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After doing a lot of searching online and on the boards, I couldn’t find an answer to my specific question. Basically I have a bike with a Suntour XCT MLO 100mm on it and I am thinking of getting a replacement since it seems to be the weakest part of my bike. The trouble I have run into is that most of the forks out there that are made for a 27.5 tire use a tapered steer tube. My frame uses 1-1/8 straight.
Here is a link to the bike:
[url:38v1g4vj]http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gravity/650b-27.5-bikes-g275-g2.htm[/url:38v1g4vj]The RockShox Recon TK Solo air seems to be the only real alternative to what I currently have set up that I could find. My question is, is this a superior fork to the Suntour to be worth the swap? My bike is only about 2 months old, so I would imagine I could sell the Suntour used to recoup some of the money for the RockShox. I am trying to stay under $300-$400 for the new fork. Link to item is below.
[url:38v1g4vj]http://www.amazon.com/RockShox-Suspension-Bicycle-Turnkey-Aluminum/dp/B00V8SASDW/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1440684639&sr=1-2&keywords=rockshox+recon+tk+solo+air[/url:38v1g4vj]
Or, would it just be better to continue to use what I have until I feel like it’s worth dropping $1000+ on a better bike? I bought this one thinking it would tie me over while I decided if I really wanted to ride. Now that I try to go a couple of times a week, I am just trying to fix the one part that kind of bugs me. I want kind of an all purpose bike, but it will mostly be used for trail and light DH use.
Thanks!
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The 1 1/8 straight steerer is going the way of the dodo bird, smoking and 26" wheels. Those of us still riding them are finding it tough to find usable upgrades. Mixing a new hot thing like tweener wheels with an oldschool standard like the straight steerer is only going to make it tougher on you. You’re in luck, however. The air sprung Recon is most definitely an upgrade over the coil sprung XCT, both in weight and in ride quality. I have two Recons and one Reba fork (one dual air and the other two solo) and I love them. They are fantastic forks for the price.
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Awesome! Thank you for the reply. I think I will get a recon and then keep this bike until I think I need something else. The rest of it has been great so I didn’t want to get too carried away.
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That is indeed a problem. I’ve been wanting to upgrade my 26" that has a straight steerer and the options are limited. I think the $200 upgrade to the Rockshox solo air isn’t a bad upgrade, from what I’ve seen, it is a better, more adjustable fork that functions adequately. I have a friend with your fork and would agree that it’s not good. I wouldn’t bother with the Rockshox cheap coil for either. I have experience with those as well, they’re better than the Suntour but still not good.
If you want a better fork than the solo air without breaking the bank too much, you might look at the RockShox 30 Gold TK Solo Air 100 27.5". I couldn’t find the straight steerer version of this on Amazon unfortunately, but you can probably find this cheaper if you search around a bit. If you look into a higher end fork, they will most likely have a thru-axle, which would require you to buy a new front wheel as well and I’m not sure it would be worth spending that much on the entry level bike, it would probably be worth upgrading the whole bike at that point, which I’m guessing is out, as your bike is only 2 months old.
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I actually just went ahead on bought the Recon Silver TK. I tried finding the Gold, but I don’t think you can get it in a straight steerer for a 27.5. I also figure that the bike really isn’t worth dropping much money on at this point seeing as I am not doing anything too crazy on it…yet 😉
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"jjcurtiscb" wrote
I am not doing anything too crazy on it…yet 😉
Give it time! 😆 Good deal on the fork! After you ride it a few times, I’d like to hear your thoughts, I’m interested in it for my spare bike.
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Ugh. Totally forgot I was going to need to swap over the crown race and don’t have the tool for it. Now my nice new fork is going to sit in my house for another week until I can get the tool in /sigh.
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I’ve moved races over on my forks probably 9 or 10 times and still have yet to purchase the tool. I use a brass drift punch to remove them. I use a razor blade and then a chisel to get the race far enough away from the steerer base to start tapping with the punch. For installation, I have a piece of 1×1 oak left over from some wood working that I use to tap the race back onto the steerer, alternating sides until it seats.
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I’ll give that a try and see if I can manage to get it off. It seemed pretty dang flush with the current fork though. So much so to the point where I could barely even get a knife edge on it.
To seat it, I planned on just getting a piece of PVC from home depot as I have seen a lot of other people do online.
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That’s why I used razor blades to get them started. Mine also leaves no gap or rounded edge when seated. I just tapped on the edge of the razor blade to create enough space to move to the chisel.
The PVC should work just fine being of a much softer material than the race.
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Well I ended up using a paint scraper and it worked perfectly! Guess I can return the crown race remover tool when it arrives. I totally forgot to go to home depot to get a piece of PVC and I ended up cutting up a plastic trash can and wrapping it around the tube. Surprisingly is also worked. Now I just need for the shock pump to come in tomorrow (I didn’t realize the Rockshox Silver TK didn’t come with one). I can already tell it’s WAY smoother than the old one. Can’t wait to take it out on the trail this weekend.
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You can still get Fox 36 in a 1-1/8″ steer tube
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