I received mine last week and tossed it in my 36 that's on my hightower 4. I've only done some basic riding around the neighborhood so no real feedback yet. I was previously riding ~87-90 psi in this fork with 1-2 volume reducers. I just used the quick setup calculator on the ride 886 site and started with the 77/115 that the quick setup calculator suggested.
I didn't expect to be able to discern much of a difference but even an initial ride around and smashing off of stuff was pretty telling. There is an immediate and obvious change in the way the air spring feels for the better. Cliche to say, but definitely coil like with a lot of initial sensitivity and a nice progressive build into spring support without a knee of ramp up. I'm pretty stoked to try this thing out and put it through it's paces... It's a more obvious change of before/after then the vorsprung secus has been on a 38 and 36 from my experience.
I’m really not clicking with the lack of midstroke support on my new Zeb. Running like 40PSI over recommended. Anyone put one of these bad boiz on the new Zeb?
I've tested a lot of these. The Intend wasn't an option when I got my Flash, but...DSD RUNT - I ran this on a Pike and...
I've tested a lot of these. The Intend wasn't an option when I got my Flash, but...
DSD RUNT - I ran this on a Pike and couldn't get it linear enough. It felt like it spiked a lot and didn't have the volume of the Manitou implementation. It was better than stock, but I didn't get along with it. OTOH I know folks running this on their 38/Zeb and love it, so it may just be a combination of lower volume in the Pike and generally not getting along with the Pike. I've talked to a few others who had mixed results with these though, so it's hard to discern since I only tried on one fork.
IRT - In the Gen1 & Gen2 Mezzer + Mattoc Pro, I found this to be the best of the options. I could tune it to be as linear or progressive as I wanted. Compared to the others, it didn't feel like there was a cap on linearity, whereas others feel like they remained fairly progressive. Keeping the gap ~20PSI got a much closer to coil like feel than the other options I tried had, without getting too wallowy provided the damper is setup correct.
EXT - This was a weird one, I got the numbers where the spring felt OK but it wasn't until I really cranked in the compression damping that it started to feel better. It did seem more progressive than the Manitou but maybe not as bad as the Ohlins? It's been a minute since I was on this, but I still liked Manitou's implementation better. It definitely leans closer to supportive than "plush", but once I got it dialed in, I got along with it ok.
Ohlins - See above. I don't think it was horrible, def better than other options without 3 airsprings, but I had trouble getting it linear enough
I think the thing to consider with all of these is that the ratio of main:ramp is just as important as the pressures themselves. If there is a huge gap then the fork is going to be more progressive and need more damping to control spiking from the spring. If the spring is super soft at the start without damping to slow it down hitting the progression point, it's going to feel harsh, at least in my experience. If the gap is closer, the fork feels more linear and can run less damping. So sometimes to smooth it out and maintain support, you should add pressure to the main and keep the ramp chamber higher, but there is some correlation to damper and pressure gap to consider.
I started to see this with the EXT, where I (not expecting much) was struggling to set it up but for lulz cranked the compression adjusters almost all the way in and it felt awesome. When I backed them off again on the same trail, it felt harsher. This is counter intuitive at first but when you consider the dampers role in controlling that motion, it makes sense that it slowing the fork down as the ramp occurs would smooth it out.
I like some of the implementation ideas with the tophat, I just don't have a fork I can use it on anymore.
That's kind of wild, I don't think I have ever heard of anyone wanting the RFX38 to be more linear. I have found that its really hard to get it to be as progressive as I want. Its primary reason they are adding volume slugs to the air spring now, RFX38m.3 and DH38m.2, as well as the new lowers spring booster. Were you dumping the air in the main chamber when adjusting the ramp? I have seen it happen where if you dont dump the air in the main chamber and adjust the ramp chamber pressure, mainly going lower, that the piston moves lower in the chamber and the ramp volume gets smaller leading to progression issues.
