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How bad is Boxxer Race?

Verskis

Monkey
May 14, 2010
458
8
Tampere, Finland
I am thinking about buying a bike with a Boxxer Race (which is strange, since the bike is 2011 model but the specs say it is Race, not RC) fork.

Other than the lack of adjustments, what will be the differences (technical differences and actual performance differences) compared to Boxxer Team/R2C2?

The compression damping is shimmed, isn't it? How about the rebound?
 

miuan

Monkey
Jan 12, 2007
395
0
Bratislava, Slovakia
rebound is ported and compression is no wonder either, as you can't control the floodgate without modding the comp assy (which is also prone to fall apart). i rode that fork on a new bike and it felt very harsh. my 10 team feels much nicer in comparison.
 

Sugar_brad

Monkey
Jun 20, 2009
328
6
Not a bad fork for the $. If you are a lightweight rider I would spring for the team though. If you do go with the rc/race you could put the saved $ toward an elka or avalanche cartridge. But it is nice having the bottom out adjust.
 
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gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
All Boxxers suck....do yourself a favor and buy a Dorado.
Hey!! That's not fair. They only suck if you expect your fork to feel good without rebuilding it every week. And expect your fork to come from the factory with oil. And expect your air cartridge to not explode. And expect your seals to...well seal.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
Hey!! That's not fair. They only suck if you expect your fork to feel good without rebuilding it every week. And expect your fork to come from the factory with oil. And expect your air cartridge to not explode. And expect your seals to...well seal.
its a race fork. daily maintenance is expected
 

dhr-racer

Monkey
Jan 24, 2007
410
0
A, A
i had the race last year and it felt like someone filled it with 5wt poo.

the RC came on my operator and i was going to swap it for the avy cart, however after a few rides a noticed the fork was working better then the teams and wc's i'd tried and ill be keeping it as is for the time being, very happy
 

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
its a race fork. daily maintenance is expected
Right. I love how people call some forks "race forks" and others "non-race forks". Whats the distinction, besides reliability? That boxxer isn't THAT much lighter than a 40, 888, or dorado. Definitely not enough just justify its reduced overall performance. And it CERTAINLY doesn't have a better damper than any of them.
 

tacubaya

Monkey
Dec 19, 2009
720
89
Mexico City
Right. I love how people call some forks "race forks" and others "non-race forks". Whats the distinction, besides reliability? That boxxer isn't THAT much lighter than a 40, 888, or dorado. Definitely not enough just justify its reduced overall performance. And it CERTAINLY doesn't have a better damper than any of them.
Its called Boxxer RACE duh
 

Slater

Monkey
Oct 10, 2007
378
0
Out of the box they're not bad. Harsh on chatter and high velocity hits, and you have to run the rebound fairly fast in beginning stroke (parking lot) to keep end stroke from packing up due to being a ported damper.

I recently dove into my compression damper and ended up making the fork feel 100% better. After reading the old thread for removing the blackbox speedstack in the previous chassis boxxers, I decided to figure out how to do it with the new ones. I need to do a quick write-up but basically there's a shim stack in it that you can remove all together and voila, buttery in the chatter and high speed hits now. Much much improved. Also the floodgate setting is not internally adjustable like the old ones, however based on my measurements its set at almost exactly at the half way point on the adjustability range on the old Team/WC forks.

And if all else fails you just put new 2011 R2C2/Avy carts in it.
 

JimLad

Monkey
Sep 23, 2009
101
2
Whistler
I got a 2010 race cheaply a few weeks ago. It's a decent fork but it definitely spikes when you push it. Got some arm pump like I havn't had for years. Just picked up a world cup now
 

numerik

Monkey
Jul 22, 2005
473
8
Slovenia, Europe
For the MONEY is great. You can't compare it to forks costing twice as much...well actually you can. Mine works better than ALL WC I tried. What I' ve done? New oil and grease. Good to go.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
For the MONEY is great. You can't compare it to forks costing twice as much...well actually you can. Mine works better than ALL WC I tried. What I' ve done? New oil and grease. Good to go.
It is suprising how many people never tried to rebuild theirs after they noticed they feel like poo and instead decide to ride and whine about how bad it is. I know forks shouldnt need a rebuild brand new but it is kinda funny when 10 guys gather around your bike because your WC works...

As for the race - it is not as bad as people make it to be.
 

tobi1918

Chimp
Jan 27, 2011
8
0
I rode a rental boxxer rc recently and i felt fine, it was a quite over-sprung for me, but i took the hits quite well. it wasn't as smooth and buttery as my '40 but if you aren't /racing/ or weenieing it do just fine )
 

troy

Turbo Monkey
Dec 3, 2008
1,006
739
I recently dove into my compression damper and ended up making the fork feel 100% better. After reading the old thread for removing the blackbox speedstack in the previous chassis boxxers, I decided to figure out how to do it with the new ones. I need to do a quick write-up but basically there's a shim stack in it that you can remove all together and voila, buttery in the chatter and high speed hits now.
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=531605