Öhlins’ RXF36 m.2 fork has been available for nearly five years without any major updates, but thanks to a carefully thought-out design and an abundance of available tunes, it’s not showing its age.
The TTX18 damper is taken directly from the brand’s DH38 fork, as ridden by Specialized’s downhill World Cup team. It has been reworked to fit the 36 and has low- and high-speed compression damping adjustment, and low-speed rebound adjustment.
Both coil and air-spring versions of the RXF36 are available. This air-sprung version uses a triple air-chamber design; the usual positive and negative chambers are present, but an additional chamber enables riders to dial in bottom-out resistance without having to fit volume spacers.
Costing £1,310 / $1,245 / €1,519.35 and weighing 2,126g, The RXF36 is one of the heaviest trail-come-all-mountain forks on the market.
On the trail, it's an incredible performer. Both smooth and supple on chattery, small bumps, it provides plenty of comfort. On harder, sharper hits, it uses the travel generously but not excessively, being incredibly effective at keeping your handlebar level with the horizon.
Towards bottom-out, the adjustable air spring pays dividends. End-stroke hits are managed progressively, with no harsh, jarring finish to their travel. This means you feel as though you’re using less travel than you are; the fork is working hard so you don’t have to.
Setup quirks aside – I’d recommend going softer than usual and adding more damping – there are almost no reasons to not go for the Öhlins, save for the weight and price.
Öhlins RXF36 m.2 details and specifications
Built using Öhlins’ bespoke 36mm-stanchioned chassis, the RXF36 shares a few details with its competitors.
The axle uses a single-sided pinch-bolt design – like Fox’s forks – to make sure the lowers don’t get pinched or splayed depending on hub-axle width variations, improving alignment.
There are bolt-on mudguard mounts on the rear of the arch and a bolt-on cable guide. Tyre clearance is up to 29x2.8in.
Inside each lower leg is a set of bushings, similar to RockShox’s Ultimate-level forks. Blue SKF wiper seals are fitted, complementing the yellow stickers with an unapologetic nod to the Swedish flag.
Designed with stiffness in mind, the RXF36’s crown and steerer have plenty of overlap. Or to think of it another way, the steerer tube is inserted deeper into the crown than other forks. Not only does this boost stiffness but it also increases longevity and reduces creaks, according to Öhlins.
TTX18 damper
While the chassis is an important element, the party piece is Öhlins’ damper technology.
The TTX18 damper used in the 36 is the same as the one in the DH38 fork ridden by the brand’s sponsored World Cup athletes. That means no detail has been overlooked.
Thanks to its 18mm piston – hence the name – Öhlins claims the damper is incredibly sensitive, meaning it can track small bumps with precision, elevating grip and comfort.
'Damping pressure bandwidth' has been increased, leading to improved valve response and sensitivity. For a lay-person, this basically means the oil pressure inside the cartridge has been upped, which should make the valves and shims more eager to open as the damper compresses.
Internally, its twin-tube design means oil flows circularly – first in one direction ‘up’ the inner tube as it compresses, then in the other direction ‘down’ the outer tube as it rebounds. This design reduces the chances of oil cavitation (when the oil becomes bubbly, and then the bubbles collapse creating a cavity), which can lead to inconsistent performance.
It has three clicks of externally adjustable high-speed compression, 15 clicks of low-speed compression and 15 clicks of low-speed rebound. If the adjustment range isn’t wide enough for you, Öhlins has an extensive range of internal damper tunes, which can be installed in the fork to adapt the feel.
Air spring
Different in design from conventional air springs, the RXF36 has three chambers.
The positive and negative chambers are traditional in their design; you inflate the positive spring and an equalising port inflates the negative to the same pressure.
However, instead of using volume-reducer spacers to control bottom-out ramp-up, a third chamber – that’s inflated via a valve on the base of the right-hand fork leg – ‘squashes’ the main chamber as the fork compresses to reduce its volume.
Higher pressures in this chamber cause it to compress the main chamber more and quicker, increasing the spring rate throughout the fork's travel.
How much does the Öhlins RXF36 m.2 weigh?
My 150mm-travel, 29in-wheel, 44mm-offset Öhlins RXF36 m.2 fork with uncut steerer tube (230mm), brake hose guide and front axle (110x15 Boost) weighs 2,126g.
Öhlins RXF36 m.2 performance
I tested the Öhlins RXF36 m.2 on my Marin Rift Zone long-term test bike.
