Fork and Shock compatibility

[Jaydawgz]

Hey guys,
I see alot of sites suggesting a certain fork with a shock and vice versa.
Does it actually perform better or is it just a marketing scheme?
cheers

 

[PSYCHO-T]

Hey guys,
I see alot of sites suggesting a certain fork with a shock and vice versa.
Does it actually perform better or is it just a marketing scheme?
cheers

Both maybe...

It could be Rockshox trying to sell you the vivid ASWELL as their boxxers
or they could just be making the assumption that when you buy 203mm forks you will need a 9 x 3 shock aswell and try steer you away from using another brand.

 

[Steve the dog]

i think that you should just use what you think is the best shocks - works for me

888 with a dhx 3
Boxxers with a dhx 3
fox 40 with dhx 4
reccons with dhx 5 air

and the list goes on, so yeah personally i think its a marketing sheme

 

[Jaydawgz]

Yeah I just relised that I have domain forks and DHX 4.0 shock.
Silly me

Just thought I would ask as Im looking at getting some forks and when I was on the rock shox site, it suggested a vivid shock when looking at totems.

Any other suggestions?

 

[3viltoast3r]

Well the question is, does the manufacturer tune/setup forks/shocks to match? They probably could, but chances are that the instant you touch a knob it throws it all out of whack..

That being said getting both aftermarket-tuned at the same time would be pretty sweet

 

[Jaydawgz]

They are also gonna have factors such as the capability of the shock.
Eg low speed compression, high speed compression etc.

 

[RangaRMX]

While this might stand true for a really expensive piece of kit paired with a piece of dog crap, I don't think it necessarily matters most of the time.

As long as you can make sufficient adjustments (on the fork or shock) that actually effect the handling of the bike then I'm sure you'll be fine mixing and matching between brands.

I've never had a bike with Fox/Fox fork/shock combo, but I have owned Marz/Fox fork/shock combos before and had no displeasure with the setup or handling of the bike.
The only issues I have had was actually with a specific product and it would not have mattered one iota if I had the same brand shock - the fork was plain dud and should never have been released. (we all learn don't we Marzocchi, you learned to watch quality control in Taiwan )

 

[Tomtom Wyatt]

it is purely personal preferance.