RockShox Boxxer Team Fork Review - BikeRadar

Since its first outing back in 1996, the Boxxer has become an icon of downhill mountain bike racing alongside Troy Lee helmets and Dainese body armour.

With 152mm (6in) of travel and a sleek chassis, it was the fork of choice for everyone who could afford it, right up until its most recent incarnation last year.

Thirteen years on from the first model, the Boxxer has been redesigned and is set to become a new benchmark for downhill forks.

There are three models – the basic Race model, the lightweight air-sprung World Cup and the middle Team, which we selected for review.

The new Boxxer uses 35mm stanchions – a step up from the old 32mm stanchions – made from 7000 series aluminium.

They have a low-friction anodising with the stylish new Boxxer logo on the drive-side leg. A post mount for the brake and the new Maxle Lite DH axle system down below keep things simple and sorted, and the bulging lower legs house longer bushings for increased durability.

The left leg houses the coil spring – offering 200mm (7.9in) travel – and the new bottom-out system, which uses an MCU elastomer to alter the bottom-out resistance via the dial on top of the leg.

The right leg houses the new damper, which has external high and low speed compression adjustment, so you can fully tune your ride.

Our initial test fork had a production issue with the damper unit, but that has now been sorted. Adding low-speed compression sits the fork up in the travel and resists bobbing, and the dual rebound control makes the fork supple on small hits but controlled on big hits.

The chassis is noticeably stiffer than the previous fork, both fore and aft and torsionally, but is flexier than the Fox 40. Some may see this as a bad thing but a flexier fork actually feels nicer and transmits less through the bars – the Fox is incredibly stiff but some riders can find it a little harsh.

Post this story to:

• Digg
• del.icio.us
• reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

Shopping partners

Shopping partners