Coming on board with RockShox, Fox, Ohlins, and others, X-Fusion now has a longer travel and heavier duty 29'er trail fork. Mike Levy gave it a good
first look at Interbike this past year and over the last few months, several of us have passed one around and put some heavy miles on it to see how it performed.
Until this point, X-Fusion's Trace name was paired with their 34mm stanchion suspension. While the new fork shares the Trace name, it has been built and designed from the ground up with 36mm stanchions, a new chassis, new damper, and internally adjustable travel. The Trace 36 is made
Trace 36 HLR Details• Air spring
• 140-170mm internally adjustable travel
• 36mm stanchions
• Boost-110x15mm
• Offset: 51mm
• Axle-to-crown: 581mm at 170mm
• Weight: 4.4lbs
• MSRP: $899 USD
•
www.xfusionshox.com for aggressive trail riding and made to compete with offerings from more well known brands. The 36 HLR features externally adjustable high and low-speed compression as well as low-speed rebound. Traction is managed by X-Fusion's Roughcut damper. The 36 HLR, as tested, sells for $899 USD.
X-Fusion Roughcut damper
Construction The Trace 36 is a new design for X-Fusion. Rather than beefing up or paring down what they already had, they started from scratch. According to the engineers, they used a type of reverse FEA analysis to determine where and how much material was needed in the construction. Finite Element Analysis, is a computerized simulation that predicts how a product will perform, wear out, or fail over time when exposed to stress. The powerful software helped X-Fusion narrow down exactly how much and where material was needed in the chassis to get the strength, weight, and performance numbers for the 36 HLR fork.
There is an all-new crown, new lowers, and a self-adjusting negative air spring that automatically matches the positive spring pressure (so it's not manually adjustable). Accessing the air spring for token insertion or removal is done via a cassette tool. The fork's travel can be adjusted internally via X-Fusion's ITA push-pin system on the air rod.
Managing traction is X-Fusion's Roughcut damper. It has external high and low-speed compression, and low-speed rebound control. The damper uses an expanding bladder to handle oil displacement and provide some back-pressure to limit cavitation. The entire cartridge is sealed and can be removed without needing a full fork rebuild.
The fork sports an axle-to-crown distance of 581mm when it's at the full 170mm ride height. It has ample clearance for more than a 29x2.6 tire, and weighs around 4.4 pounds, depending on how much steerer tube you've chopped off. There are also a couple of mounts on the backside of the arch for a bolt-on fender. The 15x110mm axle is a bolt on style.
36mm uppers and stout lowers offer plenty of stiffness.
Performance I started riding the Trace 36 a couple of months ago after two other testers had already been on it. I set the air spring and dialed in the compression and rebound settings - (My weight is around 150 pounds) I ran 60psi, with three clicks of LSC and two of HSC in (from open) which seemed to be perfect for about everything I rode. I moved the rebound around a little bit depending on the day and the trail, but it generally stayed in the range of 14-15 clicks in.
The fork feels smooth and supported through its travel. It feels consistent for longer high-speed descents. The top of the travel was sensitive to small bumps, roots, rocks, and then supportive in the middle, while progressive with a good amount of ramp-up towards the end. I was using all of the travel, but a harsh bottom out was extremely rare. In rougher terrain, the Trace 36 feels composed, especially while riding in the mid-part of its travel. I never once questioned the capabilities of the fork or felt as if I was riding it in a manner it wasn't intended for or pushing past what the damper wanted to do. I always had traction when I needed it.
Putting it next to another competitor, the Trace 36 feels and acts a lot like a RockShox Pike from a couple of years ago, except with much better small-bump sensitivity. The fork is smooth - far more than I initially expected. I've ridden it in a variety of conditions, mostly wet and muddy, and the seals seem to be holding up well. I haven't noticed any change in performance over time so, durability wise, things seem to be right where they should be.
All in all, I was very impressed with the Trace 36 and plan to keep riding it for a while longer. It checks all of the boxes and works extremely well. I'm curious to see how things hold up over even longer periods of time.
Holding composure in roots, rocks, and turns.
IssuesI couldn't find much of anything I would call an issue on this fork. It works well. The one thing I did notice was that the compression adjustment knobs feel a bit loose and cheap. Having a knob fall off or lose its engagement is one of those 50 cent issues that can cause major problems and frustrations. I'm curious to see how durable they are longer term, although, at this point, the fork has been passed around between our crew for several months now with no problems, so while I mention it, I'm also not overly concerned.
The compression knob mounting doesn't feel like it is as high of quality or "put together" as the rest of the fork but after a few months, they still function as they should.
Pros
+ Price
+ Performs well
+ Simple to set up
Cons
- Compression knobs don't feel overly robust
- People may be scared of anything not branded "RockShox or Fox"
Pinkbike's Take | The Trace 36 is a solid performing fork for the price, and competes well against similar offerings from the bigger brands. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a quality fork in the aggressive 29er trail bike category.—Daniel Sapp |
"Cons
-People may be scared of anything not branded "RockShox or Fox" "
"We also make products for Öthers "
#anythingbutsram
Afraid of thing that are not RS or Fox? Lol. I am afraid of anything RS or SRAM!
