Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

boxxer WC, good deal?

5K views 37 replies 16 participants last post by  Ithnu 
#1 ·
#27 ·
OK, I got neg repped for my previous comment so I'll elaborate.

I owned a 2008 WC and I thought it was a great fork...until all the lubricating oil leaked out and the fork ate its stanchions. This was my bad, as you need to lubricate them every other week, but I didn't know that at the time. It held up well to a couple of seasons.

I bought a second hand 2010 team because it was supposed to be the be all end all of awesome newness. It worked OK at first, but steadily got worse until nothing short of a 4"+ rock would move it. Cause massive arm pump and was difficult to control. Rockshox actually warrantied it for free, giving me a completely new 2011 fork, because there was so much wrong with it. I appreciate their customer service, but replacing an entire fork? Yikes...

The 2011 was decent but it never had the ground hugging feel that an 8" travel fork should have. Additionally, the fork made a wheezing noise right out of the box. The adjustments actually worked, unlike the 2010, but the small bump performance was never very good. I thankfully sold it off with the rest of the bike rather than fighting with it for another year.

On Ridemonkey, a couple of sponsored riders fought tooth and nail to say how great the 2010 forks were. They bashed anybody who said otherwise. Eventually it came to light that there was an actual recall on two specific parts, the rebound head and one other part I can't remember, but they didn't care- they still raved about the performance. Rockshox warrantied my entire fork because they also had problems with the lowers breaking from that early era.

So there you have it, random internet fanboy. It's not "bs pure bs", it's the truth, or at least my version of it. I wouldn't touch another RS product after other forks from them consistently bit the dust as well.
 
#14 ·
Do you feel that way about the World Cup too?

I haven't spent any time on the WC, but the Boxxer RC's that I rode in Whistler were utter garbage.

I was under the impression that the WC was a different breed, much better than the RC/R2C2... Am curious to hear your thoughts?
 
#15 ·
Do you feel that way about the World Cup too?

I haven't spent any time on the WC, but the Boxxer RC's that I rode in Whistler were utter garbage.

I was under the impression that the WC was a different breed, much better than the RC/R2C2... Am curious to hear your thoughts?
The damping in the WC and RC2 are the exact same. I find most people who like Boxxers are just stoked on riding DH and haven't tried other forks.

Really; 888, Dorado and 40 are all better. And yes I have spent more than parking lot time on them all.
 
#4 ·
That's a great deal on an excellent fork. Don't listen to the brand haters, every fork maker has it's fans and haters.
Over the years I have spent seasons on Fox 40s, Boxxers (WC & Team), 4 different generations of 888s, Dorados and others.
For the most part they all performed well, and really only offered subtle differences in performance. This is comparing same generation to same generation of course.
I have spent the last two seasons mostly riding Boxxer WCs and have found them to be reliable, silly light, offer excellent ride quality and easy to service. It is important to change the oil and lube the seals regularly for best performance if you ride a lot.
 
#10 ·
I like to be able to try out all of the different stuff out there...

Right now I've got an '11 EVO, and an '09 Fox40. I'd love to get the WC and '12 Fox40... but for the price of both I could get a nice frame. Hmm.

I think that a new frame would make a larger difference than going from the '11 EVO to either Boxxer or Fox40 would.
 
#22 ·
ive test road some world cups. IMHO i would rather keep my totems than those piece of crap. The SUCK! do not get them go with some 40, 888, ti ect. something like that. 40's are wicked nice
 
