I had a hell of a time researching this fork, but given my positive first impressions, I figured I'd share my impressions to help out the next guy looking for Pike/Fox 34 alternative.
I initially was deciding between the Pike and Slant as options for replacing the Revelation RL on my Chromag Samurai. I had blown my budget on my Samurai build earlier this year and ended up finding a Revelation RL for dirt cheap, and though it treated me well, the fork was extremely noodly compared to what I'm used to (Lyrik RC2DH). My dad recently picked up a Pike for his Intense Tracer, and I must say its a sweet fork, but for nearly half the price I decided to take my chances with the XFusion and see for myself why XFusion has been earning so many diehard fans over past year or so.
Unboxing
Once unboxed, I was very impressed by the finish quality - no over/under spray like I have seen on some of my Fox forks, and the paint seems more robust than the flaky junk that Rockshox uses on some of their forks. Adjustment dials work exceptionally smoothly, and rebound has a huge range of clicks for getting things dialed in just right. Air pressure recommendations are on a sticker on the leg, and they actually seem to indicate the proper settings (unlike some other forks). I was a little bit disappointed to see that the compression adjustment is merely an on/off switch for lockout with no intermediate settings, but more about that later.
Ride impressions
I decided to give this fork a proper out-of-the-box beating and took it up to one of the gnarlier trails that I typically save for my bigger bikes. The quick and low effort lockout was easy to flip on for the 1800' climb at the beginning of the ride, but I was saving judgement for when the trail turned downward.
I typically run a decent amount of low speed compression damping to keep the fork a bit higher in its travel, which is why I was so concerned about the lack of compression adjustment on this fork. Turn out, this was not an issue with the Slant - like my dad's Pike, the fork rides beautifully high in its travel. The simple 15mm axle and beefy casting keep things very stiff, much stiffer than my Revelation and close to indiscernable from my Lyrik. The mid-valve was VERY noticeable and really helped the fork keep composure through rapid medium-to-large hits, making drops into tight corners a surprisingly effortless affair. The fork uses its travel very efficiently, being sensitive off the top with a nice ramp up toward the end of the stroke. It still feels a bit "mechanical" through its stroke, but I am almost certain it is something that will disappear once the fork is fully broken in.
So far, I am happily surprised at the level of performance, especially when compared alongside the Pike. Set up for my weight and rebound preferences, I found it very hard to discern between the ride quality of both forks - given how impressed I was by the Pike, that's a very good thing. While I would like a "middle" compression setting for zipping along smoother sections of trail, it's not worth the extra spend to me.
Rad fork, rad price. I'm stoked.
I initially was deciding between the Pike and Slant as options for replacing the Revelation RL on my Chromag Samurai. I had blown my budget on my Samurai build earlier this year and ended up finding a Revelation RL for dirt cheap, and though it treated me well, the fork was extremely noodly compared to what I'm used to (Lyrik RC2DH). My dad recently picked up a Pike for his Intense Tracer, and I must say its a sweet fork, but for nearly half the price I decided to take my chances with the XFusion and see for myself why XFusion has been earning so many diehard fans over past year or so.
Unboxing
Once unboxed, I was very impressed by the finish quality - no over/under spray like I have seen on some of my Fox forks, and the paint seems more robust than the flaky junk that Rockshox uses on some of their forks. Adjustment dials work exceptionally smoothly, and rebound has a huge range of clicks for getting things dialed in just right. Air pressure recommendations are on a sticker on the leg, and they actually seem to indicate the proper settings (unlike some other forks). I was a little bit disappointed to see that the compression adjustment is merely an on/off switch for lockout with no intermediate settings, but more about that later.
Ride impressions
I decided to give this fork a proper out-of-the-box beating and took it up to one of the gnarlier trails that I typically save for my bigger bikes. The quick and low effort lockout was easy to flip on for the 1800' climb at the beginning of the ride, but I was saving judgement for when the trail turned downward.
I typically run a decent amount of low speed compression damping to keep the fork a bit higher in its travel, which is why I was so concerned about the lack of compression adjustment on this fork. Turn out, this was not an issue with the Slant - like my dad's Pike, the fork rides beautifully high in its travel. The simple 15mm axle and beefy casting keep things very stiff, much stiffer than my Revelation and close to indiscernable from my Lyrik. The mid-valve was VERY noticeable and really helped the fork keep composure through rapid medium-to-large hits, making drops into tight corners a surprisingly effortless affair. The fork uses its travel very efficiently, being sensitive off the top with a nice ramp up toward the end of the stroke. It still feels a bit "mechanical" through its stroke, but I am almost certain it is something that will disappear once the fork is fully broken in.
So far, I am happily surprised at the level of performance, especially when compared alongside the Pike. Set up for my weight and rebound preferences, I found it very hard to discern between the ride quality of both forks - given how impressed I was by the Pike, that's a very good thing. While I would like a "middle" compression setting for zipping along smoother sections of trail, it's not worth the extra spend to me.
Rad fork, rad price. I'm stoked.
