Fox Van 36R vs. 36RC2

[Spit]

I'm looking to buy a Spec. SX Trail 2 pretty soon, which comes specced with Fox Van 36R's. This all sounded sweet until I read a review of the bike in Mountain Bike Action where they complained of the forks blowing through their travel. They suggested that the low-speed compression damping on the RC2's would allow you to keep things supple for the big hits without allowing the forks to dive too much under pedalling/braking.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I don't always trust MBA's reviews, and the fact that one of their recommended solutions is to buy a heavier spring kit (blindingly obvious!) makes me doubly sceptical. Still, I'm wondering whether it's worth asking the shop if I can pay the extra to upgrade to RC2's when I buy the bike. What I also can't work out is whether the 36R's have internal compression adjustment (the Fox site doesn't make it very clear)- if they do then no problemo, I can fiddle with them that way.

Your thoughts please gentlemen...

[DrewM]

All Fox coil (Vanilla) forks used to come with three springs (soft, medium, heavy)... I'm kind of suprised if they don't anymore.

I'm 180+ gear and I've ridden a the 36 R with heavy springs and it felt good. Definitely not diving through all its travel.

[ZHendo]

The main complaint in the mba article was basically that there was no external adjustable compression. I'm not sure if there is internal, if there was, wouldn't mba at least have tried to use it to put in a fair test on the bike?

[Spit]

The main complaint in the mba article was basically that there was no external adjustable compression. I'm not sure if there is internal, if there was, wouldn't mba at least have tried to use it to put in a fair test on the bike?

Well you'd think so, wouldn't you? But then the very fact they recommend harder springs as a solution to a 'problem' with the forks had me gobsmacked- surely setting up the suspension on a bike to match the rider's weight is about as basic as it gets?! Trying to counter the wrong spring with compression damping is just silly.

My suspicion is that the forks are fine once you use your loaf and stick the correct spring in (which Dizzy are perfectly willing to do, and I'm only 120lbs anyway as it happens), I just thought I'd double-check that the MBA 'experts' are speaking out of their sphincters...

[schoenrock]

everyone in mba is a knob and i wouldnt trust anything those idiots say and i'd be willing to say that in person right to rc's face just before i lace him out with the right hook.
the 36r's compression adjustments are all internal, if they had a problem with the fork diving why didnt they adjust it instead of continuing to test a fork that wasnt set up for the rider?
i owned the 36rc2 which was great but i wasnt a single crown kind of guy.

[Kye]

You can purchase the rc2 cartridge and just put it in there.