Get the 15.
Mine feels great despite being bolted to an unrideable vpp frame.
Could you guys please elaborate?Well, the 14 are pretty crap, and the 15 are immense forks.
Can't go into detail as Udi did above, I don't know much about Fox forks, apart from going by how the feel.Could you guys please elaborate?
Trying to get something stiffer is a big part of my motivation here.Pike?
I went with the 36 mostly for the 20mm.Trying to get something stiffer is a big part of my motivation here.
That's helpful, thanks. I get why a coil negative spring isn't a great idea (did they at least sell different spring weights to adjust it) but I tend to run pretty mid-range air pressures (slightly on the lighter side, but run my suspension stiff) so it might not be terrible in my case.If you're wondering what changed functionally, the older fork uses the conventional Float air spring design which uses an air positive spring with a coil negative spring. This system is flawed unless you happen to run the exact pressure the negative spring was designed for, otherwise you'll either have a fork that doesn't sit at 0 travel, or has excessive preload.
The new one goes back to a more conventional system with an auto-eq air spring for the negative spring (similar to the Pike etc) - obviously meaning the negative spring rate is matched to the positive. The downside of this is that you actually get more friction because the system requires more dynamic seals than with a coil negative spring, however the benefit of the auto-eq negative spring (that will cater much better for different pressures / riders / preferences) outweighs that.
Damper wise there's not much difference performance wise, but the spring and chassis improvements make the new one worth it. If I were getting a pre-15 36 it'd be a VAN - because they work and feel better than all of the air options.
Trying to get something stiffer is a big part of my motivation here.
I have my Mattoc Pro in the garage. Now my Mega has a 36 TALAS on the front. The fork is noticeably stiffer. I need to alter the the air spacers it is too progressive. I weigh 212LBS BTW and ride 75% rock filled trails. They are pretty close as far as the way they handle the trail. The Pike is way more flexy than the Mattoc from the few I have ridden.....To open up the discussion a little more: I've got a Mattoc Pro on my Megatrail, and I really like it. The spring and damper are excellent, but the chassis could be a little stiffer. As DanO noted, I'm not a huge guy, but I do tend to forget that that bike isn't a DH bike and I smash it into a lot of stuff. I had an older 36 Vanilla ages ago that was definitely a lot stiffer than the Mattoc.
I'm happy enough with the Mattoc that I wouldn't be considering a new fork, BUT, I just ordered a BTR Ranger too. So I need a fork for that. I've got an old Lyric Solo Air in my garage that I could lower and slap on the BTR, but the gear whore in me wants to buy something new. So, my options are:
-Keep the Mattoc on the Megatrail, put the Lyric on the BTR, spend the money I just saved on beer
-Put the Mattoc on the BTR, buy something else (Pike? 36?) for the Megatrail
-Keep the Mattoc on the Megatrail and buy something shorter travel for the BTR. Maybe a Minute? The BTR only wants a 120mm fork anyway, but I kind of like the idea of lowering something longer travel for the stiffer chassis and better damper.
Unlike lower services (which are critical on all of these low-volume lube systems Fox/RS/etc - I encourage people to do them more often than recommended if possible), obeying the damper service intervals isn't critical and there isn't much harm done in leaving them longer.Not sure if things are different for 15 models, but something to keep in mind is the high recommended service intervals for the FIT carts compared to other options (eg - Fox is 100 hrs compared to a Pike's 200 hrs). Unless you're servicing the cart yourself, it's a fairly pricey service.
I get that. The older RS forks with independently adjustable positive and negative springs struck me as insane for that reason. I just meant that given that I run pretty middle of the range pressures, it seems likely that I'd be reasonably close to right. Especially given the benefit of having one fewer dynamic seals I figure this should be okay.With the negative spring, there is literally one correlating positive pressure for correct/optimal behaviour, not a range like Fox imply. You can't buy different negative rates for it either, the only fork they made that available for was the Float 40.
In what way?utter dog shit in well under 100 hours in terms of actual damping performance