Rear shock for a tracer

I'm building up an intense tracer at the moment and can't decide which rear shock to go for. My LBS
has Fox Float RCL's, Vanilla RL's and Manitou Q-Air's in stock and is expecting Manitou Swinger SPV
Air's to arrive soon.

I've been riding on a float rcl for the past year and liked the ride, but it seized on me a few
months back (just outside warranty) and had to be rebuilt by fox. Not sure if I want another (though
it lasted far better than the piece of cr*p shockworks that came on my mt vision). I've ridden the
vanilla rl and like it - seems very light for a coil over shock. I've not tried either of the
manitou's but I hear good things about the ride of the swingers...

Recommendations? Cheers,

Sam.

 

I've had three bikes (2 Tracers and a Specialized) with Fox Float RC and RLs over the past 5 years
and they were remarkably durable, with the exception of the aluminum pivot bushings. Even running
high pressures (230 psi) I have never had a problem with leaks. Two of these did have the teflon
coating wear off the piston because of mud or sand getting in there, but they still haven't failed.
I've never changed the seals or done any maintenence on any of them, aside from changing the pivot
bushings. I weight 185, steer poorly, and ride a lot in mud or even on salted roads on the way to
the trails, so the shocks get some abuse. Pretty much everything else on these bikes has broken at
one time or another, so I'm impressed by the shocks. Performance has always been excellent as well.

I recently got a great deal on a Tracer frame with a Manitou Q-air. Performance is similar to Fox,
but I've only ridden it for about three weeks, so I can't assess durability. The piston is bigger in
diameter, so you can run lower air pressure and this might help avoid leaks, but this is only
speculation.

2trax wrote:

> I'm building up an intense tracer at the moment and can't decide which rear shock to go for. My
> LBS has Fox Float RCL's, Vanilla RL's and Manitou Q-Air's in stock and is expecting Manitou
> Swinger SPV Air's to arrive soon.
>
> I've been riding on a float rcl for the past year and liked the ride, but it seized on me a few
> months back (just outside warranty) and had to be rebuilt by fox. Not sure if I want another
> (though it lasted far better than the piece of cr*p shockworks that came on my mt vision). I've
> ridden the vanilla rl and like it - seems very light for a coil over shock. I've not tried either
> of the manitou's but I hear good things about the ride of the swingers...
>
> Recommendations? Cheers,
>
> Sam.