Singular Swift 29er and Suntour Epicon RLD 29er fork reviews

*discreet cough*

Royalties, that'll be £49.99.

Trade you for delivery on a road cassette?

Oh right,squishy forks – yuk!
You want,no need carbon jobbies for the real 29" experience……

No, I think that's called the real beardy-weirdy SS niche evangelist experience 😉

Trade inadmissable. Steal Giles's MmmBop for me and you have a deal.

You may wish not to ride it though, as it has sensible width bars.

No beard but maybe just a bit weird,after all I still ride 26" geared h/tails & full sussers as well…

He has a 26" rigid SS for the 'beat yourself with a woven hemp bull's pizzle' experiance.

Giles bars are so wide he can only reach one grip at a time!

I may actually fit a second set of bars in the middle, that I can reach. Like the braces on old DH bars.

just re read that review, i'd buy a magazine if the copy was that detailed

well done clubber

'Great review IMO'

Just got back from glentress and Inners riding a 2010 Kona unit 9er geared bounced, superb bike, so much faster than a 26er, not totally sure about the comparison with fs (had a few) but 29er is def the way forward for ME, not everyone but I have had and built many a bike and this is by far the most fun and can keep up aroung GT and inners with great riders on 5" 26 bouncers !

Love em !

Just in from whipping a quick ride round weston Woods on my Kona Kula
2-9er, love riding it through all the chop and rocks n roots, rigid SS weighing in at 20.4lb

29er isn't for all, but them that do get on with it..enjoy.

End of the day, it's just riding bikes in woods, hills n dirt and it's fun!

Thanks Rocketdog 😉

I can't find any information on the 15mm axle fitted to the forks, but am I right in assuming that there is no way of fitting a 9mm qr wheel to this fork? or are there adapters available?

Doug

Correct. You'll need a 15mm hub.

(technically, I'm sure you could make some sort of adaptor but it'd be a bodge and the fork isn't designed to work that way though fundamentally the QR works the same way just bigger)

How do the Epicons compare in weight to a Reba 29?
Also do the Epicons have the correct offset for a 29er, in the specification it mentions 44mm?
And finally after a bit of use how are the Epicons bearing up?
And last but not least, which 15mm hub is recommended, I notice Superstar have some on special offer.

Thanks

thesurfbus

Also do the Epicons have the correct offset for a 29er, in the specification it mentions 44mm?

Define 'correct'. I know of forks designed for use with 29" wheels with offsets of between 39mm and 55mm. As such, I'd say 44mm is a nice middle ground.

Sam – Good question, most modern forks have a greater offset to quicken the steering up, I just wasn't sure if the 44mm quoted in the spec related to offset as it calls it something else. Will check the offset on my current carbon rigid forks.
I will be running them on an 18" Scandal.

– can't say for sure on the weight as I don't have an accurate Reba weight but:

MrTall – Member
1920g with uncut 255mm steerer and including the Bolt Thru Axle.

1790g without the axle.

Reasonable weight i'd say, certainly for the cost.

which I don't think is particuarly heavy for a 29er fork.

– Offset I believe is 44mm which is more than the 38mm that was on the original Reba 29ers – eg it's in the range of the latest 29er forks (excepting GF G2 ones which are 50-something mm).

– Still working well, no signs of wear. Still much too early to tell really though I've been checking up on 26" Epicons and there don't seem to be any horror stories about them dying.

– Depends really. Ideally you want one that ISN'T a 20mm hub with convertors (eg Hope, Halo and many others) as that won't work properly with the QR15 axle. One with a continuous 15mm tube through it will be ideal (eg Shimano ones). I use a Hope and have a 15mm perspex tube (from ebay) to poke the QR axle through.

Thanks Clubbers.
My Carbon Rigid fork has a 42mm offset.
Most of the hubs seem to be convertible between 9mm/15mm/20mm, so with the problems you had with the QR you would recommend a 15mm only hub?

seems a reasonable weight – might give them ago seeing a Minutes seem to be unavailable..

i have epicons on a Karate Monkey and they have been fine, same prob with the axle,just using an allen key to poke through, using a hope pro2 which i just bought the 15mm spacer kit for…local machine shop will knock out a 16mm internal diameter hub spacer for a few beer tokens when i get time to drop the 20mm spacer off…but no big deal, forks feel just like reba`s, with alloy steerer and stantions there a bit of a bargin at £190, done about 600 miles in last month with them and no probs,air leaks etc…
29er to me is just another different bike in the collection,dont really find it worse at anything though, just go ride your bike 😮

Coastkid – if you get a tube done make sure it is exactly 15mm internal diameter as i got one from one of my customers who has a plastics factory with what turned out to be a 15.8mm internal diameter and it still wouldn't work. So unless i was unlucky, 16mm will be a no go.

