RockShox Rudy Curious?

18 replies · 2,303 views

JWB475
154 posts
#1Mar 15, 2023, 3:53 PM
Just an FYI...

I didn't really want one, but the RockShox Rudy is on sale at the-house.com. If anyone was interested but thought $800 was too steep, they are 40% off while they last (~$500). They have the 45mm and 51mm offset versions available.

https://www.the-house.com/roru7gb530001zz-rockshox-bike-forks

The House was acquired by Camping World not too long ago, and apparently they are shutting them down so everything left on the website can be had for 40% off.

They also have a Carbonada clone frameset available (Framed Basswood) for $600...

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Pipeliner
129 posts
#2Mar 29, 2023, 4:34 PMedited
I bought one on sale this winter and paid $499. I converted my Norco Search XR and installed some Spinergy 650b wheels and Thunder Burt 2.1” tires along with this 40mm travel Rudy. The instructions said the fork is for 700c only but the 2.1 650’s fit just fine. I ditched my Redshift stem in hopes that this fork would provide a super-cush ride. The largest tires I had run previously were 700x45 Ramblers. Our roads get really bad when it gets dry late summer or all last year because of drought and I end up riding on the highways when conditions get like that. I friggin hate riding on highways so I wanted to build a crappy-gravel bike.

Overall, I’m not that impressed with the fork. To be fair, I still don’t feel like I have it dialed in perfectly but the small bump sensitivity isn’t very good. The big tires do more to help the ride than the fork and I am thinking of switching back to the Redshift and rigid fork just to compare for a ride or two. I will say that the fork does help on the bigger bumps, I’m just not impressed with the small bump compliance. Our weather has been awful so I just haven’t gotten enough saddle time on this build but plan to make a better comparison later. One major negative about the Redshift is that it gets ineffective in colder weather and this fork works fine when it’s sub-60 degrees out.

The big 650b tires and wheels have been a revelation though. You really don’t even need to pay attention to loose gravel and sandy patches. They will slow you down but you cruise right over them without any loss of control. This is really what I wanted and when the bargain on the fork came along I thought, what the hell… might as well try that too. I suspect I’ll be back to my rigid fork and Redshift stem when it’s all said and done though.

I bought a 1x AXS Diverge for my good-gravel bike. That is another project that I’m not that sure about yet… Much more tweaking to be done on that thing and maybe the whole 1-good/2-bad gravel bike concept is just a bad idea.
1
dangle
465 posts
#3Mar 30, 2023, 11:35 AM
Which XR? Isn't the stock fork length 40 mm shorter than the 40 mm Rudy axle to crown lengths?
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Pipeliner
129 posts
#4Mar 30, 2023, 1:29 PM

dangle wrote:
Which XR? Isn't the stock fork length 40 mm shorter than the 40 mm Rudy axle to crown lengths?
I measured it out of the box and compared to the original axle to crown on my carbon XR it was 20mm longer (it's been a while but I think that is right). You are supposed to run like a 10% sag so call it 16mm axle to crown taller. The shorter wheels offset that a bit but the taller fork means a slacker head angle. I can't really say I notice any difference with how the bike rides...if anything I prefer the handling with this setup.
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Pipeliner
129 posts
#5Mar 30, 2023, 2:01 PM
Kinda ugly too but that was the color they had.
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ccand51997
265 posts
#6Mar 31, 2023, 6:33 AMedited
Pipeliner wrote:
Overall, I’m not that impressed with the fork. To be fair, I still don’t feel like I have it dialed in perfectly but the small bump sensitivity isn’t very good.
I don't think that sort of air sprung fork design is really good at small vs. big bumps. After several years of rigid vs. suspension iterations, I settled on a full-suspension XC bike set up with the front suspension at probably 50 percent sag. As such, I probably get around 50-60mm of travel at best. But it rolls over medium to small bumps like they are not even there. For races, I can comfortably ride the aerobars even over dirt.
The big tires do more to help the ride than the fork and I am thinking of switching back to the Redshift and rigid fork just to compare for a ride or two. I will say that the fork does help on the bigger bumps, I’m just not impressed with the small bump compliance.
The downside of running so much sag is that the fork bottoms out pretty often on rough, rocky downhills. I certainly could not keep up with a rider on a long-travel fork, but then, neither could anyone riding rigid keep up with me. My power testing showed me that I gain far more speed on rough downhills than I lose with the extra weight going up.
Honestly, it rides so smoothly on climbs, I would not be shocked if the suspension negates any loss of speed from extra weight.

