The Forks They’re Racing in Rio

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“We’re overnighting a package to you to arrive on Saturday” came the message from RockShox. What could be so important that it arrives on a Saturday?… the same… Saturday as the first Olympic XC race…

Ooh... interesting.
What could it be?

Ooh, interesting. What on earth could it be?

As we suspected (and anticipated) the package that appeared this morning was very much bicycle fork shaped. If our suspicions were correct, then this would have a lot to do with what goes on later today on the other side of the world.

Olympic RockShox SID fork12
A familiar hue

And, as we unwrapped it, a very distinctive shade of blue was glimpsed. A variation of the SID Blue that’s been a very familiar sight at cross country races since the late ’90s.

Olympic RockShox SID fork04
One piece carbon crown and steerer
Olympic RockShox SID fork03
RockShox’ cleverest fork damper so far
Olympic RockShox SID fork05
And no mud room!
Olympic RockShox SID fork06
RockShox World Cup model.
Olympic RockShox SID fork07
Available to mortals too. Only not in this colour…

The message that came with it said:
“This is a very special edition of our RockShox SID fork. This limited edition colour has been produced to celebrate SID’s glorious history of Olympic wins, with gold medals at every edition of the Games since 2000.”

One of the great things about mountain biking is that the level of kit that the pros race, is readily available to mortal riders – and this is true of the SID fork. Although this is a special colour, the actual model of SID World Cup, with Charger Damper, remote lockout, carbon crown and steerer and so on, is available for sale in local bike shops.

 

Olympic RockShox SID fork09
Let’s race!

Today is the Women’s Olympic Mountain Biking in Rio. Tune in to see some of these forks being ridden like they’re meant to be.

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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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