First Ride: 2019 RockShox Lyrik RC2
After initially being teased by the appearance of BlackBox-labeled forks at this year's Andes Pacifico Enduro, and then by a batch of Lyriks with red lowers that showed up at the NZ Enduro, the wait is finally over – all the details about RockShox's revised Lyrik can now be released.
Those candy apple red lowers are the most obvious change for 2019, a color that will only be available on the new Lyrik RC2 model. It's a throwback to RockShox's early days – back in the mid- to late-90s red Judys and BoXXers were ubiquitous on the race circuit. Not into the red? Don't worry, the black option hasn't gone anywhere.
Of course, RockShox did more than just slap on a fancy paint job. The Lyrik RC2 now has externally adjustable high-speed compression damping, a feature that was missing on the last couple of iterations. There's also a new aluminum air spring seal head, which increases the negative spring volume by 42%, and is said to greatly reduce the amount of friction in compared to the previous Delrin version.
Those candy apple red lowers are the most obvious change for 2019, a color that will only be available on the new Lyrik RC2 model. It's a throwback to RockShox's early days – back in the mid- to late-90s red Judys and BoXXers were ubiquitous on the race circuit. Not into the red? Don't worry, the black option hasn't gone anywhere.
Of course, RockShox did more than just slap on a fancy paint job. The Lyrik RC2 now has externally adjustable high-speed compression damping, a feature that was missing on the last couple of iterations. There's also a new aluminum air spring seal head, which increases the negative spring volume by 42%, and is said to greatly reduce the amount of friction in compared to the previous Delrin version.
Lyrik RC2 Details
• Travel: 150, 160, 170,180mm
• Wheel size: 27.5" or 29"
• New DebonAir air spring
• New Charger 2 RC2 damper
• Offsets: 37mm, 46mm (27.5"), 42mm, 51mm (29")
• External adjustments: rebound, high- and low-speed compression
• Weight: 2,013 - 2,058g
• Price: $999 USD
• Available: April 2018
• www.rockshox.com
• Travel: 150, 160, 170,180mm
• Wheel size: 27.5" or 29"
• New DebonAir air spring
• New Charger 2 RC2 damper
• Offsets: 37mm, 46mm (27.5"), 42mm, 51mm (29")
• External adjustments: rebound, high- and low-speed compression
• Weight: 2,013 - 2,058g
• Price: $999 USD
• Available: April 2018
• www.rockshox.com
There are also more aftermarket offset options for the Lyrik – 37mm for the 27.5” fork, and 42mm for the 29” fork, which is in line with the geometry changes that companies like Transition, Whyte, and others have been adopting. MSRP for the Lyrik RC2 is $999 USD, and it will be available this April.
The new air spring on the left, compared to the previous version on the right.
New DebonAir Air Spring
What was the reasoning behind the changes to RockShox 2019 lineup? According to Jon Cancellier, RockShox's product manager, “We took the Pike and Lyrik chassis, put them in our test lab, and started breaking down each subsystem as a whole. What are the performance attributes that we like, what are the things we don't like, what things can we improve, and what can we get done and bring to market in a year to improve suspension feel?”
After that time in the test lab, reducing friction ended up high on the list. Cancellier continues, “Friction is the enemy of suspension. If your fork has friction, that means it's not moving. You're having to overcome that force before we can react to bumps, before we can absorb bumps, before we can move through the travel.” RockShox's engineers realized the Delrin (read: plastic) air spring seal head wasn't sliding as smoothly as they wanted – it was contributing the most amount of friction to the system. To solve that issue, they made the switch to an aluminum seal head with a bushing inside that's meant to help it resist side loading.
This design change made it possible to adhere to tighter tolerances, and according to RockShox, results in an air spring that has 51% less running friction, and 73% less static friction compared to the Delrin version. Keep in mind that those numbers refer only to the air spring – they don't mean that the fork has 51% less friction overall.
Along with the reduction in friction, the new air spring also provides more negative spring volume – 42% more in the Lyrik, and 36% more in the Pike. The larger negative spring volume is intended to increase the initial compliance of the fork, making it more supple over small bumps, but there's more to it than that. More negative volume also raises the middle of the spring curve, which should provide more support as the fork goes deeper into its travel. On paper, the fork's suspension curve begins to more closely resemble that of a coil sprung fork, with a similar shape in the beginning and middle of the travel, but with the benefit of an end stroke that can be tuned via volume reducing tokens.
