RockShox Flight Attendant review: efficient, neat, fun

RockShox Flight Attendant is the new electronic suspension system from The House of SRAM that promises to solve your woes for good.

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By mragreeable

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I get it, i really do.. i think it’s fab.. but DAMN it’s not cheap !!!!

I’ve tried to fool it, for example by riding from tarmac straight up a set of steps, but it’s so quick to react that by the time your front wheel makes contact with the ground again, the suspension is in Open mode ready to absorb the shock.

Oh, nice!

Less endearingly, the default setting of RockShox Flight Attendant seems quite binary, with most of the time spent in Open or Lock. This on-off nature can be a bit annoying – for example, it made me ride a long rock-strewn climb fully locked out, something I’d normally want a bit of extra traction for.

So it was fooled after all, by riding up a… rock-stewn climb.

Solve my woes for good? What woes? My main problem is that I can’t afford a new trail bike.

Also – HOW MUCH?! Good work SRAM, bikes were getting a bit cheap, glad you came up with something to bounce those prices up a bit more!

Allow me to do the maths on AXS, Flight Deck and an enduro Ebike….

And it’ll be obsolete in 3 years, replaced by 2.0 which is incompatible with older versions and, well… your fhooked and will need to but another fork at £2500 when this one gets stuck half way between trail and lockout.
(Except of course that new fork will only fit super boost 116.57mm axles and 31.43″ square wheels anyway)

Allow me to do the maths on AXS, Flight Deck and an enduro Ebike…

Assuming a 2-2.5k premium for an e version of a particular spec of regular bike? About 11k all in. We’re already well past that for a top of the range ebike, without flight attendant. Hell, if you really wanted you could spec a steel hardtail to north of that money, I’ve heard.

Edit: Canyon’s latest ebike release has AXS & FA, £10.5k if you take the biggest (900wh) battery.

That’s actually not bad value considering the jeffsy with AXS and flight attendant is £8300.

Another 2k for ebike motor and 900wh battery.

Jeez, did I just use the word ‘value’ on a 10 grand bike?! 🤣

Anyway, the fork is just the damper isn’t it, so it’ll be available separately at some point.

Edit: Canyon’s latest ebike release has AXS & FA, £10.5k if you take the biggest (900wh) battery.

Hope they include one of these with it…

I’m hoping for a Flight attendant lite (easyjet self service?) at some point down the line.

Remote electronic lockout controlled manually by the left thumb. Possibly coordinated with the dropper so seat up=locked, seat down=open.

Jeez, did I just use the word ‘value’ on a 10 grand bike?!

Jeez, did I just use the word ‘value’ on a 10 grand bike?! 🤣

It’s a slippery slope (made even more so with XTR grease….etc)