I had a Manitou Mattoc with those internals last year and it was stellar. There were some issues with air seeping past a seal then effectively reducing the travel on harder hits, plus the reverse arch...ugh. The bottom out control was amazing and in my mind the best feature of the fork.
So far the closest air fork to coil feel has been DVO's Diamond with its Off The Top adjustment. As long as the dust wiper is lubed up, and your OTT is dialed in, there is not a smoother, more supple air fork on the market.
However, after riding my buddy's Fox with the Push coil conversion, well that pretty much ruined me for air forks. When he can ride all of Martha Creek without stopping and his hands feel fresh at the bottom, you know the fork is the cause of that. Air suspension is really good, but its still not as good. Long descents like that and air suspension changes when it heats up. Coil suspension doesn't, or it takes a lot more heat to make it perform worse. As long as you can control the progression of the travel then for performance sake, coil suspension can't be matched.
Nov. 14, 2017, 7:10 a.m. - Lowcard
I had a Manitou Mattoc with those internals last year and it was stellar. There were some issues with air seeping past a seal then effectively reducing the travel on harder hits, plus the reverse arch...ugh. The bottom out control was amazing and in my mind the best feature of the fork. So far the closest air fork to coil feel has been DVO's Diamond with its Off The Top adjustment. As long as the dust wiper is lubed up, and your OTT is dialed in, there is not a smoother, more supple air fork on the market. However, after riding my buddy's Fox with the Push coil conversion, well that pretty much ruined me for air forks. When he can ride all of Martha Creek without stopping and his hands feel fresh at the bottom, you know the fork is the cause of that. Air suspension is really good, but its still not as good. Long descents like that and air suspension changes when it heats up. Coil suspension doesn't, or it takes a lot more heat to make it perform worse. As long as you can control the progression of the travel then for performance sake, coil suspension can't be matched.