Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Reba to Revelation… asking for trouble?
  • messiah
    Free Member

    I currently have some 120mm Maxle Lite Reba SL forks which I find a little flexy. I’m thinking of sticking some 150mm Maxle Revelation forks on another bike… question is will I find these to be silly flexy?

    I had 140mm Pike’s in the past and when I changed them to 160mm Fox 36’s I loved the extra stiffness (perhaps they suit my bulldozering style better)… so… if I go for the Revelations will I be disappointed with how flexy they are (or in current STW parlance… will I die?).

    BadlyWiredDog
    Full Member

    Sorry, misread your post. They’re not far off Pikes ime, but slightly flexier, so if you found Pikes flexy then yes, I suppose you would. But I’ve never found that to be a problem and the damping on 2011 Revs is much nicer.

    nbt
    Full Member

    I never really noticed fork flex per se, although when I went to 20mm pikes on one bike along side QR fox forx on another, I did notice the difference. as rebas and revelations are essentially the same forks, if you find 120mm forks flexy then 150 will only exacerbate the issue – even it’s just you imagining it…

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    Del
    Full Member

    the reason you found the foxs stiffer is because of the increase in stanchion diameter.

    pedalhead
    Free Member

    I went from 140mm Revs to 36 Floats on my Blur & the improvement in stiffness was very noticeable indeed. Stands to reason really, with the fatter stanchions. Not sure it was worth the increase in weight though.

    messiah
    Free Member

    There was little difference in weight going from a coil pike to a Float 36… but the Rev is nearly a pound lighter then either of these.

    I’m thinking it’s worth a try… my problems with the Reba might be that they are the simple SL version and it’s the damper getting phased in the gnar which makes the fork feel crap and flexy. Perhaps a Rev with blackbox will not feel so out of it’s depth and hence flexy???

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    You could ‘just’ try upgrading the rebound damper on your current Reba’s to a BB one, and test this theory?
    Cheaper than buying a complete new fork?

    HoratioHufnagel
    Free Member

    I’ve got 150mm Rev’s and they are a bit flexy but i’ve never found it a problem though the most ‘gnar’ thing they did was a week in the alps where they coped far better than i did. I find the damping a lot more important. i had some old Marzocchi Marathon S Coil which were crazy flexy, but they had the Z1/downhill style twin coil springs and damping so they worked great anyway.

    CaptainMainwaring
    Free Member

    I’m don’t bulldozer and not as rad to the gnarr as you but in my general incompetence do tend to hit stuff fairly hard. I can’t tell any real difference in flex going from air Pikes to Rev 150 RLT Ti. What I can say is that they feel lovely and buttery with much better damping. Definitely improved compromise between getting full travel without blowing through but still getting good small bump sensitivity

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    The 120mm maxle Reba Teams on my 29er are noticeably flexier under braking than the 140mm maxle Revs I used to have on my Ventana. Probably due to the extra length of the fork though, but not quite as good as I’d hoped. The comparison between the Pike & the Revs I had is skewed somewhat by the Pike being a coil model. Hitting very rough stuff on the Rev didnt inspire the same confidence as when I had the Pikes, they were excellent, just a little heavy, even in 454 variant.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    I’ve had maxle Rebas and Revs and find them about the same – Reba perhaps a tad stiffer.

    How that relates to damping I’ll leave to you to work out!

    messiah
    Free Member

    I’ve answered my own question so I figured I post my findings.

    I have replaced the 120mm Reba SL Maxle with a 150mm Revelation Team U-turn Maxle fork. The Black Box damping in the Rev makes it a far better fork.

    I never noticed the flex and twang of the Reba on the Rev because the damping works so much better that the fork is doing it’s job rather than locking up and generally a being a bit crap in the gnar.

    Even at 150mm the Rev feels stiffer in the gnar than the Reba did at 120mm. The better damping in the Black Box Team fork makes the difference in the gnar, IMHO, YEMV, etc.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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