I will say that my new DH38m.2 has a lot of progression, like way way more than my RFX. I'm running under 200PSI in the ramp chamber and having a hard time getting it to bottom out.
I've tested a lot of these. The Intend wasn't an option when I got my Flash, but...DSD RUNT - I ran this on a Pike and...
I've tested a lot of these. The Intend wasn't an option when I got my Flash, but...
DSD RUNT - I ran this on a Pike and couldn't get it linear enough. It felt like it spiked a lot and didn't have the volume of the Manitou implementation. It was better than stock, but I didn't get along with it. OTOH I know folks running this on their 38/Zeb and love it, so it may just be a combination of lower volume in the Pike and generally not getting along with the Pike. I've talked to a few others who had mixed results with these though, so it's hard to discern since I only tried on one fork.
IRT - In the Gen1 & Gen2 Mezzer + Mattoc Pro, I found this to be the best of the options. I could tune it to be as linear or progressive as I wanted. Compared to the others, it didn't feel like there was a cap on linearity, whereas others feel like they remained fairly progressive. Keeping the gap ~20PSI got a much closer to coil like feel than the other options I tried had, without getting too wallowy provided the damper is setup correct.
EXT - This was a weird one, I got the numbers where the spring felt OK but it wasn't until I really cranked in the compression damping that it started to feel better. It did seem more progressive than the Manitou but maybe not as bad as the Ohlins? It's been a minute since I was on this, but I still liked Manitou's implementation better. It definitely leans closer to supportive than "plush", but once I got it dialed in, I got along with it ok.
Ohlins - See above. I don't think it was horrible, def better than other options without 3 airsprings, but I had trouble getting it linear enough
I think the thing to consider with all of these is that the ratio of main:ramp is just as important as the pressures themselves. If there is a huge gap then the fork is going to be more progressive and need more damping to control spiking from the spring. If the spring is super soft at the start without damping to slow it down hitting the progression point, it's going to feel harsh, at least in my experience. If the gap is closer, the fork feels more linear and can run less damping. So sometimes to smooth it out and maintain support, you should add pressure to the main and keep the ramp chamber higher, but there is some correlation to damper and pressure gap to consider.
I started to see this with the EXT, where I (not expecting much) was struggling to set it up but for lulz cranked the compression adjusters almost all the way in and it felt awesome. When I backed them off again on the same trail, it felt harsher. This is counter intuitive at first but when you consider the dampers role in controlling that motion, it makes sense that it slowing the fork down as the ramp occurs would smooth it out.
I like some of the implementation ideas with the tophat, I just don't have a fork I can use it on anymore.
That's kind of wild, I don't think I have ever heard of anyone wanting the RFX38 to be more linear. I have found that its really...
That's kind of wild, I don't think I have ever heard of anyone wanting the RFX38 to be more linear. I have found that its really hard to get it to be as progressive as I want. Its primary reason they are adding volume slugs to the air spring now, RFX38m.3 and DH38m.2, as well as the new lowers spring booster. Were you dumping the air in the main chamber when adjusting the ramp? I have seen it happen where if you dont dump the air in the main chamber and adjust the ramp chamber pressure, mainly going lower, that the piston moves lower in the chamber and the ramp volume gets smaller leading to progression issues.
I will say that my new DH38m.2 has a lot of progression, like way way more than my RFX. I'm running under 200PSI in the ramp chamber and having a hard time getting it to bottom out.
I should've clarified, this was with the RXF36 m.2, I have not tried the 38
Will there be one released thats compatible with the D1 Boxxer?
Yes, for sure. We're generally working on one or two new models at a time and move on to the next ones when those head to production. ZEB and 40 models just finished so Lyrik, Pike, and Boxxer are up next.
It's currently in production for model years 2018 to present. There's a pre-order option on the website for both the 40 and the ZEB if you want to be first in line, or check back around the end of August.
I’ve had one of these on my bike since April on my 2025 Fox 38 Grip X2 with a bunch of riding including 20+ park days on it so I feel like I should write a more in depth review.
