Weight: 1,542b (3.4lb) / Travel 80 and 100mm / £449.99 for version without PushLoc /
Axle to crown: 475mm / Post mount / Contact: www.fisheroutdoor.co.uk [left-hand pic]

If you’re a SID fan you’ll know the older model had a lightweight carbon-fibre steerer and crown. We were never big fans of the design because whacking on (or removing) a crown race, chopping the steerer and bashing a starnut in the top seemed a crude way of treating this delicate material. RockShox also had to use quite a bit of material to make the fork stiff, negating the low weight. So the new SID is a complete redesign — with a mainly aluminium construction and larger diameter uppers and lowers. Our Team fork is the middle model in the range of three that all use a forged Al66 aluminium crown and custom aluminium steerer. On the SID WC carbon inserts are still used to save weight, but here the lowers are all magnesium alloy. That’s not to say RockShox hasn’t tried to save weight — on the back of the brace there’s intricate webbing and the area around the new post mount has been relieved. Voids in the bottom of both legs save more grammes and the fork gets lightweight 7000 series aluminium upper tubes. The only area where it could possibly save weight is in the powder coat — in fact we wonder why it doesn’t opt for a thinner lighter coating, after all, the guys that are going use this are sponsored and will be on a new fork in a year.

The rebound adjuster is now recessed into the lower leg but we found it impossible to turn and ended up using a pair of pliers. It does pull out of the leg so if you want to save another couple of grammes this is the way to do it.

All SIDs have a dual air spring, which is adjustable with a normal shock pump. Sag settings are marked on the upper tube for both 100mm and 80mm-travel forks and, for the first time, RockShox includes a small rubber band on the leg to accurately measure sag/travel.
Like the majority of forks here the SID was 15mm shy of full travel and we popped it off a couple of four-foot steps. It also has that familiar RockShox feel, like you’re riding more on the spring than the damper. In terms of control the SID tends to ping back under hard landings and has a bouncy ride on all of the mid-range stuff. Some racers we’ve talked to interpret this as feeling fast, but hit a rock gully at full tilt and the fork feels far from it.
The SID Team is the lightest race fork here, the cheapest, and it comes with an excellent PushLoc. This can be mounted perpendicular to the handlebar next to the shifter or by using the latest adapter parallel with it. There is also an extra wedge so you can mount the remote on a matchmaker clamp between an Avid brake lever and SRAM shifter. As a race tool it’s hard to fault the SID. Overall RockShox has addressed some of the stiffness issues with the older 80mm SID and the 100mm Reba World Cup without having to increase the weight too much, and as a package we can envisage hundreds of privateer racers lining up to buy it, but it’s a nine simply because we think it’s a little bit too specific.

Mbr rating:9