I'm guessing that many of you have a suspension fork on your mountain bike and
probably most of you ride a full suspension. Here I'm going to give you an
insight into different forks for different mountain bike disciplines and also their
features.
So, all forks are made up of the same basic components. We have the steerer,
the crown, the stanchions, the lowers, the axle, and then you have your cable guide
here and on the reverse you have your caliper or brake mount.
So, steerers. They come in two different materials: alloy, which we have here,
and then also carbon. And then on to the sizing, where it gets a little bit
complicated. We have the old fashioned style, which is 1 inch and one-eighth, and
that'll be straight through. And then we have what we have here, which is
1 inch and one-eighth to 1.5, which is called tapered and the most fashionable
size right now. And then also there is oversized, which is 1.5" from top to
bottom, which is a little bit less popular, but you do still find it around.
One thing that is critical when you are purchasing a new fork is that you make
sure that you match your steerer setup to not only your headset but also your frame.
They generally come in two different types. Here we have a conventional single
crown fork. As you can see, single. And then the other form is a dual crown fork.
So, you've a crown at the top with longer stanchions that comes right up to the top
of your head tube. The reason for this is the added stiffness of the chassis from
top to bottom, two crowns providing extra strength and really stiff steering.
Their compromise with this is obviously the added weight of the fork. They tend to
be substantially heavier than the single crown ones that you've seen earlier.
This is the more conventional setup. It's a 15 mil axel and it opens and closes just
like your quick release does. Threaded it into the fork here it's much stiffer than
the quick release used to be. Okay, so on the more gravity orientated forks,
they tend to have a slightly bigger axle at 20 mils. Obviously this is just for
added strength. The fix in there is it has pinch spots, which you don't get on the
trail fork. And then also it is fixed with an Allen key here. Basically just means
that it's really stiff and you can put a lot of force through the front wheel when
riding downhill.
So, let's talk about wheel size. With 26 inch being the original mountain bike
wheel size, obviously things have changed quite dramatically the last couple of
years with the introduction of 27.5, which has probably become the staple
wheel size with all disciplines across the board using that. Then we move on
to 29. I think it's really aimed at more the XC kind of market, but it's definitely
a cool feeling when you go out and ride on the big wheels. If you are thinking of
changing forks, you will definitely need to match your fork to your wheel size.
They do not cross over. It will be a specific fork for your specific
wheel size.
So, moving on from that, we're gonna talk about travel. This is usually measured in
millimeters and it basically means the amount of movement that you have in your
stanchions, as you can see here, the little travel indicator there. What you
will find is from the shorter travel forks moving up to the bigger more gravity-fed
forks that the stanchions tend to get slightly wider. This is for improved
stiffness for the fork and basically you'll take more abuse when you're
riding tougher and tougher terrain.
Here the guys mostly opt to race on hard tails. They use about 80 to 100 mil and
they opt for the lightest fork possible. Here we have Fox's offering.
It weighs 1.5kg, has 32 mil stanchions, and a 15 mil through axle mostly just for
added stiffness.
Okay, so here we have an Enduro fork. With this it's a little bit of a balancing act.
Because basically they want a fork that's stiff enough to take the punishment on
the descent, but then not to hinder the characteristics of the bike too much for
when you're climbing or riding single track. Riders are looking for anything
between sort of 140 mil to 170 mill of travel.
So, finally we have the downhill fork. As you can see, it's a dual crown here,
the stanchions going all the way to the top of the frame. We have a 20 mil axle as
opposed to the 15 on the trail bike. And what you want to be looking for from your
downhill fork is a super supple feel. but it's still able to eat those nasty stutter
bumps and take up big hits with relative ease. I used to always look for my fork to
ramp up really heavily through its stroke. This would avoid those harsh bottom outs
and that nasty feeling in your hands. What is worth mentioning is they are quite
heavy. They're weighing about 2.7 kilograms and also they have around
200 mils of travel.
Okay, so that wraps up suspension forks explained. For a little bit more in-depth
look at setup, check out Neil's video up here. And also a good habit to get into is
doing those pre-ride checks. Check out our video down here. And it goes without
saying, subscribe to us at GMBN.
A fork, they're all made up of the same components. Innit. [SP]
Nailed it.