forks Where does the New RS Judy fit in

[T_Boss]

I recently got myself a new XC hardtail, but I find myself feeling a bit hard done by in the deal.

 

I was in the market for a reasonably well specced allu hardtail, feeling based on my riding, and my budget, I would rather let the money go on the components rather than the frame material.

 

I settled on a 2018 Silverback Sola 1, which looked pretty decent, and I felt i was getting a great deal on it, as it was the last one in stock at the shop in question, and was going for about R5k less than the RRP of the incoming 2019 model. 

 

Up till 2017 the Sola 1 was always shipped with a REBA front fork, and I have always loved REBA forks. 

 

2018 comes with the newly released Judy, and I immediately thought that would be great, as the old Judy was always a pretty high-end XC fork. I like the rest of the componentry on the bike, and didn't ask too many questions about the Judy. 

 

Then I realised its a pretty crap fork. its only 30mm, and if this was done to shave weight, then so be it, but even with magnesium lowers, and allu uppers, it weighs in at 1.88kg - Exactly the same as the dirt cheap, entry-level XC30, and a lot more than the 32mm Reba, in fact exactly the same as the 32mm Recon.....

 

So what is the point of this fork? what improvements is it over the xc30, or is it just an xc30 with a nice paint job?

 

Its pretty wishy-washy on the trails I have played on so far, isn't very firm when locked out, and the fork is very stiff either, and it definitely doesn't come anywhere near the performance of a REBA or even a RECON Gold. 

 

Also, it cant fit bottomless tokens, so I can't even improve the performance or tune it much....

 

So what exactly is the point of a fork that pricewise is inbetween a RECON and a REBA, but performance wise is no where close..... Its definately not weight, so what then? The RECON is also boost hub compatible, but the REBA not yet, so I can see this as one reason to fit it over a REBA, but then I still think a 32mm fork like the RECON would be a better, and Cheaper option. 

[FDP]

As far as I know the Sola 1 up to 2016/7 had the Reba, the 2017/8 had a Recon.

 

It seems like the very latest one (I assume 2018/9) has the Judy. I noticed it also sports a RaceFace crank instead of the XT crank of the previous year. Seems like the manufacturers are doing this down spec-ing to combat cost creep.

 

Further looking at the Sram website it seems like the Judy is lower specced than the Recon. From the bottom up the pecking order is (ignoring oddballs like fatbikes, downhill, etc):

 

XC

30

Judy

Sektor

Recon

Reba

SID

[Me rida my bicycle]

The Reba has been boost(110mm) for quite some time. If the bike is still new the shock could need time to bed in or play around with the air pressure and rebound I have had a spin on a bike with a Judy gold and it wasn't have bad couldn't really tell the difference between that a xc30 gold and a recon gold except little more stiffness from the recon to be honest the most Rockshox feel the same except for the rt3 and the XX.

[T_Boss]

As far as I know the Sola 1 up to 2016/7 had the Reba, the 2017/8 had a Recon.

 

It seems like the very latest one (I assume 2018/9) has the Judy. I noticed it also sports a RaceFace crank instead of the XT crank of the previous year. Seems like the manufacturers are doing this down spec-ing to combat cost creep.

 

Further looking at the Sram website it seems like the Judy is lower specced than the Recon. From the bottom up the pecking order is (ignoring oddballs like fatbikes, downhill, etc):

 

XC

30

Judy

Sektor

Recon

Reba

SID

Yes, I saw that too, but that only adds to the confusion, because they list them in that order, yet, if you look at the pricing, the Judy is priced between the Recon and the Reba.

 

So it really makes no sense. I would honestly rather have had the significantly cheaper Recon to this fork. 

 

Regarding the Race Face cranks, I really dont mind that, I have always preferred them to the XT Cranks, and I find the chainrings to be much more durable

[T_Boss]

this link seems to clarify things a little as to how the line up works:

 

https://www.sram.com/sites/all/themes/sram_2011/st_rockshox/_images/products/product-matrix-forks-suspension.jpg

 

But this is outdated as the Recon now also comes in boost, and I would honestly rather have 32mm forks, especially considering the weight of the 30mm Judys is not exactly impressive.

 

Maybe I must just ride the hell out of these and wreck them in the warranty period if I am lucky the replace them with Rebas.... If not, I will spoil myself with a Reba RL for Christmas this year.