I’m wondering if I should go fully rigid.
There’s quite a choice out there so what are you riding, and why?

Why do you want to go rigid?

Got a Travers Prong (carbon). Three reasons:

1. I wanted a fork that had room for 650B+ tyres
2. My suspension forks happened to die.
3. It was going cheap(er): £250 rather than £400

Found it quite hard going with standard 29er tyres but it’s fine with the B+. I’m putting the 29er wheels back on for an ITT next weekend as they’ll suit the course better, hopefully my technique has adjusted to the rigid forks now.

I’ve got a Travers fork because it was a good price second hand.
Got it because I have a full suss bike already and I wanted to simplify my hardtail for more general use/bikepacking etc. Also, the stock fork was heavy and the remote was playing up.

Jones bars are also rumoured to work better with a rigid fork.

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On one carbon monoque. Ugly as sin. Given it hell though and it refuses to snap.

Reason – it was cheapish, lightish and the colour matched my bike.

Travers Prong or Lauf Trail Racer (rigid weight with 60mm of travel and no wearing parts)

Both available from Travers
Prong link and ask about the Trail Racer deals

Skinny Pace 29r fork, can never remember what it’s called but I think they’ve stopped making them. Second hand bound to be available. Steel and a bit flexy, QR, goes very nicely in the t’inbred it’s used for on winter gloop rides

I had a couple. Exotic is the one I’d choose again I think, it was hilariously flexy which I think most folks would hate but basically gave it horizontal suspension- way easier on the hands and it tended to find the route of least resistance by itself…

Hylix one was super-light and a load stiffer, not as nice to ride, but tbh it was just scarily light- it never did anything bad but I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had.

Old On One tube type one was alright, but a bit heavy- pretty much like the exotic but a little stiffer and not as light.

Singular swift, which is fantastic. Nicely flexy fore/aft.

Cheap (mine was £45 second hand here then power coated £20 matt black).

Seem to be a popular shout and i love mine on an inbred 29, seem to be well matched.

Tried:
Pace carbon. Too flexy. Not for the erm…rotund gentleman.
Exotic carbon. Not too flexy. Favourite carbon ones I tried. Really well finished.
On-One carbon. Felt harsh ?? Matt finish, garish silver crown & dropouts. (I was on a stealth thing).
On-One steel. Stif. No, bloody stiff. And heavy. Awful.
Singular steel. Lovely. Heavy when you pick them up, but don’t feel heavy on the bike.
Exotic alloy. Bargain price. Think alloy…think stiff, but not so. Not much heavier than carbon. Fatigue life worried me.??
Niner steel. My favourites. They are virtually identical to the Swift steels. Same weight. Came with my Niner frame but no way would I pay the RRP.

Summary, Carbon felt better on big hits, steel seemed to absorb trail buzz better.
Other musings…
Coupled with non OS carbon bars, low rise as the extra bend (I thought), added more flex. Thicker grips, RaceFace slip on NorthShore’s in my case. Big tyres, 2.3 min. Ralph’s used to be a favourite.

But, the dawning of 29+ was the best developement. Most will run them, Singular was too tight I seem to recall Sam saying. Niner runs it a treat. And wide rims, plus tyres work so much better with a wide rim, 45mm Dually in my case. Run about 12-14psi.

Rigid.

Surly ECR forks might be worth a look. Perhaps not the lightest fork you’ll find, but I’m liking mine (plus they have lots of options to fit all kinds of racks).

I run a Salsa Enabler on the front of my Swift which suits it really well (if you can live with 135mm OLD front end). I’ve not ridden a set but the ‘standard’ Salsa steel forks get well enough reviewed too. The new Swift ‘touring’ forks look useful, if was was going back to a normal width front end on my Swift, I’d fit a set of them.

Why? – I find I can’t get on with / don’t like suspension (plus there’s less to break), I don’t seem to like the way suspended bikes handle. I like front racks too, which don’t really work on suspension forks.

Subjectively, but yeah, Jones bars work well with rigid bikes.

😉

Kinesis iX

Love my exotics .would also like to try some swifts. Apparently the newer swift forks aren’t quite as comfy as the older ones due to new regs and the touring version is again slightly less compliant than the new standard version … that’s what Sam told me. New swift fork can take 29+ tyres. Only recently switched to rigid and found it hard at first but am now loving it.

