RockShox RS1 Long Term Review

It’s unique, expensive and looks amazing but how does the RS1 cope with long-term use?

With its ‘upside down’ layout, full-carbon upper legs and exposed stanchions, the RS1 has raised a lot of questions about its longevity. We’ve had this RS1 in action for almost 10 months now, so let's take a look back at how it has fared.

First up a quick recap… It retails for $2,300 and you also need to buy the matching proprietary hub, so it’s crazyexpensive. Still, I’ve seen a number of riders using them and they come as standard spec on some $6,000 hardtails.

The design places the largest part of the structure up near the crown; right where the leverage is greatest. Instead of using a brace, the massive 27mm diameter axle of the Predictive Steering hub serves to tie the lower legs together.

Initially we mounted the fork to a carbon hardtail, replacing a RockShox Reba. Compared with a traditional fork it did have more torsional flex but fore and aft it was much stiffer. For us the back and forth rigidity paid dividends and the bike felt more controlled — it simply didn’t twang back and forth when braking into rough corners. We were pretty stoked with the performance and while it’s around 130g heavier than a SID World Cup XC fork, the added control was appreciated whenever the trail turned rough.

The RS1 can be set to offer 80, 100 or 120mm of travel, so next we tested it on a 120mm trail bike. The fore-aft stiffness remained a highlight; it’s clearly more stable when braking and it doesn’t feel like it wants to fold back underneath you.

When compared to a good 120mm travel trail fork, our RS1 suffered with some additional stiction. One of the supposed benefits with an upside down design is the permanently lubricated seals. However, if you push down on the bars and gradually increase load, the fork resists movement until you reach a certain point, then it suddenly falls into its travel. I tried a few other RS1s and they shared the same trait. An oil bath and air piston service did improve things but still wasn’t the most supple in this regard.

While this stiction would generally be seen as a negative, it actually seemed to serve a purpose on the RS1. It is pitched squarely at the XC racer and this initial resistance helps to stabilise the fork when you’re out of the saddle and cranking—like a simplistic form of platform damping.

RockShox uses their ‘token’ spacer system to tune the air volume within the fork. The stock setup uses two spacers and this worked well in the 100mm travel mode. Once we bumped it up to 120mm, we felt that an extra token was required to make it softer initially whilst still offering enough bottom out resistance. Overall we’d say that the RS1 air spring felt more natural in 100mm format.

BIG HIT BABY

With a little bit of stiction, you would expect the bump-eating performance to be compromised. While I’m sure it’d eat the bumps even better if it wasn’t sticky, the upside down design offers a clear improvement when you’re pushing the bike hard and taking mid-to-large sized hits. A traditional fork may feel smoother in the car park, but they tend to bind when the fork is loaded up under braking. Much of this comes from flex in the skinnier upper legs; when they bend the bushings no longer slide freely. With its short inner legs and massive upper assembly, the fork is better able to move whilst you charge headlong into the bumps. It mightn’t be as pillowy as a dedicated trail fork but it offers excellent control for what it is — a super-light fork that pairs well with shorter travel XC bikes.

As for the fears of stanchion damage; our fork copped its share of knocks on the dropouts but we only noticed one little nick on the lower slider of the fork—it was the sort of scratch that would buff out with some fine wet and dry. Perhaps we were lucky but we certainly didn’t treat the fork with kid gloves. If you did damage an RS1 lower, they can be replaced individually for $159—by comparison a regular crown and steerer assembly is a little over $500.

Distributed by Monza Imports www.sram.com