RS Monarch 3.3 vs RP23

By Varaxis August 16, 2010

The Santa Cruz Blur LT2 is a legendary frame. If you're 5'5" to 5'10" and you're looking for an all around performer that climbs steeps and technical ascents with confidence inspiring traction and levels out rough trails at high speeds and you ride trails mainly for fun, this Medium frame in Skidmark (much better looking than the Black version) is one of the best choices out there. If you're into XC or DH racing, this is either a bit too heavy or lacking in travel. For Enduro racing, this would perform decently, but would only be podium worthy in a rough technical course with tricky climbs. However, for the new all mountain format of racing, such as Downieville, this bike is almost perfectly suited for the podium (depending on the conditions, the Nomad might be better). The rest of the Santa Cruz line descends somewhat better, even the Superlight, but this bike has little to no pedal bob and has significantly superior climbing ability. This fits best in the trail/AM category, not quite XC nor FR/DH and not really optimized for Enduro; the Superlight or Tallboy would be better in XC/Enduro and the Nomad better for AM/FR and the Driver10 for pure DH.

There's another model of this frame that comes with the Fox FP23 instead of this Monarch 3.3 for the same price. The Monarch 3.3 is very similar to the RP23; this has a lever that allows you to control the platform to no platform ("gate"), to medium platform, to solid platform; RP23 has 3 settings: light, medium, solid. RP23 named their technology "ProPedal" and Monarch 3.3 has "Motion Control" and "Floodgate" which are essentially the same thing. They both also have an issue with being too plush to handle riders over 230 lbs or so. One significant difference is that the Monarch has indicators/gradients printed on it to help set up sag while the RP23 doesn't. The higher end Monarch 4.2 has a dial with 12 levels of adjustability, but most prefer simplicity and they're the same other than that. IMO, the RS Monarch 3.3 is *slightly* better than the Fox, but it's hard to go wrong with either since their performance is the same. RS is known for user serviceability and Fox has its reputation for being high end in the fork market, but their rear shocks aren't that great. RS forks aren't lousy performers at all and are less expensive, but I guess since you only see Fox on higher end models and you see many RS on lower end models, people get the idea that Fox is better.

This frame has a VPP linkage system that isn't very prone to pedal bob anyways, so the pedaling platform isn't really needed. RS actually has a bit of a platform built in (though newer 2011 Monarchs have done away with this for improved small bump performance), so for max plushness, the RP23 is probably the better route. The RP23 is also MTBR's Reader's Choice. Like I said before, you probably can't go wrong with either. It's just my personal preference to opt for the RS Monarch, since I know both have a history of blowing out. I'd hate to have to pay $100+ to have it serviced by PUSH industries or whoever, but some actually get the RP23 to have the option of sending it to PUSH or whoever when it needs work. I prefer to save money and do my own maintenance and RS provides detailed manuals to show how to service it, in my case I'd only have to pay $30 for a kit to replace the seals, wipers, etc. I'm no expert like the guys as PUSH, but if I can restore it to like new, that's good enough for me. If it were the Tallboy or Superlight, I'd clearly opt for the RS Monarch due to those linkages being prone to pedal bob, but for this Blur LT2, I'd give the RP23 a long consideration and check out how user serviceable it is, since it seems to be the better mate to the frame.

These are actually cheaper once you add them to the cart. I'm not quite sure why these are being cleared out--maybe because there's a more expensive carbon framed model now that's lighter, stiffer, and stronger? Hmph, I'm not much of a weight weenie and I appreciate a bit of stiffness, and I'm sure this is more than strong enough. I'll take $1k-1.5k of savings over the carbon model and use it to outfit this bike; it would practically be a built up bike for the cost of a new carbon frame with almost the same performance. You're not going to feel that weight except on a climb really and are you really going to race this? You should be looking into this is you want something to turn the mountain into your personal roller coaster ride, making rough descents exhilarating rather than scary (like on a XC bike).

View Details: Santa Cruz Bicycles Blur LT 2 Frame w/RockShox Monarch

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