Mountain Bike Rider — March 2018

Tested

YOUR

TESTERS

ALAN MULDOON

FledtheUKwinterforasylum

in sunny Italy. Now files all

his copy over Instagram.

#arrivederci!

BEN SMITH

GivenupwithRegaine,focusing

insteadongrowingfacialhairto

balanceuptheloss.It’scoming

through ginger and silver

JAMES BRACEY

Happytobehomeaboarda

fleet of XC race hardtails, JB’s

been shaving his legs again and

growing his Wiggo sideburns

DANNY MILNER

Riding Plus hardtails between

painting his house has left

Danny with a fumes and heavy

landings-inducing headache

NEW PRODUCTS

72 mbr MARCH 2018

W

ith the switch to
35mm upper tubes,
RockShox has
brought the 2018
Revelation in line
with the Pike. And it’s just the
shot in the arm it needed as the
old 32mm chassis was long in the
tooth, and lacked the stiffness
needed to control modern 27.5in
and 29in bikes.
Travel options on the latest
Revelation start at 120mm and are
capped at 160mm on the 27.5in
version. And, just like the Pike,
the Boost casting has clearance
for 2.8in tyres. It’s not roomy
enough to swallow 29in wheels
though, which is why there’s also a
dedicated 29in Revelation that will
also take a 27.5in wheel with a full
size 3.0in Plus tyre fi tted.
Like most RockShox forks, the
Revelation RC comes with pre-
installed Bottomless Tokens, which
are essentially volume reducers
that can be added or removed to
fi ne-tune the progression of the
air spring. Having them fi tted as
standard is great, because if you’re
buying a bike with a Revelation
RC fi tted you will actually get
the tokens, rather than the shop
chucking them in the bin along
with the refl ectors, plastic pedals
and owner’s manual.
Depending on the travel,
the Revelation RC has different
numbers of tokens installed as
standard: four in the 120mm
fork, three at 130mm, two at

140mm and zero in the 150 and

160mm options. Once again, it’s

just like the Pike. Over the past

couple of months we’ve tested

the Revelation RC on a bunch of

different bikes, from 130mm-travel

hardtails up to 150mm travel

full-sussers, and found that while

the progression rate of the 130mm

fork felt spot on, we needed

to remove the tokens from the

140mm version to tap into the fi nal

portion of the travel.

And it’s not just the stature

of the Revelation that’s been

increased for 2018; the overall

level of damping has been bumped

up too. So much so, we’ve been

running the compression and

rebound adjusters pretty much

wide open on all the forks we’ve

tested. Not something we’d ever

have done on the old Revelation.

As such, riders weighing under

70kg will struggle to get the

rebound damping fast enough

to match their rear suspension, or

just to their liking.

With the extra hydraulic

support, the 2018 Revelation is

very stable and composed, but

it has not got that pitter-patter

feeling you fi nd on the Pike RCT3

on high-speed square-edge hits. In

fact, even in the open compression

setting the Revelation feels more

like the Pedal setting on the Pike.

Obviously the Motion Control

RC damper isn’t as sophisticated

as the bladder-backed RCT3

Charger II unit in the Pike, which

explains why the Revelation is

quite a bit cheaper, even though

it shares the same chassis. It also

accounts for the additional 100g in

weight the Revelation is carrying.

So the new Revelation is to the

Pike what the Yari is to the Lyrik.

And with Yari and Lyrik taking care

of the bigger-hitting enduro bikes,

it’s as if RockShox has

made a shift towards a tighter,

more reactive response on their

entry-level trail fork. Which is

probably why the Revelation loses

out a little on square-edge hits

and sensitivity.

And while it’s too easy to

draw comparison between the

Revelation and the Pike, it is a

much cheaper fork, its increased

affordability making it game-

changing on mid-priced trail bikes.

Given time, the Revelation will

no doubt dominate this category

in the way that the Yari currently

dominates entry-level enduro. In

fact, given how many bikes we’ve

tested with Revelations recently,

it’s already happening.

As a standalone upgrade

however, the new RockShox

Revelation RC feels a little

over-damped when compared

to the Manitou Mattoc Pro and

recently released DVO

Beryl, both of which

have a much better

range of usable

adjustment

for lighter riders.

Alan Muldoon

ROCKSHOX REVELATION RC

£683

SPECIFICATION Weight: 1,903g • Wheel sizes: 27.5in or 29in • Travel: 120-160mm (27.5in) / 120-140mm (29in) • Brake mount:
180mm Post • Contact: zyrofi sher.co.uk