Nice thing about X-fusion is the dampers, at least the upper end ones, don't just fail, or suffer chronic performance decline like the older Pike carts.
That sucks, fatline! I was a little nervous going to a dual position Lyrik last year, due to the additional complexity of travel adjust forks, fortunately after almost 100 hours (& 1 lower leg service) it's still great.
Agree on brakes, haven't tried the full featured Guides/Codes but swapped out my Guide Rs for Hopes. No brainer there.
" the Trace 36 feels and acts a lot like a RockShox Pike from a couple of years ago"
with no further elaboration is extremely suspect. we can say its good, but if we say it's TOO good, it might threaten our ad dollars and we don't want to do that.
you want real reviews you gotta listen to Just Riding Along on Mountainbike Radio i guess.
Funny thing is, I don't think the HLR feels like the Pike from a few years ago. Especially after a significant amount of hard riding, when the Pike gets airated and goes to utter crap. And who wants to continuously bleed their fork?
1 piece crown and steer also helps them not creak like a Pike! Not a single mention of that in the review.
But it's great. For those in the know, and who care more about function than fashion so to speak, they are great deals to be had on X-fusion.
I'm buying this thing to smash into rocks and stumps, and keep my aboard until the end of my ride intact. Not to park at the coffee shop with a fresh coat of wax on the frame.
@zephxii: Your memory is impressive ! I usually just use 454g=1lb (or 2lb=0.9kg if I'm lazy). Should be fine for starters.
You can practice your meth by selling drugs
My Vengeance HLR out-performs nearly all 170mm forks and is a lot older. Yeah it weights more but who cares about some grams on a freeride fork?
X-Fusion HLR/Roughcut for performance and good price.
Only downside is the tire cleareance with 650b.
Maybe Ill get a Metric and upgrade it to coil... must be heaven.
But for now im set this season...its Marzocchi-smooth
m.pinkbike.com/photo/14517606
Have a metric hlr roughcut. Ordered from my distributor a coil spring and assembly for just 100 Euro and let a friend make a custom shimming for 50 bugs. Killer fork. With 25 percent sag in attack Position, so smooth and supportive and great traction and control.
Only problem is a want to change from 27.5 to 29.if someone would like to buy my perfectly working metric I d go and change to trace 36 immediately
You are welcome :-)
No interest anymore?
Now 900 for an Xfusion? With much smaller service network and limited supply parts. You can get fox or rs parts virtually anywhere.
Who actually pays MRSP for bike parts? You're more likely to get Fox or RS cheaper than Xfusion.
Xfusion service was top notch when they were in Santa Cruz.
Call lemonshox in Germany. You ll probably get it there. Otherwise a mail to Iron stable in Taiwan but they usually only sell for the dollars mrsp
Also not helping them is that you can get Fox and SRAM stuff so cheap online it’s hard to justify taking a chance on X-Fusion. Öhlins has the motorsports heritage to fall back on that makes people think it’s premium. MRP is made in America. X-Fusion is...
They should also get them in to the hands of local rippers who aren’t jerks (good luck finding them) because another big problem is they people just don’t see the product. I think a lot of people don’t see them on bikes so they assume there must be something wrong.
If they didn't want to go with a full-on name change, just drop the damn "X" and move the name to "Fusion". When I was in bike shops, people didn't even understand how to pronounce the name, which is a branding fail. Fusion, with marginally better graphics, same price point, same performance = you just dominated the mountain bike market for MY2020.
I haven't ridden the Roughcut damper but i hear that it's a decent improvement over the old one, so that comparison seems a little bit fishy to me.
But anyways, still a good review and decent rating for XFusion
I've been on a trace 34 rl2 for 2 years, and its been absolutely trouble free. Sad to hear their service has taken a dive.
Problem is they don't seem to be anywhere...
@X-fusion - hook me up.
All this talk about stiffer platforms and everyone wants to save 10 grams going to a smaller axle!
But I'm still waiting on a review of the Revel! Come on PB twist their arm
Do any of you know or have done any hydraulic cartridge swaps?
I was thinking of buying a cartridge from a sr suntour durolux type RC PSC.
But I am not sure of its compatibility.
Regards
Do any of you know or have done any hydraulic cartridge swaps?
I was thinking of buying a cartridge from a sr suntour durolux type RC PSC.
But I am not sure of its compatibility.
Regards
Only real Freeride-fork out there... Yes a bit heavier but stiffer than 36/ Lyrik
Also with HLR /Roughcut you easily find your desired setup... Each click will be noticable.
Only watch out for the Onyx SC from DVO but Not available till winter
Only issue I had was I cracked the pinch bolt. Was replaced under warranty easily. Not really sure how it happened as I'm almost certain I never over tightened. Maybe a crash or just bad luck, as couldn't see a single other example of it happening online.
Did you use volume Spacers and how many? What number is maximum?