“My new Tetris Boxxer is here and eff-in sweet. Thanks Sram Corp…”

Chain Reaction Cycles have some of the first stock in the UK. Grab ‘em while they last! (more…)

The most successful downhill fork of all time is now all new for the first time in its storied history. The new Boxxer is lighter, stiffer and ultimately faster. Incorporating a new Mission Control DH damper that features Dual Flow Adjust compression and rebound.

Lighter to make the ultimate DH fork:

-with 35mm stanctions carrying the forces, the steerer can be made lighter
-optimizing material placement on the new lowers
-maximizing the material properties of the upper tubes allows the tubes to be thin and strong
-new forged crowns use less material on the arms, while maintaining strength and stiffness by incorporating trussing
-new MaxleTM Lite DH pulls out 28g while being more robust than its predecessor
-a new spring and damper featuring aluminum shafting

£950 (1.5″ coil)

4.5 stars

By Guy Kesteven, Mountain Biking UK

Single crown freeride forks don’t get any bigger than RockShox’s Totem Coil, and they don’t get any better either.

With massive lower legs making even the huge 40mm stanchions look normal, this is a rock solid anvil of a fork for forging your most mental moves.

In the 1.5in steerer version the stiffness and tracking are comparable with the best dual crowns, but you still get a complete 360 degrees of turn.

The power bulged lowers also include a screw-through Maxle axle and Speed Lube injection ports for convenience (with lube and syringe coming in a separate box).

Mechanically pre-loadable coil spring guts keep basic performance simple and super smooth, but the Mission Control damping is the key to its ride quality and reputation.

Its been quite a couple of weeks!

Unfortunately most of my time has been taken up with work and I havent had much time to post.
That said, lots has been going on with the steeds…

My Tango Nomad has been upgraded. After a couple of weeks deliberating and talking to Tim Flooks and others at TFT (note, Tim is no scribe! I highly recommend a phone conversation rather than exchanging one liners over email – as he him self suggests on their site) I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy ‘09 Lyrik Solo Air’s – TFTuned of course!

WOW. That is the only word I can use to descibe how good these forks seem to be on initial impression. They (as you might expect) blow the Domain 318’s out of the water. I also upgraded my rear shock spring to a Manitou 750 (there is a great spring rate calculator on TFTuned’s site HERE) which can handle my general riding and pretty big drops without bottoming out. The Manitou fits my Fox DHX 5.0 in a 2.5 where the fox spring is a 2.8 (FYI).

So far the forks seem to have come setup spot on with about 30% sag at rest. somewhere between freeride and downhill, as I requested. There was a great personalised setup instruction sheet for me in the box and some stickers too. The steerer was cut to my specified length and star nut installed. All I had to do was swap the crown race over.

TFT threw the spring in free even though the price of the shocks seemed initially high compared to others, they came straight off the line at RockShox and were immediately stripped and rebuilt flawlessly by TFT. The work to cut the steerer and install the star nut would have been at least  £10 at a shop and hassle. You get the first years service free (worth £130 on these forks) and postage etc included. Once you add it all up the £150 difference between a large online retailers stock and TFT’s price starts to seem reasonable – even good value!

Anyway, more to come as I experiment. But needless to say I CAN RECOMMEND TFTUNED HIGHLY!!

Other goings on, my wife’s Orange EVO2 has required some pretty major maintenance. I have fitted new shifters and serviced the whole drive chain. I have shortened the chain by a link, installed a Hussefelt double + bash crankset (24/36) attached to a Howitzer XR BB (51mm chainline), added a Charge Ladle saddle (which she HIGHLY recommends), some DMR V8 pedals (thanks to my MBUK subs!) and put a shorter, lighter stem on there for her. Big thanks to Cycle Works in Guildford (Burpham) who managed to free the ruined bottom bracket from the EVO2 with no charge! The right tools, or should I say, the BEST tools clearly make life MUCH easier!

I ALSO had my first snake bite flat on my Orange P7 Pro riding badly up some old rocky scree piles I probably shouldn’t have been. It was instant and put a large hole in my sidewall. A complete blowout! It was a long walk home… no, I didn’t take a spare innertube – I did have a pump

Busy and expensive times!! I look forward to giving the Lyriks a good pasting over the summer. I will post pics soon.

Ant

200mm Red – Boxxer Mount
ID#: 118503
Due In Stock 29/05/2009
£1169.99 inc VAT

See the website HERE