Hi all! I just bought a 2024 Norco Optic C1. It's a great bike, great specs, cool design. I'm a bigger guy 6'3 and around 240lbs. Previously I had been riding a 2021 Giant Trance Advanced 1. That bike had a Fox 36 at 150mm. I probably shouldn't be surprised by this but I am pretty disappointed with how undergunned the Fox 34 at 140mm feels versus my Fox 36 at 150mm. I guess I only really thought about the travel and not the flex that I would experience. I'm having a couple of tokens put into the 34 to see if that will help (I was having some hard hits on trails I never used to). If not, I was thinking of swapping the 34 for the new 36 Factory SL (https://ridefox.com/products/36-sl-factory-gripx). Anyone have any experience with something similar. Any advice?
Appreciate it!
by Grapthor_
2 Comments
Pretty straight forward switching forks. Thicker the stantions, the stiffer the fork will feel. Kinda no way around that. Go for it
You should be able to adjust the travel on the non-SL down to 140mm too. I recently made a similar decision for my ’23 Fluid and bought one of the close-out 36’s on Jenson to replace my Marzocchi Z2. I’m planning to swap to a 140mm air shaft to maintain stock geo. (Easier decision for me, they’re similar weight and the worst case is I can’t tell a difference but have a fork that’s easier to upgrade the internals of if I decide to go that route)
I can’t speak to the SL vs non-SL, I don’t have any experience on new stuff, but you don’t have to limit yourself to stock configurations if you don’t want to.