I was wondering what affect this will likely have on the handling. I may be able to get hold of some carbon rigid forks – axle to crown on them is 145mm I think. I feel the bike is pretty much spot on with my floats at 120mm, so wonder if it’ll become too steep with? Any anecdotes gratefully received.

Is there any reason why I couldn’t go for some 29r rigid forks? These will have an ac closer to the sagged 120s I have on at the moment, I would think….

Thanks 🙂

axle to crown on them is 145mm

might be a little steep.

And you’d need a smaller front wheel

lol. I think I mean cm!

Assuming you can get the geometry right (I assume the 145mm is ‘suspension equivelant’; a-c would be ~490mm), the thing to consider is how it would ride being rigid. I made my old Kona hard tail fully rigid, and it can be a nightmare to ride after using my 140mm BD Alpine. Sore wrists and hands, fear of anything bigger than a 4″ drop-off, and a very skatey front wheel. Reminds you that suspension is not only there for comfort – it is to keep your wheels on the ground for more of the time!

I wonder if it just takes some time to develop the technique for smoother, pain free rigid riding.

145 is actual, so equivalent to about 100mm I would guess? I run the Dialled singlespeed and would like to simplify it further and reduce maintenance to the absolute minimum. Not too worried by the lack of suspension, I just don’t want the handling to go silly sharp.

..and I mean axle to crown length which I believe is 44.5cm with these forks… It’s been a long day….

HermanShake on here has, though 69er stylee!

Yes, quite a few people have used rigids on a Prince Albert over the years. Go for a 29’er rigid (i.e. approx 470mm) rather than a 26’er rigid though if you want to keep the geometry at long travel fork equivalent.

I ran mine with a rigid exotic carbon 29er fork and loved the way it rode, could be a wee bitty waggly on steep climbs but never caused me real problems.

You rang?

Very fun ride, made some familiar descents a little more challenging and some climbs easier.

DO IT!

I’ve run my PAs with 140 travel (Rev the 1st time, Pike the 2nd) and this came out a little lower so would be closer to the 120 you’re after. The fork here is a Kona P2, I wanted to get a carbon legged On-One or Exotic fork on there for a bit more give and less weight but this was only ever a side project.

It would probably be fine with a 26″ fork, but it’s definitely good with a 29″.

My commuting bike is a MK 1 Prince Albert with surly instigator (26″) fork, it seems really good but admittedly doesn’t get off road much

Oooh, had given up on this thread. Thanks for the feedback, just what I was after. Has anyone tried those exotic forks from ebay? Will I die?

EDIT – I see Cupra has…!