Heinous profile

I've been running a Smashpot in a Grip2 36 for a couple of years. It's ruined other forks for me - the plushness, mid stroke and the easily adjustable bottom out has made me faster everywhere. It's most noticeable on cold days, I jumped on another bike after fitting the smashpot and immediately thought it needed a warranty it felt so sticky, slow and harsh. 

I'm about to run an experiment and drop it to 130mm for my singlespeed and see how it copes.

I worked on several team issue Canyons when engaged for races by one of their top tier athletes at the time. The frames were custom paint and team issue so potentially had extra level of QC to normal ones, possibly not.

The build quality of the frames was the poorest I’ve ever seen in a frame with a logo on the side. PF BB’s that we’re hand pressable in and out, stray material inside, seat tube and stem tolerance for so poor auxiliary means were needed to keep things in place. I’d been so close to buying one of the 27.5 spectrals (those black and gold ones looked great) and immediately decided to look elsewhere.

There’s a thread near the top of the gear forum about this right now!

Did part two get written? I can’t find the next parts with search. I’ve got questions but don’t want to hit you up with them if they’re answered in another instalment!

After another failed ceramic piston (xtr 9120) I’ve just ordered a pair of these. If they inspire the special feelings my OG Oro’s used to, they’ll be special.

The Dissector is a great option for good rolling. I've been surprised how good it is - it's replaced my old go to tyres for speed, being the Minion SS and the Aggressor.

Some of it. You still get better shifting from the derailleur without the laughably shit GX cage materials and main pivot / knuckle and B-tension tab. It stays better for longer too, GX seems to need regular b-tension adjustment.

The GX cassette works fine with Shimano 12s if that's your thing...

I just want to say that those pink ano washers under your bidon bolts are perhaps the most understatedly cool bit of pimpage I've ever seen. Especially because they'll be under a bottle most of their life. Nice one.

One possibility here is to get a CAMO spider with a non boost offset... I did this a while ago for a different combo and have been smirking to myself every now and then ever since.

The only thing I’d view as a potential shortcoming is the axle. The performance lives up to the hype so far.

First ride on the ERA. It’s impressive. Here are some initial thoughts:

- the axle to crown measures 7mm more than an equivalent travel 36. I’m running this on a Druid and had been running 160mm to claw back a little headangle. With this additional 7mm I might drop it to 150mm.

- super supple off the top with the coil spring. Like a DVO after its been rebuilt, but with a smoother transition to the air spring.

- the stiffness of the chassis is very good. It was noticeable how well it tracked and kept working on rooty flat corners. The torque caps might be a part of this.

- very tiny top out, only noticeable when looking for it on the ground/ pulling the crown up. Maybe 2mm.

- some noise occasionally including a wee ‘ting’ noise.

- I’m not super impressed with the axle. It looks nice but feels and sounds horrible doing up and undoing. It had some factory anti seize and I ended up using grease. But still felt rough. A thrust bearing or washer would work wonders.

- comes with a mid guard like a marsh guard. And some complimentary zip ties. Personally, I feel like a fork that costs this much and has threads in the arch of the lowers really should include a tidy bolt on one.

I followed the suggested settings (100++, 65+) 7 out on LAC and HSC. I ended up moving to 8 on HSC so far.

If anyone’s interested (or reviewing one currently and feels like comparing any notes) let me know and I’ll share what I know.

Posted by: craw

Am I the only one bothered that the ideal solution to get your $1300CAD fork working right is to buy a $400 coil conversion or air spring upgrade? If I had to buy an upgrade worth 1/3 the value of the product itself I'd probably sell that product, put the $400 on top and get something actually designed to perform the way I wanted it to.

I agree. But obviously finding that out after buying a fork, you lose more at resale than the cost of the conversion.

One of the Fox techs at an EWS I raced suggested near full open compression for me too. I ended up using a Smashpot and that allowed me to use the damper much better.

They work really well with the $25 3M tape!

If you’re set up right it shouldn’t - traction propels you forward, loses traction doesn’t. The mass is noticeable sometimes, but not terribly so (even on my singlespeed).

Mine is ride wrapped and I’m glad I did. My last bike wasn’t wrapped and it started looking pretty rough. I kinda view the paint as protecting carbon gouges, so wrap’s another layer.

I’ve always just let the bike dry, then brushed it all off, with the occasionally full wash coinciding with a pivot service.

If I had an alloy bike I probably wouldn’t bother wrapping.

That makes sense. I'm wondering too if the LSC can be increased a fraction - as the wheel traction is improved, then the suspension LSC up a notch or two to pedal even better?

I’m curious - I’ve only run cushcore in my hard tail, but am about to put one in the back of my Druid after ruining a tyre on the weekend riding like a hoon.

I recall Darren from push on one of the vital podcasts talking about how much cushcore can impact suspension performance. Has anyone got any experience in changes to damping they made after installing cushcore?

I’ll be running the fork at 160mm, but if the dynamic sag feature in the ERA works as advertised will try it at 150mm.

I should have the ERA in the next week or so. I’m not going to lie, I’m mildly nervous it’ll not be as good as the Smashpot36.