Tried a set of Niner carbon forks on the SS a couple of years back and thought they were lovely.

Got a set of ENVE carbon forks for it last winter and they felt much nicer than the Niner ones, not sure if it was down to them having a 15mm axle rather than QR but I definitely preferred them.

If you’re looking for some nice carbon forks then the ENVE ones are for sale 😆

Xc racer had Lauf’s going silly cheap iirc.

NINER carbons with 15mm maxel and tapered steerer

Salsa Firestarter here in steel as I wanted the additional bosses for waterbottles/anything cages.

Think I have had just about every rigid fork going at some point, best ones for me were niner steel and carbon, singular forks are lush for steel, Travers prongs are good and I know a lot of guys that love them. For me the best is the black sheep titanium fork for compliance and the Jones truss fork for just being so bloody epic and accurate without kicking the hell out of you.

Not had as many as most, but;

Kona 29er P2 forks. Right amount of flex, possibly a little harsher ride than the 26″ version, decent weight, QR only.

Mosso 29er Alu fork. light, stiff, not as unforgiving as you’d imagine, cheap. Difficult to find them in a decent A-C though, most are only 440mm.

Salsa Cromoto grande: nice fork. just got on with doing a point and shoot job. compliant enough, nice looking, decent weight, stiff in the right places.

Charge steel. bloody long. like really long, 510mm A-C, same as an unsagged 100mm 29er fork. didn’t get on with that. heavy too.

Niner Carbons, unbelievable light.

Oh and they are for sale over there ——> 😉

Exotic carbon 29er forks (that I bought from Northwind and have now gone to a new home) were good for me. Just enough flex for comfort. Not ideal if you want to fit racks and the like though.

On one carbon monoque. Ugly as sin. Given it hell though and it refuses to snap.

This. Cheap, light, robust. But, UGLY as F•ck.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carbon-Fiber-Fork-29er-Mountain-Bike-Tapered-Rigid-Fork-15x100mm-Axle-UD-Matt-/111441535370?hash=item19f26ee18a%3Ag%3AkUQAAOSwNSxVdXbd&_trkparms=pageci%253A889dd17f-6528-11e6-9fce-74dbd18094f7%257Cparentrq%253A9d0ac7b41560a6a8d0d15dbaffecdd1a%257Ciid%253A12
Any experience of these?
Looks like a good alternative to a Niner?
Thanks,
Max

anyone used the Selcof CX fork, currently on the ‘On-One’ site right now?
Strong? for a biffer?

There’s some exotics just gone up on the sales forum

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/exotic-29er-fork-immaculate

I’ve been running a pair of these for a while, not nearly as light as the on one monoque, but feel pretty similar and still light compared to steel.
Maybe not as comfortable as steel but not had any to compare against..i’ve been pleased with mine.

I’ve got a salsa fargo fork (on an El Mariachi)

Handy for the mounting points on the legs, even though i haven’t used them yet!

Surly Krampus, on my Surly Krampus.
Was looking at a Travers Prong to lose some weight, but decided to save some cash too and take a gamble with Chinese carbon and bought a Hylix one from ebay for £109. Yet to be fitted…

Kinesis iX

Good value, light, good tyre clearance, decent taller AC height (490mm). Not much to dislike and good enough for a nutty dude who can ride across North America pretty damn quickly then it is good enough for me 🙂

It is kind of hard to make out but I used some gloss vinyl to cover the logos which it looks like Mike Hall did too. Much tidier 🙂

Got some niner forks that have just got round the lakeland 200.

Love them and they handled lots of the rocky descents a lot better than I thought they would. If they broke I would be looking at another pair (albeit full rrp is a bit steep the ones in classified are a good bet)

Only other ones I have tried was the Orange rigid fork, cheap and heavy.

a gamble with Chinese carbon and bought a Hylix one from ebay for £109.

now fitted:

600g overall weight saving, and allows me to use a bolt-thru (dynamo) hub without an adaptor.

Well worth it so far.

Kinesis don’t sell the iX anymore but the Exotic forks are exactly the same, but just with different stickers. Closer to being all black too, which some will prefer.

I got the ICAN AO290 same as those helix ones. Not fitted yet, delivery and comma were good but got stung for 25 on import charges. Quality looks very slightly rough round the dropouts and crown but nothing that makes me think they won’t be strong enough.