Given my bike has a straight head tube, will the manufacturers keep making a reasonable range of non-tapered forks? Don’t want my bike to be obsolete / niche quite yet.

They won’t endure (honestly, neither will 26″ MTBs). Having said that, I’ve just bought a new-to-me hardtail with a straight 1 1/8″ steerer and a 26″-er so I’m obviously not worried.

Realistically though, how long will you keep the frame / forks? 5,6,7 years? I can’t imagine the forks disappearing quite that quickly.

I looked recently, now I have a tapered head tube bike. Not much choice above 140mm.

You can’t get a new 1 inch steerer suspension fork any more. So it has taken a long time for obsolete standards to become unobtainable. When did 1 1/8th become the new 1 inch? About 20 years ago so you should be alright for a few years yet.

You’ll have broken/got bored with the frame long before 1 1/8″ forks become obsolete.

Oh, none tapered. Its early, I just spent a about 30 seconds wondering how a bendy steerer would work… One for ST next April 1st there.

The issue will be choice. If you look on line now the choice of 1 1/8″ forks is not what it was and the opportunity for deals is less. Merlin and similar still have some good deals but I think choice is beginning to reduce. IMO 🙂

I looked recently, now I have a tapered head tube bike. Not much choice above 140mm.

This ^

Before folk answer they ought to go looking…

I need a new 140mm air straight steerer fork, and there isn’t a lot out there – at least at a price I want to pay.

Not sure how good an impression you get from the UK market tbh, quite a few options aren’t imported, and straight steerers are still used in a lot of OEMs. Angle headsets have probably been a shot in the arm for longer travel straight steerers.

IIRC the new Pike is the first model from the big brands to come out with no straight steerer option, but even then it’s a maybe for future production.