If the concept of an aluminum air spring that increases negative volume is sounding familiar, you're not alone – there are several aftermarket suspension companies that currently offer products intended to do exactly what RockShox have done in the new Lyrik. The good news is that RockShox's new air spring is backwards compatible – there are options for the Lyrik, Pike, Yari, and Revelation, and, with an asking price of $42, it's a fairly reasonable upgrade.
The RC2 damper on the right actually uses fewer parts than the RCT2 damper on the left. The amount of high-speed compression damping is changed when the spring that can be seen between the two grey cylinders is compressed, adding preload to the shim stack.
Adjustable High-Speed Compression Damping
Adjustable high-speed compression damping is now in place on the RC2 Lyrik, with a dial on the top right leg that provides five different damping settings. When the dial is turned it compresses a spring, adding more preload to a shim stack.
With the dial positioned in the middle setting it has the same amount of HSC damping as the current Lyrik, and then there are two clicks in either direction that allow riders to tune the fork to their liking.
RockShox wanted the high-speed compression adjustment to be usable, not confusing, which is why they didn't go with a dial that had dozens of minute clicks - having 5 rather than 20 options is meant to help keep riders from being overwhelmed by the tuning options.
RockShox wanted the high-speed compression adjustment to be usable, not confusing, which is why they didn't go with a dial that had dozens of minute clicks - having 5 rather than 20 options is meant to help keep riders from being overwhelmed by the tuning options.
Want an RC2 damper in your current Lyrik or Yari? That's an option, although at $244-$321 it's a little more pricey than upgrading the air spring.
Super Deluxe Updates
The Super Deluxe shock also received several updates that are meant to reduce friction and improve performance, although they're a little more subtle than the changes to the Lyrik. The prior version of the air can had a small dimple stamped into the inside of it, which allowed the positive and negative chambers to equalize. There are now three smaller dimples, and they're machined rather than stamped, which allows for a more precise finished product. That change also means that the sensation of the air transferring between the positive and negative chambers, the slight “psssst” of air that you may have felt while hopping around in a parking lot, is much less noticeable.
The air cans are also now more round due to changes in manufacturing practices, which seems like a small detail, but it's one that can have a significant impact on the amount of friction in a shock. There's also a new textured surface on the inside of the air can that's meant to allow oil to stick better, ensuring everything is well-lubricated and running smoothly. Overall, those changes are said to have reduced static friction by 16%, and stick/slip friction by 22%. (Static friction is pushing on the shock from a stationary position, and stick/slip friction is while it's in motion).
There are now three machined dimples, versus one stamped dimple, in the Super Deluxe air cans. The dimple allows air to pass between the negative and positive chambers.
The Super Deluxe's rebound circuit was also updated, and now each click affects the rebound damping the same way. Previously, the clicks at the beginning of the range had a different amount of impact to the feeling of the shock than those at the middle of the range. The overall range of damping options is the same, but now the steps between each setting are even, which should help make setup easier.
There's also a new low-speed check valve, similar to what's found in the Super Deluxe Coil, that's designed to add more rebound damping at low shaft speeds as the shock changes directions. That check valve is intended to help keep the shock more composed when faced with repeated impacts – picture a section of trail filled with braking bumps, or multiple roots in a row.
I'm ten solid rides in on the new Lyrik RC2 so far, which includes three days spend navigating the rooty, rocky, technical trails of the NZ Enduro. I'll admit that during the race I was concentrating more on not cartwheeling through the jungle, with varying degrees of success, but the blind race format did deliver plenty of unexpected terrain features to put the new fork to the test.
A Kona Process 153 CR served as the home for the new fork and shock, with a 170mm Lyrik RC2 up front and a Super Deluxe RCT at the back. As far as fork setup goes, my current air pressure is around 10% higher than what I ran in the 2018 model, due to the increase in negative volume, and I'm also running one less token than usual. The reduction in the number of tokens is due to the curve created by the new air spring – with more support in the middle of the travel there's not as much need to increase the end stroke ramp up. Depending on the terrain I usually ran between one or two clicks of high-speed compression from fully open, but I can see bigger riders or those who frequent high speed, really rough terrain appreciating the new external adjustments. Each click is distinct, and makes a difference that can actually be felt on the trail.