Öhlins’ 36mm-stanchion fork is available with 150mm of travel, matching the figure of the stock Rifty’s RockShox Lyrik. With a similar axle-to-crown height to the Lyrik, the RXF36 is a good match for the bike.
I took to my home trails in Scotland’s Tweed Valley to test the RXF36 fork, taking in everything from gnarly enduro runs through to XC trail-centre loops to push the limits of what it’s supposed to do.
Öhlins RXF36 m.2 setup
Setting up the RXF36 requires a different approach from other, more familiar mountain bike forks. While the rule book doesn’t need to be entirely rewritten, getting the best performance out of it needed a switch from using the spring to provide support to relying on the damper.
Starting with Öhlins’ recommended pressures for my 75kg weight – 95psi in the main air chamber and 190psi in the ramp-up chamber – the fork felt harsh and sat too high in its travel, even with all the damper adjustments fully open. Bottom-outs were also regular and quite harsh.
Next, I reduced the main spring pressure to 85psi and increased the ramp-up chamber to 220psi. This helped reduce but not stop harsh bottom outs and meant it settled into its travel better, but it still wasn’t hugely forgiving or smooth.
Still not satisfied, and inspired by how Loīc Bruni’s Öhlins-equipped downhill bike’s suspension looks, I decided to further reduce main-spring pressure and rely on the damping even more to provide the support.
It was a Eureka moment; dropping main-spring pressure to 75psi – which is suitable for a 55kg rider according to Öhlins – and increasing the ramp-up chamber to 245psi unlocked the smoothness I was looking for and gave me ample bottom-out resistance.
I measured static sag to help provide context for the group of forks I was testing alongside each other. I measured this standing on the bike in the riding position, using a set of scales to ensure I had the same amount of weight on the front wheel for each fork.
Sag can vary greatly, according to a host of factors – including riding position, terrain steepness, rider confidence, bar height, damper adjustments and rear-shock settings.
For these reasons, my static sag figure shouldn’t be relied upon for your setup, serving only as a point of reference to compare the other forks in this test.
When weighting the front wheel with 43kg, static sag was roughly 52mm, or 34.67 per cent.
After adding +12 clicks (from fully open) of low-speed compression damping and +1 click (from fully open) of high-speed compression damping, the fork felt as though it remained as high in its travel when riding as it did with greater spring pressures. It also felt so much smoother. Rebound damping was set to fully open and felt just about fast enough.
Öhlins RXF36 m.2 ride impressions
With 75psi in the main spring, I finally got the initial-stroke comfort and smoothness I was expecting from the RXF36.
Riding over high-frequency, low-amplitude bumps – such as those on a worn trail centre surface – reveals a smooth, feedback-free ride; the fork eases in and out of its stroke around the sag point with very little resistance.
While smoothness is genuinely impressive, it’s not impeccable. Certain bump frequencies at specific speeds reveal a slight hesitation in the fork’s eagerness to compress; it’s as though the negative spring isn’t sucking the fork into its travel as well as other models on the market.
Increase bump forces from benign to harsh and that virtually imperceptible lag is glossed over entirely.
Now working harder when faced with squarer, bigger bumps as they cycle from full travel to deep into their mid-stroke, the Öhlins fork offers up next-level comfort and composure.
Bump edges are smoothed over and inputs neutralised by the damper before they reach the handlebar and rider’s arms. The amount of control and calmness on wild terrain is truly impressive.
At lower spring pressures, the front end of the bike squats as the fork compresses to its sag point under rider weight. Keep the aggression dial turned right back – when cruising along a fire road for example – and this is noticeable.
However, drop into a section of trail – whether that’s flat, steep, technical, fast or slow – and the dynamic sag decreases massively, lifting the front end.
The impressive damper dishes out support and control, using its travel exactly where it needs to – by absorbing bumps, undulations and compressions – and resists compressing where it shouldn’t, such as rider weight shifts or high-load berms.
With a performance band as broad as this, the fork feels smooth, plush and supple, while also remaining balanced, stable and controlled.
This slows down your perception of technical sections as they reach your wheels. The bars are unaffected by inputs from the trail as they’re dissipated by the damper – and compared to other forks, you don’t need to work as hard for the same output and speed.
No matter how aggressive, dynamic or otherwise you get, there’s plenty left in reserve to lend you a helping hand.
Impressively, most of the heavy lifting is done by the damper; ride height is controlled by the low-speed compression and harsh hits are managed by the high-speed.
