100mm Travel Fork Options?

[speedyspaghetti]

Hey everyone -

So I've been working on my Santa Cruz Highball project (trying to get it down to 20 lbs) and I ran into a bit of a snafu. It came with a Fox 32 Performance SC which is supposedly 3.65 lbs per the Fox website (1655g) but when I weighed it, it came out to 1390g on two different scales. I did weigh it without the axle, so I guess that would be about a 80g difference or so (QR Maxle) but at 1470g that is still much lighter than the listed weight. I was going to buy a SID SL Race Day, but the one I found on PinkBike weighs 1328g with the axle and cut down to 6" according to the seller, which is not as much of a drop as I was hoping for.

My questions are:
1. Is the ~1470g with axle weight likely accurate for my 32 SC?
2. Are the listed weights on the website weighed with axles and uncut steerers?
3. Would it make sense to upgrade to the SID SL even if the weight savings are only ~140g?
4. Anyone have any idea what a Fox Factore 32 SC weighs?
5. Any other forks / options I'm missing?

Thanks!

[js]

I had a 2019 Fox 32 Performance Elite with Fit4 damper and it was 1390g. When I swapped to the 2020 crown, it was 1420g. Both weights with the Kabolt axle installed. My understanding has long been that the only difference between the Factory and Performance Elite levels was the Kashima coating, which has zero impact on weight.

I found the suspension performance of that fork to be excellent, but you could rather easiliy find it's limits in corners or decents. While the added stiffness of the 2020 crown was noticeable, my recent move to a SID 35 resulted in much more stiffness still. I can see why Nino accepts the added weight of the 35 vs the SL.

In short, I don't think you'll save much weight at all going to a SID SL, and you may lose performance doing so. There are likely better places you could save weight and get a potential boost in performance vs this type of like for like fork swap.

[Hexsense]

You sure your is just Performance and not Performance Elite, right?
Performance Elite vs Factory is just the lack of Kashima coating (and perhaps ship with heavier axle with some manufacturers). Fork itself weight and work the same.
Then Performance (not Elite) do weight more because the damper is heavier.

Why do you want to upgrade?
If for weight, you could just change axle to leverless axle to save weight.
If you don't like how the Fox feels or feel 32SC to be flexy then yes, Sid SL Ultimate could help but perhaps eat the weight penalty and get regular Sid Ultimate that set to 100mm travel instead of 120mm.
If you hate how cross country forks feel and want the feel of a trail fork then eat weight penalty and get Manitou R7 Pro.

[speedyspaghetti]

I had a 2019 Fox 32 Performance Elite with Fit4 damper and it was 1390g. When I swapped to the 2020 crown, it was 1420g. Both weights with the Kabolt axle installed. My understanding has long been that the only difference between the Factory and Performance Elite levels was the Kashima coating, which has zero impact on weight.

I found the suspension performance of that fork to be excellent, but you could rather easiliy find it's limits in corners or decents. While the added stiffness of the 2020 crown was noticeable, my recent move to a SID 35 resulted in much more stiffness still. I can see why Nino accepts the added weight of the 35 vs the SL.

In short, I don't think you'll save much weight at all going to a SID SL, and you may lose performance doing so. There are likely better places you could save weight and get a potential boost in performance vs this type of like for like fork swap.

Makes sense - thanks for the info.

Yeah it seems to be a really expensive upgrade for at most a 100g savings (although probably less in actuality). I'm just a little confused since my calculated weights indicated I could get down to under 8.8 kg with the various upgrades I had planned, but now it seems like I'm going to struggle to get under 9.1 kg, which was my goal (9070 to be specific). I'm wondering if there is a larger difference between the C and CC carbon frame weights than I thought AND if SC's published frame weights are based on an unpainted frame rather than a painted one.

What I'll probably do is continue with the other parts I have already bought but haven't installed yet (brakes, wheelset, cranks) and then see how far off I am before considering any sort of fork upgrade.

[speedyspaghetti]

You sure your is just Performance and not Performance Elite, right?
Performance Elite vs Factory is just the lack of Kashima coating (and perhaps ship with heavier axle with some manufacturers). Fork itself weight and work the same.
Then Performance (not Elite) do weight more because the damper is heavier.

Why do you want to upgrade?
If for weight, you could just change axle to leverless axle to save weight.
If you don't like how the Fox feels or feel 32SC to be flexy then yes, Sid SL Ultimate could help.
If you hate how cross country forks feel and want the feel of a trail fork then eat weight penalty and get Manitou R7 Pro.

When I plug in my fork code on the Fox website it says 2019 Performance (non-elite) with the FIT4 remote damper, the stickers on the fork indicate the same thing. Isn't the FIT4 damper the same one as on the Performance Elite though? I thought the GRIP damper was only the 3-position one whereas the FIT4 was the only remote one.

Main goal is weight savings - I've just been trying to get the bike down to sub 20 lbs and given that I have the C frame instead of the CC frame, I'm doing some calculations and it seems like I might not make it below 20 with the current parts I have planned / bought already.

[Hexsense]

Hmm, why is there Fit4 in a Performance... Normally it's a grip. Maybe it's different for remote version. But the non remote spec grip in the Performance. Then Fit4 in Performance Elite.

If you are just a bit off the mark, check weight and options for Axles and grips as well.
I found these things weight to wildly vary. A grip can weight 59g or 130g each. An axle can be 40g or 100g+.

[speedyspaghetti]

Hmm, why is there Fit4 in a Performance... Normally it's a grip. Maybe it's different for remote version. But the non remote spec grip in the Performance. Then Fit4 in Performance Elite.

If you are just a bit off the mark, check weight and options for Axles and grips as well.
I found these things weight to wildly vary. A grip can weight 59g or 130g each. An axle can be 40g or 100g+.

That's weird, right? Cause I was under the same impression but the website says FIT4, so it's not like the previous owner just swapped in the FIT4 damper instead of the GRIP one. Yeah so I already did grips - ESI Chunky (69g for the set) instead of WTB Techtrails (102g for the set) but I'm still on the stock axles. I believe I weighed them and they came out to 80g for the front QR Fox axle and 67g for the Maxle in the rear.

[Hexsense]

Your front axle is heavy.
Get Fox Kabolt. 34g.

[robbosmans]

My RS SID sl was 1280g w/o axle and 17cm off steerer.