RockShox ZEB Charger R Suspension Fork & Vivid Air R2C Rear Shock [Rider Review]

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RockShox is one of the main companies that comes to mind when thinking about suspension for our Mountain bikes. For Enduro/All mountain riders, RockShox offers the Zeb and Vivid shock to not only get up the hill but to bomb down as well. Our friend, Jimmy just threw on a Zeb and Vivid on their rig. See what they think!

Overview

First off, I'm going to start with the fork, I ordered the e-bike version of the fork then returned it and ordered the correct version, and I don't know if it's luck or it just being a nice fork or what the hell but it feels perfect. I bought both the fork and rear shock for a new bike that I'm building from the ground up so I don't really have a comparison for this fork, but it's still absolutely amazing.

The fork feels almost as stiff as a downhill fork, even more so if you compare it to an older downhill fork, but unlike a downhill fork, you can still pedal uphill in the same manner that you should be able to.

I bought the Rock Shox Zeb select, which isn't even the highest-end version, but it's still adjustable to the point that you don't notice between small adjustments, and just feels amazing. It's generally hard for me to say how good this fork is, partially because this is the best fork I've ever had, but also partially because it's just such an amazing fork.

On the more preference side of things, most forks can't fit all that big of tires, but if you like wide tires as I do, it's nice to have a fork that the tire actually fits in. I put Maxxis Minion DHF 3.0s on this bike and they fit even under the bolt-on fender so I think it's safe to say you can fit just about and tire on here.

The fork has a 38mm stanchion, as you should know if you're buying this fork, but the good thing about a thicker stanchion for me at least, being a fairly big and heavy rider, at 6' 4" and 210lbs, it's stiffer front to back. This is kind of hard to explain through words but it feels less like it's going to snap in half, frankly, it doesn't feel that way at all, compared to say a 30mm stanchion would. On the other side of stiffness when brands make forks with a thicker stanchion they tend to make the fork itself stiffer in the travel also, and that is again, good for people who are big.

Onto the rear shock. This is the first bike with a rear shock I have ever had, once again I think this thing feels amazing, I don't know if that's because it's expensive and amazing or because it just feels better than a hardtail, who knows. The one thing I can say though is that it has more adjustments on it than I expected a rear shock to have, I kind of just thought it would be a compressed air thing and that was it, then I started looking into buying one and realized that at least the one I bought has low speed and high-speed rebound, compression, and by using tokens, progressiveness. In short, I like the rear shock but don't know enough about rear shocks in general to compare it.

Final Thoughts

In summation, the whole thing, go buy a Zeb and a Vivid Air R2C, they're both amazing and worth it in my opinion.