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What are folks opinions on these? Looking for some straight steerer forks and it looks like these or some older Revelations are the only new forks within my budget.
I've just bought some to replace the Sektors on my 456. There wasn't a lot of options but these were pretty roundly recommended. I can't give a verdict on them yet as they're still in the box. The only negative thing I've heard is that someone had a creaky pair. Jodafett?
I have had a set for about 18 months. They are relatively light, pretty simple to work on and once dialled in are pretty much fit and forget. I guess the greatest praise I can give them is that for the past 8 months of regular riding/racing on them (since I fitted them to my HT) I have completely been unaware of them. They just seem to get on and do the job without any fuss.
Mrs's Ibis came with x fusion velvets and they seemed very good, no issues.
I had them, rated them above the 32s and revs I'd had previously. In the end I swapped them for pikes as I wanted thicker stanchions, with my fat arse onboard they still flexed more than I wanted. They hold up well in the travel without being too firm later on, this is at the expense of a bit of small bump sensitivity though.
I wouldn't hesitate to put them on a 120-140mm travel bike again though.
All sounding good. Anybody tried the travel adjust version? My first thought is to keep it simple but being able to drop the height for steep climbs would be good.
I guess the greatest praise I can give them is that for the past 8 months of regular riding/racing on them (since I fitted them to my HT) I have completely been unaware of them. They just seem to get on and do the job without any fuss.
Not velvets but this was 100% my verdict on the Slides I have, and mirror what other people have said about other X-fusion offerings. The most amazingly understated fork I've ridden.
Two of my mates have sets, one is the travel adjust. Both really rate them but the travel adjust ones dropped down after about 14 months, a service sorted them though which was overdue.
I had a set from new and they were warrantied with creaky steerer when 3 month sold. i then sold them on here and replaced with Reba 120's which are a lot better for what I do on my Soul. They apparaently have a very long breaking in period, so maybe mine werent quite there when I got rid of them
I can only comment on my experience of X Fusion and my Slide 29 forks .....
Bought second hand and stripped for service. The quality of the internals appears much better quality than anything I've come across from the RS range.
Light, 4lb on the nose.
Very plush even straight after new seals, my air fork feels like a coil fork.
They have a much wider range of rebound than my Reba Team.
I bought the forks as they were cheap but next time I need new forks I will be looking again at X Fusion.
I built a Saracen Kili Flyer for a mate of mine. He bought all his parts to fit his budget. I was a little surprised to see the fork, expecting a Fox or RS.
Was pleasantly surprised as to how good a fork it seems. Set the sag, dial rebound and away to go.
Several months and some hard riding later, just as good as the day it went in.
Am looking for a fork to replace a cheap coil Tora in the g/f's bike and a Velvet may just be what it gets.
No personal experience of these forks (sorry) but have seen a lot of bikes reviewed over the past year or so that have these forks and the overriding impression is how impressed a multitude of experienced testers have been with them. I'm flirting with the idea of a 29er build (being a tall lad) and if I go ahead these will be right in the mix
We supply velvets and sweeps on some models of our bikes - never had one back in the whole time. They are great forks and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them! My only gripe and its a little one is that the axle on the sweep needs to be knurled to make it easier to fit. I have mentioned this to X-Fusion... maybe one day they will do it!
The DLA forks are less reliable though - as mentioned they need servicing regularly to keep the seals in the DLA mechanism from leaking. We're only talking every year mind, its not horrific, but if you're the sort of person that buys something and ignores it until its dead, then death of a DLA fork will be quicker than you might like. Upgrade (The importers) are brilliant in dealing with any issues on them though. Before we set up Bird I had a set of DLAs go on me after about 6 months, but they fixed it and sent them back to me in under 48hrs. Great service!
How much do the Velvets come out at and where do people get the straight steerers from? Ze Germans have straight steerer new 'fast black' Rev's for about £250 which are tempting me on my 456 Evo...May be swayed by some velvets if they are going to be the better buy!
Oh that's quite tempting, never bought from ze Germans before.
Which German website?
Velvets dont get as discounted as RS so you'll pay more for Velvets no doubt. If they are the right spec the Revs are a match for a velvet.
stevenmenmuir - Member
Which German website?
It's usually our friends at www.bike-discount.de
But I've had a look and whilst they do have Revs, they're not priced at £250!
I've hot Velvet and Slant on my 2 bikes & the wife now has Sweep on hers. All the 'basic' version.
Very happy with them, they just work & do it well.
Only fork I've ridden which I liked more in recent years was a Pike, felt a little more controlled in fast repeated hits but it was a game of good & better, not good & bad.
I'd happily have them over Fox or RS, having had pretty much everything from both over the years. Reminds me of what Bombers were like back in the day, not particularly flash or 'special' but worked & did it well.
Alltricks.com are the German site I was on about. Their prices are tempting to say the least!
this year I bought a £250 set of velvets for my 4x bike. Took a little while to bed in, with some slight stiction at first, but are now smooth as butter. Very happy with them, and they are nice and light.
Just remember to run them at much lower psi than the chart on thd leg states!
To bed them in nicely that is.
They feel much like a coil fork in the way that they sit high in their travel and feel nicely progressive.
Best fork I've bought for a while now plus you'll be in the knowledge that they won't need attention every other ride like the fox attention whores do.
They also feel superbly stiff in tapered mode and 15mm axle even with a fatty on board.
hmmm...
Xtpl ERROR
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They seem to be having a bit of trouble serving up a site at the moment!
Alltricks are french - the alltricks.fr website is working perfectly, but obviously in french.
Bare in mind that the free shipping for stuff over 100 euros or whatever is only in france, forks at about 500 cost 18 euros to send to uk/ireland.
The english is a good enough level if you get any problems too.
My kili flyer came with them fitted , done 220 hours since February , stick to the 30 hours oil change and you won't have any problems , apart from the stupid rebound small Allen key securing screw , because mine was of so often for oil changes it wore out and is currently on Ben lomond somewhere !