While it feels like only yesterday that RockShox introduced the Vivid Coil and gave the dual-crown Boxxer a complete redesign, we are gathered here today for an update to both products. Teased through the last Downhill World Cup season, the new Boxxer D2 and Vivid Coil D1 are a part of SRAM’s greater DH renaissance, with XX DH Transmission and updated Maven brakes also launching today. Those new products have their own articles, and here we're doing a deep dive on RockShox's new DH suspension.
RockShox Red isn't going out of style
Boxxer Ultimate - D2
Starting with the new Boxxer D2, this is RockShox’s highest performance, dual crown, DH race developed, fork, featuring the new Charger 3.2 damper and LinearXL air spring. RockShox is still in the “D” generation, so every new part is backwards compatible with the previous Boxxer D1, allowing D1 owners to amortize their upgrade costs by getting one piece of the puzzle at a time. The Boxxer D2 uses all-new upper tubes (stanchions), lower legs, air spring, and damper, while reusing the Maxle and crowns from the Boxxer D1. The Boxxer D2 has the same DNA as the D1, with 29 and 27.5 options, 38mm stanchions, between 180mm and 200mm of travel, and 20x110 Boost spacing. There's also a Boxxer Select available, with a lower price tag and a few features omitted.
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Boxxer Ultimate D2 Specs
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Looking at the outside of the fork, the elephant in the room is the LinearXL labeled bump on the air spring side of the lower legs. RockShox is introducing their new LinearXL air spring in the Boxxer D2, and that protrusion is the AirAnnex. RockShox has built the entire fork around this new LinearXL air spring, claiming that it’s the star of the show. LinearXL still uses ButterCups, just like the DebonAir+ air spring it’s replacing, but now with a larger total air volume. The AirAnnex doesn’t pack any fancy tricks besides making more room for air in the lower legs, and while it’s bolted on, there’s no option for swapping it out with a different cap to change the air volume. The increased volume from the AirAneex reduces progressivity. Simply put, the new Boxxer is more supple off the top, more supportive in the mid stroke, and will throw fewer surprises at you on trail. You’ll only find the AirAnnex on the air spring because the air spring side has less air volume than the damper side. Increasing the air volume of the damper side isn’t required to achieve the linear feel RockShox was after.
Linear air springs inherently mean less bottom-out support, and RockShox has addressed this with its jounce bottom-out bumper to control bottom-out events. While RockShox hasn’t shared many details about this jounce bottom-out bumper, we do know that it’s not externally adjustable and looks very similar to the bottom-out bumper from the Boxxer D1. It’s essentially an elastomer that keeps things settled down when you run out of travel. Speaking of travel, the LinearXL air spring comes in 180mm, 190mm, and, of course, 200mm lengths, so you could reduce the travel and run the Boxxer on a pedal-oriented bike. E-bikes have always seemed like an intuitive home for a heavy yet high-performance dual crown fork like the Boxxer, but that hasn’t become the norm yet.
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Poking out the top of the other stanchion leg is the new Charger 3.2 damper. Building on the Charger 3 architecture, Charger 3.2 still uses ButterCups and still offers the same external adjustments: High Speed Compression, Low Speed Compression, and Rebound. Those compression adjusters atop the fork have new decals to make it clearer how many clicks you’re running, and RockShox is doing everything they can to make tinkering with your damper settings as approachable as possible. With clicks clearly labeled, it’s easy to talk about what you’re running, and you won’t have to waste time counting. Tuning suspension is such a deep subject that it’s great to see RockShox making that endeavour easier to dive into.
Charger 3.2 has the same dead silent operation as Charger 3 and 3.1, and actually isn’t that different from the Charger 3.1 it’s replacing. The only internal difference is a stiffer tune to account for the different performance of the LinearXL air spring and the overall new chassis. Charger 3/3.1 dampers are designed and tuned to work best with the DebonAir+ air spring, while the Charger 3.2 damper is optimized for the LinearXL air spring. There are no huge performance claims in the Charger 3.2 damper, and instead, it’s an updated version of the Charger 3 system to work perfectly with the new Boxxer D2 package. That means if you’re currently riding a Boxxer D1, dropping in the Charger 3.2 won’t necessarily be the optimal upgrade without updating the lowers and the air spring while you’re at it.
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Diving inside the Boxxer, we have the logical next progression from ButterCups: The ButterWagons. This positively silly name refers to dimples in the stanchions hidden within the lower legs that help transport bath oil from the bottom to the top of the lower legs. As the fork compresses into its travel, those dimples pick up a little bit of oil and bring it back up to the top of the fork, redistributing oil across the bushings and all of the surfaces in the lower legs. Think of each dimple as a little wagon of butter, filled to the brim with a slippery, nutrient-dense milk that’s been churned to the point of solidifying. The main goal of the ButterWagons is to keep the bushings lubricated at all times, seriously cutting down on the friction of the whole fork. ButterWagons are only included on the Ultimate level of the Boxxer, while the Boxxer Select D2 just gets normal undimpled stanchions. RockShox and SKF developed new seals specifically for the Boxxer, and they’re said to reduce friction by not getting “sucked in” to the fork stanchions when the lower leg pressurizes. These new seals clear dirt and anything else on the seals without grabbing the stanchions as they slide past, keeping your lower legs debris free and your friction coefficient low. Updated seals to the right, wagons of butter below |
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A few small things about the chassis include the crown-height gradients carried through from the previous Boxxer, the same 4mm actuated bleeder valves, and the updated minimalist graphics are a new take on the Boxxer’s presentation. Those graphics aren’t just stickers as they’ve been in the past, and they’re actually under the clear coat. If you’re a counter culture super core freerider that likes removing your graphics, then this might not be the fork for you, as you’ll need to repaint the new Boxxer to avoid advertising for RockShox. If white decals aren’t your thing and you want to get custom, then you can apply stickers over the decals. But for the rest of us, this just means the decals are going to be harder to scratch and should look brand new for longer.
