Front fork

[Mike in Spokane]

I have a 2015 RadRover with a top gun front fork. When I bought the bike I was under the impression that it was oiled filled. Then today I've come to believe that it isn't. That it is neither oil or an air fork. It just has a steel spring and some rubbers to work as damper. Does anyone know for certain?

 

[pxpaulx]

That is most likely the case, it is a pretty cheap fork. First thing I did was remove mine, swap an aluminum fork on and you'll lose 5lbs on the front end, makes steering much nicer.

 

[Mike in Spokane]

Update: It was confirmed to me today by Rad that their shocks are not oil filled.

 

[Cameron Newland]

Update: It was confirmed to me today by Rad that their shocks are not oil filled.

Perhaps they meant to say "coil" fork instead of oil?

There's some similar confusion going on right now with a different crowdfunded bike, the Flux Trail. Its original specs called for a nice air suspension fork, the SR Suntour Epixon, but they've since pulled a little bait-and-switch and downgraded the production version's fork to what they're calling an "oil" fork, which I believe is just a coil fork.

In general, there's nothing wrong with a cheap coil fork on an ebike. My 2015 IZIP E3 Dash has one, and it works just fine. I've since bought a nice mountain bike with rear air shock and front air suspension fork made by Rockshox, and now I can really tell the difference between coil forks and air forks and strongly prefer the air version, however, most riders will be just fine with a coil fork. Coil forks also require less maintenance (no air shocks to pump up), so from a user experience/ease-of-ownership standpoint, coil forks might even be superior to air forks.

 

[MLB]

Nope, what you feel is the difference between a cheap fork and a good fork.
For hard core off roaders there is nothing better than a coil spring (sized for your weight!) fork.
Air forks are a compromise. They work ok and are easy to work for a large range of sizes, but they can't react to multiple impacts and small inputs. They do great on single hit impacts like potholes and such, but bad in whoops and chatter.
I have a nice air fork on my Haibike, but its not nearly as nice as the sprung fork I had on my much cheaper Giant mtb that I replaced the spring and valving on.
A nice cheap upgrade would be a Roxshox lower end fork like the 32 that sell for $300ish retail or $100 on ebay.