The big 650b tires and wheels have been a revelation though. You really don’t even need to pay attention to loose gravel and sandy patches. They will slow you down but you cruise right over them without any loss of control.
I don't have lots of deep sand here, like my old home, but there is enough that I would have to hike-a-bike several times a ride, without 2 inch or larger tires. Since mtb tires are not slower rolling than gravel tires and my speeds are low enough that the extra wind resistance is minimal, there is really no downside to larger tires.

I think suspension makes a lot of sense for 'gravel' that is really just dirt roads that are never graded. I have two different bikes for rough gravel and fire roads and one for light gravel and climbing high mountains on the road over surfaces that are really bad. On nearly every ride with one bike or the other, I think it would be nice to have the other bike, but that is what happens when you ride multi-surface rides consistently.
Pipeliner
129 posts
#7Mar 31, 2023, 11:40 AM
I gave some serious thought to a full suspension XC bike for my bad-gravel project. I didn't want flat bars so I would've had to size down and then put on drops. I might still go that way in the future. This bike went from 19.5 lbs with the Ramblers to 22 lbs on the money with the fork and wheel/tire change. Those weights are ride-ready, pedals and air pump included. I'm not a weight weenie but I suspect it would be really expensive to keep a full suspension rig anywhere near that weight. I'm not interested in a 28 lb gravel bike.
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ccand51997
265 posts
#8Mar 31, 2023, 12:03 PM
Pipeliner wrote:
I gave some serious thought to a full suspension XC bike for my bad-gravel project. I didn't want flat bars so I would've had to size down and then put on drops. I might still go that way in the future. This bike went from 19.5 lbs with the Ramblers to 22 lbs on the money with the fork and wheel/tire change. Those weights are ride-ready, pedals and air pump included. I'm not a weight weenie but I suspect it would be really expensive to keep a full suspension rig anywhere near that weight. I'm not interested in a 28 lb gravel bike.
My beast is 30ish pounds when I race it with pump, tools, two spare tubes, frame pack. When I realized for the races that I do, the suspension was clearly faster, I decided the weight was irrelevant. In my favorite race, on the first big downhill I passed people that were barely moving while I was dropping at 30 mph. I caught up to two guys, jammed my chain when I shifted big-big, stopped, spent about a minute fixing it and then took off again. In less than five more minutes of descent, I made up the ground, passed them, and left them far behind.

Obviously, your type of racing and gravel matter, but I crush people on rough gravel and descents and don't feel that disadvantaged on long climbs on dirt. When it is smooth gravel then it can feel a little slow, but it depends on the course. I'll take the weight penalty if it means I have not had my brains rattled out through my ears.
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owly
328 posts
#9Apr 1, 2023, 5:55 PMedited
Pipeliner wrote:
I gave some serious thought to a full suspension XC bike for my bad-gravel project. I didn't want flat bars so I would've had to size down and then put on drops. I might still go that way in the future. This bike went from 19.5 lbs with the Ramblers to 22 lbs on the money with the fork and wheel/tire change. Those weights are ride-ready, pedals and air pump included. I'm not a weight weenie but I suspect it would be really expensive to keep a full suspension rig anywhere near that weight. I'm not interested in a 28 lb gravel bike.
https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=164416

That same stripped frame is now on their ebay site, as the rider has gone down to an M size at his height.
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JWB475
154 posts
#10Apr 2, 2023, 9:39 AM
I am using it on my Open WI.DE. and plan to switch between the Rudy and my carbon rigid fork depending on the conditions. My carbon fork is internally routed so I picked up some adhesive cable clips and routed the cable along the back of the fork. It only takes a few minutes to swap between them.

I put my 650B wheelset on with 2.2 Race Kings and I still have about 5mm of clearance at the narrowest point on the fork, so I am pretty happy about that. It does raise the front a fair bit. I run 10mm of spacers under my stem with the rigid fork, so with the Rudy installed and my stem slammed it is ~20mm taller at the bars.

I havent had a chance to ride it yet, as it is still winter here in Minnesota. Mother Nature just dumped 8 inches of snow on April 1st, making it the 3rd snowiest year on record...worst April Fools joke ever...

