Boxxer help

[Raleighdho]

Can anyone tell me what year these boxxers are I have just purchased

 

[Cloverleaf]

Decals are unlikely to be correct (they're '01/'02) given they went with metallic cherry red lowers.
If they're 6" travel then they're '98 or '99.
If they're 7" then they're '00-'02. The silver axle end indicates likely '01/02 but that's not a guarantee as it could easily have been replaced.

Basically 00-02 were 7" travel and all identical inside, as '98-99 were 6" and both the same (with minor tweaks that these days mean nothing).

 

[Raleighdho]

Thanks for your reply am starting to wonder if someone has sprayed them black at somepoint

 

[rentedmule]

You can pop up the dust seal on the lowers pretty quickly to check if there's a different paint colour under there - it's tough to cover all the original paint in there during a respray unless they were completely disassembled for it.

 

[Cloverleaf]

Yeah, or around the axle might also have some tell tale red. RS did do some black ones for teams and bike co's though, albeit not that many, so it is possible that the black is original. Back in the day you were the cool of the cool if you had your lowers custom painted. These days it doesn't seem so common, sadly, as everyone wants factory orange or gold from Fox etc and would be too scared to lose street cred to change them!