Levo Gen 3 Suspension and Coil shocks for Gen 3 - Fox 38 vs Zeb

ebikerider

Active member
Oct 1, 2019
706
481
Australia
it’s great. Set and forget, great performance, huge traction on the rear, smooths out most trail chatter but great under big compressions. not lazy feeing at all. Gen3 still pops with it on. wouldn’t change back to air from this

bit of noise occasionally, I think it’s coming from the spring on the collars. Not 100% sure though.

cons: 1: price 2: a week after I bought it they announced a new EBike version ?‍♂️?
How do you find the Storia over repeated high speed hits? I found the Storia quite overdamped in this situation, great for big hits but definitely not what I'd call plush or fast reacting/fast recovery.

Did you end up opening the 38 fork air spring to check if it was full of grease? Your experience seems to be opposite of most on line reviews that I've read that have the Fox as more supple than the Zeb.
 

ebikerider

Active member
Oct 1, 2019
706
481
Australia
Sounds like your storia wasn't Tuned to your riding very well. One of the criticisms of the V3 is it does have limited range of adjustment and some reviews said they sent it back to be adjusted as the rebound was too slow. All these reviews had something in common as they were American publications and this leads me to believe the importer over there sucks and doesn't know what he's doing.

Mojo in the UK are suspension experts and I've not heard of issues but they have said to me that they would revalve to my liking and change springs for free if I want it to feel different from how they send it to me.

The E storia I believe comes with a greater range of adjustment to probably cater for the wider range of riding styles and fat ebike riders
Agreed. I had rebound opened up twice and the compression lightened also and whilst it was better each time, getting charged for each iteration was getting expensive so in the end I sold it and bought something else.

Push I believe are releasing the 11.6 for the KSL in the next few weeks so I'm going with that.
 

jcmonty

Well-known member
Sep 5, 2018
472
406
California
Sounds like a shit company. They didnt set it right and subsequently didnt do it right after and they expect you to pay for their failure? lol

No wonder the bike mags in the US had problems
My experience was with the west coast US dealer. It took a while to get the shock, but he was pretty helpful. I was going to get it revalved to be a bit softer on HSC, but now I am on the KSL and would need a new shock. Unfortunately, he left and now everything goes through Suspension Syndicate. I have heard mixed reviews on them, and they haven't been responsive to me as of yet.

@ebikerider Did you get confirmation from Push on the KSL? I hit up their chat a week or so ago, and they were not exactly sure of when/if they were doing a KSL shock. I can't imagine it would be too hard for them. My local suspension tuner 10 mins from my house is a Push service center; so that is a definite plus in their favor. The new EXT e-storia looks great though - just not sure about the service/dealer
 

R120

Moderator
Subscriber
Apr 13, 2018
7,819
9,185
Surrey
With the EXT I am right in thinking it’s designed for hard riding and to still give a lot of feedback, aiming to offer the traction benefits of a normal coil but with more support so you can still pump etc, so as such it doesn’t offer quite the same super smooth/plush ride that other cool shocks might.

I.e if you’re are just looking for a super plush feeling it’s probably the wrong shock
 

jcmonty

Well-known member
Sep 5, 2018
472
406
California
With the EXT I am right in thinking it’s designed for hard riding and to still give a lot of feedback, aiming to offer the traction benefits of a normal coil but with more support so you can still pump etc, so as such it doesn’t offer quite the same super smooth/plush ride that other cool shocks might.

I.e if you’re are just looking for a super plush feeling it’s probably the wrong shock
It's really up to the valving they tune for you. In general, yes- this shock is meant to be supportive throughout the stroke with a lot of traction on tap. But it's highly tuneable at the factory.

My guess with the new e-storia, they took a lot of learnings about what settings people were asking for and applied. It's pretty telling based on the new features , that they are trying to address the note on having a bit more "sensitivity" (new negative spring, "smooth" compression valve, new piston, wider adjustability, adjustable HBO, etc). Sounds killer IMO
 

Rob Rides EMTB

Administrator
Staff member
Subscriber
Jan 14, 2018
6,164
13,307
Surrey, UK
Just a quick update on the Fox 38. Today I tested another bike with a 170mm Fox 38 Factory. It felt really, really good.