It took me a lot of fiddling but I eventually got it doing what I want; a nice balance of sensitivity, support, and bottom out resistance. I haven’t ridden a coil fork on my bike but I have ridden a coil fork on a friends bike that has the same Grip X2 damper and the TopHat does have a very similar feeling to a coil fork for better or for worse. I had gotten used to the air spring feel of the Fox 38 as well as the ride height so the TopHat threw my whole bike balance out of whack. The initial stroke is much softer so you don’t get as much “ground feel” but you do get much more traction. I still miss the “ground feel” of the original airspring but I’ll take the increased traction as an acceptable tradeoff. I did have to raise my bars by 5mm as well because of the airspring biasing the fork lower in its travel (I believe this is also a common adjustment made when switching to a coil fork)
I weight 170lbs and was running 87psi originally in my Fox 38 with 1-2 volume spacers depending on park riding. Plugging those values into their setup calculator my starting setup was 118psi/74psi with a ratio of 1.6, I opted for a more progressive starting setup due to riding preferences. The settings I eventually settled on for the TopHat is 121psi in the ++ chamber and 76.5psi in the + chamber, a ratio of 1.58. The TopHat is very sensitive to pressure changes and a 1-2psi change in either chamber makes a pretty drastic difference. Im no stranger to bracketing but this made tuning rather difficult due to the high resolution, you also need to be mindful of external factors that impact fork pressures like big swings in ambient temperature and elevation changes. I reset my pressures if there is a temperature swing of more than 10F or elevation change of more than 4000ft from when I last set pressures. As I mentioned initially I eventually found a setup I like but if I knew it was going to be this much work I probably wouldn’t have bothered, especially since I had very few complaints with the original air spring.
Overall, its a neat little device that does what it says on the tin. It increases initial sensitivity, improves mid stroke, and provides a nice ramp up at the end (I never noticed bottoming my fork out aside from the position of the travel o-ring). It has an overwhelming level of tuneability that would make all but the most motivated tinkerers head spin, you can get it to do exactly what you want but you will likely have to put in the work.
I’ve had one of these on my bike since April on my 2025 Fox 38 Grip X2 with a bunch of riding including 20+ park days...
I’ve had one of these on my bike since April on my 2025 Fox 38 Grip X2 with a bunch of riding including 20+ park days on it so I feel like I should write a more in depth review.
It took me a lot of fiddling but I eventually got it doing what I want; a nice balance of sensitivity, support, and bottom out resistance. I haven’t ridden a coil fork on my bike but I have ridden a coil fork on a friends bike that has the same Grip X2 damper and the TopHat does have a very similar feeling to a coil fork for better or for worse. I had gotten used to the air spring feel of the Fox 38 as well as the ride height so the TopHat threw my whole bike balance out of whack. The initial stroke is much softer so you don’t get as much “ground feel” but you do get much more traction. I still miss the “ground feel” of the original airspring but I’ll take the increased traction as an acceptable tradeoff. I did have to raise my bars by 5mm as well because of the airspring biasing the fork lower in its travel (I believe this is also a common adjustment made when switching to a coil fork)
I weight 170lbs and was running 87psi originally in my Fox 38 with 1-2 volume spacers depending on park riding. Plugging those values into their setup calculator my starting setup was 118psi/74psi with a ratio of 1.6, I opted for a more progressive starting setup due to riding preferences. The settings I eventually settled on for the TopHat is 121psi in the ++ chamber and 76.5psi in the + chamber, a ratio of 1.58. The TopHat is very sensitive to pressure changes and a 1-2psi change in either chamber makes a pretty drastic difference. Im no stranger to bracketing but this made tuning rather difficult due to the high resolution, you also need to be mindful of external factors that impact fork pressures like big swings in ambient temperature and elevation changes. I reset my pressures if there is a temperature swing of more than 10F or elevation change of more than 4000ft from when I last set pressures. As I mentioned initially I eventually found a setup I like but if I knew it was going to be this much work I probably wouldn’t have bothered, especially since I had very few complaints with the original air spring.
