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RockShox Revelation 426 Air U-Turn
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RockShox Revelation 426 U-Turn

BikeRadar verdict

45 out of 5 stars

"Stiff, smooth, simple to use and very reliable. Our trail fork winner."

By Guy Kesteven

It might not be a new fork, but this multiple test winner is still the best trail fork around in 2008.

The fact that the Revelation has been around for several years now with no major changes might put some fashion followers off, but you’d be stupid to ignore such a proven unit. Okay, so you might have to run adaptors to match the old-school IS mounts with some of the latest brakes, but otherwise this hasn’t been fixed because it has never broken.

In fact, despite relentlessly testing loads of Revelations ourselves and interrogating other users, we could barely find a single blemish on the fork’s exemplary ‘super reliable, easy life’ record.

It’s not just a reliable fork, it’s also a really good suspension unit. The opposed positive and negative air springs let you balance ride height, overall spring response and starting sensitivity pretty much perfectly between plush traction Hoover to relatively pert.

The adjustable ‘Floodgate’ compression damping lets you run a full racer’s lock, or effectively use the lockout lever as just a low level ‘platform’ to stop braking or cornering dive. RockShox alson has the best remote control ‘PopLoc’ switches in the business, making handlebar-based operation a breeze.

The intuitive U-Turn travel adjust is smooth enough to use while you’re riding, and lets you tune the ride height to within a couple of millimetres of your ideal. Tidemarks on the legs take the guesswork or click-counting out of how much travel you’re actually running.

If you really start to hammer the Revelation down long, rocky, rutted, stepped descents you can start to cause hiccups and indigestion in the Motion Control damping, but 90 percent of the time it’s more than fine. Considering that this is one of the lighter forks here, steering accuracy and general point-and-shoot precision are very good.

As we say, from a reliability point of view we’ve never had a single problem with a Revelation. While they’re not as cheap compared with the competition as when they were first introduced, we still reckon they’re excellent value for such proven toughness.

Manufacturers description

An all-mountain workhorse with unrivaled stiffness to weight in a standard quick release fork.

User Reviews

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  • User review of RockShox Revelation 426 Air U-Turn

    Love my revelation, great fork. It works well over small bumps and big hits. The fork is infinately adjustable so you can play, or set up and leave, upto you.

    The compression damping is useful, and the u-turn can be used for those steep uphill sections.

    0.3
  • User review of RockShox Revelation 426 Air U-Turn

    bought a set of these forks on the recomendation of some of you guys and gals,and what a good buy they are turning out to be!they were so easy to set up a five year old could do it, the flood gate is a breeze .once i hit the trails i knew i was onto a winner

    they have taken every bump and bash in there stride and have so far never felt unsetteled.i could spend days playing with the set up of these forks and the pop loc is super easy to use on the fly and for a five inch fork there not a bad weight .all in all there a great fork for the money and have all the adjustment you could need if your in the market for a 5" 130mm fork these could well be the ticket

    0.3
  • User review of RockShox Revelation 426 Air U-Turn

    Hi, can anyone tell me how quick the air U-turn is? I'm guessing not as fast as the TALAS on Fox, but is it practical to adjust it on a rough bit of trail? Only ask as this can be done quite easily on the Fox forks, but I'm thinking of a Revelation or Pike next. Cheers.

    0.3
  • User review of RockShox Revelation 426 Air U-Turn

    Air U-turn Revelations (and Pikes) have a small amount of free play on the first few mm of travel unless fully wound up or fully wound down due to the U-turn adjuster. Not very satisfactory on such an expensive fork.

    0.3

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Specification

Name:
Revelation 426 Air U-Turn
Built by:
RockShox
Price:
n/a
Crown to Axle Length:
510 mm
Stanchion Diameter:
32 mm
Weight (g):
1804 g
Colour:
White
Spring Type:
Air
Min. Fork Travel:
100mm mm
Max. Fork Travel:
130mm
Year:
2007
Damping Adjustment:
Compression Adjust and Lock, External Rebound, Floodgate, PopLoc Remote Option
Adjustable Travel:
Yes
Steerer Material:
Butted Aluminium
Spring Adjustment:
Positive and Negative Schrader Valves
Damping:
Motion Control
Crown Material:
Forged 6061 T-6 Aluminium
Upper Tube Material:
Aluminium
Lowers:
Magnesium

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