I suspect that the harshness on my Levo stock 38 is a possible Fork that is packed with grease (and combination of carbon wheels, frame, 35mm carbon bar) making the entire chassis super stiff and really highlighting the harshness I was getting from the stock fork.
 

Gary

Old Tartan Bollocks
Author
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2018
10,496
10,690
the internet
@Rob Rides EMTB did you actually spend time setting up the two forks for your weight/preference?


With the EXT I am right in thinking it’s designed for hard riding and to still give a lot of feedback, aiming to offer the traction benefits of a normal coil but with more support so you can still pump etc, so as such it doesn’t offer quite the same super smooth/plush ride that other cool shocks might.

I.e if you’re are just looking for a super plush feeling it’s probably the wrong shock
I rode a bike with EXT coil shock and fork today.

you're probably overthinking it and listening to hype/marketing.
It's very high quality suspension... but can still be set-up to rider preference and riding style just the same as any high end suspension.
 

ebikerider

Active member
Oct 1, 2019
706
481
Australia
My experience was with the west coast US dealer. It took a while to get the shock, but he was pretty helpful. I was going to get it revalved to be a bit softer on HSC, but now I am on the KSL and would need a new shock. Unfortunately, he left and now everything goes through Suspension Syndicate. I have heard mixed reviews on them, and they haven't been responsive to me as of yet.

@ebikerider Did you get confirmation from Push on the KSL? I hit up their chat a week or so ago, and they were not exactly sure of when/if they were doing a KSL shock. I can't imagine it would be too hard for them. My local suspension tuner 10 mins from my house is a Push service center; so that is a definite plus in their favor. The new EXT e-storia looks great though - just not sure about the service/dealer
Yes. 100% confirmation the 11.6 will be released for the KSL and new Levo in the next few weeks. They were just waiting on a bike for some final testing.

With the EXT I am right in thinking it’s designed for hard riding and to still give a lot of feedback, aiming to offer the traction benefits of a normal coil but with more support so you can still pump etc, so as such it doesn’t offer quite the same super smooth/plush ride that other cool shocks might.

I.e if you’re are just looking for a super plush feeling it’s probably the wrong shock
EXT tend to lean on the damping much more than most of the shocks out there. The Storia has a very small range of adjustment and imo this is the biggest issue. If you are lucky enough for them to supply the shock valved almost exactly to your needs then all is good. Unfortunately some of their tunes are so whack that there just isn't enough range in the adjusters to get even close to a good setting so there is no choice but to revalve or believe it's designed for racing and put up with it.

The EXT fork is a good fork with much more useable adjustment.
 

Gary

Old Tartan Bollocks
Author
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2018
10,496
10,690
the internet
together? absolutely fine just as you'd expect
but probably massively overkill for the average ebiker on a Levo. They were fitted to a NP mega 290 enduro race bike not an ebike.

I've barely ridden an Ebike in weeks
 

Gary

Old Tartan Bollocks
Author
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2018
10,496
10,690
the internet
The Storia has a very small range of adjustment and imo this is the biggest issue. If you are lucky enough for them to supply the shock valved almost exactly to your needs then all is good. Unfortunately some of their tunes are so whack that there just isn't enough range in the adjusters to get even close to a good setting so there is no choice but to revalve or believe it's designed for racing and put up with it.
I'd agree with this also.
One of the first things i noticed when setting up the fork was there would likely not have been enough range in rebound adjustment if setting up for a very light rider either.
 

