Öhlins Debuts New Trail/Enduro Forks
Öhlins Racing announced today that they’re releasing three new suspension products—a coil-sprung 29er fork, an air-sprung version of their 27.5 RXF fork and a lightweight coil-spring series for rear shocks.
RXF 36 COIL
The RXF 36 Coil is the newest addition to the Öhlins fork range. With TTX damping technology and a steel coil spring, it’s basically the front-end equivalent of Öhlins TTX 22 M rear shock.
Öhlins is targeting the RXF at the set-it-and-forget-it crowd of riders who just want to drop in the right weight of coil spring, fine tune sag and ride.
You can open up the fork and adjust the travel on the RXF 36 Coil, from 160 millimeters on down to 110 millimeters of travel. According to Öhlins, the external preload adjuster and floating spring piston design allow the fork’s ride height to be fine-tuned, without (says Öhlins) reducing small-bump sensitivity. The company also claims that the absence of air seals makes for extremely low friction and a super smooth early stroke.
Öhlins is targeting the RXF at the set-it-and-forget-it crowd of riders who just want to drop in the right weight of coil spring, fine tune sag and ride.
You can open up the fork and adjust the travel on the RXF 36 Coil, from 160 millimeters on down to 110 millimeters of travel. According to Öhlins, the external preload adjuster and floating spring piston design allow the fork’s ride height to be fine-tuned, without (says Öhlins) reducing small-bump sensitivity. The company also claims that the absence of air seals makes for extremely low friction and a super smooth early stroke.
Key Features of the RXF 36 Coil
*TTX 22 - Öhlins twin-tube damper for parallel oil flow. Includes external adjusters for high and low-speed compression, and low-speed rebound damping.
*Coil technology – Low friction and consistent performance hit after hit.
*Exchangeable springs – Allows the rider to find the ideal spring for maximum performance.
*External preload adjuster – Fine-tune your ride height
RXF 36 27.5
Öhlins is also releasing a new 27.5-specific version of their RXF 36. The company concedes that the fork doesn’t look a whole lot different than its 29er sibling, but contends that the distinctions on the trail are legit. The RXF 36 27.5’’ is available in stroke options up to 170 mm.
The damping system is, again, based on Ohlin’s twin-tube TTX platform. The company claims that the end result is a fork that is initially smooth, stays high in its travel and is capable of absorbing big hits. The fork’s three-chamber air spring allows you to tweak the fork’s progressivity, ‘on the fly’.
Key features of the RXF 36 27.5
*TTX22 - Twin tube damper for parallel oil flow.
*External adjusters for low and high-speed compression damping and low-speed rebound damping.
*Ramp-up chamber - A 3rd air chamber that controls the progressiveness of the air spring.
*Floating wheel shaft – MX-style wheel shaft. Holds you wheel in place without causing extra friction by forcing the fork legs together
Öhlins is also releasing a new 27.5-specific version of their RXF 36. The company concedes that the fork doesn’t look a whole lot different than its 29er sibling, but contends that the distinctions on the trail are legit. The RXF 36 27.5’’ is available in stroke options up to 170 mm.
The damping system is, again, based on Ohlin’s twin-tube TTX platform. The company claims that the end result is a fork that is initially smooth, stays high in its travel and is capable of absorbing big hits. The fork’s three-chamber air spring allows you to tweak the fork’s progressivity, ‘on the fly’.
Key features of the RXF 36 27.5
*TTX22 - Twin tube damper for parallel oil flow.
*External adjusters for low and high-speed compression damping and low-speed rebound damping.
*Ramp-up chamber - A 3rd air chamber that controls the progressiveness of the air spring.
*Floating wheel shaft – MX-style wheel shaft. Holds you wheel in place without causing extra friction by forcing the fork legs together
LIGHTWEIGHT SPRING SERIES
Öhlins is also trotting out a new, lightweight coil-spring series. To spout from the press release for a moment, “Advanced technology featuring multi-step surface treatment process as well as cutting-edge heat treatments and wire materials has allowed the Öhlins R&D team to stress the wire harder without causing damage to the spring. The Light Weight Spring Series allows us to meet the growing demand of lighter coil springs from short-travel trail bikes to World Cup Downhill bikes.”
All of Öhlins’ springs are sized for a specific shock stroke and all with 4 Nm/23 lbs increments.
For more info, check out www.ohlins.com/rxf36/
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Look at the times of EWS.... coil is not populair for no reason in EWS....
But for a fork... I am not yet convinced it heats up as much as air fork. And a lineair fork, cause thats what coil is. Looks good on paper though.
So, if someone can produce an important piece of equipment that would be 'set and forget' and without many downsides, I say: good job!
No 29er fork longer than 160mm! Why?
2013-2014 Marzocchi 55 RC3 Ti Evo V.2
All fine with Push, but the shocks are not available for all bike brands on the market. I have the Litevville 601 and I would pay double to get one Push industries shock tuned for my MK3.
I took my body armour of at dinner time and put it on the ground. Didn't realise it was full of bitey insects until the end of the day
I've got full DVO on the new trail bike and the service instructions seemed comparable to Rockshox. I 100% will not touch Cane Creek because their stuff is #1 unreliable and #2 unserviceable. The Ohlins I haven't researched yet but I doubt it can be serviced at home.
IMO new suspension products (including seatposts) that don't include serviceability in their press release just don't need my attention for personal use. Hence the reason I'll have a TTX on the shelf collecting dust this summer and bike yoke driving a Vivid on the back end of my bike. Who knows when my boss will be able to source dust wipers for his fork.
Just curious as user-serviceability is a huge thing for me.
Ya silly!? Still gonna buy it!
I mean, how you feel on the bike will always be the deciding factor but it would be useful to know how much the buzz-word technology actually affects the performance.
I'd love to be able to compare back to back skiing me forks/shocks, but come on, when didn't you have time/chance to do that on the sameness track on the same bike with most of the brands you wanted?
But yes, there are suspension dynos to test this.
Cheers, checking dynos now
yeah, seen dynos before, didn't know that's how they're called.
Now, I'm absolutely sure those guys know what they are doing, but here's my ignorant 2c anyway -
These tests are a little too raw I think, they'd give the engineer an idea how the suspension performed, but not give the rider an insight on how it would ride unless you become an engineer too.
Another reason why I think it's a little too raw is the fact that the test is way too synthetic. There's no impact, there's no lean, there's now latching and all the 'hits' are perfectly perpendicular to the fork. That's not how it will be used at all, that's more than an ideal scenario.
I'm not saying I know how to 'fix' it, just saying that for the purposes of bike reviews there should be a more suitable way of doing it.
Right now it's super vague, this is 'plush', this is more 'linear' than that...it's so subjective it means nothing really.
Since the 34 was as stiff as a Fox 36 or Lyrik, both of which are capable of 180mm, why not make a coil 180mm for those of us who want a little more travel and slacktasticness?
Generally the more you optimize for the suspension the more often you see springs. So cross country bikes use oil+air, but downhill bikes often use springs.
650 Stumpy frame.. I didn't do it purposefully as they were supposed to send a 29 frame but accidentally sent a 650. I believe the offset is 51 versus 46. handling is still impeccable, and the slight change in a2c has gone unnoticed. I was told by öhlins to run a little more sag than normal to adjust for the a2c/offset, but I've been running it normal and it feels amazing. If anything, it's helped a little with the pedal strikes I can never seem to avoid on specialized bikes.
I would definitely get one of these next just on "Ohlins" and "coil"... but the stanchions would have to be gold.