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New Product Review - 2009 RockShox SID WC

Posted: Jul 21 2008

You’ve seen the all-new Rock Shox SID in magazines, under pro racers, and maybe the lower versions the Race and Team around town. But the new World Cup version has just completed public production and the first ones are arriving in Canada now. We have one of them!

We immediately put it on one of our XC race bikes (and took it for an inaugural 3 hr rip around some North Shore trails.) Here’s our first impressions out of the box and on the trail.

Some details:

The fork we have is the 100mm version (it is available in 80 or 100mm) and is in white (available in blue or white)
Testing is on a Rocky Mountain Element 70. It replaces another great fork, the 2008 Fox 32 RLC 100 – tough act to follow!
Claimed weight of the 100mm version is 3.2 lbs, we think that is about right. We didn’t weigh the fork by itself (too excited to get riding) but it reduced the weight of the bike in question by about .2 of a pound from the Fox.
remote lockout is standard on this fork, the new lever is very nicely made of machined aluminum and looks like it belongs beside XTR or X0 shifters!
included with the fork is a great fitted mud deflector that fits into two holes in the lowers arch. A nice detail, especially for the wet areas like BC! It snaps on and off in seconds.
also included are a high quality air pump, a second set of decals to change the highlight colours of the fork, all bits needed for installation as well as instructions.
lots of weight saving is evident in cut-outs around brake mounts, hollow lowers and carbon pieces.
while light and cross-country specific, the fork has a broad- shouldered, robust look to it, unlike earlier SID versions. Stanchions are 28mm, but appear larger.

Setup and Ride Impressions:

the fork installed quickly with no surprises or challenges. Those familiar with 2007 and 2008 “poploc” remotes will find this one nearly identical to install, with a much nicer lever control.
once on the bike, the improvements in this fork became apparent – it is very stiff, with little lateral flex or independent leg movement
we set it up with factory recommended pressures and the action felt very smooth and at least comparable to the Fox 32 that had just come off.
on the trail (one ride only of course) the best thing to say to start is that there were no surprises – smooth performance, predictable ramp up, easily adjusted rebound damping, steady and accurate steering, sharp lockout performance. Given that the Fox 32 that it replaces is one of the best XC race forks around, this is a great start!
We know that durability of light race forks and especially first generation ones is always a key question. We’ll beat this fork hard for the rest of the season and let you know how it goes.

Overall First Take:

Previous incarnations of the SID have been the choice of elite racers looking for the lightest XC race fork – but the durability issues and flexiness of those versions made them less appealing to a wider range of XC riders.

The new 2009 version is completely redesigned. Still one of the lightest XC forks out there, it is now significantly stiffer and smoother performing and displays a range of well thought out features and design that look and feel very promising!

Availability:

These forks will be hard to get for a while, but they are around. Give us a call and we’ll try to find one for you. Canadian SRP is in the $1450 range.

We’ll add comments about this all-new fork as we get more hours on it here on our forum You can ask questions or make your own comments here as well.

You can learn lots more about the 2009 Rock ShoxSid WC here