TBL79

Member
Nov 5, 2020
39
38
Finland
Hi, brand new Sworks Levo gen 3 owner here. I switched from levo comp gen 2 to this beast. So I had/have ext storia v3 on my levo comp and is mounting hardware same as gen 2 levo? I called my ext dealer and he said that storia should't need any retune to gen 3 levo. But well, I have 575/600 spring and weight about 88-90kg. Oh, and haven't any trail experiance yet as I picked yesterday my bike. And race is on weekend?‍♂️?‍♂️
 

E Bob

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2021
357
353
torfaen
Hi, brand new Sworks Levo gen 3 owner here. I switched from levo comp gen 2 to this beast. So I had/have ext storia v3 on my levo comp and is mounting hardware same as gen 2 levo? I called my ext dealer and he said that storia should't need any retune to gen 3 levo. But well, I have 575/600 spring and weight about 88-90kg. Oh, and haven't any trail experiance yet as I picked yesterday my bike. And race is on weekend?‍♂️?‍♂️
No gen 3 is 8mm, you will need different bushes, also different tune, lighter spring
 

E Bob

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2021
357
353
torfaen
He shows as "Finland" .... (hover over the user name or click on it on a phone).
Finland..Very nice…. Well tbl gen 2 and 3 are different bikes, think Rudolph vs red rum.. I’m guessing you will be on a 450, 500 spring, Also the tune for gen 2 does not suit the gen 3, sounds like your bike shop has give you the lazy answer and need to pick up there phone and seek out some tech support
 

TBL79

Member
Nov 5, 2020
39
38
Finland
Finland..Very nice…. Well tbl gen 2 and 3 are different bikes, think Rudolph vs red rum.. I’m guessing you will be on a 450, 500 spring, Also the tune for gen 2 does not suit the gen 3, sounds like your bike shop has give you the lazy answer and need to pick up there phone and seek out some tech support

Yep, I was suspicion answer what I got. Though it isn't Spesh dealer. But lucky you are here guys :) Many thanks:). Tune on storia what I wanted on my gen 2 levo was enduro racing mind. And yes Finland loacation.
 

NotSoSikMik

EXT Official Dealer
Jun 18, 2021
27
35
USA
Hi All, I work for the United States EXT distributor and stumbled across this thread and wanted to clarify a few things if I could.

@ebikerider are you in the United States? Your profile says you are in Australia and people are assuming you are in the USA. I ask because we do not charge people if they would like to re-tune if they are not satisfied with how the shock initially performs (which is rare) and as far as I know we have not had anyone send it back twice for this.

Another important thing to note is that we did not provide shocks that were reviewed by the major publications that you are probably referring to. These were handled by EXT in Italy directly. It is kind of funny though because we did do the shock for Blister mag and we debated about changing the tune to have a little faster rebound from what was prescribed by EXT for the reviewers bike but because it was a Nicolai who we know works closely with them we thought the tune should be pretty dialed and we should just go with it. So when he asked for it to be a little faster we just had to laugh to ourselves that we should have went with our gut feeling on it.

Also, we agree with a lot of what I have heard from you guys and have implemented it into our tunes based off of customer feedback. We try very hard to listen and improve upon what we are doing. We have definitely found that the recommended tunes by EXT tend to be a little slow in the rebound and overdamped in the compression tunes for some applications. This could be that the riding in Europe tends to be quite a bit different than what is normally found here. However, as some have noted it cannot be simply determined by frame kinematics and rider weight. There is a lot of factors to consider in riding style, terrain and just overall rider preference. We find some people benefit from a more supportive platform provided by running a heavier spring weight and less compression damping while others want it the complete opposite. This is why we try to communicate with our customers as best we can to get it right the first time and then do everything in our power to make sure they are satisfied post sale through things like offering free retunes and spring exchange to ensure they are getting a sag rate they are happy with.

If anyone has questions or issues please let me know and I will be happy to help.
 
Last edited:

jcmonty

Well-known member
Sep 5, 2018
472
406
California
Hi All, I work for the United States EXT distributor and stumbled across this thread and wanted to clarify a few things if I could.

@ebikerider are you in the United States? Your profile says you are in Australia and people are assuming you are in the USA. I ask because we do not charge people if they would like to re-tune if they are not satisfied with how the shock initially performs (which is rare) and as far as I know we have not had anyone send it back twice for this.

