I’ll be in the market for new forks in the new year and thinking about making the jump to bolt through. My current forks are 2005 Rebas which have been brilliant, but now seem a bit flexy compared to newer forks.

I ride in the Scottish mountains & on trail centre Blacks, but don’t need anything for full on DH. What’s a sensible bolt through option for a reasonable price v reasonable weight v reasonable performance?

15mm.
SID, Reba, Fox, X-Fusion. Lots of options, but bolt through and straight steerer are harder to find as most forks are tapered now.

Awesome cheers. Would it be worth the upgrade over a standard 9mm axle with QR?

What hubs do you have? If you can try a 9mm bolt through first, that should give you most of the extra rigidity on exisiting forks for that kind of riding. See if you can tell the difference.

They’re XT. I’ve read about 9mm bolt through upgrades but I thought it was just a gimmick?

Lots of folk will say they stiffen things up massively. I went from a 100mm QR Reba on my rock lobster to a 120mm 15mm bolt through Reba with tapered steerer on my Soul. Different bike, but have never thought ‘ wow that’s a stiff front end”

Welcome to the mtb industry:

“I want some new forks!”

“Well, you’re going to need a new front wheel and frame, Sir”

I’ve been around bikes long enough to see the hype, but this time I’m opting into it! Just wondered what real experiences were; I’m riding a temporary bike with some old Z4 Bombers (remember them?) and never been as fast/had so much fun on an MTB. Just wondering whether it was worth parting with my hard earned cash for newer kit.

My current forks are 2005 Rebas which have been brilliant, but now seem a bit flexy compared to newer forks.

Do you know what I have gone from 25.4, to 32mm forks and other than the Quadra’s, flex have never really been an issue. Even the rigid unicrowns where you could watch the fork blades flutter were never that much of an issue. Flex is more in the riders head than in the fork. Just a way of spending money. If you NEED a new fork then fine, but do you actually need a new fork or are you believing the marketing men?

Haha, I don’t know!

I had some Quadra 10s, I thought they were pretty stiff, but then they were my first suspension fork. I just don’t know what to believe anymore 🙄

One other thing to mention, what are the bushings like on the current forks? they do wear. So in theory( as I said a lot of this is mental) the movement in the fork increases as the forks wear. My Reba’s are knocking a little because they are worn.

Yeah I know what you mean – but they always felt a bit overfaced when going through boulder fields, for example. You know, a bit squirmy. Was hoping that a fatter axle/interface would help that, but maybe I’m hoping for a bit too much from a XC fork.

2013 model 15mm bolt-thru Rebas with straight steerers are pretty decently priced online at Merlin.

ive got 9mm BT and 15mm, damned if I can tell the difference although DT forks have pretty blooming stiff arches

I went from QR 150mm bombers to 20mm Fox 36’s years ago and it was night and day difference really.

As has been said the stanchion stiffness is important too, the 20mm Revs I have used from a few years back are not as stiff feeling as my 15mm 34’s.

If you are going to upgrade hubs I would suggest something that can be swapped out for any of the fork standards (Hope ProII Evo can be swapped in under a minute to QR/15/20mm)

Ok cheers guys. I might hold off upgrading to 15/20mm bolt through until later in the year. Looks like it’s quite subjective, I can live with my current setup a little while longer.

Bolt through makes a noticeable difference IMO, but it depends where you are riding.
Much bigger difference than tapered steerers for example.

I found bolt though axles help with torsional stiffness but not much difference with fore and aft stiffness. That’s where a tapered steerer helps.

As well as the axle and steerer the forks chassis has a big impact on overall stiffness too. Eg Fox’s 32 chassis, even with a 15mm axle and tapered steerer feels more flexible compared to a RS Revelation with 20mm axle and straight steerer.

You could well get the stiffness you want by using 32mm stanchions or by using a newer stiffer chassis. Keeping your hubs and headset the same.

I have two bikes, one runs a 100mm RS SID with QR the other runs a 140mm RS Rev with 20mm axle. Yes I can feel a bit of extra twang in the SID even when riding on same trails and keeping the riding roughly within the bounds of what the SID was designed to ride. But its not enough to distract me from my riding or make me completely miss the line I was intending to take. A bit like when you ride the same corner twice, the ground will react slightly differently each time, a bit of soil might hold one time but give way a second but you still always make the corner without any dramas.

lookout for 2nd hand 15/20mm Revs/Rebas and sounds like you’ll need to look out for a new front wheel, I’d get a pro2 hub for the options.

I reckon bolt-through does make a noticable difference… But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an important difference.

I’ve got 20mm maxles in my boxxers and my Revelations but perfectly happy with the QR in my 120mm Sids, and though you can’t miss the flex but I’ve never actually found it a problem, I just get used to it and get on with it.

Course, you equally might love how it feels, or find it’s a really useful difference, who really knows? (mine are in a Soda with stupid light hardly-any-spokes Rovals so the bike is basically one big wet noodle, I love it anyway)