Vivid Coil Ultimate - D1
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Vivid Coil was the latest shock to be introduced into the RockShox lineup, and after less than two years since its release, we’ve got a whole new generation of Vivid Coil. This is the Vivid Coil D1, and while it’s got a very familiar silhouette and feature list to the outgoing Vivid Coil C1, it’s been redesigned for more mid-stroke support and lower friction throughout the system. It’s offered in all metric sizes with stroke lengths from 47.5mm to 75mm, supporting everything from trail bikes to downhill bikes to e-bikes. RockShox’s goal with the new Vivid Coil is increased consistency and predictability, and a streamlined setup process to let you focus more on the riding than the tinkering. Just about every coil shock out there is a damper with a simple linear spring wrapped around it, and developing that damper is where performance gains are made. RockShox has updated the RC2 and RC2T damper hanging off the Vivid Coil, with a redesigned base valve with a 40% reduction in breakaway forces. The silhouette of the damper reservoir housing the IFP is a little different, with a shorter yet thicker stature than the outgoing Vivid Coil. It could be that the new dimensions of the reservoir are contributing to that reduction in IFP force, but I’m no suspension engineer. |
Vivid Coil Ultimate D1 Specs
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On the outside of the damper, you’ll find the same three external adjustments in familiar locations, but the Hydraulic Bottom Out, or HBO, has been rebranded as Adjustable Bottom Out, or ABO. The High Speed Compression and Low Speed Compression adjusters have both undergone makeovers, with new blue decals to simplify setup of the new Vivid Coil. The Threshold Lever, or climb switch, is only found on the 210, 230, 185, and 205mm length shocks, and hangs off the damper to provide a stable pedal platform for longer climbs. Rebound is found at the base of the shock, and the removable rebound knob still doubles as a 3mm hex wrench to adjust your ABO and HSC.
Diving deeper into ABO, this is just a new name for the same HBO feature that originally launched in the Super Deluxe Coil. Internally, there are no changes to how ABO functions compared to HBO, and it’s still a hydraulic system where spinning the external adjuster increases or decreases the bottom-out damping in the last 20% of travel. HBO has been a standout feature of RockShox coil shocks over the last few years, separating them from the competition and making a linear coil shock much more usable on frames with linear leverage rates. It’s hard to say why RockShox rebranded this feature. Perhaps the Home Box Office lawyers sent a persuasive letter to SRAM, or maybe RockShox wanted to draw a clear distinction between adjustable and non-adjustable bottom-out control across their products, but it’s safe to say ABO is a welcome feature on the Vivid Coil.
On the outside of the Low and High Speed Compression dials, the tick marks now have numbers printed right beside them, while the previous Vivid Coil didn’t. This is a relatively small change, and doesn’t actually change the function of the LSC or HSC circuit, but it does make it easier to know exactly how many clicks you have, and clearly tell people how many clicks you’re running. Plus, if you’ve also got the new Boxxer, the design language is shared between them, making it doubly easy to set up your new suspension. Internally, the LSC and HSC circuits haven’t been changed fundamentally, but the standard aftermarket tune compression tune is now slightly stiffer, moving up one level from C30 to C34. That marginally stiffer tune accounts for the decreased friction in the shock, and RockShox is tuning the damper to function as they intend within the entire system.
RockShox has been the champion of frame-specific tunes recently, and that’s still the case with the Vivid Coil. The list of frames with an official frame-specific tune is a little short, and RockShox may add frames to it in the future, but for now, it’s more than likely that your frame is not offered. But that’s alright, because a custom tune is more valuable when it’s truly custom to you and your needs. There are seven available compression tunes and just two rebound tunes on the Vivid Coil, and a full damper rebuild is required to change the tune, as is standard with shim stack tuning. The stock C34 tune found on all aftermarket Vivids is right smack in the middle of the available compression tunes, with three lighter and three stiffer tunes available. The stock rebound tune is R55, and there is also a lighter R25 tune available.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the new Vivid Coil isn’t a dramatic departure from the previous generation, which is a good thing. I’ve had nothing but good things to say about the Vivid Coil after spending two seasons of DH racing on it, and I’m excited to try the latest and greatest for myself. The Boxxer, on the other hand, has tons of new tech inside and out that could add up to larger gains on the trail. We’ll be testing all of these new suspension components in the future, so stay tuned for a review on the latest Boxxer and Vivid Coil compared to the previous generation!
