BoXXers: 2006 Race
Well after blowing up my 04 boxxer races a few times and twisting the crap out of them they were in need of replacing.
So off i ran (well drove...) to the bike shop with a wad cashing and said
I'll take the 06 boxxer teams after being talked out of my purchase and talked into getting a set of boxxer races.
Why? well the 06 model boxxer race this year comes with "motion control" dampening and compression adjust normally you would not find a compression adjust on a boxxer race. you have 6 click's (or 1/4 of a turn) of adjustment via the blue top knob with the compression this takes the fork from a fully active super plush fork to a locked out fork which to me seems pretty useless but hey... what ever
the motion control dampening feel's bloody awesome is all i can say. when riding my local track for the first time i could straight away
feel a huge difference in the two forks from where my 04's would twist and bind up to where the 06 stays super plush and smooth as butter
which most forks do in this current day and age. but with most forks i seem to notice this "dive" into corners i really don't like the feel of this but the boxxer don't seem to do it so this is a great bonus, you get a fully active smooth as butter fork that doesn't dive i assume this is because of the motion control dampening.
With this years boxxer the rebound adjustmeant is huge as compared to my 04's which use to have about a 1/4 of a turn now this years probably
has close to about 8 turns. (don't want to fiddle with mine it's set up perrrfect) so it took a while to get it right but now it's there I'm loving the feel of the fork. one think I'd like to point out that I'm not happy about tho is the red rebound adjuster didn't last long it feel out after 2 runs on the first day i was using them! so now I'm back to using a 2.5 Allen key so a word of cation just take it out before it falls out
Now with the new 05 / 06 forks rock shox have changed a few things like the crowns, lowers and axle (06 only)
With the new crowns they have swapped the bolts onto the other side of the fork leg to give a bigger turning circle and better frame clearance
they also have holes for a direct mount stem and look pretty trick.
The new lowers are well alot stiffer i now notice how i can just point the
bike where i wanna go and it does just that no defecting of rocks and such things. the arch also clears the crowns alot better and i haven't seen any of the new forks with arch scrub marks on them (which was fairly common on 04 and older forks) also inside the new lowers they have allowed for more bushing overlap which now means no more fork binding and heavy braking over the rough stuff.
Now this year rock shox have got rid of their old axle system (4 pinch bolts and 2 end cap bolts) if favor of the 'DH' maxle system which seems to work great. basically you now only need one 6mm Allen key you loosen one side which releases a spreading plug which holds everything firm then undo the other side which' unscrews the axle from the lowers the system is really quick and easy to use. well done rock shox no more striped out pinch bolts!
Over all with this fork for the price (rrp $1,450.00) you cant get a better
fork in my opinion the ride they offer is second to none they are butter
smooth and silent the whole way though their travel. no more rattling springs our slushing oil sounds just a slight hiss. the extra inch of travel they give over the older 04 forks is pretty noticeable as you can run a much softer start of your stroke with out bottoming them out every 10 meters down a track. which means when combined with the stiffer lowers and longer bushings give a heap more control on where the front of the bike is going you'll find you front wheel holding lines that once seemed impossible.
over all i would rate this fork about 9.5/10 i have been using them pretty
solid (shuttles 2 -3 times a week) for about 3 months.
