Moisture

Picked her up for $1200 CAD last week.. barely seen any use at all.

Moisture

What do you guys think of rockshox vs fox?

Rigid vs. Suspension?

i always like the idea of small diameter 27.5" wheels and a rigid fork. Until I tried this bike. The overall response to your inputs, and the stability with which it carves corners at full speed is surreal. It's an extremely fast and capable bike. The suspension feels light, responsive and perfectly dampened to really maximize your stability without being heavy, bouncy, too stiff, etc

Moisture

Any one with experience riding some sort of similar XC race bike - carbon or not - would like to leave an opinion/ short review?

veganbikes

It is like Coke vs. Pepsi or any similar type of debate. Both are great no real complaints on either. I have a Fox 36 Factory fork and a Rockshox SID XX and they are both fine forks. I will say I do love me some Kashima coating but I am not that keen that I can notice a mega difference between the two.

I say get whatever fork you like and does what you need it to do and has the right measurements for your bike. Fox, Rockshox, Marzocchi, Manitou, Cane Creek,, DVO, Ohlins...probably all make some excellent products and unless sponsored I don't know that it matters a whole heck of a heap. Normally I am slightly opinionated but here not a huge ton. So long as it is quality and well made and does as you need it probably going to be well set.

Moisture

I Remember Ohlins from my time spent on the BMW foruns, It was highly and widely regarded as an excellent choice. Heard of good things from Marzochhi as well.

This is my first experience with suspension other than Suntour. I didn't like their entry level forks at all. Is the Rockshox Reba a good overall fork? Given that Suntour is my only experience, I find its performance to be excellent.

One day I may switch to a rigid fork, after really mastering the rockshox. Would a chromoly fork be silly on a carbon frame? is carbon on carbon the way to go?

I am looking for something with roughly 480mm ATC (stock 510mm atc, 100mm, 30% sag?) and a similar offset of around 51mm.. I would mainly do it for a longer steerer tube. current is cut to size.

Is it a good idea?


The bike performs absurdly well with the suspension, I have no intention to switch until i get more time in the cockpit, My initial impressions is that the bike requires zero effort to pick up a seriously challenging pace. It challenges you by moving so fast, but its not super involving to maintain good balance and tire grip with the cushiness of suspension and big , good rolling tires. Maybe a bike designed around 27.5" wheels and a rigid could be more exciting on flowing XC trails. But the felt strikes a fantastic overall balance between agile response and sheer stability. I just havent spent enough time with it yet.

Overall, the components are paired exceptionally well. I was able to push my limits on this bike after only two brief sessions doing fast paced but otherwise simple, light downhill singletrack. I just remember maintaining such a high pace with zero effort and feeling extremely in tune with its behaviour. I just want a stem that is slightly longer than 90mm and more than the stock 7 degree rise at the current stack height.

It is the most efficient bike I have ever experienced by far climbing hills. It is now a genuinely welcome challenge. It is equipped with a 26/36 double with a rear 11-42t cassette. I find this gearing to be highly useful for trail use.

veganbikes

I wouldn't go rigid with a steel fork on a crabon frame I would go with a carbon fork (as generally they are set up for a mountain bike and suspension correction) but I would rather just have a suspension fork.

SR Suntour makes an OK fork but they aren't Madea Industries they are a different company. The original SunTour made some great stuff but nothing suspension wise as that really hadn't existed quite yet.

Darth Lefty 

Racing bikes do like to go fast. Enjoy it.

Reba is good. It's a nice chassis with average guts. All the parts have a part number, and it can be upgraded. This makes it a step up on the various "Gold" forks which have similar guts but can't be upgraded and only have rebuild kits available, not replacement parts. So, if you want a longer steerer you can buy the uppers and get one that hasn't been cut. At least in theory, you know how it's been this year. If you are coming from a Suntour fork with no damping at all, it's going to seem pretty great and you might be pleased enough to leave it alone. But if you want to upgrade further you can use the Charger damper from the SID.

Marzocchi is no longer an independent brand. They went under. Fox bought the name and is putting it on less-expensive versions of their existing forks. Comparable to what you have. Ohlins is very premium and you won't see it much in the wild. I don't really know which of the smaller companies is in third place in the upper half of the market - Suntour is clearly dominant in the low end but their nicer stuff seems rare. Manitou, probably, or DVO

AeroGut

I've got a 2013 Felt 9 twenty that I really like. It's also a great fast cross-country hardtail, though not as nice as what you got. I'm disappointed Felt gave up on MTBs this year.

prj71

I'm not sure why you want to go rigid. But if you do, get a carbon fork. Whiskey makes a nice one.

https://whiskyparts.co/forks/no9-MTN-boost-lt#/

Moisture

I think youre pretty spot on with your observations. I find the dampening and overall response of the REBA to be quite excellent. Honestly I just haven't spent enough time with the bike. Everytime I ride the bike, I am just more and more impressed.

A rigid fork could be interesting choice just to experiment with in the future.

