Apologies, hopefully this will be my last question on forks for my old Hei Hei.
I’ve managed to find some 120mm Rebas with a straight steerer but they have a QR and not Maxle which I was keen on. Does the 15mm axle make that much difference. I’ve been riding on QRs for the last 25 years, mainly man made trails and now on Dartmoor (I’m not a ‘big air’) merchant) and I’ve never been concious of the front end being too bendy but maybe I’m missing something.

For me yes, the last bunch of qr forks have felt flexible and I’ve been able to see the flex at times. If you have not tried 15mm you probably won’t notice but would do if you swapped back to qr after.

For me to, I have the 120mm Rebas with QR on my XC bike great fork, but having gone to Maxle on my other bike I can really feel and see the difference. I would hold out for a Maxle IMO.

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately I’m having a right mare finding a straight steerer with a Maxle option (I’m damned if the industry powers that be are going to make my children’s birth right obsolete!!).

I find it loads better 20mm maxle on my full sus is rock solid 9mm QR on my hard tail is very very “wibbly”

Agree with above. I’m currently using QR forks having been on 15/20mm ones for a fair few years. I never used to pay much attention to what people said about the difference but having now gone back I can’t believe how flexy the QR are. So much so I thought I’d snapped them in one hairy moment.

Saying all that, if you’ve never had 15mm you shouldn’t miss it. If you do want to change keep an eye out for some DT Swiss. I had a set with straight steerer and 15mm which were ace and better then any Reba I’ve tried.

I think this also depends on the stiffness of the wheel. With lightweight XC wheels its difficult to notice a difference relative to QR, but with Hope/Arch wheels the bike (hardtail) definitely feels more direct when steering through twisty singletrack.

For reference i’ve got reba 120mm 15mm axle forks on my hardtail (upgraded to RCT3 and dual flow rebound).

Yes, it does make a noticeable difference IMO.
But I did then have to go and get front wheel tightened, as you could see the flex in it…

right mare finding a straight steerer with a Maxle option

I’ll be selling my dual air Rebas (26″, straight steerer, 120 mm travel, 15 mm maxle light) as soon as I can be bothered to take them off my bike… Bought Summer 2013, last serviced Nov 2014.

And make sure you pump the tyres up nice and hard as you don’t want any squirmy stuff going on to ruin that nice stiff front end feeling… 😉

Have 2 sets of 100mm recons:

One is Tapered steerer and 15mm (29″) the other is 11/8″ QR (26″).

The stiffness is incredible in the 15mm in comparison to the QRs. It’s stiffer than my 150mm straight steerer 15mm Revs too.

I reckon the 15mm contributes to 80% of the increase (okay the revs are longer travel too).

FYI The motion control damper in the QR Recons is way better than the TK one in the 15mm, so those Rebas should be a nice fork IMHO.

GHill, I’d be interested in seeing a few photos of the ones you’re selling, how much steerer do they have left? My e-mail is in my profile if you could send a few over I’ll get back to you. Cheers.

Will try to sort some photos / measurements out tonight.

Depends on what type of stiffness you are after. A larger axle will help reduce the fork from twist in corners and bumps but not fore and aft flex while braking or bumps from drops or rock gardens which a larger steerer would deal with better.

My SID (same chassis as a Reba) with QR drop outs and straight steerer seems to track fine in the corners, its only when landing drops or charging through rock garden or roots where I notice the fork flutter a little bit and leaving me wishing I had a tapered steerer.

Recently gone from QR Fox forks to 15mm Fox Forks. This also meant upgrading the front wheel and I went for Hope hoops with Stans Flow rims. The difference is like night and day. It felt very strange at first, but now can recognise the difference the stiffness makes, feels much more direct and responsive. However I think that this is combination of both the axle and the wheel. I don’t think I’d go back to QR on it though

If you’ve not ridden anything other than qr, then this is a case of ‘ignorance is bliss’. It’s perfectly possible to ride an mtb off-road with qrs as evidenced by our sports history, but once you’ve ridden something stiffer, you’ll realise how much of a noodly affair what you were riding actually was. It’s easy to not feel much of an advantage when trading up, but if , for whatever reason you go back, it’s a real eye opener.

