Rockshox Air Spring Upgrade Kit [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

Wanting a little more travel out of your fork? Or are you wanting more negative air volume? Well if you have a RockShox fork, they have you covered. RockShox offers a debonair airshaft for selected forks that does both of those. Our friend just tried one out. See what they think!

 Overview

I'll go ahead and give credit to SRAM and RockShox for this upgrade for two reasons; first, it's inexpensive and works down to 2016 model Lyrik forks, and second, it's actually very noticeable. For $42, this upgraded air spring is worth it. I thought the previous DebonAir upgraded spring was worth it on my 2016 Lyrik residing on my Nomad V3, as it was more supple over small bumps, but the fork still rode in the middle of the travel. This was something I didn't like as I would feel the bike dive into turns and sometimes it was unnerving in steep downhills. When I built my Megatower, the Lyrik Ultimate was pretty much the same as the upgraded Nomad's, both air springs and rebound cartridges were the same, only the Megatower uses the Boost standard, so both forks feel relatively similar considering the bikes' geometry differences. And I chose to stay with RockShox since they are user-serviceable, and I'm not afraid of turning wrenches or picking O-rings.

As soon as RockShox released the newest version of the DebonAir spring, I jumped at the chance to get one since all the media articles on the spring/fork touted the ride height and the suppleness in the beginning of the travel. Once the spring arrived from WWC, it took less than 30 minutes to swap out; if you can do a lower fork service, you can swap this spring out - just make sure you have the right tools and follow the posted RockShox manuals that are found on RockShox's website.

The first thing that anyone will notice is the ride height is drastically higher.

Keeping my tuning the same - 85PSI in the spring (1 token), fully open high and low-speed compression, and 4 clicks from closed on the rebound, the fork rode great. The first thing that anyone will notice is the ride height is drastically higher. I personally don't sit way into the travel anymore, as the picture shows. On the trail, the ride was much better, night and day compared to the other DebonAir spring. The fork is still supple and breaks into the travel easy, but stays higher in the travel and is more supported both at speed and climbing. The big difference came in chattery, high-speed turns where I would have fork originally diving. Now, the dive is minimal, and I feel much more supported and comfortable in the turn, which makes me feel faster (I may not be, but it's all how you feel anyways). Also, 4-5 foot drops (not much of a jumper) don't blow through the travel, I have about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch left, where I may have bottomed before.

Final Thoughts

So far, I've been pretty happy with the upgraded spring, and others I've talked to who have been able to compare agree the spring is worth the $42 and does make a large difference in feel and performance. So, if you've been happy with past RockShox forks, but wanted the travel to sit up higher and be more supportive initially and in high-speed turns, then this upgrade is the ticket.