#23 ·
Just had proof that the haters are probably as uninformed, despite riding experience as the guy who love the WC but haven't ridden anything else.
I thought it was a nice upgrade, proformance wise, compared to my RS Revelation DualAir but wished I could adjust it to be as plush as my coil Elka Stage 5 shock. But as you can see here, lots of supposedly knowledgable riders say they wont' perform like a coil so I accepted that.
Before the big reveal, let me explain that I'm a 15 year vetern Expert motocrosser, known for being a suspension expert(and porting). I've always figured I could get the max out of anything adjustable because I understand how it works and have a good feel for determining how changes affect the performance. So after almost a year of tweaking my WC I thought it was as good as it gets and really had no complaint about my purchase.
This week at the Bike and Beer fest in Burke, Vt, the RS "factory" truck was there and I had their tech check out my setup. 1 minute later, after a few tweaks (and turning the bike upside down on purpose)- I would have sworn he switched forks with me. TOTALLY different experience riding with his setup. Small bump compliance was a perfect match for the Elka, same motion for any bump. Fork used more travel but still seemed bottomless but impossible to bottom. In short, I can see NO reason why you'd pay the weigth penality of a coil AND loose the ability to adjust the ride the way air can. Not a big deal for DH only use but the bomb for dual purpose use I put my bike through.
Don't buy into the anti WC hype, just find someone who REALLY knows how to adjust it.
 
#25 ·
I like my boxxer WC, very easy to work on and once you get it set up, it feels great in my opinion. (and yes, I have ridden many other forks). I do think that most people don't maintain them properly and therefore they end up feeling sticky.. drop the lowers, change the oil regularly and they are smooth.. Mine has tons of mileage on it this season and it has worked perfectly..
 
#35 ·
I do think that most people don't maintain them properly and therefore they end up feeling sticky.. drop the lowers, change the oil regularly and they are smooth.. Mine has tons of mileage on it this season and it has worked perfectly..
This is a very good point actually. Boxxers are relatively cheap and they come OEM a lot. So people may love it but don't have anything to compare to. Since they're noobs they probably don't know maintenance either.

The boxxer I owned was a 2006, rode it for a year and didn't like it. The others I've done laps on have been 2010 or newer but have not been mine so I can't speak for their maintenance. They were an improvement from the 2006 though. However I have friends with a Boxxer want something else (to be fair some are happy wit them) but those with 40s, 888s and Dorados don't want a new fork.

So to be fair maybe a well tuned and maintained boxxer is a good option.

For me though I'll stick with my Dorado and continue to be a SRAM hater.:D Shimano, Hayes, Fox, Mantiou, Mavic, Marzocchi FTW!
 
#26 ·
Nooooooooooo run awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

2008 WC, 2010 Team, 2011 R2C2.

I'm finally happy on a 2008 66 RC3 with janky bushings and an inch less travel.

They are bad, disposable forks! The people who rave about them are paid to!

If you don't have a lot of cash, you have two great options. One is buy a 888 CR for around $700. It's heavy, but it actually has a damper and lubrication.

The other is to mod up your current boxxer. It'll take Fox SKF seals/wipers, which are super smooth, and you can throw in an Avalanche cart tuned to your body weight as well. That'll set you back ~$450.
 
#28 ·
Ive got the 2010 WC and i've got to say that I have NEVER had a negative experience. This is before and after i had the RS ride experience set it up. Sorry I cant offer any other insight to the debate, but this is coming from a rider/racer/mechanic, albeit and amateur, but i think that's the demographic of most riders anyways. My take, get on it, ride it, and tweak it. Everyone has different riding styles so obviously there are going to be differing opinions.

BADAMS
 
#29 ·
Its all personal perspective and experience. If you get a bad batch of course you are going to have negative opinions. I feel my boxxer is great, but read above from others, they require regular maintenance and if you don't do it you will ruin your fork. I am not mechanic, but working on a boxxer is super easy. I also run a Lyric on my trail bike. I hated it at first, sucked.. well, it was a bad one and it got warrantied. When I got the new one I was surprised how much I liked it..

Whatever fork you are looking for and if you post it on this forum you will hear all the opinions, positive and negative, no need for anyone to post negative rep because someone doesn't like what you like, but at least back up your opinions with a little bit of the history.
 
