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Finally Fox comes out with an answer to Marzocchi's ingenious ETA lock-down feature. Read how the new 2007 Fox TALAS forks will aid your long travel quest to conquer the entire mountain! The All New 2007 Fox TALAS II Travel Adjustable System One of the most discouraging hesitations that I have had about Fox's long travel forks (ie Float 130, Vanilla, TALAS, 36 TALAS & 36 Van) is the complicating mess of what to do about steeper ascents. Some riders experience a long travel fork climb with considerable opposition, particularly in the western United States and in mountainous regions, while other riders with tamer ascents wonder what all the fuss is about. Coming from a SoCal background and now in Utah, steep mountain climbs play a significant factor in my choice of fork, especially because I'm not the strongest climber. One of my more prevalent gripes about my original Fox TALAS RLC 85mm - 125mm fork was that it was a total pain to travel adjust the fork out on the trail. Not that turning a dial is really that difficult, but the other riders I rode with didn't necessarily have or need to use a travel adjustment on their forks, but here I was constantly battling the travel adjustment issue. Whenever I decided to use the travel adjustment feature, I slowed the group down because I had to stop, get off the bike and then travel down the fork for a climb. Then once at the top, my riding partners (good friends thankfully) had to wait patiently while Jared played with his gizmos and gadgets on his fork. Otherwise I would compromise and run the fork in between at around 115mm and never fully realized the aggressive potential of the fork. The third alternative was that, and this only happened a handful of times, my riding partners got fed up with having to wait for my fork dialings in and out and so they left me behind to play the lonely game of catch up. Needless to say, I ended up relieving myself of the burden of that issue when I switched frames and then upgraded to Marzocchi's All Mountain 1. I found heavenly bliss in that fork in every single category except weight, but then again it is also an significantly more capable fork in areas of aggressive riding. The ETA feature, which I was already familiar with, became a more important feature than ever before. Since that time forth I've found it tempting to switch back to another Fox Forx but again and again decided against it based mostly upon the absence of a practical climbing aid - not a lockout (I'm opposed to those since they eliminate all of the advantages to climbing with suspension), not a pedal efficient damping system (every manufacturer has something in this category) - so specifically a feature that would correct the geometry of the frame by reducing the front end, allowing me thereby to get my weight forward further over the handlebars. Of course it hasn't helped either that I just absolutely LOVE my Marzocchi forks! At least I'm openly opinionated. TALAS VS. TALAS II The brand new TALAS II system availble on all 2007 TALAS forks changes up everything for a rider in a similar pickle as mine. Instead of 3mm incremental travel adjustments, Fox now has a system designed around 3 preset travel lengths. Here is a breakdown of the travel adjustability, where the number given represents the particular model, also designating the stanchion diameter: 2007 32 TALAS R & RLC = 100mm - 120mm - 140mm Such adjustments will be super easy while riding in the saddle, preparing to go up or down. Granted, you will find yourself doing a brief balancing act while you first become accustomed to using this feature on the fly while taking your eyes of the trail for a brief moment, but getting used to it will be rapid and more than worth it. Hmmm . . . I believe that my new Brodie Gigolo could match well to the new 2007 Fox 36 TALAS R . . . I'll keep you posted. |
