carbon rigid forks for a 26er

[Mike Muz]

Morning folks,

Thinking of going rigid with my latest mtb carbon framed project. Can any of you recommend which carbon forks are any good, or should I look for metal ones? I'll be running v-brakes btw.
Any advice welcome

Mike

 

[The History Man]

Exotics are nicely made and a good price on fleabay

 

[hamster]

The surprising thing is that they always seem to turn out pretty much the same weight as triple butted steel. It would be interesting to find out if they are stiffer or springer than say a TB P2

 

[PurpleFrog]

The surprising thing is that they always seem to turn out pretty much the same weight as triple butted steel. It would be interesting to find out if they are stiffer or springer than say a TB P2

Except for weight reduction, CF forks are nothing but hype and the placebo effect. I'd avoid them on a non-racing mtb because they're significantly more vulnerable to accident damage and catastrophic failure.

CF is poor at resistance to impacts on the material - and such impacts can lead to delamination, which is invisible but leads to a sudden fracture under minor stress later. Rare, but why risk it? Steel and alu forks are more bash resistance, show significant damage instead of hiding it, and fail gradually instead of instantly.

There's a good CTC thread on fork feel here:

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f ... c764a160ad

 

[Mike Muz]

Re:

Cheers PF,
So what aluminum forks would you recommend instead ?

Mike

 

[suburbanreuben]

Re:

Get some Salsa Cromotos.
There'sa chapon STW with some Niner 29"er forks in 853, going for £60, though the steerer is only 180mm ish.

 

[Mike Muz]

Re: Re:

Get some Salsa Cromotos.
There'sa chapon STW with some Niner 29"er forks in 853, going for £60, though the steerer is only 180mm ish.

Thanks but I'm after 26"
Reckon I'll go all southern softie and put the Manitou forks on it that are in the loft

 

[rp16v]

Re:

I just managed to pick il some bontrager switchblades in 26" alloy flavour definatley worth a look

 

[dyna-ti]

Had Pace RC-31's and they were fine.
A little scary at first from listening to all the horror stories from people who had never ridden them but because youre concentrating on picking youre way through the rocks you soon forget theyre there. At that point you realize theyre fine.

They are designed to be strong and absorb the knocks and bumps. Im sure there were many horror stories when Alloy forks first made an appearance on the MTB scene :?

And yes they are considerable stiffer than the equivalent in metal

 

[monty dog]

Yup, carbon is terrible at resisting impacts, I mean if you tried this with alloy or steel, it would leave barely a scratch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lsDXEEUlRE