Forks
The “old” ’08 Reba Race on the Eriksen has seen better days. I’ve rebuilt it a few times, but it had been leaky and a bit disappointing for a while. The Poploc, which never really worked, started seeping oil a while ago, and had started blowing oil out of the adjuster on rides. While a little messy, this wasn’t a huge issue until I started riding the rigid 29er more– it just made the “flexyness” and other issue more noticeable and annoying. In the end, the Reba lasted through four years of riding (down to the month), with more than three and half of those years being pretty good.
Fork number 1: I looked around and thought I found a good deal on a Fox F100 RLC FIT QR15. Although I hadn’t ridden Fox forks much, I had heard mostly good things about them. On top of that, the QR15 seemed to be a good option to stiffen up the front end. However, it wasn’t to be. I had a pricing disagreement with a surprisingly rude Fox distributor, so I gave it back. Not wanting to deal with Fox anymore, I looked elsewhere.
Fork number 2: Thanks to the friendly staff at Upfront Bikes, the same day I returned the Fox, I went back to Rock Shox and got a SID Team at a very good price. It’s lighter than the Fox, stiffer than the Reba, and a huge improvement over the last two 28mm SID forks I’ve had. On the down side, it isn’t QR15, Maxle or anything of the thru-axle variety. It’s plain-old QR, but it still feels fairly stiff. Apparently, the Reba was a little saggy as well. The angle makes it look worse than it was, but the Reba was sagging 15-20mm with no load and proper inflation.
I took the Eriksen and new fork out for a night ride from Flinders Uni through Sturt Gorge, into Craigburn, back through Sturt and Flinders and back to Glenelg. I was surprised that the SID actually felt stiffer that the Reba, so it was off to a good start. The ride was great, and aside from some air pressure adjustments, I’m happy. The SID cut about 250g off of the weight of the fornt end, but I’ll be putting most of that back on shortly with my winter tyre swap.
