Almost exactly one year ago, the Rockshox present their electric Flight Attendant suspension. The wireless suspension system caused quite a stir in the mountain bike market at the time. Flight Attendant uses a series of sensors to record rider and terrain data and find the perfect suspension position. However, only certain manufacturers had the opportunity to install the Flight Attendant suspension on their bikes: Canyon, Specialized, Trek and YT Industries. They were able to equip certain models with the high-end suspension from Rockshox.
This is now a thing of the past, as Rockshox has introduced a Flight Attendant upgrade kit. It consists of a fork, shock, Rockshox fender, Sram AXS DUB pedal sensor, two AXS batteries and an AXS battery charger. The kits are divided into three categories: Trail, All-Mountain and Enduro. The difference lies in the fork. The package can be ordered with a Pike, a Lyrik or a ZEB. The rest remains the same for all three. The all-mountain kit is also available as an e-bike version. Here, the pedalling sensor is adapted for the Shimano EP8 e-bike motor sent along.
For many people, this sounds like an easy way to convert their bike. But that's not the case. The upgrade kits are initially only available for seven model ranges of the above-mentioned brands. This is because each shock configuration has been individually developed for the manufacturer. According to Rockshox, however, more possible bikes are planned for the Flight Attendant products in the future. Upgrade kits will also be available for these bikes.
Rockshox offers 3 different Flight Attendant upgrade kits
Trail upgrade kit
The Flight Attendant Upgrade Kit "Trail" is initially only available with the Canyon Neuron 29 models compatible. However, the bike must not be older than 2021. In this category, you get the Rockshox Pike Ultimate Flight Attendant suspension fork, the Super Deluxe Ultimate Flight Attendant rear shock, a fork fender, the Sram AXS DUB pedalling sensor and two batteries including charger. For this upgrade, 3030 euros must be transferred to Rockshox.
This Rockshox conversion kit with the Flight Attendant System offers the customer three model options. The Canyon Spectral (year of manufacture from 2019), the Spectral:ON (year of manufacture from 2023) and the YT Jeffsy 29" (year of manufacture from 2019) are approved for this. Instead of a Pike fork, a Rockshox Lyrik Ultimate Flight Attendant is fitted. The other components are almost identical. The pedalling sensor of the Shimano EP8 is included for the Spectral:ON. The whole thing costs 3080 euros.
Enduro Upgrade Kit Flight Attendant
The final expansion stage is suitable for the Trek Slash (from 2021), the Specialized Enduro (from 2020) and the YT Capra 29" (from 2022). To do justice to the name "Enduro", the Rockshox ZEB Ultimate Flight Attendant suspension fork is supplied. Customers will have to fork out 3130 euros for this.
Comparison: Top model vs. normal model + Flight Attendant Upgrade Kit
The question now is whether such an expensive conversion kit for a Flight Attendant suspension system is worth it. Or whether it is more favourable to opt for the top model of a mountain bike that already has the system ex works.
For the comparison, we take the Canyon Neuron CF 9 for € 3999 and the Neuron CF SLX LTD for a whopping € 7999. The Neuron CF 9 comes with Fox Performance Elite suspension and the complete Shimano XT groupset. The CF SLX LTD version has Flight Attendant suspension, the X01 AXS groupset and a Rockshox Reverb AXS seatpost.
Does the upgrade bill add up?
Now we equip the cheaper Neuron CF 9 with the Rockshox Flight Attendant Trail kit. So we add another 3030 euros to the 3999 euros. The result is a price of 7029 euros. So the MTB would be 970 euros cheaper than the top model Neuron CF SLX LTD.
With the upgrade kit, the customer saves almost 1000 euros in this example. But if you want to convert a more expensive model, you pay almost the same price as the high-end version. In the best case scenario, your own mountain bike should therefore be at least 4000 euros cheaper than the top model in the corresponding series. Otherwise, the price difference when upgrading is significantly lower.
