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First look at the 2006 Fox 36 TALAS RC2
Fox Racing Shox has been pumping out high quality suspension bike components for years, but few of the company’s products generated as much hype as the Fox 36 TALAS RC2.
In October, I installed a 2006 Fox 36 TALAS RC2 on my trusty Giant AC and set out for some trail time. An unfortunate accident kept me from riding, and I wasn’t able to get a decent take on the 36 until now. Keep in mind that this writeup provides only my initial impressions of the 36 TALAS and I’ll add a full review after I’ve spent some real time with the fork.
The specs
Taking its name from its basic suspension platform (TALAS) and the size of its stanchions — each stanchion measures in at 36mm in diameter –the 36 is tagged as a do-it-all fork for freeride, all mountain, and trail use. The fork weighs in at about 5.25 lbs and has fully adjustable travel settings between a claimed 100mm and 150mm (4″ and 6″). The 36 RC2 also gives its rider the ability to control the fork’s rebound damping and its high- and low-speed compression damping. And unlike the heavier 36 VAN, which uses coil springs to control spring rate and sag, the 36 TALAS uses an air spring for setup. The air spring allows an infinite amount of adjustment and, as such, can fit a wide range of riders.
The good
There are so many things that are really cool about this fork that it’s hard to find a place to start. When I first pulled the 36 out of the box, I was impressed by how stout the fork looked. The stanchions look huge and the crown and steerer are sufficiently burly to take all but the largest hits. The 20mm thruaxle is secured by four decent-sized pinch bolts that allow you to get plenty of leverage without worrying about stripping them.
All of the adjustment dials are anodized aluminum and have a solid, high quality feel to them and the exposed pieces — particularly the compression adjustments — are well protected by a sealed external cap. The one piece, loam-coloured lowers look really sharp and the fork’s brake arch has plenty of room for larger tires (although I usually run a 2.2″ Michelin). Fox also had the forethought of including a relatively simple guide / clip that holds your hydraulic brake line in place, without the need for zip ties or some other contraption.
Before you actually take the fork out on the trails, it’s important to set up the sag correctly. Using the included air pump, you simply consult a table in your user manual and add the corresponding amount of air pressure. I added the recommended amount of air to the fork and found that the fork’s sag was bang on — others have found that they need to use significantly less to achieve the desired setting.
As with most suspension products, I’d recommend following the manual and then tinkering with the settings until you’re comfortable with the ride characteristics. It might sound like a complicated process but it only took me about 20 minutes to get the fork behaving reasonably well. With a full range of external adjustments, it’s easy to change most settings — travel, rebound damping, compression — in a minute or two. And it’s easy to do this on the trail as well.
When I finally got the fork on the trail, I rode a few trails that I was familiar with to dial in the settings. This part of the process took a while, and the compression settings in particular took some time to get feeling ‘just right’. But once I was there, oh what a ride.
Simply put, the 36 TALAS is the best general purpose freeride / all mountain fork I’ve ever ridden. The 36 is laterally stiff and exhibits very little flex, something I’ve only really experienced on big, dual crown forks like the Marzocchi Monster Ts. The fork’s stiffness helps my front wheel track through rough stuff really well and cycles through its travel without bogging down on drops or after jumps. And the expected break-in period was really nothing to write home about.
If you can afford the price tag and you’re into riding trails with big hits or demanding terrain, the 36 TALAS RC2 is a really good place to start looking when you’re in the market for a new fork. And because the fork is extremely adjustable, it’s easy to turn it into an all-day trail fork that’s just as comfortable on smooth, undulating single track.
The not-so-good
The Fox 36 TALAS RC2 is a super fork and, based on my limited time with it, is probably one of the most exciting front suspension products in years. However, there are a few things that I’ve taken note of that might have a few of you thinking twice about making it yours.
The first, and most obvious, issue that many people will have with the 36 is its price. With a suggested retail price of almost $1000 usd, the only thing that comes close to the 36 is the new Manitou Travis Intrinsic, and even that fork retails for $150 less than the Fox. On its own, the price eliminates a whole bunch of prospective users from contention.
Next up is the weight of the fork. With a claimed weight of just under 5.25lbs, the 36 is significantly heavier than a lot of the other all mountain forks out there (the Rock Shox Pike, the Manitou Nixon) although, to be fair, it is a good deal lighter than the full-on freeride single crown forks on the market (ie. the Marzocchi 66). Personally, I don’t have a problem with the weight of the fork — it’s well balanced and fits my riding style perfectly — but if you’re a gram counter, you might want to look elsewhere.
As I mentioned above, setting up the compression on the fork was a little bit of a chore and, unless you’re really familiar with the way compression damping works, the 36 can be a bit of a handful to get dialled in. The 36 TALAS comes from the factory with the high and low-speed compression settings set at their minimum and, while the manual provides some advice on how to find the ‘number of clicks’ that work for you, you need to exercise plenty of patience to get the fork going ‘just so’.
Finally, if you like to mash up hills, you’ll probably find that the 36 TALAS bounces around with a little more ‘bob’ than you’d like. I didn’t notice the fork movement on the climb too much, but I don’t spend a lot of time hammering up hills while standing on the pedals. At the same time, I did notice that it was significantly less stable on climbs than the Manitou Firefly that it replaced.
Summary
Phew, all of that from just a handful of rides. As you can probably tell, I’m enamoured by the fork and its performance and look forward to telling all of you how it holds up over the long term.
The Fox 36 TALAS RC2 is a solid fork that soaks up big hits and jumps while remaining versatile enough to be used on smooth single track and well-kept fire access roads. Some riders will complain about the overall weight of the fork and others will make bones about the price of the 36 but, in the end, you get what you pay for.
Now that I’m riding reguarly and the weather is starting to improve (ok, the weather part is wishful thinking), I’ll come back with a full-fledged review in a couple of months. I expect that, by then, I’ll have a couple more criticisms and some more praise, but you’ll only know what it is if you tune back in…
If you are in the market for this fork and want me to look into any specific features and / or claimed issues (ie. getting full travel), drop a note in the comment box below and I’ll take your suggestions to heart.
1. Posted by Week 8 » The Biking Hub | 10:28 am, 10 March 2006
[…] On Monday, I offered an unintentionally lengthy first impression of the Fox 36 TALAS RC2 — I’ll follow that up with a full length review in a couple of months. Dan’s story for Tuesday discussed a recent vacation to San Francisco, where he turned a weekend getaway into a cycling adventure that left him reinvigorated and ready to ride through the rest of the winter. He followed that up with a recap and some photos of the Amgen Tour of California. For Wednesday, Ashwin prepared an introduction to what will be a series of articles on cross country fundamentals — a list a basic skills that will help all of you xc racers fine tune your skill set. That first entry was pretty popular, so we followed it up with a piece on The Trackstand, the first full-length writeup in Ashwin’s skill series. Also, I didn’t get Denise’s piece up for this week — that was mostly a result of me shutting down over the past couple of days — and you can expect to see that next week. […]