#31 ·
Like I said, setup is everything with a Boxxer, the other thing which I will agree should be common knowledge but seems to be some secret RS is not worried about informing us despite it being the easiest 'fix' in the world for sticky, harsh Boxxer's is to simply turn the bike upside down before riding, especially if its sat for days/weeks.
Straight from the RS tech who tweaked mine, its not a suggestion, its mandatory to keep oil in the proper place.
WORSE, if you fail to do this and adjust your dampening while the fork is 'dry' you are trying to adjust out friction caused by a lack of lubrication and oil being in the wrong place. So you are pretty much guaranteed to set things wrong.
So bottom line, IF you haven't done this religiously, then your experience is pretty much bogus.
Don't think so? well I've already done the experiment. Put 2 hrs riding on it, parked it for a week, rode it. Stiff and harsh, even weirder, fork resists using more than 60-70% travel.
Stop on the trail, turn bike upside down for a minute, flip back over and the magic was back along with full travel. I'm NOT saying the dry fork wont go full travel, just that its much stiffer and resistant than when 'wet'.
So pardon me while I enjoy my super plush, stock WC and ignore most of the experts here.:D
 
#33 ·
Responding your pre-edit reply: first off, obviously not all years and models of Boxxers are created equal.
Second, I don't claim to know much about them despite doing two oil services myself.

Third, I'm not such a big fan boy that I don't think RS sucks for not making a fork that doesn't require inverting to work properly.

Fourth, the inversion allows oil to move to above where it ends up in time, THAT affects the dampening and AFAIK, is the basis for so many reports of forks without the proper amount. MOST folks DONT measure what they take out or have someone else service it.

Given the inversion issue and relatively difficulty in finding an optimum adjustment, the Boxxer is probably NOT the best fork out there. BUT neither is it junk or incapable of providing literally, world class performance.

And lastly, as I said, if you haven't tried inversion, then as they say, you just don't know.
Believe me, when the RS tech told, me I was thinking this bozo don't know what he's talking about, but the results speak for themselves.

Oh, and for some of us weight weenies, as long as it can be made to work properly, it IS the best fork. I get an extra dose of happy knowing that the $880 I paid, from a reputable bike shop(in Canada) won't buy anything better, I'm sure at $1200-1400 I would be less tolerant too.
 

Attachments

#36 ·
I agree with you Ithnu but would say at $1600+ list for the WC they are not all relatively cheap. Before finding my deal, I was seriously considering the Fox 40 as the price difference was insignificant. BUT the weight difference was NOT.
No doubt in my mind, those riding OEM base model Boxxers are NOT going to be as happy as WC owners.
In the way of admissions, I was quite worried that an air fork was not going to work as well as my Elka Stage 5 and truthfully, until RS waved their magic wand over it, it didnt quite measure up. But afterwards, its a PERFECT match and every bit as compliant even though I'm borderline under sprung in the back(#300 spring, should be 350+) which makes it very active and plush. All I can say is, if my previous fork, a RS Revelation 150 DualAir U-turn worked half as well as the Boxxer, I would have never purchased my Canfield. So I get why folks shy away from air forks and RS in particular. But the bottom line is the Rev did the job and sorta matched my RP23BV and that made it a lot less scary to buy a Boxxer.
Would a Fox 40 etc work better? maybe or maybe not, but for sure unless I could get one for $800 I would not even consider it, sort of like the Canfields offering me a new V3 ONE for the pro racer price, which I declined because my V2 is SO perfect I wouldnt risk changing it. Same with my Boxxer, why mess with something working that well?
 
#38 ·
I agree with you Ithnu but would say at $1600+ list for the WC they are not all relatively cheap.
Oh, I meant the RC or RC2. I suppose I should have clarified as the threat title referrers to a WC. The RC2 is the same damper as the WC; a parallel is the 888 Ti and 888 RC3 are the same damper. Both fork models are about $1,600 and $1,000 (I may be a bit off) the cost increase being basically a weight savings. But the boxxer lighter so people go that way. I'd take the non-Ti 888 RC3 despite the weight penalty.

And Joise7 you are correct, changing oil is pretty easy. But that doesn't mean people will do it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top