Has anyone else suddenly realised that there’s been a silent revolution in steerer size? Whilst we’ve all been worried about 26″ wheels becoming obsolete the manufacturers have been slowly and surely removing the old straight 1-1/8″ steerer option from all of the their “trail” and “enduro” forks.

I have an alpine 160 that I’m particularly fond of that has developed a problem with the Fox 36’s….seems like my only options for replacements are BOS, X-Fusion and Marzocchi. I’m not slagging their offerings more a general observation that whilst needlessly worrying about 26″ future compatibility and supply, a bunch of suspension manufacturers have quietly discontinued support of the 1-1/8″ standard….

I think most of us have, yes.

yup what he said

I think most of us have, yes.

…and embraced it all

Yup, you aren’t the only one to notice.

Yes we’ve noticed. It will be used forks for me for a while yet. I have a straight steerer frame yet to be built up.

Yep, it was part of the reason I caved in and bought a completely new bike. As much as I hate being a lackey to the marketing men who have made an infinite number of minuscule ‘improvements’, nothing on my old bike was upgradeable.

For an average trail/mountain biker

While 1 1/8″ straight used to be gnarly enough, now I need tapered.
While 20 mm maxle used to be lightweight enough, now I need 15 mm.
While HT2 outboard bearings used to be stiff enough, now I need press-fit.
While a QR rear wheel used to be stiff enough, now I need 13somethign mm bolt-through.
While wheels used to be round and approx 26″ in diameter, now they don’t roll well enough and I need a 29er or 650b.

Now that explains why my bike looks funny I thought it was just a way to make the bike slacker by using a spacer in the steerer