Another important thing to note is that we did not provide shocks that were reviewed by the major publications that you are probably referring to. These were handled by EXT in Italy directly.

Also, we agree with a lot of what I have heard from you guys and have implemented it into our tunes based off of customer feedback. We try very hard to listen and improve upon what we are doing. We have definitely found that the recommended tunes by EXT tend to be a little slow in the rebound and overdamped in the compression tunes for some applications. This could be that the riding in Europe tends to be quite a bit different than what is normally found here. However, as some have noted it cannot be simply determined by frame kinematics and rider weight there is a lot to consider in riding style, terrain and just overall rider preference. We find some people benefit from a more supportive platform provided by running a heavier spring weight and less compression damping while others want it the complete opposite. This is why we try to communicate with our customers as best we can to get it right the first time and then do everything in our power to make sure they are satisfied post sale through things like offering free retunes and spring exchange to ensure they are getting a sag rate they are happy with.

If anyone has questions or issues please let me know and I will be happy to help.
Are you with suspension syndicate? I reached out a few weeks ago and I did not get a response so curious the best way to get a hold of you for service and potentially ordering new parts. FYI Andrew Brennan was my original dealer, but he is out now. Thanks!
 

NotSoSikMik

EXT Official Dealer
Jun 18, 2021
27
35
USA
Are you with suspension syndicate? I reached out a few weeks ago and I did not get a response so curious the best way to get a hold of you for service and potentially ordering new parts. FYI Andrew Brennan was my original dealer, but he is out now. Thanks!

I just sent you a PM. Brennan was an awesome dealer and is still an awesome guy. It was a bummer to lose him as a dealer but it is really cool he is doing what he is passionate about now, so I completely understand his decision.
 

ebikerider

Active member
Oct 1, 2019
706
481
Australia
Hi All, I work for the United States EXT distributor and stumbled across this thread and wanted to clarify a few things if I could.

@ebikerider are you in the United States? Your profile says you are in Australia and people are assuming you are in the USA. I ask because we do not charge people if they would like to re-tune if they are not satisfied with how the shock initially performs (which is rare) and as far as I know we have not had anyone send it back twice for this.

Another important thing to note is that we did not provide shocks that were reviewed by the major publications that you are probably referring to. These were handled by EXT in Italy directly. It is kind of funny though because we did do the shock for Blister mag and we debated about changing the tune to have a little faster rebound from what was prescribed by EXT for the reviewers bike but because it was a Nicolai who we know works closely with them we thought the tune should be pretty dialed and we should just go with it. So when he asked for it to be a little faster we just had to laugh to ourselves that we should have went with our gut feeling on it.

Also, we agree with a lot of what I have heard from you guys and have implemented it into our tunes based off of customer feedback. We try very hard to listen and improve upon what we are doing. We have definitely found that the recommended tunes by EXT tend to be a little slow in the rebound and overdamped in the compression tunes for some applications. This could be that the riding in Europe tends to be quite a bit different than what is normally found here. However, as some have noted it cannot be simply determined by frame kinematics and rider weight. There is a lot of factors to consider in riding style, terrain and just overall rider preference. We find some people benefit from a more supportive platform provided by running a heavier spring weight and less compression damping while others want it the complete opposite. This is why we try to communicate with our customers as best we can to get it right the first time and then do everything in our power to make sure they are satisfied post sale through things like offering free retunes and spring exchange to ensure they are getting a sag rate they are happy with.

If anyone has questions or issues please let me know and I will be happy to help.
Yeah I'm in Australia and unfortunately there is a charge for revalving (Mericans just presume everyone is from the US don't they lol). Shock was ridiculously overdamped from EXT.
 

toublanc

Member
May 18, 2021
39
30
Poland
Hi,

Let me start with setting some baseline:

rider: 86kg

Specialized Levo gen3 Expert carbon S4
Front:
Fox 38 Performance Elite Grip2
4 tokens (3 factory installed + 1 from me)
92 PSI

Rear
Fox Float X2 Performance (LSR, LSC, lockout)
2 tokens (0 stock)
240 PSI

Now, I’m fine tuning my suspensio, forks feels pretty much OK - could be a bit more compliant on small bumps and slow speed but it’s usual thing with Fox (I’m an old fart, I still remember how it was on Z1, Z1Light ETA, 55Ti etc. :) ). On the other hand at 20+ km/h forks comes to life - feels great, eats up everything, good mid stroke support, no bottom outs. So far so good.

