After building my 29er with a set of Nukeproof carbon forks I was a little disappointed that the ride through the front of the bike felt harsher than my steel forked 26 inch Surly. The supposedly smooth ride of big wheels hadn’t materialised. The tyre profiles are pretty similar on both bikes and the Surly’s riding position is a little more upright than the 29er but not enough to make that much difference I don’t think?

I’m now wondering if I’d get a better ride by fitting steel forks such as Salsa Chromotos to the 29er?

Are Surly forks really that good that they make a 26 inch wheel ride better than a 29er?

Any thoughts or experience anyone?

The Youngs Modulus of a material is an indication of that materials stiffness. The Specific-modulus of a material is the Youngs modulus divided by the density. Isotropic materials have similar stiffness, strength etc in all directions (up down left right; 3 dimentionally). Steel is generally isotropic, CFRP is anisotropic.

Most structural materials (steel, aluminium, titanium) by an odd coincidence have roughly the same specific-modulus. However CFRP has a much greater specific-modulus than steel, it can vary but is very roughly 3 or 4 times greater. So comparing a set of steel forks with a set of CFRP forks of the same weight; the CFRP forks could be 3 or 4 times stiffer. But since CFRP is not isotropic this will not always be the case.
Carbon Fibre is string, and CFRP plastic is plastic with string reinforcement. So it depends very much of the type of plastic that the carbon fibre is reinforcing. Particularly when the CFRP is in compression; string is good for pulling (tension) not so good for pushing (compression.

http://www.aluminium.matter.org.uk/content/html/eng/default.asp?catid=89&pageid=2144417038

So if both forks are equally twangy on the brakes the carbon forks could be up to 3 or 4 times as stiff on compression then and the steeper head angle of the 29er will make the bumps want to compress the forks more and bend them less than the 26er.

What he means is-the carbon forks are good at damping out high frequency trail buzz and steel forks are betterer at the biggerer stuff.Hav’nt tried ti yet but supposed to be a bit of both.Suspension forks are better at everything btw (not that I’d run em).

To offer a non technical answer from limited experience….

26er with rigid carbon forks (Pace) – seem to damp everything out pretty well, but harsh over bigger stuff.

29er with Steel forks (Project 2s) – more comfortable in general, but hated them over bigger stuff, as they seem to kick back uncomfortably.

Which is probably in contradiction to the science! 🙂

I have been running a GF Rig that i bought of the classified a few months back and it has got carbon Bonty Switchblades on it, the bigger wheel of the 29er does seem to smooth out the terrain but on the bigger hits it was still quite harsh. A few weeks ago i sold a RC305 frame and the sus forks on it and bought a Singular Swift frame and forks (both steel) and the difference in ride is quite significant, the Swift just seems to smooth everything out from small vibrations to bigger hits, this is also running the same 2.35 Panaracer Rampage on the front. The only other difference between the 2 bikes is that the Rig has carbon Monkeylites and the Swift has Easton EA70s. I was thinking of putting the Switchblades onto the Swift to save a bit of weight but definatly won’t be bothering now. I was also considering buying some sus forks for the Swift but don’t think i’ll be doing that either as the ride from the steel forks is so good.

But does anyone do a 20mm rigid fork yet?

But does anyone do a 20mm rigid fork yet?

Custom, eg. Waltworks. Salsa are doing one (steel) and looks like On-one might eventually do a carbon one.

Ragley will be doing 15mm

EDIT – sorry, meant X-Lite

There will be a ragley version aswell-no fluoro colours and a kevlar cosmetic layer.

DMR?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dmr-trailblade-2-rigid-fork-with-20mm-axle/

brants x lite line up look nice, 15mm bolt thru i think.