Rockshox SID Ultimate Race Day Fork [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

When RockShox dropped the new SID fork last year, it completely changed the game for lightweight, high performance forks and opened up a whole new world of capability for XC and Downcountry bikes. Larry has been running his new SID Ultimate Race day for the last month or so with great results. Read on for more!

Larry's Review

Being on the heavier side of what’s considered average and typically riding more aggressively on challenging terrain, I have always favored the feel of more robust forks. I’ve always been happy to take the weight penalty at the cost of more consistent and controlled damping and steering. With the new RockShox SID Ultimate Race Day, RockShox really seems to have found a sweet balance. With the 35mm stanchions steering inputs feel direct and the fork is not easily thrown offline. The weight for performance really takes things to another level. The crown is notably slimmer and more material is missing verse heavier hitting forks but things are plenty stiff.

The fork is controlled and consistent beyond its weight class and traction is great.

It lacks adjustability in comparison to my Lyrik RC2 and the dampening is not as sublime and traction rich but the SIDs efficiency and weight savings are hard to argue with.

The SRAM Trailhead app has really simplified a lot of setup guessing and entering my fork serial number and weight had me dialed in no time. Sag was bang on for a fork of this travel at about 15-20% and I think after some A-B’ing I sped up the rebound by a couple of clicks. This yielded a poppy, supported, and responsive ride that didn’t leave me fatigued with too much feedback at the end of a long ride. The Race Day damper is really impressive for its slim weight. We’ll see if the smaller form factor of the damper and lesser amount of oil fairs well in the long term. I can’t speak to longevity as I’ve only been riding the fork for around a month and a half now. During that period it has broken in nicely, become a little smoother off the top, and remained consistent.

The lockout on the fork makes the fork pretty near rigid and honestly, I don’t use it but understand that it seems to be a typical feature on a lightweight fork of this purpose. Personally, I like to find routes that include no pavement which is the only time I could really ever see wanting to reach for the lever. It’s there and it works. Another plus is the native compatibility with a 180mm rotor and the ability to use a 200mm rotor if wanted. I like the power and modulation of large rotors so I count this as a big bonus.

Overall the SID really checked all the boxes in my punch list for this build. I wanted to do what I could to keep weight down but not at the cost of performance and usability. I plan on using the bike for some bike-packing as well, so adding another 25ish pound of gear really made stiffness a serious consideration.

Conclusion

As always, purchasing with Worldwide is easy and shipping quick. Any questions are always quickly attended to. If you’re considering lightweight forks and like to push your bike into a little rougher terrain or are on the heavier side, I’m really not sure there’s any other fork I’d consider. Feel and finish are great and the weight penalty of purely XC forks is hardly enough to consider.