Öhlins is a brand that's synonymous with motor racing, only breaking into the mountain bike market back in 2006 with the TTX coil shock. The brand now has a comprehensive range of mountain bike suspension forks designed to suit anything from your humble trail bike up to the burliest of downhill rigs.
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If you're in the market for an Öhlins fork, but you're unsure of which will suit your riding style best, you're in the perfect place. Here we'll go over each of the forks and get straight into all of the techy bits to help you pick the ideal Öhlins fork for your bike.
Öhlins fork range
Öhlins RXF38 m.2
£1,375
The RXF38 m.2 is the brand's burliest single crown fork designed for hard-hitting enduro and e-bikes with its 38mm stanchions. It's available with 160 to 180mm of travel and a 44 and 51mm crown offset built around the TTX18 damper and three-chamber air spring, both of which are heavily inspired by the DH38 m.1 dual crown fork.
To minimise friction, the RXF38 m.2 uses a floating axle design and is only compatible with 29" wheels but offering clearance for up to 2.6" tyres. It's also compatible with rotor sizes up to 220mm, although it's optimised for 200mm rotors.
For the e-mtbers out there, the RXF38 m.2 is available with e-mtb specific crowns.
- Weight - From 2,320g
Öhlins RXF36 m.2
From £1,320
The RXF36 m.2 brings the TTX18 damper and the three-chamber air spring to a slightly narrower, 36mm stanchioned fork. However, this fork is compatible with either 29" or 650b wheel sizes and with coil or air options, with the latter being interchangeable. The RXF36 m.2 comes with travel from 150 to 180mm and 46mm or 36mm offsets on the 650b fork. The 29" fork gets travel from 150 to 170mm with 51mm or 44mm offsets.
The coil versions of the fork offer 120 to 170mm of travel but get improvements to reduce friction. Both the coil and air forks are e-bike approved.
- Weight - From 2,100g
Öhlins RXF36 EVO
£1,085
The RXF36 EVO is an upgraded model to the RXF36 m.1 that's no longer available. As its name suggests, it gets 36mm stanchions and uses a TTX damper. Then, it benefits from 15 clicks of rebound adjustment and low-speed compression but five clicks of high-speed compression with a pedal mode. Much like the other forks in the range, this one comes sorted with the three-chamber air spring with the main air chamber and self-balanced negative air spring. There's also a pair of SKF seals.
This fork is available with 120mm up to 160mm of travel with a 51mm offset on the 29" version. The 650b model offers 140mm up to 170mm of travel with a 46mm offset.
Then, there's a coil version of this fork available, which gets seven different coil rates, a reworked piston, adjusted bushing play and it's available with 140mm to 160mm of travel with the 650b model available with 170mm.
- Weight - N/A
Öhlins RXF34
£895
The RXF34 is designed for high-end 29" trail, all-around mountain bikes and for riders who want high performance at a low weight. It comes with 34mm stanchions, TTX damping tech, and the three-chamber air spring. There's also a ramp up chamber to allow for spring curve adjustment on the fly.
It's built with an external rebound adjustment as well as an external high-speed and low-speed compression adjustment.
The RXF34 is available with 120, 140, and 160mm of travel, and it's optimised for 29" wheels with a 46mm offset.
- Weight - 2,040g
Öhlins fork technologies and jargon buster
TTX-technology
TTX-tech has been brought over from Öhlins motorbike suspension, which uses a twin-tube damper design. The inner tube houses the solid piston and shaft. The outer tube directs the flow of oil between the tubes and through the adjusters and back to the other side of the piston as the damper is compressed and rebounded.
This design reduces the risk of cavitation regardless of the shock's settings and ensures accurate and consistent damping.
TTX18 damper
The TTX18 damper was first found on the DH38 m.1 dual crown fork. It featured a downhill-optimised 18mm piston which offers improved small bump sensitivity. Since the brand has managed to squeeze it into the single crown offering. It gets 15 clicks of low-speed compression and rebound with five clicks of high-speed compression.
The TTX18 damper is also available as an upgrade kit for the RockShox Boxxer downhill fork and the Fox 40.
Three-chamber air spring
The twin-piston, three-chamber air spring system allows the rider to dial in the level of progression from the initial movement right through to bottom out.
