had some rc31s a couple of years ago and thinking of going back to them.

i only do light xc, but since getting suspension i do some occasional little drops and the occasional small (and i mean small 1 foot max) jumps as part of a local xc route.

I weigh about 12 stone, but am not the smoothest of riders, is this a risk with rc31s? best to leave alone, or ok to do….

People rode rough stuff before suspension was invented…..

Rigid forks can sometimes be more durable than lightweight suspension forks…

In all likelyhood, they’ll do bigger drops than you can 😉

ADH – fellow mince-lite RC31 user …

this is true chaps, i would trust a set of ti rigid forks (but cant afford them) i was wondering about the reliability of the carbon forks tho, and if drops (albeit tiny) were in the intended use parameters of the rc31’s….

Oh yes, they’ll be fine.

“People rode rough stuff before suspension was invented”

Back in the day, people had weighty rigid steel forks!

I rode my mates RC31s and found them very effective at damping, not to mention light as anything. But I didn’t think they tracked that well.

Little drops, steps and bumps are part of normal XC so I’d be surprised if they are that feeble. I’d worry that they would snap if stuffed into a tree though.

I’m a bit heavier than you, and 40 foot bombholes don’t phase my RC31s

You’ll be fine

“All-Mountain” was a brilliant marketing wheeze wasn’t it? We’ve all been convinced that virtually any actual terrain we come across will destroy our flimsy “mountain bikes” and we must get an “All-Mountain” bike instantly or face certain death.

They’ll be fine. And if they aren’t they’ll snap while you’re doing a really small jump, so you won’t have far to fall. 😉

No problem, run them, anyone heard of a broken set?

(disclaimer) i did just about everything your not supposed to with mine and no problems, however such claims can bring on the RC31 failure stories.

Paging ti-pin man!!

I won’t post the pictures of your face after your RC31’s snapped 😥

they’ll take anything a sid or maybe reba would and llok at a international level xc race.

Make sure you land back wheel first, you’ll be fine. 🙂

llok at a international level xc race.

That looks very smooth and dull. I would be more worried about the earthquake that was apparently happening at the same time.

mine snapped and i have 30 stitches in my head/mouth and a false tooth … and the dentist work is still costing me! I did a little drop when they snapped and knocked me out. Personally I’d bin them. The legs didnt snap it was the alloy steerer, pace said i should have serviced them annually… quite what i was supposed to service on a rigid fork is beyond me. I will never buy pace again.

Mine always creaked a bit when I was heavy.

When I was lighter (80kg) I did a 2ft drop at speed no probs with the back wheel landing first.

I hated my forks little movements and when braking etc.

Didn’t Rc31s have a weight and disc size limit?

I’d rather have good forks and ride instead of worrying if my forks are going to snap. Now I would only use it for xc.

Why not try a steel fork?

yeah bad choice of video – i watched it after posting! fail!

but if you find the tv footage there were some decent 1ft drops that they hammered down.

I’ve jumped doubles on mine. Once. They were fine, but i wouldn’t make a habit of it.

I’ve heard of a few of the magnesium cast dropout failing, I’m pretty sure there are no more than a lot of forks suffer. Not heard of the steerer’s snapping ti-pin – ouch!

We’ve all been convinced that virtually any actual terrain we come across will destroy our flimsy “mountain bikes” and we must get an “All-Mountain” bike instantly or face certain death.

It makes a refreshing change from the “everything on your bike must be as light and fragile as possible, and if it isn’t you should drill some holes in it” philosophy that was in vogue a few years back.

Anyway, I quite like riding my heavy tiny bike with its cramped riding position. It’s character building, and gives me an excuse for being last up all the hills. 😉

I could never afford a seriously light bike, but the fairly light bike I had in 2002 was a lot of fun!

Regarding steerers snapping, the steerer of a rigid fork is, for a given drop, more vulnerable to snappage than that of a suspension fork because the suspension absorbs the forces that are forcing the bars to bend the steerer. Is that right? But if the fork bottoms out then those forces qwill be acting on the steerer. And the overall rough trade that a suspension forked bike is likely to get may put the steerer under more astress than the steerer of a rigid fork anyhow I assume?

I love my RC31’s on my tinbred, and riding rigid has made me much quicker on my full-suss too.

