Looking at a 200x57mm to fit a four bar Horst link platform. As I understand it a medium to firm compression tuning is a must to mitigate the high leverage design, although I could be wrong!

I’ve only ridden Fox equipped bikes, which have been faultless and have had minimal servicing.

I am under the impression these RS shocks perform quite well, offer plenty of tuning possibilities but are unreliable and prone to shaft scoring as a result of poor sealing.

Are there certain model years to avoid or is it just a case of avoid altogether?

My bike came with fitted and it blew up after 2 months, got it replaced under warranty and it’s lasted 6 months now and performed okay but I’m about to replace mine with a coil shock as I’m not convinced on their reliability long term.

what bike is it and how much do you want to spend.

Cube Stereo.

Had similar four bar suspension bikes before. It seems to be a trait that they are often set up too soft and blow through travel easily!

VFM no price as such but I don’t usually stretch to top of the range or boutique unless the lesser models are complete dog shit.

I just got a new, take off monarch plus HV.

Its for my jeffsy and many other bikes as you need the high volume air can not the debonair as it will just blow through the travel.

The Plus with the HV can are not common at all…. so I jumped at this when it came up on the sale forum!

Even with the HV can I expect to fit token bands…. As I had to with the current Monarch RT3 HV….

It can be a really nice shock but I’d balk at paying retail price for one.

Cane Creek DB IL instead maybe? Much classier performance and they seem to be getting a handle on reliability now.

I have one of these on my mojo hd.. same size too. It was really great for about a year of light use then developed a patch of wear on the stantion. Not sure wether to get it fixed or move on now.. it only coat me 150 brand new but i suspect itll probably cost more than that to get it fixed and then how long will it last after that???

Has anyone had a good experience? Doesn’t look like it!

My Whyte came with a Monarch wit ha M F tune  and that got swapped out straight away in place of a Monarch rct3 plus HV with a M l3 tune   ,simply put worlds apart I did have to fit 5 volume spacers in there but very good small bump and still not managed to blow through the travel.  AS good shock for the money as long as its serviced regularly.

I will say Ive been looking at the CC IL coil   and even spoke to Matt at Jtech today , I was happy to pony up the £30 for the shock when I thought its ok to use the steel springs at £25 each but he did tell me the inline coil shock  will only take the valt springs which are closer to £95 each .. I think for the time being I can manage with the Monarch as £475 is a little price for spring shock testing

DB Coil IL will also take a standard steel spring – £28 IIRC

HTHs

Oh dear the verdict is pretty damming Rockshox /SRAM have shit the bed Avid style with their shocks.

Fox, Cane Creek, DVO or Manitou it is then.

You’ll generally only hear the complaints on forums.

Can you imagine how many bikes are out there that run sram shocks as standard oem and never have an issue? It’s a huge amount, hundreds of thousands? More?

They just don’t post on forums about how good they are. 😃

True but it’s not just been from this forum or other forums!

The other big OE supplier of shocks, Fox, doesn’t seem to have as many people complaining about failures and serious internal damage so early in the shocks life cycle. I see a lot more Fox shocks on bikes for sale and out on the trails.

No worries mate, get a shock that suits and enjoy the summer!

It’s near, so I am told. 😉

Didn’t think the monarch plus fits the stereo does it? Blowing through the travel isn’t related to the Horst link but to the leverage curve.

The stereo has a fairly linear curve so unless you’ve got volume spacers to adjust the ramp up you are likely to blow through the travel.

What shock do you have the now?

I got to say I have been somewhat disappointed with the last few monarchs I have had.  The HV fitted to my Jeffsy was ‘OK’ but it’s not until you fit a descent quality shock that you realise how much better it made the bike.

My latest bike came with a standard Monarch RCT3,  can’t remember what tune but Whatever OEM was specified for the frame, it was awful!  Shock worked perfectly well, no issues just felt wooden and awful. No matter what you did with reduced bands and air pressure.  Just awful!

For the sake of balance, I ran one with my Stumpjumper last year and came away very impressed indeed.  It was considerably better than the Fox Float it replaced.

My latest bike came with a standard Monarch RCT3, can’t remember what tune but Whatever OEM was specified for the frame, it was awful! Shock worked perfectly well, no issues just felt wooden and awful.

I found the Monarch Plus on my Mega 290 quite wooden, however when I fitted it to an Enduro 29 it was really very good. I have no idea why, but it shows it’s not a terrible shock in itself.

They’re fine when they work but my 3rd one has developed the same problem as the other two (three shocks in just under 2 years and I’m not thrashing it).  I’ve now got to, hopefully, get it replaced under warranty (fingers crossed). There’s clearly a design or manufacturing problem so steer well clear.