*Review* Fox 180mm talas rc2

This is a review on the 2011 fox 180mm talas rc2 tapered 1 1/2 - 1 1/8

The bike it is ridden on is a 2010 coilair,200mm frame.
Geo measured at 64.5* at 180mm and 67* at 140mm.
bike weight: 33.5 lbs with trail tires or 35.6lbs with DH tires
Tires are specialized 2.3 Eskar - trail and 2.5 Maxxis Minions- DH
rider 220lbs




Iv gotten 2 very different rides on the fork now. The first ride was a shuttled run. Its a shuttled trail with about 85% DH and 15% mild climbing. The Dh consisted of steep, rocky and plenty of tight switch backs. The second ride was on a 16mile xc trail . 2 long climbs and 2 mild Dh with it. These 2 trails put the fork through pretty much the terrain it was purchased for.

Setting up the fork was relatively simple. Iv owned a fox 36 talas before so it was pretty much the same. I set the sag to about 25% which was 80psi for my weight. The 2011 models run the fit damper with the rebound on the bottom and the compression dials on top. Static Rebound was pretty simple to set to where I like it with a few clicks faster from the factory settings. For compression, the rc2 has both low and high speed compression adjustments. I run my low speed pretty high and high speed just enough to use all the travel. I set the low speed 4 clicks in from all out and 2 clicks for the high speed. This gave me a good platform to start from.

photo from mtbr

First ride on the DH trail. First impressions right from the start are that this is a very plush fork. It just gobbled everything I gave it. Straight line plowing was no problems and landing nose heavy on a few drops it soaked up the extra impact and kept me moving forward. Through long rock gardens I didnt notice the "flex" people were worried about with the 36mm sanctions. Fox says they added few more bushings on the lowers to counteract the longer travel from their 160mm models. I also noticed that the axle sits about an 1"-2" higher then the bottom of the lowers. It looks a little weird but it was done this way to give the shortest axle to crown length out of all the 180mm travel forks which really helps out on the stiffness. Looks like the extra bushings and shorter axle/crown length did its job. What I liked most about the fork was the ease of adjustments. Going through different trails Im always adjusting the compressions. This trail had a lot of switch backs and high speed turns. I was getting a little brake dive through the turns with the initial setup. With the compression knobs on the top it was a so easy and quick to dial a few more clicks of low speed to alleviate the diving. The same went for the ease of fine tuning the high speed compression.

The second ride had a lot of climbing with xc/am dh runs in return. Having ridden the talas 160mm with 130mm and 100mm travel adjustments. I was a little worried if i would be able to climb as easily with the talas 180 only being able to turn down to 140mm. Well my worries were put away after the first climb. I climbed back bone at Point Mugu which is a 2-3 mile single track filled with switch backs,small short steep sections and I also climbed "hell hill" which is a 1-2mile very steep long graded fire road. On both climbs, it was very easy to keep my front end down even with a 50mm stem and 67* ha at 140mm. It felt just as plush in 140mm as it does in 180mm So it soaked up any rock sections of the climbs. The new talas lever swings back to go to 180mm and swings forward to go down to 140mm. The older levers swung back to talas down. This new lever direction makes it impossible for it to talas down when brushing against branches on the trail which has happened to me before with the older system. Being that this fork is very light the 16 miles of xc/am riding made it a pleasure to pedal up hill( not really but you know what i mean :lol. On the DH sections I went down both Guadalasca and Back Bone. Both are mild XC/ AM type Dh's with small rock gardens and switch backs. I turned out both my low and high compressions with a few clicks from the 1st rides DH setting and opened the fork to 180mm. Needless to say a 180mm fork down those trails made it feel like a paved high way. So smooth, so fast( within safe reason since its a 2 way xc/hiking trail )

Conclusion. I love this fork. It has big plush travel, ease of adjustments and super light. This fork really matched my frame and riding style really well. I wanted a fork that I could climb in and still really take down some good gnar. The fox 180mm talas rc2 fit that notch perfect.

 

we needed a pic of the rocky stuff, road pic is not enough,show us the goods.

 

lols.. didnt get any pics on the trail.. too much fun riding.. ill post some trail chunk when I can

 

Thanks for the review. I have been thinking of picking up this fork but am waiting to see what Fox has in store for the 2012 180mm RC2 forks.

 

here you go.. taken from my phone so its a little blurry