looking for a really compliant fork to improve the front end on my Ogre which i find a bit stiff even with fairly large rubber up front ….steel or carbon ? salsa cromoto or ? your experiences /recommendations etc please .
thanks
Bill

THe right carbon fork..imo. Something with a bit of a bend in it. Ime the round tube pace/white bros/on one /carbon cc etc ones are fair jarring

How ever my kona p2 is nice and twangy . And reasonable light for steel ( triple butted which helps weigt and twangyness)

. Hard to find though.

P2 and 2.4 Chunky Monkey was pretty good for me

I like my Niner carbon. You might or might not.

Niner carbon with 15mm maxel and tapered steerer

In my experience the Cromoto is very comfy in the shorter lengths, but the 465mm+ 29er versions seem to be a bit beefier around the top of the legs and not quite as comfy despite the extra twangable length, however they are still better than the MTB disc versions of P2’s that I’ve had over the years.

The old Pace RC31s were very comfy, almost to the point of being too flexy in my experience, and I bent a set at the crown/leg insert so they no longer on my favourites list.

Having said all that the differences are small so its nothing that 3-5psi out of a tyre wouldn’t cure/mask.

Any scope for bigger tyre? Or using a more supple lighter casing front tyre? It can make a big difference, especially if you’re using a bigger beefier carcass tyre.

Are you finding the problem is from impacts, or general trail buzz and micro-hits? The former is hard to deal with at a fork level, even the best will only just take the edge off things, and the latter is definitely better handled with tyre choice IMO.

Singular fork is great in std or 29+

I haven’t used any of these others but the exotic round tubed fork is the comfiest I’ve used- it’s fairly flexy (braking hard is quite comical, it’s like drawing a bow), never bothered me while riding but does take out some sting. It’s horizontal travel, like an old rockshox 😆 Not everyone will agree, I’m not a stiffness obsessive.

Bars (and grips o’course) are probably worth looking at too. I just put a crank bros cobalt 11 780mm bar on the fatbike and it is comically bendy, folks always say something like “can you tell the difference with so little movement”- but just leaning on the bike I can deflect the tips about a 1cm 😯 And it’s a big, big difference. But again doesn’t bother me while riding- i just seem to compensate without thinking but I’m sure it could be horrible for some.

The Enve fork will take a 3″ tyre, and it’s lovely. I really like mine, it’s certainly stiffer than the Exotic but this is offset by the big tyre. I run a Stans Flow with mine, so no big rim required.

I fancy a niner one, just not at niner pricing!

hylix do a copy…..

imo it shite – first impressions and riding were good BUT … my steerer went soft after a year of riding…..

I’ve used the exotic tubed fork and the swift. The swift is the comfiest by far out of those 2, but the exotic sucks up the bigger stuff better.

The swift just deals with the small stuff far better, so feels comfier most of the time.

Yeah, that’s a really good point actually, “comfort” means different things. For me, I like riding rigids on harder trails so taking the sting out of bigger hits at speed is far more important for comfort, but for other folks it’ll be different.

(I had a hylix, I got on fine with it but it’s stiff as a stiff thing)

I’m not after big hit capability just a comfy ride on easy trails/fireroads/pot holed lanes etc . Seen many saying the cc cycles forks are good but also others who find them jarring? Like the look of the singular touring fork but unsure how much it would improve things .

I have a Cromoto fitted to my Karate Monkey. I find it quite harsh, even compared to the standard forks. I’m just in the process of buying / fitting a Pace RC31 carbon forks. I have those on my 26ers and do notice the improvement…………………

I’ve had a Swift and a CroMoto.

The Swift was by far the more comfortable (but the swift also had a skinnier frame so it’s hard to say 100% it’s the fork).

They can usually be picked up s/h relatively cheaply too.

Stooge Bi-Plane? Not ridden one mind.

black sheep Ti fork with tubing widths chosen for how lardy the rider is and how hard you ride, just lush.

singular swift forks are nice

niner carbons are stiffer than the corpse of a Viagra overdose victim

I had a Cromoto on the Salsa. I could see it flexing soaking up rough stuff even on the road. Like a linkage fork with about 3mm travel. I now have a Carbon Firestarter, it flexes maybe a little more, but not much. However big bumps are sort of slightly more muffled, that’s all.. but the general impression seems to be more generally comfy. Whilst still being rough as hell because it’s rigid.

On my Fatty I’m noticing how much comfier a 120 tpi tyre is over a 60 tpi.
Maybe that’s an avenue you need to explore as well.

Nicest rigid 29er forks I’ve ridden are the swift forks

I had some Black Sheep Ti & I wasn’t that happy with them, to flexy in the steering sense, but also pretty flexy in a good way for bumps. It’s horses for courses but some times flexy isn’t that good.

Swift.

I will be selling my Cromoto forks in due course if anyone wants a pair…………

what length Flashes? I could do with another disc only 445mm one…

I have a set of On-One Carbon Monocoque forks on my Surly Krampus, can’t fault them for comfort or durability so far. They’ve also made the front end much lighter and easier to manual over logs and other trail features etc and plenty of room for big 3.0″ tyres 😀

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FOOOSCF4709/on-one-monocoque-straight-steerer-carbon-fork

I the spirit of recommending what you own I love my pace rigid forks (the steel segmented ones, cant recall what they’re called). Got them cheap direct from pace around 18 months ago but dont think they still produce them.

Noticably flexy even though I dont ride that hard and weigh nothing, but very comfy on the inbred they’re attached to.

amedias -I’ll check tonight……..

Much though you all seem to love the Swift, mine lasted all of about 3 months before it was bent irretrievably out of shape. Admittedly I was doing drops on it, but not big ones.

I had the Salsa cromoto on the El Mariachi it was a nice compliant fork but it’s as heavy as a small child, swapped it for Chinese version of Whiskey Components from Ican & it’s brilliant. I ride in Chilterns & it handles everything fine plus saves a huge weight on the climbs.

Lauf 29er Trail racer

http://www.laufforks.com/

Rigid, with 60mm of comfort ride bump absorption with no wearing parts.
Apart from the looks what’s not to love

+1 for the On-One, also considering they are available in straight 1 1/8”.

1. The lauf aint rigid
2. It looks like shite
3. It rides like shite*
4. If you want suspension, but a suspension fork with proper damping and rebound

*unless you want an overly complicated way to take a little bit of traiil buzz out of your riding and want to spend silly money to replicate the feeling of a big tyre at low pressure, but thats less predictable in a rock garden than big rubber and stiff frontage

Amelia’s, where do I measure to and from
Tazzy can you email me. I’ve lost your email address and want to see if you still have “the frame”.,,..,my email address is in my profile……