Overall, the bike feels bang on dialed in and I think I'm actually more or less athletic enough to get some good use out of it. The carbon frame really is no joke with pedal input response and handling balance. I am so comfortably within the limits of this bike, Its just way too dangerously fast once you start pushing past 7/10ths.

Moisture

I felt like the stock 90mm stem was a bit too short when angled +7 degrees and too much of a saddle drop at -7. I took the 110mm stem off my old road bike and have it set up at +10 degrees, which worked brilliant. The handlebar drop is still there like the bike was designed for, but I comfortably get an extra bit of stem reach while being more comfortable and better balanced.

Only thing left now is the handlebars. 720mm is too wide!

Moisture

I've known about felt in the past and always thought they made some great bikes. After my personal experience with one, I notice that they did a truly excellent job of pairing different bits of kit together into a fantastically blended package.

Going onto their website, I noticed no more mtbs. Why?

Moisture

To really push the limits of my skill as a rider when tasked to control the front axle over uneven surfaces while maximizing speed, agility and response.

No plans to do this so far. I like the rockshox. I looked at that fork. Id want an ATC length of around 480mm to account for 20% sag of a 100mm suspension fork.

AeroGut

I don't know the background to the decision, but they have confirmed this year that they're done with MTBs. Reported here among other places: https://www.brujulabike.com/felt-sto...in-bikes-2021/
I think they've always been better known as a triathlon/TT brand, so maybe they struggled with sales of the off-road bikes? I don't see other Felt MTBs on the trail very often. It's either the high volume producers (Trek/Specialized/etc) or smaller MTB focused companies like Santa Cruz.

Moisture

Felt was never popular here in North America. It is very popular in Europe however.

BHG6

Damn, nice find. That's a great looking bike, regardless of the price.

AeroGut

Actually looks like they're going to reintroduce MTBs under the Rossignol brand instead of Felt: https://www.rossignol.com/us/rossignol-bikes

Moisture

Indeed, I managed to get my hands on it just barely. Only because I was persistent and didn't give up on my search.

prj71

ATC on that fork is 483mm.

Moisture

I swear I saw 500mm when I checked that website..

I saw your comment re. Rigid fork before you apparently edited. When it comes to tackling more challenging terrain, a suspension fork for sure can offer some greatly improved rolling stability. Rider skill is another big factor here. A light bike is easy to finesse over roots, rocks, obstacles etc and help carry momentum by picking a good line.

I prefer to ride something a bit less technical and more flowing, where a rigid fork can really shine with its more dialed in behavior as well as fast transient responses. But I will be riding everything I can find in my area in the meantime, meaning I'll need the suspension.

Also, if you do use a rigid fork, a 27.5 wheelset with some really thick 3.0" tires can really help to make up for the lack of suspension. Perhaps you can even use just a front 27.5" wheels with a tire that matches in diameter front to rear for that extra cushioning.

If you look at something like the salsa fargo rival, this would definetly fit the bill with its thick 27.5 x 3.0 tires, and a MTB style Firestarter fork with a 483mm atc.

prj71

The website is stating fork length which I believe is the overall length of the fork from steerer tube to the bottom. 483 makes sense if you subtract a little to center of axle.

ClydeClydeson

I read the title wrong - I thought it was a Felt Doctrine in size 4XL! 'That bike must be huge', I thought.

ClydeClydeson

My last hardtain mtb had a fork failure, so I got a rigid fork and kept riding. I rode every trail I had ridden with suspension, but had to go a bit slower in some places. Then I started noticing pain in my arms and shoulders and neck that was worse when I was doing a lot of off road riding, and it subsided when I was road riding.

My advice - if you are actually planning on doing regular off-road riding, keep the suspension fork,

prj71

Those are my thoughts as well. As I tried the rigid thing for a summer. Lots of body pain after rides from getting beat up. Not sure why people want to remove something that makes the ride more comfortable. Most forks you can lock out anyways to make it feel like rigid. So other than a small weight savings, probably not worth the money to swap out to a rigid fork.

I equate it to..."Hey I'm going to remove the shocks and struts from my car and replace them with concrete blocks"

Moisture

I think I agree with both of you. It seems to boil down mainly to an intended use thing.

For someone who doesn't ride anything technical with crazy drops, rocks and roots every step of the way, rigid could be a fine option.

For someone who doesn't spend a lot of time riding off road, maybe they don't live close to many trails, rely on riding the mtb to the trails maybe use it as a one off off road excursion type thing, rigid could also be a fine option.

gravel bikepacking type of bikes which are built for trail riding as well all have a rigid fork attached to a somewhat mtb style frame.

In my case, is it worth to switch to rigid? No, probably not. I want to be able to ride any or most terrain i have access to, even if I'm only on an XC bike. If I really want a longer steerer tube, it could be worth experimenting with.

Otherwise, it would make more sense to pick up one of those Kona Libre or similar style gravel/trail/pavement style bikes and be able to switch between a rigid or suspension as desired.

atc is measured to the middle of the dropout. (Middle of QR skewer)