Sea Otter 2015: RST shows 27.5, teases inverted fork and carbon.

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In recent years, RST suspension has worked hard to shake of the bottom shelf component reputation it used to have in the ’90s and is going up against big players for a share in the fork (and shock and now, dropper post) market.

In keeping with the other fork companies, it showed a 27Plus fork, with a full set up on a Foes so people could see how these new cartoon wheels will fit.

 

 

 

 

Kind of looks like a bike, doesn’t it?

All that was to be expected, but in the ‘Come round the back and look at this’ box were a couple of surprises. The first being an inverted fork prototype. It’s nowhere near ready for production yet, but it has the potential to challenge the Rockshox RS1 for the hearts of the racing fraternity for a little less cash too. It will come in 80 and 100mm lengths, but also up to 150mm (with a 27.5 wheel) and 130mm (on a 29), which Rockshox is currently shy of doing.

15mm thru-axle will probably now become a 110mm Boost width

 

Neat magnesium upper assembly

 

Looks like a good fork – with no insistence on a permanently fitted lockout cable.

Another surprise was this neat (and very light!) carbon crown and steerer assembly. RST is definitely shaking off it’s old elastomer bumper image.

Although it was shown on a 26in fork, it’s more likely to appear on 27 and 29in forks.

 

Here’s the Rogue, plus-size fork…

 

And the Renegade fat bike fork…

RST also showed its new-ish dropper post that offers external cable operation, Stealth routing or ‘crotch grab’ under-seat lever – all in the same seatpost, which we’ve not seen anyone else do. So if you don’t currently have a Stealth routing frame and fancy a dropper without drilling a hole, you can fit the RST post and still be able to swap it over to your new frame.

One of the neatest dropper cable mounts we’ve seen for a while.

 

To the sky!

 

Twin bolt head for secure micro-adjust

 

And a good, simple lever that doesn’t look like it’ll punch holes in your kneecaps if you get it wrong

 

In emergency, hit this…

We have some RST forks on test at the moment, so stay tuned to find out how we got on with them.

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Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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