an(e)vil

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Existentialism-- Just a bloody good excuse to go riding...

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

X-Fusion Vengeance HLR Coil 2012

Externally it spots a cleaner graphic than previously. Definitely something I can live with on the bike. Medium spring installed and spare light and heavy coils in the box.


Lower spots the much touted Syntace X-20 tool-less axle. Looks good. Solid piece with no gap beneath which means no freaking out about cracking due overtightening pinch bolts.


Weight is just a tad (24gm) above what's stated...  but measured with full length uncut steerer in pic.
Anyway this wouldnt be a fork for gram counters.
Specs indicate 170mm travel (10mm more than previous HLR Air) with an A-C of 565mm
Mine came out to be a little more at 178mm travel and A-C of 567mm and not a cause for complain as I have been moving up the A-C to avoid having to put an angle headset on the EG.

Left: 2012 Vengeance HLR                 Right: 2010/11 Vengeance HLR


There are definitely changes from this compared to my existing 2010 X-Fusion Vengeance HLR Air. Not the Air vs Coil as that is obvisous but the crown measurement has been reduced to accomodate for the extra travel.  Width wise it is still just as beefy compared to a couple of other major brands out there.

Dials for rebound and compression stays pretty much the same.Good call. Some of the best dials till date, imo, this area XFusion has it nailed... not that many other forks can match the quality and finishing in these areas. Number of clicks on the comp and rebound stays pretty much the same. Overall I guess not much has been done to change the internal sealed cartridge damper unit but let's see how the fork work once installed.
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Update: Busy and Lazy... but finally getting down to actually installing the fork now...
First some measurements so as to know how much steerer to leave and how much spacer change to get the bar height back to current measurement


Vengeance HLR Coil, 170mm Vengeance HLR Air, 160mm Diff
Crown height 66 72 -6
Stanchion (mm) 178 163 +15
A - C (mm) 565 555 +10

Top: left-right Air Vengeance 160. actual travel 163mm, A-C 558mm
Middle: left-right Coil Vengeance170mm. Actual travel178mm, A-C 567mm
Bottom: left: 6mm lesser in new crown height and 15mm from axle to outer end. difference in actual A-C therefore only 9mm but gain in travel is 15mm over previous.




Final weight, steerer @ 180mm, with star nut, 2505gm. 235 gm increase over the Vengeance 160 Air
Taking off 23gm from the maxle lever for the TA-- 2482gm.



Hmmm..


Update... Jun 2012
With bike setup properly, wasnt a problem climbing up with the almost 180mm of front travel... Down! damn thing just fly... Will I go back to air with my beefed EG-- No frigging way.

Update.. not much riding these few months but I did brought it down to PJ for a fun weekend last month
Was broken in by then... med spring fits just fine and sync well with my lighter 350lb coil in the rear... Low comp needed a couple clicks more compared to using my old Veng Air..

No harsh topping out and travel could be used a little more than the Veng Air on the bigger hits.. (~3/8" diff). The old Vengeance Air no matter how I tweak the air travel and compressions-- have about 3/4 inch left unused.. On the new coil-- I was down to ~1/4-3/8" on a couple of G-outs.  Front tracking was noticeably better, objectively that could be due to the new tires put on though..

The syntace axle seems to get loose after awhile... but that could due to the slight tad of anti-seize i slapped on. Not a biggie as I do check on essential nuts and bolts on bike before moving off. Guess old military habits die hard.






9 comments:

  1. Love the look of these forks...would put one on my rig in an instant. Where did you get it from?

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  2. Errr.....I always worry abt servicing forks...that is why i dare not drift too far from the main stream product...how u service ur fork ha?

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  3. Pedalhound- Buddy's the distro and I usually get to be one of the first "tester" for Xfusion and a couple of other friends.

    Killjoy- if you can do a bit of wrenching yourself, its not too hard. I believe the relevant guides are provided on the website and there is a video there that shows how to pull everything apart from the damper cartridge. For the travel side its pretty straight forward..

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  4. Nice...if they want a BC "tester" you know where to find me eh...lol.

    You should get the new inline comments set up for your blog...just did it for mine and it works great...way easier.

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  5. The room above the rebound dial is so small. Your bike is installed with a zero stack lower cup. Do you have clearance problem (dial hitting the down tube)with the new Vengeance? What's your frame size?

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    1. No issues whatsoever with regard to downtube clearance... on both the new and old Vengeance. Only if using a downtube mudguard like the Crudcatcher I'm using that has a lowered profile-- u might want to shift that down abit.. otherwise the outer rubber portion can accidentally click your rebound if bar gets turned too much..

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    2. Oops... I have both.. med and small EG-- both clears as well with Vengeance.. see my newer articles on the 2nd EG.

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  6. can't find your acticles on the 2nd EG. May I have the URL?

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    1. Just organize things a bit.. here
      http://bikes-bikes-bikes.blogspot.sg/search/label/EG2

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