The 2009 version of the top cross-country fork form RockShox is the SID it comes it at a very respectable 1485g working on a Dual Air spring system and comes in a striking black or white design. They supply either 80mm or 100mm of travel which should be plenty for most cross country riders. They also offer an external rebound adjustment and a low speed compression lock.
Testing this fork out on the trails we noticed straight away how responsive it was into the corners there was none of the flex you get with cheaper forks even when cornering hard. The weight is low enough to make most XC riders drool slightly but its nice to see that this is not at the compromise of the functionality. Hitting some frozen rocky terrain the 100mm of travel soaked them up with no problems at all and we are sure the 80mm version would be plenty for most riders. We had the slightly heavier version that has the remote lockout but found this easy to use and gave us the ability to very easily tune it to the terrain on the fly. This is a great fork very comparable to the FOX offerings but if you seek out the deals coming in at a lower cost.