Overall, its a neat little device that does what it says on the tin. It increases initial sensitivity, improves mid stroke, and provides a nice ramp up at the end (I never noticed bottoming my fork out aside from the position of the travel o-ring). It has an overwhelming level of tuneability that would make all but the most motivated tinkerers head spin, you can get it to do exactly what you want but you will likely have to put in the work.
Have you ever ridden any other dual (positive) chamber air spring forks like manitou mezzzer, ext era, Öhlins, etc? If so, did you think it was particularly more finicky/sensitive than any of those?
I’ve had one of these on my bike since April on my 2025 Fox 38 Grip X2 with a bunch of riding including 20+ park days...
I’ve had one of these on my bike since April on my 2025 Fox 38 Grip X2 with a bunch of riding including 20+ park days on it so I feel like I should write a more in depth review.
It took me a lot of fiddling but I eventually got it doing what I want; a nice balance of sensitivity, support, and bottom out resistance. I haven’t ridden a coil fork on my bike but I have ridden a coil fork on a friends bike that has the same Grip X2 damper and the TopHat does have a very similar feeling to a coil fork for better or for worse. I had gotten used to the air spring feel of the Fox 38 as well as the ride height so the TopHat threw my whole bike balance out of whack. The initial stroke is much softer so you don’t get as much “ground feel” but you do get much more traction. I still miss the “ground feel” of the original airspring but I’ll take the increased traction as an acceptable tradeoff. I did have to raise my bars by 5mm as well because of the airspring biasing the fork lower in its travel (I believe this is also a common adjustment made when switching to a coil fork)
I weight 170lbs and was running 87psi originally in my Fox 38 with 1-2 volume spacers depending on park riding. Plugging those values into their setup calculator my starting setup was 118psi/74psi with a ratio of 1.6, I opted for a more progressive starting setup due to riding preferences. The settings I eventually settled on for the TopHat is 121psi in the ++ chamber and 76.5psi in the + chamber, a ratio of 1.58. The TopHat is very sensitive to pressure changes and a 1-2psi change in either chamber makes a pretty drastic difference. Im no stranger to bracketing but this made tuning rather difficult due to the high resolution, you also need to be mindful of external factors that impact fork pressures like big swings in ambient temperature and elevation changes. I reset my pressures if there is a temperature swing of more than 10F or elevation change of more than 4000ft from when I last set pressures. As I mentioned initially I eventually found a setup I like but if I knew it was going to be this much work I probably wouldn’t have bothered, especially since I had very few complaints with the original air spring.
Overall, its a neat little device that does what it says on the tin. It increases initial sensitivity, improves mid stroke, and provides a nice ramp up at the end (I never noticed bottoming my fork out aside from the position of the travel o-ring). It has an overwhelming level of tuneability that would make all but the most motivated tinkerers head spin, you can get it to do exactly what you want but you will likely have to put in the work.
Have you ever ridden any other dual (positive) chamber air spring forks like manitou mezzzer, ext era, Öhlins, etc? If so, did you think it was...
Have you ever ridden any other dual (positive) chamber air spring forks like manitou mezzzer, ext era, Öhlins, etc? If so, did you think it was particularly more finicky/sensitive than any of those?
Will there be one released thats compatible with the D1 Boxxer?
I received mine last week and tossed it in my 36 that's on my hightower 4. I've only done some basic riding around the neighborhood so no real feedback yet. I was previously riding ~87-90 psi in this fork with 1-2 volume reducers. I just used the quick setup calculator on the ride 886 site and started with the 77/115 that the quick setup calculator suggested.
