Hi All

Going to pull the trigger on a Solaris in honour of my 40th birthday (menopausal? maybe.)
I want to run it rigid and am after some fork suggestions.
So far I’ve looked at on-One carbon, exotic carbon, Surly steel and Singular Swift (are they sold separately.)
I ride mainly on the South Downs, I have a bouncy bike for mucking about and this one would be mainly a summer commuter going across the downs into Brighton and for longer rides.
Thanks for your thoughts.

Lex

Interested too but n can’t help. Wondered about going rigid in winter to save sus fork trashing…

The Niner carbon are expensive but worth it – much less brake flutter. You can get a tapered version now with 15mm maxle.

I’ve also ridden On-one carbon and exotic to compare.

If budget doesn’t stretch the Salsa steel ones are nice.

Hmmm. Thanks guys.

I’m veering towards the swifts or salsa because I may want to upgrade to a suspension fork later so not spend too much now.

Lex

Exotic carbon are nicer than On-Ones, both in finish & in ride quality. Ive tried both & much preffered the Exotics – slightly more flex & seemed to take a bit more trail buzz out. Also tried Singluars steel fork. Preffered this to all of them to be honest. Slight weight penalty but they seem to soak up bumps better. Currently running Niners steel fork. Was expecting more to be honest, given its nigh on £200 price tag, but when I compared side by side with the Singular fork they are pretty much identical & in fact were a few grams heavier. The Singluar has a nicer looking disc mount also. Rigid forks work very well on a 29er, I love them. I’d like to try the DT Swiss rigids, they look very nice.
That fork that Sam ships with the Swift is an absolute bargain though.

After trying loads of forks on my Pace 29er.

The salsa’s where by far the best. No brake judder, comfortable and nice dropouts.

Another Salsa fan here too.

I see that they now do their 29er fork with a Maxle 8)

I have found them to be flexy (in a good way) and light too.

Syncros look nice:

http://www.cotic.co.uk/news/#happy_demo

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=79908

I have the Salsa’s on an inbred frame and they are great steel forks but have to agree with Clink, Niners would be my choice if I ran a rigid fork on that frame. Also skinny steel forks may look odd with the big 44mm head tube.

Hi Lex, sorry to hijack the thread but I have a pair of salsa forks unused which I was going to use for a 69er. You can have them if you want to make me an offer. Cheers

Don’t rule out the niner style carbon forks on ebay. Price of a cheap steel fork and made by the people who make good frames. Can get them with tapered steerers too.

Munchie,

Could be interested in yer forks. What colour are they?

Lex

The forks are gloss black, disc only with an uncut steerer tube. they have only been out the box for a look over.
e-mail me j.j.sankey@btinternet.com

I’ve a set of Exotic carbon forks sitting in my garage needing a home, 2 rides old so pretty much mint –

email me if interested southbankaus AT aol DOT com

I have just bought a set of the Exotic UD post mount forks. They are a load more comfy than the various steel ones I have as well as a chunk lighter.

GB

I do sell Swift forks separately – £70 posted in the UK. Might be a nasty clash of blues on a Solaris though.

Slightly off topic – but i have had my Cotic for around 3 months now (6 weeks of which was build time plus injury down time!) i’ve probably covered around 250 miles on it and i love it. Chuckable but comfy, flies up hills and down with a 100mm Reba fork. Not tried a rigid fork as only just coming back to the fold of a hardtail after 3 years of sofa’like comfort on a Yeti 575. Fantastic bike though well recommended.

Hi Sam

At that price I’m interested.

What’s the A to C on your forks?

And if I sprayed them black would you ever forgive me?

Lex

Blue forks. Orange frame. Sorted.

Lex – they are 470mm a/c – once you buy them they are yours to do what you like with.

A maxle version of the Salsa fork may be a good suggestion. I tried a std Salsa fork on my Solaris, which was previously fitted to a Niner MCR. It has lovely flex, but the front end of the Solaris is seriously tied down, the flex I experienced when the fork was in the Solaris was limited only to the fork whereas before the frame must have flexed as well. So cornering hard with wide bars made the rotor drag on the caliper body (I wound the pads all the way back) and when sprinting hard. I fixed it with a pair of Syncros FL29 forks, they have fore and aft movement but no lateral movement. Also they have an a-c of 485mm when the majority of rigid 29er forks are now all 470mm. This gives a ride height of a 100mm sus fork and also gives a nice head angle for ragging it in the woods.

Thanks guys, all good suggestions.

I think I may have found some carbon forks (cheers Aus).

I’ll be building the bike up over the next few weeks because work has me by the curlies. Still need to buy the frame!

Ta

Lex