X Fusion Velvet RL Mountain Bike Fork 2011

X Fusion Velvet RL carries a tag line of ‘performance fork’ and it is basically a cross country fork which got unbelievable stiffness. It is a most popular and inexpensive fork available in the market and it is a best quality suspension system that ever built by X Fusion. They started the production of this XC fork in late 2010 and made more improvements in Velvet line of fork to make sure the fork is flawless. This new bike fork for 2011 comes with new chassis and more useful features to impress lot of cross country riders who want budget fork and more adjustment on the ride. This new Velvet RL fork has dropped the weight and totally revamped its internal damping system to suit different riding style.

Internally Adjustable Travel

This suspension fork is 650B convertible means if you add a travel limiter to the air spring you can fit 650B wheels and this obliviously gives the riders few options on which wheel they can run. It comes with adjustable travel that can be done internally using spacer. This mountain bike fork feature 100mm, 120mm and 130mm of travel system and just set it at 100mm for use on any XC bike or remove the spacers for 130mm and use it on any 5” Trail bike. Some major players have some advanced adjustable travel feature such as RockShox with U Turn, Suntour’s TAD remote, Manitou’s RapidTravel and Fox’s TALAS forks. All this technologies are quick click feature having large change in front fork height and travel.

More or less travel is required when a rider choose to change the riding style for better climb or drop section and the adjustable travel would probably help them to quickly react to such situation. Velvet RL is only internally adjustable fork and in order to adjust the travel say from 130 to 110 you need to set travel spacer to required height inside the fork. It is an air fork much stiffer than Manitou R7 and the fork never flex despite aggressive riding. This bike fork is light and smooth in its category on the trail, all the features are handy and easy to work on. X Fusion has made new design in adjustment mechanism that really dropped the weight of the fork when compared to other budget fork in the market.

Light Weight Bike Fork

This fork suspension weighs 3.35 lbs with 9mm axle and 1 1/8th steerer half a pound lighter than earlier model X Fusion Velour. The weight of the fork depends on what steerer tube option and what axle options you choose. X Fusion has introduced X series QR axle system and it is available along with 1.5 tapered steerer as optional and it would further reduce the weight of the fork and much suitable for XC riders who wants to shed few grams. The new QR axle system is a simple design helps to remove the front wheel very quickly and adjust the position of clamp so that the wheel is not facing any awkward position when encountering any snag or bushes.

Simple Adjustable Damping

This mountain bike fork is designed with sealed cartridge twin tube damper much similar to Fox FIT cartridge damping system. It is essentially open bath system but sealed cartridge open bath system self contained damping design than traditional open bath system. This X Fusion bike fork has less oil overall and drastically reduces the weight of the lower leg. It comes with direct fit brake mount and hose guide making the fork one of the best suspension under the budget category. The built quality and the performance of Velvet RL are pretty similar to Fox Float and does not compromise on riding performance.

Adjustment of this suspension fork is very simple and easy to tune, it comes with lockout knob at the top and slow speed adjust and high speed adjust for compression is available using red knob at the bottom. Remote lockout kit is also available as optional that goes right on the top of the lockout and bound with the handlebar. Just add air to the compression chamber and set proper sag for your riding style. This mountain bike fork got simple adjustable cartridge damper and you cannot expect more at this price point other then rebound adjust. It is specially designed for XC bike and by changing the travel it can also be used for trail bike. It performs much better than Fox Float, F100, Talas and have equal or better reliability with good customer service.

Good Traction

The fork is very stiff out of the box and you need to put right pressure to make it fully active on the trail and it would take some time. This bike fork will get eased up after couple of rides and will start to give good traction on the trail. It feels really smooth on trail and smaller drops. The Plush air spring keeps the front wheel well planted through rocky sections and tough corners. The light weight improves the maneuverability of the bike and makes it a better climber. We cannot say that Velvet RL is the well built and consistent fork since there are many popular forks from major players are available in the market. But when you compare budget option forks both performances wise as well as features, for sure Velvet RL would stand first in the list. It does not have all the fancy bells and whistles like Fox Forks but it is light and amazingly adjustable.

Our Analysis

X Fusion has made much more improvements to Velvet RL to achieve super smooth that put it leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. If you don’t want to spend more money on the fork but requires simple and quality fork for cross country bike then Velvet RL will suits you. Seriously consider this fork if you want easy to set up fork and super solid.

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