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Pipeliner
129 posts
#11Apr 2, 2023, 10:18 AMedited
I was able to get a day of nice weather and did quite a bit of riding and messing with the fork as well as tire pressures. I dropped the spring pressure to get about 25% sag because I wasn't using enough of the travel and it is much nicer riding now. I also have figured out that the small bump compliance is much better at higher speeds. It really flattens out the vibrations and buzz the faster you go. I didn't use all of the travel but wouldn't you know it, our roads are wonderful right now. We've gotten shitloads of snow this winter and the county has graded the roads, they are in wonderful shape. Should've ridden my good-gravel bike but am waiting on a part for it.
1
Pipeliner
129 posts
#12Apr 2, 2023, 6:39 PM
ccand51997 wrote:
My beast is 30ish pounds when I race it with pump, tools, two spare tubes, frame pack. When I realized for the races that I do, the suspension was clearly faster, I decided the weight was irrelevant. In my favorite race, on the first big downhill I passed people that were barely moving while I was dropping at 30 mph. I caught up to two guys, jammed my chain when I shifted big-big, stopped, spent about a minute fixing it and then took off again. In less than five more minutes of descent, I made up the ground, passed them, and left them far behind.

Obviously, your type of racing and gravel matter, but I crush people on rough gravel and descents and don't feel that disadvantaged on long climbs on dirt. When it is smooth gravel then it can feel a little slow, but it depends on the course. I'll take the weight penalty if it means I have not had my brains rattled out through my ears.

Isn't it too bouncy when you are pedaling hard? I'd think that much sag would have too much pedal bob.
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ccand51997
265 posts
#13Apr 2, 2023, 8:06 PM
Pipeliner wrote:

Isn't it too bouncy when you are pedaling hard? I'd think that much sag would have too much pedal bob.

I should have probably added that I weigh about 155 pounds and I'm a high rpm spinner, for the most part. No, I don't notice the bob. The XC frame is a Turner Czar with dw link and it is so smooth that I forget it is suspension sometimes. If I do stand, on pavement, I can quickly lock the front fork and lean a little farther forward and the rear still does not bob that much.
With triple the budget, I could probably drop another five pounds, but I'm already a skinny climber and five pounds is like five watts climbing. Like I said, I rough courses where I ride, I'm much faster than you could manage rigid.
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dangle
465 posts
#14Apr 5, 2023, 11:19 PM
Pipeliner wrote:
I measured it out of the box and compared to the original axle to crown on my carbon XR it was 20mm longer (it's been a while but I think that is right). You are supposed to run like a 10% sag so call it 16mm axle to crown taller. The shorter wheels offset that a bit but the taller fork means a slacker head angle. I can't really say I notice any difference with how the bike rides...if anything I prefer the handling with this setup.

The website says the current models are a 395 axle to crown fork. I don't know why shorter wheels would offset that. The axle to crown length wouldn't change. I genuinely hope it's working for you. I just personally think the gravel world wasn't really ready for these new forks. The mountain bike world is pretty specific on what length forks you can put on a frame before voiding the warranty. +20 mm seems to be the limit for the ones I am familiar with.
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Pipeliner
129 posts
#15Apr 12, 2023, 7:41 PM
dangle wrote:

The website says the current models are a 395 axle to crown fork. I don't know why shorter wheels would offset that. The axle to crown length wouldn't change. I genuinely hope it's working for you. I just personally think the gravel world wasn't really ready for these new forks. The mountain bike world is pretty specific on what length forks you can put on a frame before voiding the warranty. +20 mm seems to be the limit for the ones I am familiar with.

The shorter wheels don't change the geo of the bike but they do keep the BB in about the same place relative to the ground.

I was curious about this so I remeasured, fully extended the Rudy is almost exactly 40mm taller, axle to flat surface of the crown race. I've been riding it now at about 10mm of sag and think that is the sweet spot so the upper headset is about 30mm higher when riding. This is on a 58cm bike so this effect is less than if one were to put the fork on a smaller frame. At any rate, it rides just fine. I was running a 90mm Redshift turned upwards and now have a carbon stem turned the other way which also negates a bit of the higher front end. I'm not concerned at all about the stress on the frame. It's a pretty big reach to think that a suspension fork with give would exert more stress than a rigid fork. I bought the frame new, it has about 3k miles on it and I weigh 240 lbs. It's a pretty tough frame and if I manage to break it, so be it. I'm really liking this setup now but again, our roads are really good too. I'll revisit this subject when our roads turn to crap.