It'd be easy to think that increasing a fork's negative travel would result in a super squishy, ultra plush ride, but that's not entirely true. The Lyrik is nice and soft off the top, but I didn't feel much of a difference between the initial stroke of the 2018 vs. the 2019 Lyrik - it's in the middle of the stroke where the revised air spring is most noticeable. There's more support, which keeps the fork from diving too deeply into its travel in really rough terrain.
Now, 'mid-stroke support' is one of those terms that gets thrown around so much it's almost become a cliché, but it is an important characteristic of a well-performing fork. Ideally, you want a responsive and supple beginning stroke, in order to take the edge of the small bumps and chattery sections of trail. After that, the middle of the fork's travel should be smooth and controlled, without any unwanted diving during bigger hits. The Lyrik RC2 hits the mark on all those points, with a slippery-smooth initial portion of its travel, followed by plenty of support in the middle of the travel that helped keep it from getting sucked into the spaces between the endless spiderwebs of roots that crisscrossed the trails in New Zealand. I was also impressed by the level of comfort the Lyrik delivered – even on stages that stretched past the 10-minute mark, on trails that were full of unrelenting sections of anaconda-like roots, I never experienced any hand pain or discomfort.
Overall, the changes to the Lyrik are more evolutionary than revolutionary, but they do serve to create a fork that remains even more composed when blasting through the rough stuff, and the fact that the new air spring is available as a reasonably priced aftermarket upgrade is a nice touch. How does the Lyrik stack up against the rest of the field? I'd place it right up there in the lead pack, but keep an eye out for a more definitive conclusion, including notes on durability, once we spend some more time on it and get a chance to pit it against other contenders in back-to-back testing.
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It's great to see it back.
I miss the white Fox. :'(
fyxo.co/products/air-fyxo-jersey?variant=41369813827
for ex:
www.alltricks.com/F-11918-fourches/P-66307-rockshox_fork_lyrik_rc2_dh_170mm_axle_20mm__coil__tapered_black_matt
Also, on the top of the keyboard area, the thermal conductivity of aluminum makes the palm rest and track pad feel cold and lifeless. The texture is not organic, inviting, or natural. Its a very uncomfortable typing experience.
The edge of the front of the laptop is very sharp and digs into your wrists painfully. After a few hours of typing (some people work on their laptops) you start to look like a 17 year old emo girl trying to get attention by cutting her wrists. I find when working on my MacBook I have to move my arms into odd positions to keep my wrists from getting sore. A non-metalic coating or material would prevent this. Dell now does a carbon fiber typing area in their XPS series, and the warm, organic, soft, inviting texture is much better for long nights of programming or typing. Of course Dell still has the aluminum clamshell top so that everyone knows they copy Apple too.
These 'cosmetic' negatives might seem trivial, but when you sell your laptop for eeefffing $3k, it better not be painful to use. Professionals who use a laptop as a tool know the benefit from having a quality piece of kit. Its like how road cyclists obsess over small details in their setup and bibs- small differences are amplified when you spend 3 hours in the saddle.
Finally, Aluminum is to thick and heavy for a laptop. It makes the device heavier than it needs to be, it isn't as strong as fiber-impregnated plastic (for this application) and dramatically increases manufacturing expense.
same goes for tablets. id guess we have 20ipads and 15 "other" branded tablets and the non-apple stuff lasts a couple years max. the apple stuff is still going strong and some of the ipads are 4 years old at this point.
it seems to me the build quality and selection of materials is superior
(fyi - this was generated from a dell laptop
www.bikerumor.com/2015/04/21/soc15-fox-upgrades-32-34-and-36-forks-with-fit4-damper-rc2-shock-damper-cutaway-more-2016-suspension
@WAKIdesigns: First you tell me my 55 is a piece of shit and now you're denigrating my lyrik's really fat skewer? I'll fight you.