I didn't expect to be able to discern much of a difference but even an initial ride around and smashing off of stuff was pretty telling. There is an immediate and obvious change in the way the air spring feels for the better. Cliche to say, but definitely coil like with a lot of initial sensitivity and a nice progressive build into spring support without a knee of ramp up. I'm pretty stoked to try this thing out and put it through it's paces... It's a more obvious change of before/after then the vorsprung secus has been on a 38 and 36 from my experience.
I’m really not clicking with the lack of midstroke support on my new Zeb. Running like 40PSI over recommended. Anyone put one of these bad boiz on the new Zeb?
That's kind of wild, I don't think I have ever heard of anyone wanting the RFX38 to be more linear. I have found that its really hard to get it to be as progressive as I want. Its primary reason they are adding volume slugs to the air spring now, RFX38m.3 and DH38m.2, as well as the new lowers spring booster. Were you dumping the air in the main chamber when adjusting the ramp? I have seen it happen where if you dont dump the air in the main chamber and adjust the ramp chamber pressure, mainly going lower, that the piston moves lower in the chamber and the ramp volume gets smaller leading to progression issues.
I will say that my new DH38m.2 has a lot of progression, like way way more than my RFX. I'm running under 200PSI in the ramp chamber and having a hard time getting it to bottom out.
I should've clarified, this was with the RXF36 m.2, I have not tried the 38
Yes, for sure. We're generally working on one or two new models at a time and move on to the next ones when those head to production. ZEB and 40 models just finished so Lyrik, Pike, and Boxxer are up next.
It's currently in production for model years 2018 to present. There's a pre-order option on the website for both the 40 and the ZEB if you want to be first in line, or check back around the end of August.
I’ve had one of these on my bike since April on my 2025 Fox 38 Grip X2 with a bunch of riding including 20+ park days on it so I feel like I should write a more in depth review.
It took me a lot of fiddling but I eventually got it doing what I want; a nice balance of sensitivity, support, and bottom out resistance. I haven’t ridden a coil fork on my bike but I have ridden a coil fork on a friends bike that has the same Grip X2 damper and the TopHat does have a very similar feeling to a coil fork for better or for worse. I had gotten used to the air spring feel of the Fox 38 as well as the ride height so the TopHat threw my whole bike balance out of whack. The initial stroke is much softer so you don’t get as much “ground feel” but you do get much more traction. I still miss the “ground feel” of the original airspring but I’ll take the increased traction as an acceptable tradeoff. I did have to raise my bars by 5mm as well because of the airspring biasing the fork lower in its travel (I believe this is also a common adjustment made when switching to a coil fork)
I weight 170lbs and was running 87psi originally in my Fox 38 with 1-2 volume spacers depending on park riding. Plugging those values into their setup calculator my starting setup was 118psi/74psi with a ratio of 1.6, I opted for a more progressive starting setup due to riding preferences. The settings I eventually settled on for the TopHat is 121psi in the ++ chamber and 76.5psi in the + chamber, a ratio of 1.58. The TopHat is very sensitive to pressure changes and a 1-2psi change in either chamber makes a pretty drastic difference. Im no stranger to bracketing but this made tuning rather difficult due to the high resolution, you also need to be mindful of external factors that impact fork pressures like big swings in ambient temperature and elevation changes. I reset my pressures if there is a temperature swing of more than 10F or elevation change of more than 4000ft from when I last set pressures. As I mentioned initially I eventually found a setup I like but if I knew it was going to be this much work I probably wouldn’t have bothered, especially since I had very few complaints with the original air spring.
Overall, its a neat little device that does what it says on the tin. It increases initial sensitivity, improves mid stroke, and provides a nice ramp up at the end (I never noticed bottoming my fork out aside from the position of the travel o-ring). It has an overwhelming level of tuneability that would make all but the most motivated tinkerers head spin, you can get it to do exactly what you want but you will likely have to put in the work.
Have you ever ridden any other dual (positive) chamber air spring forks like manitou mezzzer, ext era, Öhlins, etc? If so, did you think it was particularly more finicky/sensitive than any of those?
I unfortunately have not.
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