My ”problem“ is with a shock - I’m within a tuning range with my settings, but I can’t loose this strange feeling that there is something wrong with the rebound adjustment. Even fully closed rebound seems pretty fast and fully open is only a bit faster. You know, something I can get from other shocks buy changing rebound approx. 4 clicks.
No strange sounds, no knocking - all seems OK except I would expect much more range of adjustment.

Any thoughts?
 

TBL79

Member
Nov 5, 2020
39
38
Finland
Finally I got Storia on test with my 3 gen levo. But before I tested storia I did shockwiz tuning on 38 and X2. Neutral and planted. Short story,38 ended up with full close lsc and almost open hsc and x2 vice versa. 4 tokens on 38, x2 as it came from. Probably no tokens/bands but will try add at least one more. Psi 38 98 psi(fork was serviced and grease amount was good,so now gains from there. And I'm about 90kg. X2 pressure was 258 psi. Well, it ended up that I liked suspension,though x2 still uses whole travel but not bottoming out heavily. 38 same. Rebound on both are on slow side,as shockwiz recommended. Test track with lots of roots and rocks and couple of jumps and fast singletrack.

So Storia on and with 575 spring,same setup as on my previous gen 2 levo(I had also vorsprung on zeb). Storia felt maybe little more stiff,but not so much that I wouldn't ride with those setup. But I did try kind of same compression setup,as on x2. Feeling was that,back did track better and especially on fast track. Also I did ride faster couple of sections. But there were no ooh lalaa feelings with this new gen 3 levo when compairing my previous gen 2 levo. X2 is really good shock and maybe little bit more planted feeling with storia. And I try to maximize speed on enduro races. I will try 600 spring,if there's any benefits. Though its just 1 % decrease sag. As my storia tune, I don't know is there some to find. Maybe rebound adjuster needs more slow side. On generally 38 is good fork, vorsprunged zeb is monster but there was top out noise. And new levo is monster on steep trails,but it is stiffer and body takes hits more,but I like that it accelerates and holds line.

And I would not put softer spring on my storia. It still can bottom out,but not so much as on before. Will try testing with both storia and x2.
 

Hob Nob

Active member
Jun 4, 2020
152
149
UK
So Storia on and with 575 spring,same setup as on my previous gen 2 levo(I had also vorsprung on zeb). Storia felt maybe little more stiff,but not so much that I wouldn't ride with those setup. But I did try kind of same compression setup,as on x2. Feeling was that,back did track better and especially on fast track. Also I did ride faster couple of sections. But there were no ooh lalaa feelings with this new gen 3 levo when compairing my previous gen 2 levo. X2 is really good shock and maybe little bit more planted feeling with storia. And I try to maximize speed on enduro races. I will try 600 spring,if there's any benefits. Though its just 1 % decrease sag. As my storia tune, I don't know is there some to find. Maybe rebound adjuster needs more slow side. On generally 38 is good fork, vorsprunged zeb is monster but there was top out noise. And new levo is monster on steep trails,but it is stiffer and body takes hits more,but I like that it accelerates and holds line.

And I would not put softer spring on my storia. It still can bottom out,but not so much as on before. Will try testing with both storia and x2.

Ive got a suitably tuned Storia, which lasted about 3 rides until I went back to the Float X2 on the Levo.

For general riding, the Storia felt good, and seemed to work well, but as soon as I picked up the pace and went beyond 60-70%, it really wasn’t happy. Consistently running too deep in its travel, blowing through it when loading up in corners & strugging to get enough rebound for it to recover.