The bumps on the descent of the XC course at Cwmcarn did get quite tedious, but that’s about the only occasion I have been riding with them that I was wishing I had suspension forks instead.

Cheers, Rich

BD, I’m going a bit armchair engineer here, but I don’t think suspension has that much of an effect on the lateral forces going through a steerer – unless your bike has a really slack head angle.

I’d be more worried about the bonding or the steerer than the carbon legs.

I’ve got an On-One carbon 29er fork and it is slightly disconcerting to watch the legs flex as you ride. And it’s supposed to be a bit stiffer than an RC31. (No weight limit or rotor restrictions too.) But I’ve done small – up to 2 footish – drops on it fairly often and it’s been ok. (Touch wood!)

Interesting little bit on On-One strength testing here. Mentions RC31s briefly too.

ti_pin_man – Member

mine snapped and i have 30 stitches in my head/mouth and a false tooth … and the dentist work is still costing me! I did a little drop when they snapped and knocked me out. Personally I’d bin them. The legs didn’t snap it was the alloy steerer, pace said I should have serviced them annually… quite what I was supposed to service on a rigid fork is beyond me. I will never buy pace again.

Note the blood stained glasses in the background

MMMMMM…. latest post makes me very confident considering I just bought some from ebay!….

I gave a set of RC31’s a good pounding & I’m 16st. And I lived to tell, but then heard of the weight limit so swapped them for some On-One’s. Those too had a good pasting & were fine.

I’ve also had a pair shear off mid way through one of the legs – I certainly wouldn’t use them for anything other than the mildest XC

mrOvershoot, thanks for posting that up, brings back painful memories!

For me it wasnt just the stitches, drugs, missing teeth, numerous dentists and the pain… I was also shocked by the reaction from pace. To treat a long term customer as they did was just f-ugly. I cant say a single good thing about them. Even saying that leaves me a little sad as I had held them in high esteem since starting biking 18 years ago. Now I buy magura and the durin are great. I still need to put some rigid forks on the SS again and will when I get some made.

Another broken pair here.

Long story – enjoy!

I bought my Pace RC31 with a 1″ steerer second hand from a bloke who to this day swears they were never abused. First outing with the Pace forks was really enjoyable and I was wondering to myself if I should even think about putting the Z2 Bombers back on?

Second outing was not so enjoyable… I had a wee crash 😳 It didn’t seem like much at the time because I didn’t actually come off the bike, but we were stopped pretty much dead by a tree stump. My front wheel was buckled and I had to take the front brake off to get back to the car. I noticed that the wheel was not straight in the fork and noticed when removing the wheel that one of the bonded magnesium dropouts had moved on the carbon fork leg 👿 👿
I phoned Pace, got a returns number and sent them off. Pace informed me that both dropouts needed rebonding which I gave the go ahead for 🙂

A day later and another call from Pace to say that after bonding both the dropouts on they torsion tested the forks and found that one of the legs was moving in the crown. This is non repairable damage and hence the forks will be scrapped 😥
Pace offered to sell me a new set for £110 when they built a limited batch of new forks in about a months time – which I guess is not bad considering I bought them second hand and they are obliged to do nothing for me really 🙂

Adrian reckoned that the forks had seen a severe twisting force: When he described the forces it pretty much described my crash. It didn’t seem like much at the time because I didn’t come off… but my whole speed and weight went straight through the front wheel and fork when I was stopped pretty much dead by a tree stump. My handlebars were at an angle so there was definetly a twisting force going on, also evidenced by the buckle in the front wheel – Hope superlight hub so no support there.

Nobody likes to break a £100 component on it’s second outing but heyho 🙄 In my biking time I’ve done a lot worse but it’s been a while since I’ve broken anything because I tend to ride stupidly overbuilt monster bikes when I’m riding the silly stuff.

The moral of this story is not to crash when using superlight bonded carbon fibre forks 😉

Reason for crash? I was riding with an injured hand which means I was not covering both brakes effectively, when I lost control over a 1ft drop I could not react quick enough to get on the brakes and scrub off speed before launching into the undergrowth… and then the tree stump got me 👿

Oh well… chalk it up to experience and fun.

messiah – ouch. The reason for my crash was the fork steerer snapped after a small bit of air, crash bang wallop, black out, hospital and stitches. Spooky mine had a one inch steerer too. Hmmmm faulty batch?