Review of Fox 32 F29 RLC and Fox F29 RLC vs Reba Race 29

I took my Fox F29 out for its maiden voyage today. Prior to heading out, I converted it from 80mm to 100mm of travel. I also spent some time dialing it in. The one concern I had was that the lockout wasn't working prior to my ride. For such an expensive fork, I was not happy.

The reason I switched. from my Reba Race (which I loved) to the Fox F29 was only because of a curiosity that I had. I wasn't able to imagine that anything would out perform my Reba and my only thought as to why others spoke so highly of the Fox F29 was due to its brand name. Now you are going to read something I've never told my wife... I WAS WRONG.

The Fox performed very well. While it was not an overwhelming difference over the Reba, the suspension, while still plush, felt much firmer. I'm not sure how to explain it and I've spent some time since my ride trying to figure out how to better explain it, but that's the best I could come up with. I suppose it simply feels less mushy or squishy. Also, after about a mile into the ride, as others had told me, my lockout began to work. Perhaps the oil needed to gather in the right places, who knows. The lockout was great. I think it outperformed the Reba lockout. I stood up on the pedals and mashed away and it felt like I had a rigid fork on the front.

All in all I'm very pleased with my purchase and I will be putting crazy miles on this fork. This is the fork I'm going to stick with, no doubt.

Here are my thoughts with respect to the Fox vs the Reba:

1. Suspension Feel: The Fox is superior in this area. Less mushy. A firm but plush ride. You will love it. The Reba ain't bad at all though.

2. Lockout: Fox wins again. I always had a bit of bounce in my Reba lockout. Due to its adjustability, the Fox felt like a rigid. It can have more bounce if I want it. Of course, the Fox does not have the poploc remote, which is a great convenience.

3. Weight: Reba wins. I believe the Reba comes in at 3.54lbs and the Fox F29 100 comes in at 3.78 lbs. Yes, the Reba is lighter, but if you give up a beer a week, you probably won't ever feel the difference. Just wait until after football season to give up that beer.

4. Features: Fox wins in the adjustability category, Reba wins in the convenience category. The pop loc remote is great.

5. Looks: I prefer the Fox due to the bad ass Fox stickers, but both look great in white.

6. Reliability: I have to say that the jury is still out, but it looks like the Reba wins. It seems like the Fox is just a little finicky and I can see problems springing up from time to time. What the heck is up with a lockout that only works after 1 mile of riding? I never had anything that went wrong with my Reba and it worked perfectly without fail.

Result: I think Fox wins on performance, but just like an expensive, high end sports car it is not without its drawbacks. The Reba is a very nice, reliable fork with some great features like the poploc remote and there isn't a great drop off in performance. Assuming equal price, I would say the forks are equal depending upon your priorities.

Convert Your Fox F29 Fork from 80mm to 100mm of travel

So I got my Fox 32 F29 RLC fork way ahead of schedule. It came in from CA in only a few days. That meant more time to play. While I still haven't finished its prep and full installation, I did complete the 80mm to 100mm conversion, as I promised I would do. I was very hesitant to start messing with the inners of a $500 fork, but it actually wasn't all that hard to do.

Keep in mind, I've messed around with a lot of bike parts, but the fork inners is something I never wanted to take on. It is my final frontier so to speak. I was a total novice getting into this and it took me about twenty minutes to complete with very little oil leakage or mess. Here are a few easy steps with pictures to complete your own conversion. I will try to be as clear as possible to ease your pain:

1. Back off the bottom black 10mm hex nut located on the air chamber side of the fork. It's easiest to use a hex socket for this, but mine wouldn't fit so I used a crescent wrench. It removed very easily. Just back it off a few threads. Do not remove it entirely at this time.

2. Unscrew the top blue cap that covers the air valve. Remove it and set it aside.

3. Using your air pump or some other tool remove all of the air out of the chamber. You may see a tiny bit of oily discharge in the air valve. That's normal.

4. After removing all of the air, use a 26 mm socket to remove the silver cap covering the air chamber on the top of the fork, air side (of course). Totally remove it and set it aside. If you look down the air chamber, you will see the resevoir of thick, blue/green fox float oil.

5. Grab a clean cup or other container (assuming the oil is clean and reuseable, otherwise you just want any container). Position the container over the air chamber and flip both upside down. The float oil will run into your cup. Make sure you save every little bit that you can so that you can replace as much as possible.

6. Now that your air chamber is clear, clamp your fork into a bike stand and make sure it is almost horizontal. You will not want to make it completly horizontal, but let the lower legs reside just ever so slightly below the top of the fork. I went completely horizontal and ended up getting a slight leak of the oil from the lowers into the air chamber. Keeping it nearly horizontal will prohibit the lower oil (yellow oil) from leaking out during the next step.