I'll have to let my wife know that next time she complains about how I'm dressed..
this wouldn't be an issue if apple didn't suck at cooling their laptops, granted its a design choince not a random flaw but even big stuff like imac has terrible cooling and cpu throttles hard for the sake of running it ultra silent but then why you are buying powerful cpu if you cant use it fully?
(not to mention that even 15 inch macbook pro if awful for any professional unless all you do is some light work)
i guess this is regional thing because in EU most companies will give you windows pc/laptop
That being said, my next laptop I'll probably go back. Windows has its issues, but I just don't jive with macOS. It has less intuitive UI and its harder to multitask.
Straight Ubuntu isn't viable for most people, myself included. I need photoshop, and wine+photoshop is too slow. No manufacturer makes good drivers for linux, so you can't get linux/Ubuntu to run well on any laptop, or get reasonable battery life.
It makes me want to start my own OS, forked off Ubuntu, that has Alexa built in and runs android apps natively, using the amazon app store. I would work direct with Chinese manufacturers, so the laptop/desktop is built end-to-end so that it has good drivers, and doesn't require a computer science degree to set up like Ubuntu.
I met a guy who opened a shop selling tablets and phones bought straight from the manufacturer in China. The tablets were cheap, bullet proof, powerful enough and had USB ports (Which I'm a massive fan of, being over 40 and an enjoyer of my own physical disk space). No brand notoriety though, so his venture bombed. The people want i-pads/samsungs at any cost, including loss of connectivity and being locked in the brand through cloud services, etc.
But I'm sure if you had the right business model and enough cash to be able to wait for your market to develop, you could make it work. Unless it's just for kicks and personal use...
All I can remember about it from back then was, it was the most amazing thing I ever rode....in 1996 that is lol..
Everyone knows you buy a MacBook as a status statement towards clients and to employ thousands of Chinese children.
instagram.com/p/BgjGinFDdXs
Both of those are stupid.
Also though, the fork updates seem decent and well thought out.
And that's stupid. This is a 2018 fork. Sram knows it. The consumers know it. The bike companies know it. So stop the bullsh*t and call it what it is.
If we're giving them crap for the release schedule, at least give them credit for offering air spring and damper upgrades for forks as far back as 2014.
If everyone agreed to call it the year it's being released in, it would sure make a lot more sense.
I saw a Shimano Patent request for 1 by Narrow Wide Chain Ring setup. Dated before bikes even had 9 gears.
There will always be place for tuners narrowing that field of use and improving the performance / feeling of the suspensions for a given user.
I came away with a much greater respect for balancing performance, cost, serviceability and durability. Combine this with manufacturing millions of tiny bits to near perfect tolerances and they make a lot of tough decisions about what and how to put updates into production.
That said, companies like Push, Avalanche and Vorsprung exist for people like us on the fringe who want that last 10% of performance and are willing to spend the extra time and money on tuning.
The main improvement of the MY 19 air spring is allowed by the use of an aluminium cap instead of high density plasitic one (which is by far less expensive) that allow for tighter tolerances, better seal seating, etc...
So finally rock shox realizes that they cannot get something correct from plastic and they made a press release for that. "look, we now use alloy parts in our fork internal ! It's so cool we have it anodized in red !!! ".
In the mean time, Fox, Manitou, MRP, Xfusion have had alloy internals for years...
So it just made me laugh when you said sram took R&D very seriously. If it is true, it means that they just discovered that alloy parts with tight tolerances works better than plastic ones, and figured out how to produce them... Well done, R&D, well done...
My point is that outright performance isn't the only objective when you run a business. It's only us dorks who would notice or care about these small details.
Yep, but others company doesn't make the same choice.
In the same context they chose to make a quality product instead of selling hundreds.
And concerning myself, I do prefer pay 300 bucks more for quality product than buying a cheap design then having to upgrade it with third party parts (Vorsprung, etc..).
That's why I dislike sram, they are just about getting most of OEM sales with average products and marketing BS.
I don't mean that the forks are bad, I just mean that they are almost as good as they can be considering the optimisations / compromises that needs to be done to cover the wide variety of rider the fork should appeal to.
Tuners like TFtuned or Vorsprung, etc... works on several small spectrums of rider and can further optimize what RS or Fox has done for each of the spectrum of rider they decided to have.
