Well having bought a set of these on the back of a few threads and the mini review in this month’s singletrack I though i’d share a little review.

First off these forks are superb, so much better than the Fox Float 140 I had on before, they are very easy to set up and the factory set rebound end stroke is spot on. on the downhill they feel stiff, track well and seem to eat up rocks for fun.

Settings

Low speed compression – It has 12 settings in total but I run it at 2 from slow which seems to be fine for the riding I do. Some people have said set it at 0 for downhill but would the average man really detect the difference?

Beginning stroke rebound – This setting intially confused me, coming from Fox forks I though it may of needed setting up different but I was told to just set it as I would normally ride my other forks and it seems fine, I have it set 1 click from center towards slow.

Lockout dial – 3 positions:

Open – Full damping and needs no explaining.

Threshold – this is an interesting setting that im still working on, it works fantastic with the forks at 150mm either when climbing off road or on slow twisty sections or stairs as it it firms the fork up in its first 25% of travel, a bit like propedal really, it doesn’t seem to work as well when the travel is set 120mm although the reviews seem to say it does?

Full Lockout – Does it need covering?

Dual Position – this drops 30mm from the travel so 150mm to 120mm and it is good for keeping the front down on stepp climbs but i have found that it is actually more difficult on sustanied climbs, this may just be me. so i just use 150 travel with threshold turned on.

all in all this is a very good form and well worth the money plus they are a lot cheaper than the equivalent Fox.

bike they are fitted is a 2009 Rocky Mountain Altitude and rider weight in 90Kg

Loving mine too. Need to fiddle more with the low compression settings though as I can’t seem to find much difference. Probably need to do some back to back testing with it.

I do use the 120mm setting quite a bit for climbs, but my bike’s pretty slack, so long fire road stuff becomes a chore. Steepening it up a bit helps.

that’s the difference the front end on mine is quiet steep and i found it made it more difficult. the threshold is good for helping on tricky climbs 😀 i have also found myself flying off things a lot easier too 😀

does the Low Speed adjustment affect the threshold or the open mode?

the open mode retro, threshold is wrote down on paper as only the highspeed compression, which seems to be the case hence its great on slow twisty,steps,drops wood work ect

The low speed dial affect all three positions (open / threshold / locked). If you don’t believe me, turn the low speed dial all the way anti clockwise and you can overcome the lockout with a hard knock.

Try adding a bit more LSC in ‘open’ mode for downhills, it helps keeps the front end from diving into the travel, but it’s not immediately obvious in ‘car park’ testing, you need to try it on the trail. For wide open straight rocky descents I’d have it fully open but for anything with corners or fewer rocks, a bit of compression damping helps.

I’m very impressed with mine. The equivalent Fox would be a 32 140 RLC FIT which I rode and was distinctly unimpressed by. I reckon the RS is better, and it’s far cheaper.

superficial

what is the set and forget setting do you reckon? like i said i have mine at 2 clicks from slow and only really alternat between open and threshold, keep moving settings depending on what you are doing next wouldnt work.

interesting to see Fox have adopted a similar system with there 2013 forks.

I run a bit more LSC than that, I think it’s about 5-6 clicks but not 100% sure. I probably use full open most of the time and for road climbs I’ll switch the lockout on. I rarely use the threshold TBH – for a lot of the climbs around here I find it’s beneficial to have a pretty active fork. That said if I was racing XC or riding smoother trails I’d probably use the threshold a lot and leave it on all the time (with the silver LSC dial backed off a bit), it works pretty well. I’ve occasionally left it on accidentally for some rocky DH runs and it copes well, opening up easily for bigger hits.

The three position blue lever is a lot like Pro pedal on Fox shocks. I.e. full open / pro-pedal on / lockout. Which as you say is a bit like their Climb / Trail / Descend modes for 2013.

where is your normal riding area?

philfive – Member

the open mode retro, threshold is wrote down on paper as only the highspeed compression, which seems to be the case hence its great on slow twisty,steps,drops wood work ect

Cheers Phil, that makes sense.

where is your normal riding area?

