Bike Reviews

When I first got my Reba Race and had a chance to ride my bike with it installed, I really wasn’t too impressed with it. I had just made the switch to 29ers and the whole big wheel thing was new to me. The first two weeks I had my 29er, I noticed my lines sometimes seem to drift while cornering. The first thought that came to my mind is it maybe the Reba Race fork is not solid enough for my preference. It’s a Reba Race, more of an XC fork and I should have gone with an all mountain type fork. I wasn’t hucking off stuff, nor hitting any big ledges, just typical trail conditions in the North Carolina Mountains and local surrounding trails in Charlotte. But maybe I was was pushing the fork beyond it’s designed capabilities. Still even on flat flowing XC trails the front seemed to drift in corners, I found myself eating dirt more often than usually and bent a perfectly good wheel when my line drifted while in a tight corner and striking a log.

After the wreck my front wheel useless and needed a new rim. I stripped the Reba off my bike and dropped off the wheel for a rebuild. I then used a back-up front wheel and installed an RST M-29 fork. From that point on all my issues with line drifting in corners where solved, but the extra weight of the RST M-29 was a sacrifice that I really didn’t want to make. So after about two weeks of riding with the RST M-29, I eventually re-installed the Reba Race to give it another shot and if pleased with it’s performance with a different front wheel, I could lighten my bike by a pound of weight.

With the Reba Race installed and a different and stronger front wheel I notice the lateral stiffness of the front while in corners was much improved. There was still a little flexiness laterally, but I could live with it. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the Reba Race combined with a light weight wheel set is where the real issues existed while cornering. So when I got my repaired front wheel back I just hung it on the garage wall and continued riding with the Reba Race and the stronger spare wheel I had installed.

After about 4 months I got a new and even stronger wheelset built up and my lines while cornering have improved greatly. I still notice a bit of flex coming from the Reba Race, but with the right wheelset, it is at a minimum and I don’t have any plans to replace the Reba… I can live with it’s performance as it is.

But would I buy another Reba Race in the future?
Well the answer to that is possibly, but I would research other fork options before I just dropped some cash on one.

And would I recommend it?
Yes, but that all depends on the rider and what kind of trail use they intend to use it on. It’s an XC fork and considering I ride XC and All Mountain, I feel at times I am pushing the fork beyond it’s intended use.

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 7)

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