7. After the fork is clamped in, you will want to tap on the black hex nut on the bottom of the fork to push the compression rod (where the spacer resides) out. Fox recommends using a plastic head hammer for this so you don't damage the fork. I began using a rubber mallet, but got nowhere. I then switched to a regular hammer and tapped very gently. You will also want to have a clean cup handy just in case oil does come rushing out. As you see in the pic, I set up a contraption with a cup and electrical tape so I wouldn't need 10 hands to complete the operation.

8. Once you see the bottom threaded piece of the rod push the through the hole in the bottom (if you've done step 6 correctly, no oil will come out), you will want to take a hex wrench or some other tool and push it through the hole to push the compression rod out the rest of the way.

9. Once the compression rod pops up through the air chamber, locate the spacer on top of the springs (it's that black, knob looking thing on top of the spring), and remove it by gently pushing it off of the rod. Once removed, the springs may stick in their original position for a moment. Just take a hand and help them extend fully to the top of the rod where the space was residing. You've just made your fork a 100mm travel fork. Congratulations!

10. Use your thumb or finger to push the rod back through the hole at the bottom. Assuming no oil was lost (it wasn't here) simply tighten your 10mm hex nut back on the threaded rod.

11. Tilt your fork back to vertical in the bike stand, and replace as much float oil as you can back into the air chamber.

12. Use your 26mm hex to tighten the air chamber cap.

13. Fill the air chamber with the required amount of air and replace the air valve cap.

Voila!!! Mission complete.

You may also take this time to perform full maintenance or replace your oil since you have the fork apart anyway. I'm flirting with the idea of doing that since I did lose a tiny bit of oil. My plan is not to buy the Fox Float oil, but rather 85 wt gear oil, which is what it really is just a lot cheaper and 10 wt shock oil from the cheapest manufacturer. I'm also going to buy a syringe so I can accurately and neatly replace the oil.

Now that I have the fork set at 100mm, I am in the process of cutting the steerer, positioning the star nut and running the brake cable through the fork. I also want to get some kind of protectant for the fox decals as they look like they lift easily. I also need to dial the fork in per Fox instructions.

I hope the tutorial helped. Please leave feedback and let me know what you think. The steps were based on an article I found on mtbr, but I couldn't find any pictures detailing the best way to perform the surgery. I hope I've provided that here.

Mission Accomplished!

After 2.5 months of searching, I finally found my new fork. On Ebay, I found a brand new, in packaging with box and all of the accessories 2009 Fox 32 F29 RLC fork. It is advertised as an 80mm, but I saw an extra spacer in the pictures which makes me believe it is actually a 100mm, which I prefer. If it is indeed an 80mm, then I will perform the quick operation to extend it to 100mm of travel.

The funny thing about the purchase is that I offered the seller, a week prior, a deal for the same cost as I bought it but away from Ebay to help him avoid the Ebay fees. He agreed but ultimately backed out of the deal. A week later, I found it relisted on Ebay and I put in the only bid at the formerly agreed to price. That was ultimately what I paid for it, but he had to absorb the extra Ebay fees after all was said and done. I tried to help him out, but I guess he had to learn the hard way. I'll be sure to review it after I install it and ride.

Now I'm on the hunt for the last piece of the puzzle, an upgrade to the fly team ti 29er frame. That would be the ultimate finishing touch. I found a seller today who is selling the fully built bike. I'm waiting on his return email as to whether he'll accept my offer for the frameset alone. If he will, I'll go through one last build and put the ultimate bike together!

From 2 to none

So I made the decision to sell my Reba Race 29er, which I loved. I really wanted to give the Fox F29 a try. The bad news was that when I checked out the brand new Fox F29 that I bought, it turned out to be not so brand new. Granted, it was a take off, but it had marks, scuffing and nicks all over it. So I sent it back to the seller. For the last two weeks I've gone through life with no fork and, thus, no mountain biking. I've started my full time training for the Baltimore Half Marathon coming up in October, so I don't have a ton of time for it anyway, but I'd still like to be hitting the trail once or twice a week before the winter sneaks up on me.

Now I'm spending my spare time trying to find an affordable Fox f29. Ugh, I should've just kept the Reba and ridden the heck out of it. Let me be your cautionary tale.

Follow-up Review

The bike is doing well since its upgrading. It is very light, easily maneuverable, and rolls over big roots and even small to mid steps as advertised. One of the features I like best is the light weight front end. The upgrades, including the very light Reba fork, the super-light stem, spinergy wheels, and ti handlebar have made it very easy to pull up and over high steps and mid-size logs, even from a relative stand still.