Personally, I moved away from qr after the debate about qr safety and the circumstances surrounding Russ Pinders life changing injuries some years ago but the stiffness was an added bonus.

What hub do you have? Can you convert it to 9mm?

Just looked at the Pinder vs Fox case. Can anyone give a quick summary as to mechanically how the disc caused the QR to loosen?

It’s a Pro 2 Kaiser, 9mm at the moment and I want to convert to 15mm.

I’ve been riding on QRs for the last 25 years,

Then bash on I say…

An old thread I started: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/do-you-really-need-a-thru-axle-for-trailxc

Can anyone give a quick summary as to mechanically how the disc caused the QR to loosen?

Debatable if it would loosen a QR, especially over a time period that would make it an issue. Flex repeated can potentially loosen threads though, in general. Wheel ejection is that under braking a disc brake does produce a reaction force at the axle in the downward direction. So it’s possible that a QR without enough clamping force to keep the axle in a vertical dropout slot (ie one aligned with that reaction force) can result in wheel ejection under hard braking. But in reality, compared to the number of miles ridden in total on QR+disc+vertical axle forked bikes, it’s practically unheard of. Lawyer tabs are there to help prevent loose QRs letting a wheel fall out and most forks with discs and QR axle now have a forward-facing or angled axle slots.

Gunz – I happily used qr dropout 26 forks for years and years however having now moved to a couple of xc 29’ers with 15mm bolt through dropouts the extra stifness is certainly reassuring and very noticeable on off camber descents etc. Like you I was happily unaware of this prior to the bike changes though!

But in reality, compared to the number of miles ridden in total on QR+disc+vertical axle forked bikes, it’s practically unheard of.

I heard of it on my bike during a brief flirtation with weight weenieism and Ti skewers. Couple of bits of hard braking, wheel off to one side in the forks, disc side of the axle/qr had moved down in the dropout.

I stopped hearing about it when I went back to shimano skewers

For me, it’s the reassurance of riding with a 15 / 20mm bolt through. They are so simple to use and make sure your front wheel is securely in place, for me, there is no place on modern mountain bikes for QR on the front axle.

during a brief flirtation with weight weenieism and Ti skewers.

Yes, I should have said ‘effective QRs’ .. : )

I was truly gobsmacked at the difference between QR and a 15mm axle.
I strongly recommend that you go for a 15mm, I wouldn’t even consider QR now. IMHO obviously.

i wasnt sure about 15mm axle but as my 26er sids with crests is as flexy as it gets i went with 15mm on the 29er and got some tapered carbon forks with pacenti tl28 rims and wow!
Now its very direct, so much so i even went 10mm on the rear, which is less noticeable but does track better and feel more precise.
A cheap worthy upgrade imo

I do notice less flex with 20mm against qr axles.
I’ve also got some Pace qr forks that I really like and want to keep so I’m going to try the 9mm bolt through on the pro2 hub on a build in the future.
I’m expecting it to be a half way house between the two.

my bike has a Specialized Stout front hub with their OS24 (oversize 24mm) hub end caps and DT Swiss’s RTS with a true 9mm through axle.

Specialized claim this combination has the same strength / stiffness as QR15 in their tests despite being lighter, obviously I cannot verify their claims?

But I will say its bomber solid and tightens with reassuring force, cannot say I’ve ever felt any issues even under hard braking or bad landings, and was previously riding bikes with 20mm through axles and QR15

I know when I sold Hope QR skewers to disc brake customers, we’d get them coming back with complaints of wheels moving in the fork under heavy braking, they’d put Shimano steel QR back on, and then have no issues! Don’t know if Hope sorted out their design, but it did not seem to generate much clamping force even when fully tight.

I’ve got some 2010 Recon Solo air 140mm Maxle 20mm, straight steel steerer if you’re interested. Serviced by TF then only used a few times since.

Offpiste, can I have some pics & further details please? Email in profile

Chris, I’ll try and take some photos, may have to be tomorrow though as I’m out tonight. I had them from new, colour is white.