Are These Linkage Forks Worth The Hype?

all right folks so did a video where did unboxing of the motion ride Fox they may see it away the distance there because I'm actually out on a riding day today with McGuire visuals how's it going so Adam at the minute just before we get up just getting a bit of b-roll some arty shots you know with the mountain in the background is absolutely beautiful today and then yeah we'll head up I'll give you some first arrived impressions we'll get some awesome slow-mo we're right down some steep stuff try and find some bottom out so you can see it in full action I know a few people have commented about pink bike having their hook too flat so we'll try and find stuff like that and see how they cope you know we may as well just get stuck into this we found a particularly steep Cal bumpy we shoot to go down here so as I'm setting up down there I'm not even warmed up but I think we're just gonna send it down this see how it copes maybe if I can feel brave after a few runs a bit of warming up even see a bit of a hook to landing down there probably just faster to roll it but got to do some testing see how it goes [Applause] fairly wild I might just try and hook a bit of a gap here goes [Applause] I was horrible again that's better I think that is a pretty damn good test that is quite a bumpy steep rollout good test for the anti dive and just general absorption that they can offer while braking I must admit the Fox did act differently than I was expecting I think the anti dive system definitely worked but I was almost expecting some day so my body position wasn't quite in the right place now is that flow of the Fox it was that just something we need to get used to you need to go and find out some more birth the first attempt I landed I had my weight in the wrong place and it felt quite jarring almost as if my arms gave way a little bit however the second time I kind of adapted for it and actually went way nicer braking on these it seemed to keep the front end up it did what it's supposed to do I still felt like I had some front wheel grip I was in control so yeah thumbs up so far and that'd be interesting to have almost the same bike with some normal Forks to give that a try but yeah onwards it's pretty snowy on some of these open patches and I thought that'd be a good opportunity to try bit from bricks skidding as that kind of shows any flex that's in the chassis so I mean that is quite an extreme case and actually locking up the front wheel so it's one of the grips light grip slide so that's pretty extreme test considering you know they've got all the linkages odd pivots actually pretty damn stiff I've just pushed up this trail and it is looking so beautiful I've left Adam down there I just covered I'm gonna put the chest cam on and I'm gonna send it down this let's do this [Applause] come on [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] right I do have a disclaimer everyone I haven't ridden these trails why any trails for that matter for a long time this frozen that trail was the harshest thing everything was just frozen absolutely solid no forgiveness in any of like there I would say mud but there wasn't any mud basically what I'm saying is I don't know how a normal fork would have acted down that so it's kind of a difficult one to say oh yeah these folks are amazing down there when I'm not really used to it what I will say is I didn't particularly find I was like taken by surprise by the forks on anything down there they kind of felt fairly natural I think I did notice that when I was breaking the front end stayed higher I didn't feel particularly any dive one thing I do need to figure out there is the harshness when I was using my front brake was that because the floor was just absolutely rock solid or did my suspension suffer because I use the front brake so that's one thing I still need to find out and that's where having a back to back bike with my odd Forks would be really handy cuz I'd love to know how they felt down there not gonna lie this is something I wanted to do today a bit of a road gap I've never done this just cuz you know me just ride past we've seen people session this but I've never hit it myself it looks kind of fun from here into the black eternal darkness today is not prime weather for it the run-up is completely snow I've had to smash a puddle and clear a bit of snow off here and I'm gonna go and have a roll see how it feels but I ain't promising anything we are now on to the matador this is the downhill track and this is the track that when I thought of somewhere steep to come and test these walks this is the first place that I thought of this is why I wanted to come to inner Leeson course you know wide-angle lenses so I was going to make these things look pretty mellow but yeah hopefully that gives you some indication of just how steep this thing is okay so here we are at the top down into the deep dark woods I'm not going to set any speed records with this I just want to see what these Forks are like so you ready Adam [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] that was wild and going about twice as fast as I expected then [Applause] all right folks so you wanted a angle of these forks and actions so I have attached the GoPro to the bars pointing at these guys it should look pretty cool nice and stable and hopefully show these folks fully in action [Music] goddamn that she comes close we have come a bit further down the matador to quite cool feature now you've got some pretty rooty step downs there for the set up for this yeah in substantial drop off to just like the steep run out so you've got some massive braking bumps going down there so this is going to be a good punishment for the Fox it's going to see if it does keep my friend end up see how to cope while braking does the suspension still work and how the way to cope with flex so [Applause] when a bit further than the planned [Music] I must admit guys I am actually pretty impressed so far I did have some reservations when I first went and wrote Katherine they felt too soft