Well I have been riding the new Romic for a while now, About 400 miles plus or minus. When I first installed it I took a quick ride around and my first thought was Hmmmm It's kinda like my Fox shock but over 300 bucks!
Anytime you spend this much money on something it's human nature to feed on the hype it was supposed to deliver to you. We all want to believe the difference or advantage is actually there or we will have wasted our money. Knowing this I held back on my opinion for this long. I wanted to really try to see what if anything this expensive rear shock could do for me that the Factory issue Fox shock could not.
For starters there is one more adjustment on the Romic then on the Fox. The Romic has compression dampineng the Fox does not. In my opinion if there is more then compression, rebound, and sag, it's too many for me to fool with! As it is they interact and start to effect one another in the way they perform as a package. So I set the sag per the instructions. Actually I just checked it, it was perfect from the factory based on my weight which was given to them when it was ordered.
Now I had rebound which is pretty easy to set up and compression. I set the shock really soft and took a 10 mile ride with some ups and downs. I tinkered with the settings endlessly to see what kind of range they had. I also had a friend with me who is about the same weight. He rode my bike so I could see pedal feedback and how the shock works when hammered going up hill, jumping and doing some wheelie drops.
To my surprise the shock can be set to ride over a branch the size of a broom stick and you can hardly feel it. Let me put it this way. With the fox you would definately bounce with the same impact speed. I was surprised that the rear Romic shock is actually better at the small bumps, dips and other stuff then my 5" travel Marzocci front fork is. I can feel every little bump with the fork but the rear is a plush smooth ride over the same smaller bumps the front tire hits.
I was concerned about the hills with this plush soft rear setting. I found with the compression set about 6 or 7 on the scale of 1-12 clicks it would not give me any pedal feedback to even consider. At 8-9 is was like riding a completley different bike. Almost as Solid as a hardtail.
With the harder compression setting the fork and rear shock were nearly identical in small bump "feel" . I cannot bottom it out even with a 4 foot drop on the softer setting either. Even with a complete solid rear tire landing.
I have settled on a bit of a softer setting around the 6 point for compression and I have 3/4" sag. This gives me an exceptionally plush and comfortable ride matched to the 32PSI tire pressure. I can make the pedal bob go away completly with a couple easy clicks but I have found that the tiny pedal feedback is a fair trade for the tire to remain connected to the ground over uneven terrain. Traction and tire contact with the earth is exceptional with this setup.
So bottom line, it's a darn good piece of hardware. Is it worth 300 plus dollars over the factory shock, that's your call. I ride several thousand miles a year on this Kona Stinky deelux. For me and my spine it's worth it. It has made the already great Kona suspension another level better. It's also a massively built (over built) shock. I doubt anyone will find a problem with the construction or materials. I'm also glad there are no more adjustments then these simple 3. Anymore then that and it would be like work to sort it all out! It's a little thing, but I also like that the reserviour is internal so that my bottle holder is not obstructed by the shock.
If your in the market for a new or upgrade shock the Romic would get my vote!
Anytime you spend this much money on something it's human nature to feed on the hype it was supposed to deliver to you. We all want to believe the difference or advantage is actually there or we will have wasted our money. Knowing this I held back on my opinion for this long. I wanted to really try to see what if anything this expensive rear shock could do for me that the Factory issue Fox shock could not.
For starters there is one more adjustment on the Romic then on the Fox. The Romic has compression dampineng the Fox does not. In my opinion if there is more then compression, rebound, and sag, it's too many for me to fool with! As it is they interact and start to effect one another in the way they perform as a package. So I set the sag per the instructions. Actually I just checked it, it was perfect from the factory based on my weight which was given to them when it was ordered.
Now I had rebound which is pretty easy to set up and compression. I set the shock really soft and took a 10 mile ride with some ups and downs. I tinkered with the settings endlessly to see what kind of range they had. I also had a friend with me who is about the same weight. He rode my bike so I could see pedal feedback and how the shock works when hammered going up hill, jumping and doing some wheelie drops.
To my surprise the shock can be set to ride over a branch the size of a broom stick and you can hardly feel it. Let me put it this way. With the fox you would definately bounce with the same impact speed. I was surprised that the rear Romic shock is actually better at the small bumps, dips and other stuff then my 5" travel Marzocci front fork is. I can feel every little bump with the fork but the rear is a plush smooth ride over the same smaller bumps the front tire hits.
I was concerned about the hills with this plush soft rear setting. I found with the compression set about 6 or 7 on the scale of 1-12 clicks it would not give me any pedal feedback to even consider. At 8-9 is was like riding a completley different bike. Almost as Solid as a hardtail.
With the harder compression setting the fork and rear shock were nearly identical in small bump "feel" . I cannot bottom it out even with a 4 foot drop on the softer setting either. Even with a complete solid rear tire landing.
I have settled on a bit of a softer setting around the 6 point for compression and I have 3/4" sag. This gives me an exceptionally plush and comfortable ride matched to the 32PSI tire pressure. I can make the pedal bob go away completly with a couple easy clicks but I have found that the tiny pedal feedback is a fair trade for the tire to remain connected to the ground over uneven terrain. Traction and tire contact with the earth is exceptional with this setup.
So bottom line, it's a darn good piece of hardware. Is it worth 300 plus dollars over the factory shock, that's your call. I ride several thousand miles a year on this Kona Stinky deelux. For me and my spine it's worth it. It has made the already great Kona suspension another level better. It's also a massively built (over built) shock. I doubt anyone will find a problem with the construction or materials. I'm also glad there are no more adjustments then these simple 3. Anymore then that and it would be like work to sort it all out! It's a little thing, but I also like that the reserviour is internal so that my bottle holder is not obstructed by the shock.
If your in the market for a new or upgrade shock the Romic would get my vote!