Seemingly, no matter how much compression damping I added, harshness refused to creep in. Öhlins has clearly worked hard on its tunes to cut out compression spike – and with great success.
The air spring is impressive. The wall of progression towards bottom-out – created by volume-reducer spacers in other designs – is avoided by Öhlins’ system.
The more dynamic-feeling and infinitely tuneable bottom-out chamber increases progression in a more predictable way, gradually building as full travel gets closer.
In high-load, deep-travel situations, the ‘blow your hands off the bars’ feeling some designs create isn’t there.
Checking travel at the bottom of a descent would frequently reveal all 150mm was used, but that evidence would rarely tally with how I felt when riding. Based on feel alone, I’d speculate only 75 per cent of the available travel was used – a testament to the Öhlins fork's ultimate control and composure.
How does the Öhlins RXF36 m.2 compare to the Fox 36 Factory GRIP X and RockShox Lyrik Ultimate MY25?
Lined up against the Lyrik Ultimate (£1,079) and Fox 36 Factory (£1,259), the RXF36 is the most expensive (£1,310) and also the heaviest by 111g. External adjustments are the same across the three forks, but internal damper re-tunes are commonplace on the Öhlins and, starting with this latest iteration, the Lyrik, too.
On the trail, the Öhlins’ impressive initial-stroke smoothness is bettered by its composure the deeper into its travel it gets. Seemingly nothing flusters the Swedish fork, no matter how hard you’re riding.
The RockShox Lyrik takes the RXF36’s supple beginning stroke and ups it to another level, neutralising the trail’s inputs through the bars. Öhlins’ mid-stroke support is matched by the Lyrik; this balances bump-eating smoothness with some of the best-damped travel on the market.
Against the 36, the Öhlins rides deeper in its travel, but also works harder, using that travel more effectively to keep the bar level with the horizon. Here, the much higher-riding Fox fork has just as much support as the Öhlins, but feels best when ridden actively. Off-the-top smoothness is comparable, but I preferred the Öhlins fork’s softer, more forgiving feel.
Compared to both Fox and RockShox, the Öhlins fork's air spring is on another level, bringing a more dynamic ramp-up the volume-reducer design of the other two can’t deliver.
Which fork is best depends on your personal needs and separating the three comes down to fairly small differences on the trail.
While the Lyrik and Öhlins forks will suit a neutral riding style, the 36 favours riders who like to work their bike into the terrain. The RockShox and Fox forks are easier to set up than the Öhlins, which requires an almost total rewire on how to approach spring and damper settings.
Trail suspension forks | How we tested
In a three-way shootout, Alex put three of the biggest names in mountain bike suspension forks against one another.
RockShox’s newest Lyrik Ultimate MY25, Fox’s recently launched 36 Podium Gold GRIP X and Öhlins’ bougie RXF36 m.2 were all bolted to the front of the same bike and tested back-to-back on trails Alex knows like the back of his hand.
This type of comparative testing meant Alex could do a deep dive on each fork’s performance, firstly judging whether they meet the manufacturer’s claims and secondly how they fare against one another.
To be a top performer, they must feel supple at the start of their travel by absorbing smaller bumps to provide comfort and traction without spiking. Deeper into their mid-stroke, they need to have support in high-load situations such as berms or compressions. Finally, the forks must have plenty of smooth bottom-out resistance.
But that’s not all; they need to be relatively easy to set up and offer plenty of usable adjustability so they’ll work for people at the extreme ends of the riding style and weight bell curves.
Forks on test
Öhlins RXF36 m.2 bottom line
Setup discrepancies and difficulties aside, the RXF36 m.2 is a masterpiece in damper technology, successfully balancing off-the-top smoothness with outrageously impressive mid-stroke support and gradual, controlled bottom-out ramp-up without a single element compromising another.
While it is both weightier and more expensive than its competition, it can be tuned to perform according to your own desires.
There’s very little to dislike about the RXF36 m.2, as long as you can get your head around setting it up correctly.
Product
| Brand | ohlins |
| Price | 1520.00 EUR,1310.00 GBP,1245.00 USD |
| Weight | 2126.0000, GRAM () - uncut 230mm steerer |
Features
| br_wheelSize | 29in_700c |
| br_offset | 44.0000 |
| br_offset | MILLIMETER |
| br_travel | 150.0000 |
| br_travel | MILLIMETER |
