Forks are funny things. You get on something new and it feels, well, different. It makes strange sounds, reacts differently to different situations…kind of like switching girlfriends when you think about it. And, like a girlfriend, it takes a while to figure out if you like her or not. Sure, she may be all new and shiny on the outside, but it takes time (and a fair bit of riding) to discover what’s on the inside.

I’ve been riding a RockShox Boxxer Ride on a Trek Sessions 77 frame for the past two months. And it was one of those things. At first feel I wasn’t overly impressed. It was loud and felt a little on the soft side. Two things you don’t necessarily look for in a new lady friend. But, being the nice, approachable, give-everything-a-fair-shot kinda guy I am, I went with. Made a commitment if you will. And I gotta say, it’s panned out.

The new Ride is the folks at RockShox bid to provide an adjustable dual crown long travel fork to the freeride scene. The right idea for the long, arduous climbs and big burly descents out here in my neck of the woods. But it’s a tough nut to crack. We all ride big bikes here, our attentions focused on performance and safety on the down. That’s paramount. However, anything that’s going to make the ride up a little less painful—without sacrificing our ability to giver on the other side—is most welcome.

The Ride uses RockShox new 133-178mm (5.25-7inch) U-Turn Travel Adjustment to make it happen. The device is a manual turn down dial that effectively shortens the travel length, without locking out the shock, or affecting its preload, rather increasing the fork’s spring rate. Depending on the condition of trail, the turn down can be used on the descent if you wanted a stiffer feeling fork. The Ride itself uses 2005 Boxxer internals most similar to the Race, what RockShox calls HydraCoil2 damping. The fork includes a new top crown allows for 22 additional degrees of turning radius, and have bolt patterns to accept a direct mount stem (Chromag Bikes makes a beauty, chromagbikes.com).

The Ride uses RockShox new 133-178mm (5.25-7inch) U-Turn Travel Adjuster.

In fact, the entire Boxxer line is currently turning heads throughout the industry. Since the Boxxer brand nearly fell of the map two years ago (after a long reign as the best long travel fork money could buy), you could say the Boxxer is back. After two months of riding I’ve bottomed the fork out once, and have noticed no decrease in its performance. If anything, kinda like a girl who’s hard to get to know, it’s gotten better. It’s fast, resists bottom out incredibly well and takes big hits no problem.

However, the Ride is not without a few minor issues. I went a little bonkers on the turn down feature you could say. Not that I abused it or anything, but used it a lot at first. After a while the dial became sticky and hard to turn. So much so that I stopped using it. As well, the only external adjustability to the fork is located under the right leg by using a 2.5mm hex wrench that comes with the fork. The adjust only has a 90 degree range of motion, and is a hassle to use so I just stopped going there as well.

That all said, the Ride does what it sets out to do very well. She’s an honest lass and comes in at a respectable seven pounds. She’s also a fairly affordable date at $700. The best feedback I’ve gotten on the ride, however, comes from my man at the local bike shop, who says it’s one of the first forks they’ve carried in a long while where no one has returned them for servicing, and they’ve sold a bunch. If you’re into switching girlfriends, er, I mean forks, keep your eye on the Ride.