If you read the detail/ benefits on their website, and the previous Pinkbike review - I would basically concur with all of that. The trickiest bit is fitting it. You need the right tools (tip - a £3 rubber golf shaft clamp works a treat instead of the aluminium air shaft clamp). You also need to be extremely careful when removing the existing piston head, don't round the bolt. Soak it in boiling water for at least 5 mins to soften the threadlock.
BUT, my Rockshox Pike fork is SO much better than my Fox 32. Fox released something that was inferior and then had to re-vamp it (their limited time discounted internal upgrade). So, most parts manufacturers get caught up in this, not just Sram.
"You don't think boutique brands cut costs? "
Maybe they did it but in a lesser way. Their added value to justify pricing is on performance, construction quality, robustness, etc...
"So you should be hating on every company is the bike industry by that logic."
I do know the price of OEM suspensions kits from RS and Fox for a mid-sized bicycle brand.
I can guarantee you that for the same bicycle retail price, the margin is way higher for RS OEM than Fox.
And you're comparing very different business models. Margin on car sale is ridiculously low comparing to bike industry, even smartphone.
A bicycle retailer make a 50% raw margin on the retail price. That mean that upstream from that, the brand made its margin, and upstream again, OEM brand made its margin too...
So profits are huge for Rock Shox, they can decide to make more benefit with cheap internal, or less with quality internals (like 3$ less maybe), that's not a life or death decision, simply increasing profits. Now you know why big brands made in-house components.
"And that's great you would spend $300 (30%) more for a product for it to be made boutique. But you are about .001% of the market. Everyone is driven by price. Not just OEMs."
Now if you check boutique prices like Jenson, the MY18 Lyric is the same price than a MY Fox 36... MRP Ribbon is even less, as Manitou... So the 300$ I talked about are even not relevant.
Given that Ohlins, MRP, Formula, BOS, Fox, DVO, etc... make higher quality product than RS and knowing the differences in OEM cost, it's your decision but concerning myself I will not buy a lesser quality product at the same retail price than a higher quality one.
And if you add the cost of vorsprung or anybody else kit for RS forks, then you will pay 150$ more for having something approaching.
As a side note I will add that Formula, Marzocchi-DVO, BOS, Manitou, Fox, Ohlins are not mountain-bike related only companies. Their skills in designing products are way higher and older, with a lot more experience, in markets where quality construction make the difference between life and death of both companies and riders (WRC, moto racing, etc...).
RS only design MTB suspension, which is a bit like designing toys, maybe that's why they are not reluctant to made cheap internals and work with lower tolerances.
During years, very few can make a difference between 2 products in MTB suspension. If you read Pinkbike, you will never see them stating that Fox or RS is better than the other.
Today, with internet, independant testing, suspension optimisation, people begin to have real knowledge and expectations from their suspension and they become suspsicious about RS quality.
The time you see a 8500 $ sworks enduro spec'ed with a Pike (!) has gone.
Check Giant, spesh or intense range for instance, Fox is again spec'ed in the high end models, RS for entry levels. German brand like Canyon always spec'ed Fox for they high-end models
So precisely at the same time RS start loosing OEM market parts, they start to communicate on their internal quality improvements... That's funny.
But during years they just fooled you with their marketing BS, like "rapid recovery" tune used for years by others companies (digressive rebound damping), "countermeasure spring" - this one is hilarious since it precisely adress the stiction problem they got for years due to bad conception and low tolerances, so they turn a weakness into a marketing argument - state of the art, etc...
And now red heritage suspension... What a strong, technical, fact-based argument demonstrating superior suspension quality.
Reverb issues came from tolerances in design. Using metal piston in metal tube, tolerances have to be very tight.
Hydraulic alloy parts have to be casted then CNC'ed or just CNC'ed. Since it's metal vs metal, it's difficult to have tight tolerances because your tooling wears very fast, so dimesnions can fluctuate a lot between parts if you didn't do QC often or sharpen/change your tooling often, which is costly.
Going plastic allows to have tighter tolerances by injection molding, or even milling with tooling wearing slower since it's metal vs. plastic (okay, high density plastic).
In a dropper post thermal expansion is not an issue since T° varies slowly and in tight boundaries.
