Without even bringing the SR EQ spring into the equation that seems like a pretty... interesting... comparison to me. In my experience, and I've talked to plenty of folks who have ridden both and I think would agree with me, the latest generation of Fox air spring (38, 36) and RockShox air spring (Zeb, Lyrik) feel very different on the trails. Different enough that trying to address a critique that compares the latest air systems from those company's to what any other company is doing is a bizarre tact. Substitute Ohlins, DVO, Manitou, EXT, or whomever for SR Suntour in this query and it's still a head-scratcher.
I'd suggest the general consensus is that the RockShox forks want to ride quite high in their travel and folks are running quite a bit fewer volume spacers than when the first self-balancing air forks (Pike) hit the scene. On the other hand, the Fox forks ride more like those previous-gen RockShox forks where they want to sit deeper in their travel and are getting fairly packed with tokens. Almost like they traded characteristics?
It's funny, I started working on a piece on those 2014 Pike forks as I think they're one of the most under-rated products in mountain biking's history in terms of how they influenced riders' opinions and other companies' products.
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Back to the SR EQ spring. It works great. I'm still running volume spacers and I like how I really have to screw up to use the last 1" of travel. I never had an issue with small bump compliance off the top and I run a fairly firm setup, but I do weigh ~190lbs so that's going to get things moving.
I'm currently running the 170mm Durolux lowered to 120mm and the air spring still works great, which is certainly a challenge I've heard other folks talk about even swapping 20mm travel rods on other forks. So, I think it's cool that SR's air volumes work with a range of travels.
I also think that SR Suntour's QSP program puts their forks at a bit of an off-the-top feel disadvantage as they ship with grease only for the seals/bushings. This does make it much cleaner/easier for the average home mechanic to work on but I always add 5-10cc of oil to both sides of the lowers and that certainly keeps them feeling better longer.
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Anyways, that's a lot of words to say "I don't know about that." But again, I think the big two forks ride so differently in 2020/2021 that it's not a critique that's really easy to address directly.
July 13, 2021, 9:46 a.m. - Andrew Major
Without even bringing the SR EQ spring into the equation that seems like a pretty... interesting... comparison to me. In my experience, and I've talked to plenty of folks who have ridden both and I think would agree with me, the latest generation of Fox air spring (38, 36) and RockShox air spring (Zeb, Lyrik) feel very different on the trails. Different enough that trying to address a critique that compares the latest air systems from those company's to what any other company is doing is a bizarre tact. Substitute Ohlins, DVO, Manitou, EXT, or whomever for SR Suntour in this query and it's still a head-scratcher. I'd suggest the general consensus is that the RockShox forks want to ride quite high in their travel and folks are running quite a bit fewer volume spacers than when the first self-balancing air forks (Pike) hit the scene. On the other hand, the Fox forks ride more like those previous-gen RockShox forks where they want to sit deeper in their travel and are getting fairly packed with tokens. Almost like they traded characteristics? It's funny, I started working on a piece on those 2014 Pike forks as I think they're one of the most under-rated products in mountain biking's history in terms of how they influenced riders' opinions and other companies' products. - Back to the SR EQ spring. It works great. I'm still running volume spacers and I like how I really have to screw up to use the last 1" of travel. I never had an issue with small bump compliance off the top and I run a fairly firm setup, but I do weigh ~190lbs so that's going to get things moving. I'm currently running the 170mm Durolux lowered to 120mm and the air spring still works great, which is certainly a challenge I've heard other folks talk about even swapping 20mm travel rods on other forks. So, I think it's cool that SR's air volumes work with a range of travels. I also think that SR Suntour's QSP program puts their forks at a bit of an off-the-top feel disadvantage as they ship with grease only for the seals/bushings. This does make it much cleaner/easier for the average home mechanic to work on but I always add 5-10cc of oil to both sides of the lowers and that certainly keeps them feeling better longer. - Anyways, that's a lot of words to say "I don't know about that." But again, I think the big two forks ride so differently in 2020/2021 that it's not a critique that's really easy to address directly.