I’d argue even their lower end stuff is underrated but people don’t see that either, they only see the absolute bottom of the barrel and assume the company must only make that since they don’t see anything else. I prefer the lower end Suntour air fork to the Xfusion one.
But ya they have DHers and freeriders. Like maybe XC doesn’t sell suspension the best for fairly obvious reasons, but riders doing world cups or Fest Series on Suntour stuff should make it quite clear they’re a reputable brand.
That said… It can be hard to source/find/buy the high end stuff. So that’s ultimately on them and their distro I suppose. But maybe they’ve tried and tried and nobody ever bought it so they gave up. Dunno
taythorn1 on
Has anyone used there RAIDON XC-LO-R? I have the cheap coil xcm and want to get a raidon through there upgrade program.
Roadrunner1659 on
So, I have to replace my SR Suntour XRC34 after damaging it on a rock. I have nothing negative to say about the Suntour, nor anything to compare it too, as it’s my first MTB. With that said, if I wanted to stay with the Suntour brand, but upgrade to a better fork, what would you recommend?
OldDarthLefty on
Their low end stuff is ubiquitous. I have to think if they wanted to play on that level in retail they could. But they don’t seem to be odoing the yearly gimmick thing like RS and Fox. I wonder if they even sell as much as Cane Creek or MRP or DVO.
Weird to think this is the corporate successor to all the not-Shimano companies in the bike boom
mtnbiketech on
Not saying that Suntour is necessarily bad, however, when it comes to pro racing events, the thing to remember is that the athletes drink water from RedBull and Monster Cans, to make it appear like they are drinking actual red bull or monster.
Trusting a product just cause someone won using it is the pure essence of advertising/marketing. The parts that these guys run are highly custom for their own use case, and its not something that is available to the public. The shim stacks are all custom tuned, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they use higher quality bushings/seals then what is standard.
Id even go far to say that the forks should either have special decals on them to differentiate them from consumer product, or otherwise, the athletes and teams are liable for false advertising. Fox is super guilty of this. Their VVC lineup of forks and shocks all have extremely little compression damping that is not suited for racing (which is why they removed it in their latest forks, and will very likely remove it in the shocks with the next generation), so all the big sponsored athletes are running much firmer base shim stacks to actually get decent levels of compression in their products.
coloradoemtb on
i just put the suntour durolux 36 fork on my ripmo af and took it to Trestle bike park performed wonderfully. No arm fatigue and held its own on techy rough stuff. BTW they are on sale for $312.00 now with firstorder 10% code.
chock-a-block on
There is probably a very good business reason SR Suntour doesn’t have an official presence in some countries including the U.S.
As you may or may not know, the *actual* manufacturing of bicycle components is generally secretive with OEMs like SR/Suntour probably making tons of parts for others with the agreement they won’t enter a given national market. Nothing illegal about this.
Separately, pretty sure Tom Pidcock can win on anything given he came back to the very front from a flat. That was a legitimately stacked international field, and he was just that much better. Not as good as PFP, but, the closest comparison.
itaintbirds on
Suntour is kind of synonymous with lower level gear, if I were shopping for a high end fork I doubt I would take a flyer on one over a RS or Fox, maybe they make great stuff but they’ll need to change their marketing, it’s hard to have a foot in both markets. I was kind of surprised to see their booth at crankworx last week, I’d kinda forgotten about them.
Adventurous_Fact8418 on
I recall when Andre Agassi changed sponsorships and they painted his racket so that we’d all think he was using his sponsor’s rackets. Maybe it is really Suntour but there is no way to know if it’s the stuff they sell to us.
balrog687 on
My GF rides a 120mm raidon on her hardtail, it has all the features an entry level fork needs. Totally worth $150 for 32mm stanchions, tapered steer tube, boost axle and a remote.
Much much better than those entry level XCT and XCR forks, decent weight also.
10 Comments
I’d argue even their lower end stuff is underrated but people don’t see that either, they only see the absolute bottom of the barrel and assume the company must only make that since they don’t see anything else. I prefer the lower end Suntour air fork to the Xfusion one.
But ya they have DHers and freeriders. Like maybe XC doesn’t sell suspension the best for fairly obvious reasons, but riders doing world cups or Fest Series on Suntour stuff should make it quite clear they’re a reputable brand.
That said… It can be hard to source/find/buy the high end stuff. So that’s ultimately on them and their distro I suppose. But maybe they’ve tried and tried and nobody ever bought it so they gave up. Dunno
Has anyone used there RAIDON XC-LO-R? I have the cheap coil xcm and want to get a raidon through there upgrade program.
So, I have to replace my SR Suntour XRC34 after damaging it on a rock. I have nothing negative to say about the Suntour, nor anything to compare it too, as it’s my first MTB. With that said, if I wanted to stay with the Suntour brand, but upgrade to a better fork, what would you recommend?
Their low end stuff is ubiquitous. I have to think if they wanted to play on that level in retail they could. But they don’t seem to be odoing the yearly gimmick thing like RS and Fox. I wonder if they even sell as much as Cane Creek or MRP or DVO.
Weird to think this is the corporate successor to all the not-Shimano companies in the bike boom
Not saying that Suntour is necessarily bad, however, when it comes to pro racing events, the thing to remember is that the athletes drink water from RedBull and Monster Cans, to make it appear like they are drinking actual red bull or monster.
Trusting a product just cause someone won using it is the pure essence of advertising/marketing. The parts that these guys run are highly custom for their own use case, and its not something that is available to the public. The shim stacks are all custom tuned, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they use higher quality bushings/seals then what is standard.
Id even go far to say that the forks should either have special decals on them to differentiate them from consumer product, or otherwise, the athletes and teams are liable for false advertising. Fox is super guilty of this. Their VVC lineup of forks and shocks all have extremely little compression damping that is not suited for racing (which is why they removed it in their latest forks, and will very likely remove it in the shocks with the next generation), so all the big sponsored athletes are running much firmer base shim stacks to actually get decent levels of compression in their products.
i just put the suntour durolux 36 fork on my ripmo af and took it to Trestle bike park performed wonderfully. No arm fatigue and held its own on techy rough stuff. BTW they are on sale for $312.00 now with firstorder 10% code.
There is probably a very good business reason SR Suntour doesn’t have an official presence in some countries including the U.S.
As you may or may not know, the *actual* manufacturing of bicycle components is generally secretive with OEMs like SR/Suntour probably making tons of parts for others with the agreement they won’t enter a given national market. Nothing illegal about this.
Separately, pretty sure Tom Pidcock can win on anything given he came back to the very front from a flat. That was a legitimately stacked international field, and he was just that much better. Not as good as PFP, but, the closest comparison.
Suntour is kind of synonymous with lower level gear, if I were shopping for a high end fork I doubt I would take a flyer on one over a RS or Fox, maybe they make great stuff but they’ll need to change their marketing, it’s hard to have a foot in both markets. I was kind of surprised to see their booth at crankworx last week, I’d kinda forgotten about them.
I recall when Andre Agassi changed sponsorships and they painted his racket so that we’d all think he was using his sponsor’s rackets. Maybe it is really Suntour but there is no way to know if it’s the stuff they sell to us.
My GF rides a 120mm raidon on her hardtail, it has all the features an entry level fork needs. Totally worth $150 for 32mm stanchions, tapered steer tube, boost axle and a remote.
Much much better than those entry level XCT and XCR forks, decent weight also.
Seth made a good video about them.