Whats the difference, whats best an why should i get whatever! Want some new forks and will get some new wheels but getting a little confused by it all…

Maxle is 20mm "bolt through" with a qr of sorts.
15qr is a FOX fork bolt through with a qr.
Standard quick release is QR.
15mm qr has few hubs suitable at the moment.
Maxle will take any 20mm bolt through hub.

bolt through every time!!!

either 15mm or 20mm up to you and what you do.

all the usual suspects do hubs (adapters) to take all the options you mention

20mm seems to be winning, just because of availability and acceptance- is anyone else but Fox doing QR15? Marzocchi and Magura have both gone for 20mm I think. And of course hubs and wheels are easier to find for 20mm.

As th whether it's worth it, well. I dunno myself. I went from QR Revelations to maxle Revelations and after a couple of rides, the only reason I knew it was stiffer was that my wrists hurt a bit more. Probably you have to be more awesome than me to really benefit but so far, it's not made any big difference to me. The front wheel tracks slightly better at speed on lumpy stuff but not so much that I'd run out and replace my other forks with maxles- I can swap between the QR and maxle revs and just ride, so the difference is small enough that I don't need to acclimatise. But then it's not much heavier either so it's not like that's a major problem.

"is anyone else but Fox doing QR15?"
Marzocchi, DT Swiss ..

So they are… I've only ever seen the 20mm Marzocchis, fair play. Never seen the DT ones at all in the real world so I overlooked 'em.

The 15mm QR will most likely win for XC as no one has to pay for the right to use the Maxle patent.

Shimano and the 15mm is an open format and so is free to anyone. Hence why DT swapped over.

20mm is an open standard too I believe. You don't *have* to use a maxle- it just happens to be a convenient existing QR system that works well. Fox, marzocchi and manitou all have variations on the theme. Magura licence the maxle

Personally don't see any point in 15mm – it's just another standard to confuse things that offers no discernible benefit over 20mm.

Either way, if you'rebuying new forks – get bolt throughs of some variety. The extra stiffness is well worth having.

It's true that there really was no sensible reason for the 15mm standard from the end users point of view, but from a manufacturers point of view it's different. Most people agree that the Maxxle is the easiest to use 20mm axle. The competitors can either use other axles (and always be in RS shadow), pay up or use the open 15mm standard.

Looking at how long it took for anyone to license the most recent Maxle version I assume the price for the license might be boarderline significant. But not only is the price payed for the license away from the manufacturers profit – they are actually helping their competitor with every fork sold.

I have to say I think the main reason for the new standard was to say **** you to Sram (my new build is ending up with a 15mm axle though I would have preferred 20mm, I just don't think it will make that much difference).

Go bolt through fork, and then buy Hope Pro2 hubs/wheels.

I already had a pair of 36's (with 20mm) so when looking at some XC forks bought Rock Shox cw maxle – as I didn't want to fanny with more adaptors.

I dont understand why they did 15mm why did they not just design the same system as a 20qr? That would suerly have been cheaper for shimano as they already had the tooling for 20mm hubs and of no hassle to other hub manufacturers. Fox could also have used the system for the 36s and benefiting even more from economies of scale.

Do they do a version of the 15qr for a rear through axle?

Maxle is 20mmm and the stiffest and heaviest, 15mm is stiffer than qr but not as stiff as Maxle and in between the two for weight and qr is the lightest but most flexy.

Do Shimano XT hubs convert to 15mm, or do they make a seprate 'XT-15' hub? Looking at wheels for a new build……

Thanks for the answers guys, cleared up a big bit of confusion for me. Will definitely be getting Hope Hubs, had XT last time and wasn't that impressed with the cup and cone stuff. Will avoid the 15 QR and go for a 20mm bolt through, probably Revelations.

Thanks again!

regardless of stiffness, bolt-thru has the added advantage of keeping your front wheel secure. Ive had a regular Q/R vibrate loose more than once on Alpine descents and its only good fortune that I realised (suspicious tinkling sound, thought the disc was coming off) before I hit a jump or drop-off…

I agree that 20mm is more common, and IMHO a better choice (QR15 seems like half a job) and Hope Pro II wheels are the default quality choice.

I've had several forks with 20mm and currently own a few bikes with all three flavours. In my experience 15mm offers no performance measurable advantage over qr except for a more reliable 'feeling' mounting system. 20mm is the only bolt through fork axle that actually offers an advantage in my opinion.

That said I don't see much wrong with QR outside of proper DH riding. A fox QR fork is plenty stiff enough for riding through rock gardens at high speed or doing large drops with an average weight rider.