Öhlins RXF36 m.3
Wheel Size Options: 27.5’’ and 29’’
Travel Options:
- 27.5’’: 150, 160, and 170 mm
- 29’’: 140, 150, and 160 mm
Available Offsets:
- 27.5’’: 38 and 44 mm
- 29’’: 44 and 51 mm
Stanchion Diameter: 36 mm
MSRP: $1,245 / €1,569 (w/ VAT)
Intro
Öhlins has been expanding their MTB presence over the last few years, and now offers a complete suspension lineup from XC to DH. So with their product range filled out, it’s perhaps not a great surprise that they’ve turned their attention back to the longstanding RXF36 Trail bike fork, and given it an update. Let’s see what’s new in the RXF36 m.3.
Design & Features
The biggest changes to the RXF36 come in the chassis. As the name suggests, it still has 36 mm stanchions, but Öhlins has shaved a little weight from the chassis (bringing the new fork to a stated weight of 2,050 g, down from our measured weight of 2,111 g for the m.2 generation). They’ve also managed to increase the bushing overlap (presumably aided by the fact that the maximum allowable travel has been reduced to 160 mm for the 29’’ fork and 170 mm for the 27.5’’ one). Öhlins’ floating, bolt-on 110×15 mm axle design carries over from the RXF36 m.2.
Those tweaks make sense, given that the prior-generation RXF36 m.2 predated the burlier RXF38 m.2. As we’ve seen from a lot of other suspension manufacturers, Öhlins has effectively taken their formerly-burliest single crown offering, supplanted it with a 38mm stanchion version, and then made the smaller / lighter version a more dedicated Trail bike fork for greater differentiation.
Öhlins also says that they’ve made some tweaks to their stanchion finishing procedure to reduce friction and that the new CSU assembly can be used with either an air or coil spring assembly. That means that all of Öhlins’ forks from the RXF36 on up can be converted back and forth between the two spring layouts as desired.
[Check out our review of the coil spring conversion kit for the RXF38 m.2 for more on how those options compare.]
Spring Design
The RXF36 m.3 still uses the same three-chamber spring design with two independently adjustable positive chambers and a self-equalizing negative one, but some of the details have been tweaked.
For those who aren’t familiar, the RXF36’s air spring uses a dual-positive chamber layout, with the two stacked on top of each other, with a floating piston separating the two. The secondary “ramp up” chamber runs substantially higher pressure than the main one, only coming into play once the pressure in the main chamber equals that of the ramp up chamber. Once that happens, the piston separating the two moves as the fork compresses farther, effectively combining the two chambers into a single higher-volume one. The idea is to make the fork ramp up more quickly than a conventional single-positive chamber design would through the middle part of the travel for increased support, without continuing to do so as aggressively deeper in the travel. By varying the relative pressures in the two chambers, you can change where in the travel that inflection point occurs, and thereby change the shape of the spring curve in ways that aren’t possible with a more conventional volume spacer arrangement.
That’s still all true of the RXF36 m.3 spring, too. Öhlins has changed the default configuration of the spring by removing the negative volume spacer that came installed on the m.2 generation fork and adding a larger main chamber spacer to tweak the overall spring curve in the stock configuration, but the spring assembly itself is otherwise the same (and you can swap an m.2 fork to m.3 spec or vice-versa by swapping the spacers around).
Öhlins isn’t offering a coil-sprung version of the RXF36 directly (at least for now) but will have an aftermarket kit available to make the swap should you want to.
Damper
Öhlins’ longstanding TTX18 twin-tube fork damper carries over to the RXF36 m.3 as well. It’s still got adjustable high- and low-speed compression and low-speed rebound, with a firmer climb mode activated by switching to the firmest setting on the high-speed compression adjuster.
Öhlins has given the RXF36 m.3 version a lighter rebound tune than the one that was featured on the outgoing m.2 version (which was on the slower side of things), but the damper carries over unchanged otherwise. A whole bunch of our reviewers have been impressed by the TTX18 damper in a variety of Öhlins’ forks over the years, so we aren’t complaining about the changes to that side of things being modest. It’s a good damper. As they say, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) How different does the RXF36 m.3 feel from the outgoing (and already very good) m.2 iteration? None of the individual tweaks sound all that dramatic on paper, but a few modest changes taken together can make a big difference in total.
(2) The prior m.2 version of the RXF36 was a little heavier than other popular forks like the RockShox Lyrik and Fox 36, and more supportive in both damper and air spring feel. The new one has shifted closer in weight, so does it feel more like a closer competitor in the Trail segment?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The RXF36 m.2 is still a great fork, and while the m.3 generation doesn’t look like a huge departure from it, the tweaks that Öhlins has made seem sensible. We’re working to line up an RXF36 m.3 for review and will report back on how it stacks up if and when we’re able to make that happen.
In the minority, I’m sure, but I love that Ohlins offers a damper of this quality and performance AND includes a climb switch.