chakaping - Member …Cookeaa - Do you think magazine writers have just made up that QR forks are flexier than bolt-through forks? Have you tried one?
No I think they are Mugs that have bought the line that manufacturer’s marketing gibbons sold them…
I never said 20mm forks weren’t stiffer, I said there’s no point in wasting hundreds of pounds because some tosser in a mag’ tells you that you must.
The “dangers” of a bit of flex in a fork have been massively overstated, if anything a bit of lateral compliance in the steering of a 2 wheeled vehicle designed to travel rapidly over uneven terrain may be of some benefit, it could be the difference between you getting bucket off line of simply feeling a bit of a sideways jolt…
Have I run a QR fork? Yes several, and I still use one (An old one) and I’ve not died funnily enough, I also run a 20mm Bolt through axle for DH and have ridden various QR and 20mm forks over the years, a chunky axle alone is not what makes for a (laterally) stiff fork, take the example of good old shivers/Dorados, no lower brace obviously and thus more flex than other 20mm DH forks of the time…
Considering most of the current 9/15/20mm forks available share a common lower design until you get to the drop out I think it’s worth looking at how the lower braces of most forks have changed over the years, just about all forks are more rigid than their equivalents were just 5 years ago, I’d say the lower leg brace has more effect on the rigidity of a fork…
Look at it this way, if 140mm QR forks were as inherently dangerous as people seem to think surely you wouldn’t be able to buy them, RS, Fox, Marzocchi and Manitou will have substantiated every one of their products, regardless of the price point…
Don’t get me started on the pointless, 15mm revenue generation scheme…