they felt too linear and the rebound was too fast as well now coming here riding this stuff going a bit faster going steeper they're feeling really really good I'm not noticing them being too soft I'm not noticing being too linear not noticing any bottom out they seem to be propping up the front end when it gets steep not noticing any dive so far they're pretty much doing everything they say they're supposed to do and they're feeling really planted and controlled so yeah I'm not being paid to say this I got given a 4 to 3 but I would tell you if I hated them if I did hate them but so far obviously this is literally just the first big ride I've been on so far I'm loving them I am a little bit curious to know whether or not the temperature today has been affecting them like I said when I rode them at catkin they felt a bit too soft a little bit too linear but that was a little bit warmer I'm wondering whether today off so you can see it is pretty cold I'm wondering whether the cool air is making the oil in a damper you know a bit more viscous a bit slower or if it's making the bushings contract or in fact that I'm wondering if the temperature is affecting them so I think today is a cold day we need to come back and ride a hot date and see what happens but may have to wait a long time for that is Scotland after all ok so since that last clip it's been a few weeks and I've actually spent a bit more time on the fork we have come to show this out Loch Lomond check out that view this is I'll go on about views all the time this is what happens in Scotland's but we've got amazing views of Loch Lomond in the clouds there we've got Ben Lomond and then down in the distance you can see Loch Lomond just goes off away it's absolutely gorgeous but the important thing we're going to talk about isn't abuse it is the forks now since the last filming I have actually had an email from motion saying how these Forks are going to she's slightly changed for production my thought has pretty much full bushings although it does actually have a bearing in the back here which I didn't know about apparently the production process is too difficult to get everything machined so precisely its Jess it's not feasible so you guys will either be pleased or upset the production forks are gonna have full sealed bearings on everything but the one thing I can talk about other than just the bearings and stuff is there's the general performance of them so we are here I've actually come in rode these trails not long ago these are some of the steepest slippiest muddiest trails I've ever ridden my life so we're gonna try and ride these in the rain and see how we get on one bad thing about today and the rain is these woods are so dark I might struggle with the GoPro but Adams got his Sony camera which does work pretty well in low lights this really is wet this wasn't forecast like I mentioned these woods are steep and slippery this would be a good test of the anti dive as well as my skills and knowingly the writing did feel a lot faster than it looked this was a slippery right-hander into the double step down into the steep chute and then a fairly long off camber straight it's places like this with the angled roofs I often have difficulty with this was a particularly tricky section with a root EF camber setup into the muddy rooted corners which kept on getting steeper this rocky stream was the trickiest bit but it didn't last long before sending me into this steep it looks true but there's a nice reward of a step up near the bottom when it's dry I promise I'll fully get over the hill okay final review time what are my thoughts on these folks now bear in mind that I've only had these a few weeks but in those weeks I have tried to punish them I've tried to take them down the steepest trails I can find try to ride them in the muddiest conditions I can find I've ridden them in that iciest conditions that was purely accidental though I've tried to break going down steep breaking bumps I tried to jump them I've tried to button them out I've tried to twist them right off camber ride rooty slippery stuff so yeah in a few weeks I've had them I have tried to punish them as much as I can and with some of these points I'm gonna make please bear in mind that the bearings are going to be different in the production models so some of the points I'm gonna make I can be affected by that that being said I'm gonna give my bad and good points of these Forks and then I'll let you guys decide whether or not they're the Fox for you okay the first bad point is the price I'm not gonna beat around the bush these are expensive Forks I've looked online they seem to be 1690 euros which puts them more than the top of the range fox forks and rock shocks for so yeah they are expensive the next bad point is the weight they are heavy Fox they're not super super heavy but they are just a few grams heavier than the coil Fox I've been running before if you're used to air Fox then yeah they are going to be noticeably heavier but myself coming from a coil fox I've not noticed any difference the next bad point is these Forks aren't the most adjustable Forks in the world if you are a bit of a suspension Tweaker then you're gonna struggle to tweak these Forks as much as you can other ones the next bad point I've noticed is although these Forks are very stiff front and back they do have a bit of a twist side to side to them I can notice this when I grab the handlebars and tried to flex them up and down I've noticed this twice when riding super steep stuff and I've been turning a corner and braking really hard at the same time either wanting to come to a stop or just bad timing of a boom I have noticed the Forks of twisting and then they just wanna unwind and it's quite a weird feeling although I must mention I've not noticed this when riding normally down a trail so take that as you will now this next bad point this I don't know whether it's been the bushings that affected this where we're not full sealed bearings will help but one thing I have noticed is there has been an increase of friction as