Monarch RL vs Fox CTD Evolution

Is it worth the additional £100 for the upgrade on the Five S to get the Fox?

Can’t comment on the Monarch as my 5 29 S came with the Fox but the Fox unit certainly does a very good job imo. I like the CTD system, find it works well. I prefer it to my old Fox RP23.

Saying all that, I don’t think Fox and Rock Shox mix very well so if you plan on keeping the Sektors long term (I don’t) it might be worth saving your money.

The bike would be on Pikes (found upgrading an S within my insurance claim budget works out better for me to get what I want than starting with the Pro).

I know the CDT is 3 settings, whereby the Monarch is on/off, just not sure how much the shock is set up and forget (as it was on my 5 Spot where I never used pro pedal / lock out), or whether I’ll be using the different settings.

You could easily leave the CTD in trail all the time but each setting has a specific ‘feel’ and I find I use them all, especially trail and down. If it was my bike I’d probably pay the extra for the Fox.

I have a 2013 CTD shock on my Bandit. It’s very smooth but the descend setting did blow through its travel a bit too readily. It may be more the frame than the shock, but it took me a while to get the sag right such that it remained smooth and good on the little stuff but not use all its travel every time I got a bit of air. What also helped is fitting a larger spacer so that it was a bit more progressive. What surprised me is that the shock already came fitted with the second biggest spacer available.

My advice is therefore to check what – if any – spacer is fitted to the CTD shock just in case you want to do some easy and cheap(ish) DIY tuning.

What about going all the way to the factory kashima version with 5 settings?

@roverpig – out of budget unfortunately.

Currently wondering whether it’s worth sacrificing Neon paint to get the standard CTD over the monarch.

Long term of course I could look at CCDB or suchlike.

This thread is like Groundhog Day for me 😆 When I had a Wheelies replacement bike to sort I spent far more time than is healthy on the Orange website configuring my spec. I then nagged my insurance company for the cash and bought a genuine custom build from a bricks and mortar shop instead.

Good luck razorrazoo; if you’re anything like me it doesn’t matter what you decide on since you’ll wish you chose the other option anyway 😆

Getting the right colour is the most important thing, obviously !

Some people seem to prefer the basic CTD to the factory (boost valve) version, so I don’t think you are missing much there. Personally I like having 5 settings to play with on my (26″) Five, but then I get bored quite easily 🙂

@stilltortoise

I’ve almost ordered the bike twice before having a change of thought.

Just found out that I can get a Zesty and x Fusion sweeps to replace the Fox 32s plus some other upgrades within budget. Hmmmm 😕

i’ve been running a Monarch RL for about 10 months now…seems to do a pretty decent job….climbs well but is better at climbing with the lockout engaged. descends really well too. i’ve not managed to blow through its travel on the descents yet and it seems to cope with most stuff quite well. its worth the money i paid for it

Not worth the upgrade, better off to sell the Monarch and get something else if you don’t like it, CTD’s come in various internal specs..

Dunno about 100 quid but my monarch rt seems to be poorly sealed to foxs I’ve had in the past although performance wise its just as good if not better

Had to PUSH my ctd to sort it out, but I is larger than the average bear.