Unrelated but I've been riding the Diverge a bit. After some tweaks I am feeling pretty good about that bike... I downsized to a 56 and the legnthy seat post along with the give in the headset gadget make for a surprisingly compliant ride.
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Angstrom
181 posts
#16Apr 18, 2023, 4:41 PM
My first "gravel bike" was a hardtail MTB. I eventually swapped out the suspension fork because it only seemed to be helping on the occasional big hits. I never tried taking the pressure down as far as ccand55197 describes-- it probably would have helped the fork work on the small stuff.
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Pipeliner
129 posts
#17Aug 11, 2023, 1:22 PM
After a summer of less riding than I normally do because of some family health things, I have a few conclusions to update. I sold the Diverge because it just didn’t fit me well. I really liked the AXS mullet setup and the bike was fast because of the low body position I had to adopt but it put too much weight on my arms and was hard on my neck so I sold it.

On my SearchXR, I did swap my Rudy fork out for the original with a Redshift and have some ride time in. The Rudy is nice for when the road is real rough. Large gravel, ruts, washboards, etc. But for decent roads it just doesn’t do much for the bike. the 2.1” 650b Thunder Burts are pretty wonderful though. I definitely average a little higher speeds with the 700x44 RH tires but when the road is sketchy at all, I will run the 650b tires. I think I will keep the Rudy and try to land another frame to build into a crappy-road rig with more tire clearance and AXS mullet. Looking around, the Waheela C is closest to what I’d want… or maybe a crazy-light FS XC rig with a drop bar swap?

This summer has been one of the wettest on record for our area so our roads are really nice right now. The USAC Gravel Natl Championship is in my community next month so hopefully the roads hold up and the wind takes a day off on Sept 9.
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mtbnut87
168 posts
#18Aug 25, 2023, 7:58 PM
After a summer of less riding than I normally do because of some family health things, I have a few conclusions to update. I sold the Diverge because it just didn’t fit me well. I really liked the AXS mullet setup and the bike was fast because of the low body position I had to adopt but it put too much weight on my arms and was hard on my neck so I sold it.

On my SearchXR, I did swap my Rudy fork out for the original with a Redshift and have some ride time in. The Rudy is nice for when the road is real rough. Large gravel, ruts, washboards, etc. But for decent roads it just doesn’t do much for the bike. the 2.1” 650b Thunder Burts are pretty wonderful though. I definitely average a little higher speeds with the 700x44 RH tires but when the road is sketchy at all, I will run the 650b tires. I think I will keep the Rudy and try to land another frame to build into a crappy-road rig with more tire clearance and AXS mullet. Looking around, the Waheela C is closest to what I’d want… or maybe a crazy-light FS XC rig with a drop bar swap?

This summer has been one of the wettest on record for our area so our roads are really nice right now. The USAC Gravel Natl Championship is in my community next month so hopefully the roads hold up and the wind takes a day off on Sept 9.

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mtbnut87
168 posts
#19Aug 25, 2023, 8:04 PM
After a summer of less riding than I normally do because of some family health things, I have a few conclusions to update. I sold the Diverge because it just didn’t fit me well. I really liked the AXS mullet setup and the bike was fast because of the low body position I had to adopt but it put too much weight on my arms and was hard on my neck so I sold it.

On my SearchXR, I did swap my Rudy fork out for the original with a Redshift and have some ride time in. The Rudy is nice for when the road is real rough. Large gravel, ruts, washboards, etc. But for decent roads it just doesn’t do much for the bike. the 2.1” 650b Thunder Burts are pretty wonderful though. I definitely average a little higher speeds with the 700x44 RH tires but when the road is sketchy at all, I will run the 650b tires. I think I will keep the Rudy and try to land another frame to build into a crappy-road rig with more tire clearance and AXS mullet. Looking around, the Waheela C is closest to what I’d want… or maybe a crazy-light FS XC rig with a drop bar swap?

This summer has been one of the wettest on record for our area so our roads are really nice right now. The USAC Gravel Natl Championship is in my community next month so hopefully the roads hold up and the wind takes a day off on Sept 9.

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