, for the cost I think I'll go for it. Cheers!

@cakeandcheese one last question before I drop it off this weekend, how did you determine the tune? The vorsprung calculator puts (fat) me in a 4 but I've heard it is quite supportive and I don't plan on being this fat forever! I'm doubting whether I should go for a 3 but I don't want to ruin the fork.

@jsync

Which tune did you go with and how is it performing?

I started with a 4 but quickly swapped to a 3. Much better, more compliant and in comparison to my mate’s F36 rc2 easier to set up to a decent tune. We both agree mine has ended up as a better fork. Like it.  Compliant yet supportive.

Thanks. I'm thinking of doing the same in a 34

It was a decent improvement on my 36 and it’s relatively cheap. I went with slick n slide at Macclesfield. Rick was happy to swap tunes foc if it was wrong. 

Edit it's a grip2 damper in my mates 36.....doh!

Jsync, sorry I missed your previous question.

I’m 78kg and not very good, so went with a PC2 tune. Seems right for me.

Interesting comparison with the Grip2. I always thought that would be better again, but can see how having too many adjustments would make life harder.

I also set mine up with a shockwiz. That was well worth the time and effort.

@cakeandcheese  noworries

Interesting you're on a 2.  I'm 85kg and the 3 provides plenty of support so I assume the 2 is even more plush.  I think it falls to the Vorprung standards being for much bigger hits than the average rider would get in the UK.

Yes, there is a benefit to the Fit4 being simpler.  We have done some pretty extensive testing with the grip2 (which I rate highly), but for our riding the vorsprung seems a little nicer.  Granted we don't have a shockwiz.