Looking at the suspension design, and reading Specializeds blurb, they are closely mirroring the new Stumpjumper Evos kinematics, which whilst they have claimed is more progressive than old, it’s simply not enough for what I would consider faster riders, pushing hard. Even with a hydraulic bottom out, it’s still not enough. Going up a spring rate to reduce sag and messing with settings didn’t help either, it just introduced another set of problems.

The Float X2 is considerably more consistent, sits higher in its travel, recovers quicker and generally works better IMO. Not an issue as I have a new Stumpy Evo which the Storia came from, thankfully it has a Cascade Link on it to increase progressivity so it works well on that. If Cascade do something similar for the new Levo, it would be interesting to try again and see what differences it generates.
 

E Bob

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2021
357
353
torfaen
Finally I got Storia on test with my 3 gen levo. But before I tested storia I did shockwiz tuning on 38 and X2. Neutral and planted. Short story,38 ended up with full close lsc and almost open hsc and x2 vice versa. 4 tokens on 38, x2 as it came from. Probably no tokens/bands but will try add at least one more. Psi 38 98 psi(fork was serviced and grease amount was good,so now gains from there. And I'm about 90kg. X2 pressure was 258 psi. Well, it ended up that I liked suspension,though x2 still uses whole travel but not bottoming out heavily. 38 same. Rebound on both are on slow side,as shockwiz recommended. Test track with lots of roots and rocks and couple of jumps and fast singletrack.

So Storia on and with 575 spring,same setup as on my previous gen 2 levo(I had also vorsprung on zeb). Storia felt maybe little more stiff,but not so much that I wouldn't ride with those setup. But I did try kind of same compression setup,as on x2. Feeling was that,back did track better and especially on fast track. Also I did ride faster couple of sections. But there were no ooh lalaa feelings with this new gen 3 levo when compairing my previous gen 2 levo. X2 is really good shock and maybe little bit more planted feeling with storia. And I try to maximize speed on enduro races. I will try 600 spring,if there's any benefits. Though its just 1 % decrease sag. As my storia tune, I don't know is there some to find. Maybe rebound adjuster needs more slow side. On generally 38 is good fork, vorsprunged zeb is monster but there was top out noise. And new levo is monster on steep trails,but it is stiffer and body takes hits more,but I like that it accelerates and holds line.

And I would not put softer spring on my storia. It still can bottom out,but not so much as on before. Will try testing with both storia and x2.
Think the tune must be out, For me the storia set up for a gen 2 didn’t work, way too hard and rebound was savage ‘like a front strut off a v12 jag’ Iv gone from a 600 on gen 2 to a 500, 525 DH stuff, also tuned to open it up, The x2’s were lasting a fortnight before shitting themselves, the storia coupled with a decent 2.8 tyre has settled the back end on the gen 3, I struggled with high speed cornering with the gen 3 ‘too much party at the rear’ admittedly needed to back off steering inputs, but I’m happy with it now, also got the 38’s pretty good too
 

TBL79

Member
Nov 5, 2020
39
38
Finland
I tried with 600 spring and minor stifness increase. Also tried one round more preload. Lots of different lsc/hsc and rebound settings tried also. Now I found that lsc almost open and hsc open works okey. Roots,rocks works good but on drops whether it is storia hbr or gen 3 proggressive kinematics, it feels harsh on legs. Though with x2 feelings were kind of same. Or maybe my speed has increased?. And 38 feels still very good. It eats everything. But maybe will try some other tune on storia.
 

jcmonty

Well-known member
Sep 5, 2018
472
406
California
Well i have both the ERA and Storia on a Gen 3 Levo.

O. M. G

This stuff is next level. It feels like riding on that rubber playground material that they put under kids climbing frames.

All other suspension.... ruined...

which storia did you end up with? New e storia?
 

carlbiker

🛡️🚵🛡️
Sep 15, 2020
1,047
455
leeds england
Anyone here with a suspension fetish had opportunity to compare something like a fox 36 grip 2 with smashpot vs ERA? Be nice to know if a coil upgrade is decent and if so why would people spunk £1500 on a fork if they can upgrade?