I've been testing these Forks now when I got them first out of the box they were the most supple things in the world like practically the most supple folks have ever felt but as I've been riding I don't know whether it's been a cold weather the jet washing I've been doing the mud that I've been getting all over it but there has been more friction and it needs more force to break away and get the forks moving the next bad point is the lack of a QR axle now I've been having to take my front wheel on and off to get it onto my car to take it to go riding and yeah this is just a minor thing but I would love to have a quick release on there just to make life a little bit easier the last bad point is simply I'd like it if I could fit a mud guard to these a little bit easier either if the motion ride came up with their own one that fit these specifically or you know maybe I can just modify my old mud guard to fit I'd have to cut up some notches just to get past these linkages but I haven't noticed I have got massive blobs of mud right in my eye when testing these folks out okay so the first good point the anti dive system of these folks now this is pretty much the main reason why these folks exist I know a lot of people online didn't really understand why these folks were like this but essentially it's to stop the folks from diving when you're going down steep terrain or using you front brake I've never ridden folks with anti dive before I didn't really know what to think but it is good it is really really good I've purposely gone out and found the steepest terrain I could find to ride these box keeping the front end up and the slack head angle the same when going down steep stuff honestly if you've never tried it it's mind-blowing it is really really good now the next point is a good thing is kind of to go against one of the bad points I made the lack of adjustment now that could be a bad thing but also quite a good thing a lot of folks these days come with so much adjustment it is actually quite easy to make you folks feel like crap now if you limit the number of adjustments you can make you limit the amount of mistakes you can make one cool thing about these folks is there's no exposed stanchion spoke to scratch that is one thing I'm sure everyone who's been mountain biking for a while has done is scratch the stanchions and you just know that's an expensive replacement with a motion right folks there's no exposed tensioned you can scratch these things up and they'll be absolutely fine now the next good thing is I've noticed the most amount of front tire grip I've ever felt out of a suspension for now don't know whether that's due the suppleness or the drama trees staying the same or even the Flex does the twisting force helped the front tire grip a lot of frame designers design the back end to have a bit of flex in it to help the tracking a lot of wheel manufacturers design a slight bit of flex in the wheels to help with the tracking and grip another is that the same with Fox either way I've been noticing a ton of front tire grip the other good thing about these Forks is just how planted they feel now I mentioned in the bad points how they feel really linear and there's no ramp up that on the trail hasn't translated to any bad effects and these Forks have honestly felt absolutely planted they felt nothing but predictable and yeah absolutely loved how they've been performing so those are my good and bad points you may notice there were more bad than good however the good were so good that I think they outweigh quite a few the bad points but the million-dollar question is would I buy these Forks my answer is yes I would buy these Forks if the sealed bearings that they're going to put in the production model are reliable and maintenance-free now obviously bearings will need some maintenance a bit like the back end of a bike but to me that's not a huge issue we have bikes with multiple linkages on the back I don't see why that should be such an issue on the front the other thing I would like to see on a production model if I ever did buy these is a bit more of a usable range of the damping and judgment yes they are expensive yes they are heavy yes looks a bit polarizing and potentially more maintenance with bearings but just the anti dive properties and the feeling of them in action is so so nice that you know I'm willing to sacrifice a few things if you are interested in going and getting these folks I would definitely recommend going out and trying a test ride I know there's a few places popping up around the country in the world where you can go and test these folks out one thing I'll say is don't judge them by the car pipe test the car park test doesn't do these folks any justice at all they'll feel too linear the rebound might even feel too fast but honestly as soon as you take them out in the trails steeper the better they'll come into their own and you'll understand you know why anti dive is such a good thing I hope you guys liked my review like the riding there's probably a ton of stuff I forgotten to put on this so I will add those for comments or make another video in the future with any follow-up stuff if you have any questions please ask below and yeah I hope you enjoyed this if you'd like to see a more in-depth version of more riding more talking I do longer videos for my patron channel so check that out in the link below and yeah I hope you guys have a brilliant week hope you can get out ride your bikes be fluent and I'll catch y'all next time so take care of [Music]

Channel: Ali Clarkson

Views: 90,013

Rating: 4.8790698 out of 5

Keywords: ali c, ali clarkson, motion ride e18 fork, motion ride e18 enduro fork, motion ride e18 linkage fork, linkage fork, motion ride e18 review, motion fork review, linkage fork review, anti dive fork, enduro fork, 170mm enduro fork, bike review, motion ride test, gopro hero 7 trail riding, innerleithen downhill, scotland mountainbiking, mountainbiking, best mountainbike fork, suspension test

Id: Fov7XPtuesc

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 08 2019