RS-1 fork

[tonytourist]

The RS1 has the Charger damper, which is probably why your friend prefers the damping feel. The 2017 SID is supposed to have a modified version of the Charger damper, which should improve the performance in certain conditions.

[TheRookie]

Good call......must admit I hadn't gone into it much.

[Steve_W]

I came from a niner rdo rigid fork, i was a little worried I'd experience a whole world of flex here, flex there!
I found a set pretty cheap so went for it.
No complaints from me, I feel hardly any flex....
The wheel change, you do get used to it.

[whatsblue]

I'm 6ft and 68kg, running the 29" RS1's with 90 psi in them and the rebound at the slowest end of the scale to prevent them kicking back/ pogo stick.

Small bump performance is so good that it annoys me due to small amount of bobbing with pedalling on flat. End up using the lockout lots on flats and every time i want to ride out of the saddle which I prefer to do. Wondering how long the lockout will last with so much use!!! At mow, I prefer my older forks : Magura Durin SL for 26" which was smarter and did not move while I climbed out the saddle but came to life on rough ground. So I tried runnig the RS1's with 100 psi but it just does not seem to feel right. Maybe I need more bedding in time. Probably done about 300km on them so far.

I am a fast technical rider living in the Pyrenees mountains. Stiffness is great in all but one situation that I've noticed so far.

While descending they can occasionally twist out of line, like when they hit a rock on an off camber (lets say camber to the left). This causes you to correct the line by turning the bars to the right but after the obstacle, the twist corrects its self and this leave the forks pointing too far in to the right. Effectively now over steering and needing yet another turn of the bars to the left to correct it. At worst this causes a dab on the brakes and loss of speed through holding back a bit to stay on the S/Track. Other than that the forks are impressive in all other characteristics. Fore/ aft stiffness is great for example.

1550g aint too bad but I've compensated for the weight of the forks (currently weighting 1550g after tuning/ cutting steerer tube) by using an extralite hyperwiz hub, ditching the quick release for an extralite bolt through axel, using a 74g -12 deg extralite stem and a 90g extralite bar with road tape. No stem cap yet and no dust cover on headset in order to lower bars. Total bike weight = 8160g

There's probably no fork that is perfect in every characteristic so I may be happy to live with the negatives as there are lots of positives for them. I would suggest that they are not the best fork for Olympic distance racing but work better for Marathon or ultra distance or if you are a rider who rides all day in the saddle/ not standing up.

[whatsblue]

Would be interesting to hear what other people are using for fork settings/ against their weight and if pedal bob is a problem for them too?

[Nefarious86]

15-18% sag in a 100mm Brain RS1 and no bob even when dialled open unless I'm up and mashing.

[whatsblue]

Mines 100mm too, 90psi for me is giving 10-15% sag. Just got home from ride. Impossible to ride out of saddle without say 15 to 20mm Bobbing. Obviously a guess from looking down! But in saddle, at a time trial effort on flat tarmac the forks still bob around unless locked out! Maybe the Brain makes all the difference!?!

[whatsblue]

Got another question... When the wheel and axel is removed, should the non drive side fork leg be capable of extending another 20mm longer than drive side to make the leg 120 mm? Mine does this with a light pull of the hand. Wondering if this is normal? Canyon told me it is.

[CGT]

While descending they can occasionally twist out of line, like when they hit a rock on an off camber (lets say camber to the left). This causes you to correct the line by turning the bars to the right but after the obstacle, the twist corrects its self and this leave the forks pointing too far in to the right. Effectively now over steering and needing yet another turn of the bars to the left to correct it. At worst this causes a dab on the brakes and loss of speed through holding back a bit to stay on the S/Track.

That sounds properly scary.

[juuzo]

I'm 76kg rider and I use 100psi. Fork is sensitive but I don't see any bobbing issues cause I use lockout on flats. Xloc is in my opinion one of the best lockouts with adjustable gate.
My fork legt leg also extends a bit when pulling so I would say that is normal.

[whatsblue]

Ok, thanks for reassurance juuzo, re: leg lengths. Maybe they just need more miles to bed in a bit... I'm doing the marathon race Roc d'Azur next week! So I'll try and give them a hammering. To CGT, I'm sure that's what is happening with steering. What I should do is try to borrow a gopro camera, film the front wheel and forks from bars to prove it before speaking more of it.

[CGT]

I don't doubt you, I'm just saying that any strengths this fork might have is negated many times over by such unpredictable behaviour. I must assume that the only reason Rock Shox is still selling this fork is that they invested a lot of money in the tooling to make it, and now desperately want to recover those costs.

[whatsblue]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Unpredictable behaviour. It's kind of catch 22 for me thus far. Ride easy or flowing terrain = not much problem, maybe just the occasional wide exit from a corner. But ride hard, even aggressively, ride fast through a hard hitting rock garden (downhill with forks weighted), and I can get some twist through legs that changes your line to force a recovery. Could be minor but still unpredictable. Catch 22 is that it exactly in the rarest, fast and rocky parts that you really need to depend on them!

My old forks did not absorb hits so well as RS1 but it did keep a good line in the roughest stuff so long as I was prepared to hold on tight and relax the rest of the body for shocks.

[damond]

Just a silly question if anyone knows...Since the RS1 uses a 110mm hub, will it be compatible with any boost hub?

[juuzo]

No. You can fit the wheel but rs-1 needs torque tube hub that is stiff enough. Boost hub end caps are not big enough.