It is not the case for suspension since T° can increase a lot, generating thermal expansion.
Alloy thermal expansion coefficient is 10 times lesser than plastic (1.6*10-5 for 1°C from 20° to 100°C for 1630 alloy vs 1.2*10-4 for 1° from 23 to 55°C for delrin whatever viscosity). So it is better to get alloy parts instead of plastic in such environment.
For instance, Fox started to produce the Float X with a plastic IFP then went alloy for this very reason.
Some "plastics" have equivalent thermal expansion coefficient to alloy, like phenolic resin (used for brake pistons for instance) but are more difficult to mold/mill.
I'm not a fox guy too, I'm just a SRAM hater ;-).
Fox did a first mistake in designing their CTD stuff, then they had big quality issues when they decided to outsource their production to TW (2013-2014).
After a few year everything settled, but they didn't lower their QC or material quality. Their internal parts was metal from beginning.
RS has always produced stuff in TW with plastic internals.
I precisely got a 2013 Float 34 my wife wouldn't sell for a Pike despite my "advices" because it was white and gold (u can't beat that) so I had to made the 2015 hydraulic upgrade then 2016 air spring upgrade, for 50$ each.
Now she got a 2013 fork with burly construction and up to date internals. I tested it back to back with a Pike and stopped to annoy my wife with that because it was way better. And she got the color she wanted ;-)
My next fork will be a Selva or a Ribbon.
That said, anyone who knows that much about phenolic resin is going to be hard to argue against.
there is a lotttt of competition nowadays, the pike is just one of many good forks
Just need a backwards compatible damper (which they probably do) and you have a new fork for not much £££
It will be retrofittable to all black stanchion Lyriks and of course Yari but be careful, it will only be retrofittable to 2018 Pike. Older Pike's (2014-2017) have a different dimple location and that alone makes this new air spring incompatible. Older Pikes can still gain a big improvement in air spring performance by installing a Vorsprung Luftkappe.
Also the wear on the red sealhead comes from the fact that the sealhead is probably moving vertically back and forth a bit during pressure reversals on the negative chamber, this was avoided on the delrin sealhead thanks to the wavy washer which kept the sealhead pressed against the retaining ring.
Fox 36 and Formula Selva were the test winners.
A)
Most of the German sites are subscription only.
They make most of their money from readers buying their subscription.
They can not give a positive review to a crappy product otherwise people will stop trusting them and cancel subscriptions.
B)
Most North American/English sites are free.
Meaning they make money from companies buying ads.
SRAM/RockShox and Specialized are the biggest money spender.
Give them a bad review and they won't advertise on the site anymore.
days from last mass shooting??
enduro-mtb.com/en/best-160-mm-mtb-fork-can-buy/12 (don't know why it doesn't make it a link)
www.mtb-news.de/news/2018/03/07/29er-enduro-federgabel-vergleich-test
I find all these new forks with lots of mid support feel like crap on the small stuff.
Modern suspensions are harshly over damped.
No wonder they try to reduce the friction.
No wonder every one runs tubless tires at ultra low psi.
Yes my fork dives. The rear suspension compresses too.
And at the end of a long ride my arms feel fresh.
And my tires stick like glue to the trail.
If I purchased a rock shock or a Fox fork first thing I would do is get it re valved to actually function properly.
Or throw in an Avy cart.
Oh yes most people ride "flow trails"
This fork is for you.
If yes, you can damn well bet I’m going MRP.
In no, you can still damn well bet I’m going MRP.
I love how RS makes these things aftermarket upgradeable. I have a history of buying lyriks with bad bushings and swapping out the lowers to have a cheaper new fork.
So much more home mechanic friendly than other brands.
HSC/LSC and HSR/LSR...
It just says your 2018 product was shitty if there's that much of a difference.
I think they must invest more on r&d and engineers instead of marketing crap.
The new air spring will fit to 2014 pike model as well?
It (air spring) will be available April 2018 as fork will?
Is the Lyrik RC2 29er available with: 170mm travel, black lowers and 42mm offset?
@pinkbike @SramMedia
Are they being phased out ?
Will Pike continue to offer dual air ?
Luckily they got the matchy matchyness dialed.