Am liking the forks though, i bought them after you posted a pic of yours on the Karate Monkey. Can't go too far wrong for the price (£180 in the 10% off CRC sale).

thanks MrTall, maybe just give him the axle and front wheel then he will get it sorted,it was me who thought it would need a bit gap,doh!

Well I have joined the STW 29er massive and bought a set of Epicons from CRC, went through Quidco and got 4% cashback as well. I went for the Superstar hub in the end as it had the same dimensions as my current front hub, so will save me buying new spokes. Will have the same woes with the front qr, but will have a lookout for a suitable 15mm id tube to live inside the hub.
Thanks for everyones advice and clubber for the initial review.
Coastkid – always like to read your blog when I get bored at work, I am in Midlothian so you are not too far from me.

If you find a bit of tubing with a 15mm ID let us all know as it seems bloody hard to find one. You'l probably end up with a 15mm 'poker' like Clubber and me. 15mm does not seem to be a standard in the piping industry unfortunately.

I will probably come across something suitable eventually, I have found a couple of 15mm id tubes but they are not exactly light enough. I have access to a lathe so might turn something on it.

what would be the best hub to use with this fork? shimano 15mm?

Any 15mm hub will work, it's just that ones that use adaptors instead of 15mm specific require a 'poker' to get the wheel out of the fork.

Minor inconvenience really but a bit of a bummer if you're out on the trail, get a puncture and realise you've not brought it with you! I'm sure a trailside twig could double up and do what's needed though?

According to Clubber the Shimano hubs are 15mm specific with a continous tube through the hub so i guess those would be easiest. Not sure what other hubs are available that don't use adaptors like Hope & Halo?

Rode with a chap on 26" Epicons recently on his Carrera Bike so you could look at the website for those and see what hubs they use?

Anyone know the diff between this:

RLD
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?PartnerID=79&ModelID=50689

&

LOC
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=50695

?

sure someone already stated but could not find

rootes1 – The RLD are the Remote Lockout version and the LOD have the lockout on the top of the fork leg, I went for the RLD, not sure why they are cheaper.

yer odd that…

I thought I had the 15mm Id tube sorted, I had an old Pocket Rocket pump which looked about right, after dismantling it turned out to be 16mm Id, I might have to take my calipers down WHSmith as I am sure there must be a pen or something thats the right size.

Re: Epicon 29s. I've had a set for a month or so now and am getting on ok with them. In terms of weight and stiffness they are superb. (Bolt through forks are great…!) I think there's room for improvement though as they aren't up to RockShox standards in the damping department. If I sent them up for small bump sensitivity, they bottom out on the big stuff. Conversely, setting them up for the big hits results in loss of small bump sensitivity.
I reckon performance can be improved by using different oil weights. Thing is, I can't find any info online as to what the stock oil weights are. If anyone has any ideas please let me know!
I'll probably start with a lower oil change as the stock stuff seems very sticky and could explain loss of small bump sensitivity. Then I'll change the damping unit oil using standard 5wt and take it from there. Anyone have any better ideas?

That's what I'm going to do though as I said in the initial review, I reckon that adding some oil to the air chamber will improve them by making them less linear -eg you'll be able to set the up with less air pressure without them bottoming out.

Follow up on the forks – they're still fine though I did notice that they seemed a litte less good in terms of small bump sensitivity on a very wet/muddy ride but after a wash and lube (just from the outside, not taking it apart), it was back to normal.

Otherwise, impressions are the same – a bit too linear and maybe very slightly overdamped for my liking (but I like them very active) but both of those can be adjusted with a bit of tweaking and even without they're still plenty good enough, especially for the money.

Had my first proper longish ride on mine last night (had lots of little rides before that) and like above, no real issues with them at all. The stock oil is certainly very sticky so the stanchions pick up loads of filth though. I'd be up for changing the oil but would have no idea how to do it. Would any decent shop be able to service them when i need it done or would it be best to go to a Suntour specific place. I guess TF tuned et al would not deal with them. Who is the importer for Suntour in the UK?

just put a set of manitou drakes on mine.
100mm and qr. plenty stiff, and nice a supple.

just like me………….. 😉

Been doing a bit of research into Epicion servicing… They differ from oil bath forks like RS because the fork movement is lubricated with grease and not oil. That explains the "sticky" substance on the sliders. It's grease! I hope they perform better than other grease lubed forks – Pace/DT comes to mind.

There's plenty of videos about how to service them here and on youTube:

http://www.srsuntour-tuning-base.com/index.php?screen=ho.home&postingID=108&sid=1#

But can't see any mention of oil weights. The air cartridge uses 80W gear oil whatever that is but not sure about the damping cartridge. I'll be trying various weights and will report back in a few weeks.

clubber – be very careful changing oil volumes. You could end up blowing seals. Be our guest though for the good of mankind 😉

A

Nah, the seals will be fine – the recommended pressures are much higher than I'm using so even with a more rising rate they'll still be lower pressure than they're rated to.

I reckon that I'll also add some oil to the lowers to act as a semi oil bath.