The Axon Werx RL RC is Suntour’s top cross-country race fork, with World Championship and World Cup wins to its name. It’s super-cheap for a carbon fibre fork and the neat through-axle keeps it stiff, but it’s heavy for its purpose.
There’s a whole family of Axon forks starting from £275. The Werx version gets carbon fibre lowers to save 65g compared to the magnesium versions and the new RL RC damping cartridge is 80g lighter. The neat push-through, expanding-end QLC 15mm axle gets titanium trim to shed 60g too. Stiffness through the hollow crown is impressive and it’s not easily bullied by random rocks or off camber situations. Tapered steerer versions are available.
The stroke is both smoother to start and less likely to blow straight through than previous Axons. The result is a buoyantant and reasonably controlled fork that can be ridden hard well beyond a racer remit. Low speed compression adjust and a new all-metal twin button remote lockout increase adjustability. It’s still relatively heavy compared to RockShox's benchmark SID, though.
This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.
