Customer Review: Rockshox Yari Fork

RockShox has been a leading competitor in the suspension game for quite some time. There are many reasons as to why they are the "go-to" company for many riders. Not only do they offer great prices on their ever so proven products, they have the experience and performance that is hard to replicate to show us why they are one of the top brands on the market. This review was written by a good customer of ours, James Wood. James recently upgraded to the RockShox Yari RC Fork and sent over a review about his experience. Let's take a look into what he had to say about his upgrade.

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I am constantly tinkering with my bike looking to buy that next new part and a couple months ago I finally broke down and bought a new fork, the Rockshox Yari 160mm. The fork on my bike at the time was only two years old and still in really good condition, but it had 32mm stanchions. In today’s world of mountain biking, most trail bikes have stiffer forks with 34, 35 or 36mm stanchions to increase stiffness. My original trail fork seamed skinny in comparison.

After spending a couple months reading and researching all the major brands online, I determined the Yari was the right fork at the right price. For those that don’t know, the Yari was introduced by Rockshox about a year ago. It has 35mm stanchions like the Pike and Lyrik, with the only real difference being it does not have the high end Charger Damper; however, the factory tuning was designed to mimic the Charger Dampers and it can be purchased at a more reasonable price. In fact, it has the most reasonable price compared to Rockshox’s competitors.

How does it perform?

One of the biggest advantages of going to this fork is the ability to run a lower air pressure. On my old fork I would typically run around 110psi (I weigh about 190lbs). With the Yari that came down to about 60psi. This lower air pressure gave the fork a more supple feel when hitting rocks. The fork would compress easier, cushioning the hit and allowing it to track better over rough terrain. To prevent the fork from bottoming out, Rockshox allows you to add more tokens to the left fork leg to give it more of a progressive feel. The process is really straight forward and two tokens were included with the fork. There are also enough setup controls to really dial in the ride, both the rebound and compression knobs make a noticeable difference when adjusted. They also feel very solid.

After several rides the only real negative aspect of the fork is the torque cap compatibility. In order to make it torque cap compatible, the inside of the fork, which connects to the front hub, is partially machined out. This makes it harder to line up the fork with the hub when the front wheel is being reattached. When researching the fork, a similar comment was made during a review. At the time it did not make much sense, but now I understand the issue better. This is not a deal breaker by any means, it is just something to be aware of when you first get the fork. As for myself, the plan is to get a new front hub in order to take advantage of the additional strength it is supposed to provide.

In conclusion I would highly recommend the Yari for anybody looking to upgrade their trail bike fork while also trying to keep to a budget. You get all the performance and stiffness of a higher end fork with only a slight weight penalty.