Ive always loved the look of coils but when I found out it offers more confidence due to better traction Ive been keen to find out more.

PUSH are increasing their prices next week and I’ve spoken with EXT who seem decent guys that will allow you to drive over and have a test shock out on for a demo session.

My MTEAM Rise I pickup on Monday has:

Shock:Fox DPX2 Factory 3 Position Adjust EVOL Kashima 210x55mmFront

Fork:Fox 36 Float Factory 150 Grip2 Kashima (15x110)

I’m not a massive sender but I enjoy techy/gnarly dh although I’m probably trying stuff beyond my level. I don’t have ambitions to do huge jumps or drops given I’m not getting younger…

I like the prospect of greater traction and although I can collect on Monday, to me it’s an opportunity to finalise the setup before I crack on!

If I knew enough I’d already know what to do but I don’t, so I’m sure a lot of people would be like ok, swap to zeb, add ext xyz.

If a smashpot is great for a fox 36 then cool I can try this later on, I’ll try air for abit. If the ext is a game changer for the dpx2 then cool I’ll drive to Wales and get one put on then sell the dpx2.

150/140 is the travel, hopefully that’s enough, the demo day on the rise was great and perfect for the trail I did that day (stainburn).

The suspension inspired me to do much more on the rise than my wild so I’m giving this some serious thought as it really is game changing stuff

The only thing is, I think the MTEAM is around 18kg, tyre wise I’m struggling to pass on the 29x2.6 MM and 29x2.4 BB I have sitting there begging for abuse, trouble is they weigh around 2700g!

Trouble is even though ERA is the lightest shock I can’t do the tyres and best sets of coils or the bike will weigh over 20kg I imagine and atm I’m not sure what is making this bike perform so well!

Any recommendations are welcome, including just ‘feckin ride or’ ?
 
Last edited:

ebikerider

Active member
Oct 1, 2019
706
481
Australia
The EXT stuff is in a different league. Whole shock and fork feel totally different than anything else on the market. The technology inside is vastly more advanced than anything from RS or Fox. When riding it you can feel it and its just mind boggling how different they feel from other stuff on the market. More support but never harsh with real bottom out resistance. 150mm can outperform 180mm easily from other brands and im still not sure how thats possible but it does.
What do you believe is vastly more advanced than other fork brands?

And yes, I've had an ERA and a Storia.
 

Hob Nob

Active member
Jun 4, 2020
152
149
UK
What do you believe is vastly more advanced than other fork brands?

And yes, I've had an ERA and a Storia.

I agree (as someone who has an ERA & Storia on another bike).

They do feel different, for sure, but I always raise an eyebrow to anyone gushing over how amazing one high end suspension product is over other high end suspension products.

From experience, it's no 'better' than both well set up Factory or Performance Elite Fox product, or well set up Ohlins kit.

As a racer, I can say having put it on, i'm not magically going any faster, or in any more control when on the limit. I'm generally on the podium at most events I enter (bar stuff like EWS's!) with the same group of people. Putting EXT on my bike has not elevated me to smashing everyone by 30 seconds every race.

If you have high end kit already, spending the time setting it up properly & keeping it serviced & running well is likely to yield just as positive results.
 

Hob Nob

Active member
Jun 4, 2020
152
149
UK
Cannock Chase is tougher on suspension than the Alps. (no kidding) It has a horrible combination of cobbles, huge bomb holes and 6 inch deep braking bumps in the middle of berms in rows of 10 or more. Forget testing suspension in Alpe D'huez just take it over Cannock and see how it performs!

I was going to type out a long reply, but at this point, i'm out, that's all I need to know.

I genuinely don't care if people do want to drop a few grand on suspension bits if it's their thing, but claiming 'game changing' levels of performance is quite simply, ridiculous. If I believed half of that, by swapping my suspension, i'll be giving Richie Rude a run for his money in the next few rounds of the EWS. :rolleyes:
 

EMTB Forums

Since 2018

The World's largest electric mountain bike community.

523K
Messages
25,837
Members
Join Our Community

Latest articles


Top