I live in Sheffield out towards the peaks, so do a bit of local singletrack stuff and some ‘proper’ peaks stuff too. Basically it’s all just rocks. For E.g. trail centres I guess I might use the threshold mode more.

Interested to know how the damper compares to the Blackbox MoCo

I’m so glad I’ve read this post. I’ve just got hold of some RTC3’s and I was mulling over which bike fit them too. I currently run some Float 32 140’s on my Turner but I believe the extra 10mm and fork height will suit that frame better than my Cove Stiffee which will get the Floats now. Looking forward to trying them out 😀

Continuity

Never ridden one but the little info around says it is better.

For the LSC are you talking clicks clockwise – turn towards + ??

I was yeah.

philfive..so is the operation of the rtc3 damper completely different to dials on my 2011 rtl ti blackbox dual position as in the compression knob has 6 clicks and 12 on the threshold.??

It’s different, yeah. The blue knob on the RCT3 has three positions – open / threshold (AKA blowoff/pro-pedal/whatever) / locked. Then there’s a separate silver (12 click) low speed compression adjuster which is sort of analogous to the ‘gate’ on other RS forks, but a bit different.

Cheers superficial…Even more to fiddle with then 😉

Apparently there’s a grouptest in the April copy of Singletrack mag (Issue 73). Anyone know how they fared compared to the competition?

DT Swiss XMM 140 Twin Shot
Fox 32 RLC FIT 14o
Marzocchi 44 Micro Switch TA
Rock Shox Revelation RCT3 DP
X-Fusion Velvet RL2 DLA
Fox 34TALAS 29 140 FIT RLC
Rock Shox Revelation 29 XX Dual Air 140

It was more if a mini test

Not sure if you can see it but the RTC did well.

Had mine for 3 months. I wanted something lighter and not so burly when swapping out my Lyrik coils. They have scored a win on that front being a whole kilo lighter 😯 Its worth thinking how light they are at 1.6kg.

Easy to set up. A real fit and forget fork. I had a 2009 Revelation Race with dual air and it was quite tricky to balance the air chambers to get the fork set up, but this 2012 fork has none of that faff.

I use the dual position on steep climbs and road work. I also use the compression adjuster in the low and medium settings depending on trail/climb.

They remind me of Honda motorcycles – they work really well and just get on with the job to the point that you don’t notice them and just ride.

Not serviced them yet but going to whip them apart and give them a clean and an oil change soon as I hear they only have a little oil in them and its probably more critical to keep them clean.

I ride in the Lakes mostly and they do a great job. Out in Grizedale tonight and will just be getting on with riding and letting the forks do their job.

MBUK slated them this month for reliability and scored them the lowest out of their hardcore trail forks test.

you got the link tomaso? the bike radar review i read was gave it 4 stars but just said the Daul Position was rubbish plus i wouldn’t say it was a hardcore fork.

i found this from March, its the dual air but the dmaper is the same, is it a case of the famous MBUK who is the biggest advertiser wins review?

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/components/forks-suspension/product/review-rockshox-revelation-rct3-dual-air-12-46065

Hey all, I have these forks installed on my Santa Cruz Blur LTc. For the most part I like the fork, but my issue with them is dive I’m getting if I give a quick tap of the rear brake before entering a fast turn. This drives me nuts!
This occurs in the “full open” setting and I’ve increased air pressure but it still happens. I’ve started riding in the “threshold” setting which eliminates the brake dive but obviously loses other characteristics i like with full open.
Locally I ride trails that are mixed with quick ups/downs/technical sections with rocks, roots, jumps, twisty single track…high and low speed, so fiddling with the fork is inconvenient and I’d like to have one setting so i can concentrate on pedaling, not turning a knob.
I’m thinking I could reduce air pressure and use the threshold but then I’m not using the forks full potential.

Anyone else experiencing brake dive into fast turns, and if so…how are you dealing with it?
I weight about 210-215lbs., aggressive rider. I feel like this fork may not be for me if I don’t get this figured out.

Thanks for any words!

dive is low speed compression, isn’t it ?
I’d add some more of that & see what happens

I’ll fiddle with the silver knob and see if that makes any difference…maybe I’ve not given that enough credit. 🙂