I found myself in a position last week on a trail that I was riding for the first time, where I suddenly came upon a very large step that I did not see until the last minute because of a blind curve. I was already slowed by large roots leading up the step. Once I saw the step, knowing that I was at a near stall, I almost unclipped and changed my approach. Instead, though, I merely pulled up hard on the front end and really cranked down on the pedals and easily got up and over the step. My heart was beating pretty quickly, but it all turned out well.

I have no regrets with the Moto frame, tires or wheels or anything else for that matter. I recently, accidentally purchased a Fox F29 fork off of Ebay. I may switch it out with the Reba, although I hate to do it because the Reba has performed so well and it is lighter than the Fox. Still, though, many rave about the Fox so I really do want to try it. The version I purchased offers 80mm of travel, but I may choose to extend that to 100mm by doing it myself. Right now I have both forks advertised on Craigslist and we'll see which one sells first.

Other than that, just doing a lot of riding and trying to do new things and get better. I have a long, organized road ride coming up soon, so I may have to sit the mt. bike down for a couple weeks to train up for that.

All Done...No, For Real I'm Done

The upgrading is done. Now it's time to just ride

I finished off my upgrades this weekend, tweaking the cable/housing setup, adding a much lighter FSA XC 115 stem (unbelievably light), a Cane Creek s-1 headset and a front Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4 tire (this thing is a true beast).

All in all, I'd say the project was a success. The bike is far lighter (dropped about 4 lbs), easy to maneuver, and it looks damn good as well IMO.

I also got a chance to use my new homemade tools. My homemade headset cup remover was a success. I used a 1" diameter piece of copper pipe. I made three, three-inch cuts into the pipe and flared the pipe at the cut end. I then took a skewer nut cap and placed it tapered side down into the pipe at the end of the cut section. This reinforced the flared pieces of the pipe. I secured the nut with some electrical tape, which I also placed over the ends of the sharp, flared pieces of the pipe so as to cut down on potential damage to my headset. When it was time to pound out the cups, I took a v-brake pad complete with attached screw and placed the screw end inside the other side of the pipe and hit the brake pad with a hammer. The cups popped right out. The piece of pipe cost me about $3.

I also used my new homemade bottom race installer. It is a 1 1/4 inch diameter piece of pvc pipe about two feet long with a pvc end cap. I dropped the bottom race onto my fork steerer until it could not go any more. I then slid the pipe over the steerer, hit the capped end about six times solidly with my hammer, and voila, the bottom race was fully installed. Cost of the bottom race installer, about $2.50.

The last homemade piece of equipment did not fare so well though. I also made a homemade headset press. While it was up to spec, I simply could not get the headset cups to sit straight upon pressing them in. I used a version with a 3/8 inch rod and a larger version with a 3/4 inch rod. I used plumbing female adapters, large washers, greased the cups etc etc. You name it, I tried it. After about 30 failed attempts, I ran it across the street to the lbs and five minutes later it was installed. I will come back to this piece this fall when I have more time and patience to make it work. Total cost $15 with all of the parts. The first version was made with about $10 of parts. Not bad at all!

Ok, I'm going to ride my new upgraded bike a lot this week. Peace!

Obstacles...

Mountain biking is about breaking through obstacles both literally and figuratively. Today, I did both. I headed out for a little adventure at Schaeffer Farms in Germantown, MD. The trails are far easier than the stuff up at Gambrill, but they still throw a lot of challenges out to a rider of my modest talent.

My biggest goal as mostly a beginner rider this year was to start conquering obstacles like log piles. I don't need to be climbing logs that are multiple feet in diameter or dropping off mountain rock faces, but I'd like to be able to work through a moderately difficult trail without dismounting time and time again.

I've been running through my head how to approach the log piles, unloading the front end, shifting my weight etc. But just as I approach the obstacle in real time, I decide to hit the breaks, opting for the more conservative approach of living to see another day, not getting hurt, and continuing my ride unscathed.

Well, today was the day that I planned to say "enough is enough." And sure enough, I somehow summoned up the courage, after a few attempts of lining up my line and actually gearing up mentally to do the stunts to try some log piles and larger obstacles in the trail. And don't you know I cleared right over and through them. With each obstacle cleared, I gained more and more confidence and was able to take the next obstacle with surprising ease.

It was a huge day in terms of conquering obstacles and making progress in developing my skill level! I can't wait to hit the trails again to keep adding to the stuff I can do. With each new challenge conquered, a whole new level of obstacles opens up before me, like new levels on a video game.

I love this sport!