New EXT ERA Fork Is Big, Stiff, Clever, 29in-only… And £1590

After much teasing back in the spring, EXT has finally announced its enduro suspension fork. There was great speculation about what it might be, how it would be sprung, travel, crowns and so on. And, today we can reveal most of the details for you about the new EXT ERA Suspension Fork.

The EXT ERA fork will be 29in wheel only, air sprung (more on that in a sec), single crowned, with 36mm stanchions. The Italian company that produces well-respected coil shocks has developed a multi-spring system to aid the fork’s performance and tunability, as well as using the latest rally-car inspired bushings for slickness and durability. It will be available in 140mm, 150, 160 and 170mm travel increments, with a single, 44mm offset. Weight is quoted as being 2280g with uncut steerer.

One of the clever/complex bits of the new fork is its three stage spring side. This uses two positive air springs and a negative air spring with an additional small coil spring at the end of the shaft. This allows EXT to tune the performance of the ERA Fork to a huge degree, with the idea of giving a lot of performance while still giving a lot of suspension support to the rider. And, over on the damping side, there’s a rear shock style IFP floating piston. To further slick things up, there are DU bushings borrowed from the world of rally sports.

And for those of you who are sad that the EXT ERA fork isn’t coil-sprung, don’t worry. One of those is in the works for release ‘soon’.

Another departure from similar forks is the crown assembly. The new design uses forged 7050 aluminium that works with the steerer tube to increase stiffness.

The fork is obviously intended for enduro racing and super-fast, technical riding. And, given EXT’s reputation for its rear shocks, the quality is obviously there. The price may be a little hard to swallow – the UK cost for an EXT ERA fork will come in around £1590, but UK distributor Mojo reckons that by having a demo fleet, and a series of clued up specialist dealers around the country, that it can show riders the advantages and make spending that kind of cash on a fork seem reasonable value for the performance you get.

Chris from Mojo reckons that the EXT ERA forks will be available to demo and buy in a month or two and he is very excited about the prospect of getting riders on the forks to show them. It’ll be interesting to see how many riders get past the price take and get on the forks.

For more details, see Mojo’s website or see the full explanation over at EXT

Cue the inspirational photos!