Objective Avalanche Cartridge Review?

Jm_ said:

It seems like the 2012 888 finally incorperates most of the features that Avalanche has been using for about 10 years now (shimmed rebound/compression piston, needle low-speed adjuster, etc), but 10 years late is way too late for me, I wasn't going to wait for them to finally make the new cart avail, and then worry that it might or might not work with my older 888.

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when the 2012's finally come out, it will be pretty much the same as the 2010 RC3 Evo and newer forks besides for a revised valve.

IH8Rice said:

when the 2012's finally come out, it will be pretty much the same as the 2010 RC3 Evo and newer forks besides for a revised valve.

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Any insider info on a rumored new fork? Shiver?

The cartridge was a huge improvement in small bump over the stock internals of my 2010 Boxxer.It takes time to set it up properly.

Pslide said:

Thanks for clarifying. I need a fork that performs at all speeds since some of the trails I ride are a bit tight, and some rock gardens you just can't hit fast no matter how good you are. From past reviews it sounded like this cartridge was pretty versatile, so I was a bit surprised to read your review.

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Craig also knows what he's setting it up for, in terms of terrain. He may set it up differently for "slow speed east coast" and the other variable is simply the "agressiveness". You don't need a ton of speed to be seeing high speed impacts and making the fork work properly. It's almost more "how" you ride rather than simply the forward velocity. Remember that my fork cart. is set up for "downhill", and I mentioned that my chubbie on my "all around" seems more "all around" pretty good, still firmer than a fox DHX at low speed, but it's not nearly as dramatic. So it may not be fair to say that it can't react in slow/low speed stuff, but with this tune I can definitely say it wouldn't be optimal for your description.

Avy cart should be able to set up how you want it. It has as wide or wider range of tuning than any other damper. That includes low speed.
I wasn't perfectly happy with the way mine was in my Boxxer, but I'm getting a different set up for my new 888s. I'd not played with the Avy cart enough. I'd not changed the shims at all, or played with the oil. But it was better overall than my current new 888s with the same amount of effort tunning it.