Performance – Ohlins RXF Fork
Base settings as recommended on the fork lower and based on a size XL Enduro 29 are good to their word for rider weight offering a supportive ride that never bottoms. This combined with a chassis which dished out very, very good stiffness was a great start. What the fork was not delivering was the sensitivity we expected based on the recommended pressures.
Increasing the lower bottom out pressure a touch whilst lowering the top pressure by about twenty psi had a positive effect on the grip whilst still maintaining the support, although we could still feel some vibration through the bars at full extension. The rebound also had a slight hesitation in its nature when going deep down into the stroke.
The smaller 34mm stanchions were interesting. Now it’s easy to make assumptions on a fork based on chassis size when in reality we still have a very, very good feeling on other smaller sized products such as the Fox 34, Bos Deville and the Manitou Mattoc at 34mm which are never far off the best in class – but larger – 36mm Fox 36. So we couldn’t help but bolt on the Fox 36 (and Ohlins coil TTX damper) to compare how the RXF performed.
The bottom line here is that the Fox 36 is still slightly ahead for a hard charging bike like the S Works Enduro. The 36 has a slightly smoother first third of travel. Having said that for most occasions the RXF is a great fork with easy to use adjusters and a quality ride characteristic. Its certainly not wanting in anything, apart from that rebound speed when fully loaded and it simply didn’t have the pitter patter of eager damping over flat root. We simply expected it to be better than the 36 but still, a very, very good unit and really supportive amongst the big hits, and so far utterly reliable.