SR Suntour has changed up their enduro damper again, pulled a lot of weight off their gravel fork and made it plusher, and then made a smaller version of the Raidon for youth bikes.
2023 GVX gravel fork
The new GVX suspension fork gets two big updates from the original. A hollow crown drops ~120g, putting it at a claimed 1600g, and it’s still rated for e-bike use. A bigger negative air spring gives it the largest ratio of any of their forks, providing much better small bump performance. They say it takes away that small vibration buzz at the handlebars, even though you’ll need run higher air pressure.
It also gets their PCS damper, which uses a coil spring pushing the IFP, rather than a bladder or nitrogen chamber, so there’s less friction for smoother actions Available in 40-50-60mm travel with 32mm stanchions, coming this summer. MSRP is a very reasonable $549, or $579 with a remote lockout…bolt-on fender included.
Raidon 34 JR dual-air kids forks
The new Raidon 34 is a full air fork for 20″ and 24″ wheeled bikes. It uses a traditional dual-air chamber with check valve (which is how most air springs work) that automatically equalizes the positive and negative, making it easy to set up sag appropriately for any weight rider.
It’s essentially a shortened version of their full size forks, with magnesium lowers, 34mm stanchions, and a simplified Open/Firm compression damping adjustment, and they say the “Firm” mode is perfect for pump tracks. Mini fender mounts are on the back side. Claimed weight is 1,920g for 20″.
SR Suntour Auron enduro fork updates
Yeas ago, their R2C2 damper provided hi/lo speed compression and rebound damping adjustments. Then they simplified it to RC2, eliminating the lightly-used high-speed rebound control knob along with some internal circuit refinements.
Now, the new RC+ damper gets the larger piston diameter like the prior R2C2 for more fluid movement, but loses the high speed external compression adjustment. They say about 90% of riders would set it to the same position (generally pretty open), so they just made the damper fixed in that position, but left the most often used low-speed external adjustment.
The other big change is the addition of “splash lube” sitting in the lowers, able to slosh around and keep the damper’s piston well lubricated. But, because this type of system will inevitably ingest bits of that lube oil into the damper over time, there’s a new overflow port up top to let excess oil escape.
The chassis increases stanchion diameter to 36mm stanchions, up from 35, and uses their lightweight Hollow Crown and EQ air spring. Pricing and final weight is TBA, should be available later this fall in 27.5 & 29er with 150-160mm travel.
