Something I know little about as the last MTB I had with rigid forks was in 1996 on a GT Timberline.
I’m looking to build something low maintenance for fitness, riding to work and nipping around on. I’m thinking of matching up to a cheap light XC frame like a Scandal or Kinesis.
Questions:
To get the geometry right on the set up what should I be looking at in terms of the frame type (ie quoted fork travel) or what measurements of the fork to match correctly to the frame.

Are there other things I need to think about/consider before buying (online) to make it all match up correctly.

Recommend me some MTB lightweight rigid forks please.

Ta

I am looking at the same thing.

if your frame is meant for 80mm travel forks, you need a 420mm leg, 440mm for 100mm travel frames, pace rc31 carbons are the best (they have a little elastomer at the top which help dampen vibration further) but they are pricey, £150 new, £100 used.

others do carbon forks, all pretty much the same design, eXotic are the cheapest at about £100 posted, search ebay, they also do alu forks of the same design for about £60 posted

kona do some heavier rigid forks as do kinesis, but they are more like the older cromo forks from back in the day

hope this helps

If you can find them 2nd hand the On One steel rigid forks are good, steer well and no real fore/aft flex when using a disc brake. 420mm for older frames, 440mm for more modern/100mm frames.

Scandal is corrected for 80-100mm sus forks IIRC. So geometry should be ok with 420mm or 440mm rigids. I’d prolly say 440s are more equivalent to the intended sus fork length of the frame (circa 470mm minus the sag), but either’d do. Depends on your intended use for the bike. Obvz the shorter the fork, the steeper the head angle and lower the front end. Which might fit the brief when it comes to nipping about and commuting at speed.

I use a 470mm rigid 29er fork on my Soda because it’s roughly equivalent to a 100mm sus fork fully extended, and I prefer the handling over the 440mm fork I guess Cy might recommend.

Horses for courses.

Look on eBay and you might pick up a bargain cro-mo fork. Or On-One, good old Kona P2s, Bontrager, Exotic, White Brothers, Nukeproof. A lot of the carbon forks are generic and just branded differently. And there is, of course, Pace.

HTH.

I’ve just been shopping for the same thing myself, and ended up with a set of rigid Genesis ones off eBay for about £40. They aren’t the lightest but they are stiff and have oodles of tyre clearance.

Ridgeback also do a functional fork with disc mounts that you might be able to pick up for cheap.

Kona P2s could be had very cheaply until recently and the triple butted ones are lovely and light.

Tim, can you link me to the new RC31’s for £150 you mention please.

You can’t get them “new”. I think he meant “unused”.

Hope so, I just paid £175 for a brand new pair from Winstanley’s and I was pretty chuffed with myself!

They were 440mm disc-only too. Yup, still feeling chuffed 🙂

Goodness knows which dark corner of the warehouse they came from.

I have a set of Kinesis XMAX Rigid Carbon Forks that I bought to stick on my DN6 inbred. I’ve ridden it a couple of times but I think I’d rather have the extra wieght of suspension forks especially when I’ve got the cross-bar mounted kiddie seat on.
Bought off here about two months or so ago and look brand new – Very good condition. IS Disc mount 220mm Steerer, 440mm axle-crown.
Open to offers if anyones interested.

The On-one carbons are not the same as the exotic/superstar etc – this has been done to death before. I would recommend the On-one carbons having ridden them a bit. More ‘comfort’ than the steel but track brilliantly. Some flex under braking but not a problem. I’ve also ridden Salsa steel, On-one steel and Superstar carbon (all 29er btw) and of them all I would go with the O-O carbons. I’ve not ridden the pace.

yup you dont seem to be able to get em new, and they used to be £150ish from wiggle, damn damn damn really want some as well……

I had a fairly heavy Alu hardtail with cheap nasty 80mm Manitou Axel forks. I replaced them with White Brothers Rock Solid carbon forks with a 445mm axel-to-crown height (the Manitou, although only 80mm, has quite a long ATC). Not looked back, not regretted it one minute. Brilliant. Much lighter of course and the bike handles much better as a result, less maintenance etc etc. Just do it.

i run the storck rebel carbon fork and i can vouch for their awesomeness.

they are comfortable and track well through rough stuff and round berms.

love em

There is life without carbon. Think Evans have the triple butted P2s. I’ve got a set of Pipedream steel forks which are nice and light. Also ridden alloy and carbon Bontrager switchblades, alloy Kinesis, RC31s, standard P2s, Surlys. Even on 100mm adjusted frames you should be ok with 420mm forks – it will just quicken up your steering a tad which probably isn’t a bad thing on the road.

Do a search on here about RC-31s. Some concerns about max rider weight on them. Someone on here – can’t remember who – ended up with some bad injuries as a result of one failing.

That said, I run carbon on the road without thinking twice….

I would (this week) recommend sticking a 29in front wheel in a 440mm carbon fork if you’re going rigid. It works ace.

I’ve used a Kona P2 for Urban and light xc-great solid fork.

Thanks for the info
I prefer the look of the trad/dirt jump style forks (P2s), but they seem to weigh around 1500gms. Does anyone know the weight of the Kona P2? or can point me in the direction of much lighter weight ones (lightweight alloy ones would be ok for my purpose).

Those carbon ones weigh 700gms-900gms, but Superstar don’t appear to quote a price or weight on their website.

i think you can only get kona P2 in jump style now.

There were a few different versions of the P2 for a while, but yeah I think the jumpy one might be the only one they make now.

Think the normal triple butted one was about 1000-1100g ish. The jumpy one is made of hi-tensile scaffolding pipes or sommat. It’s not very much like the normal P2s IIRC.

There’s the classic Orange F8 too. Weighs about 1000g. I had one ages ago and it did the job.

Or Salsa. Dunno how much they weigh.

I’d prolly just get an On-One carbon and be done with it. Light, tracks well, comfy, doesn’t snap, looks pretty. Job done.

According to Weight Weenies, a P2 (presumably the triple butted one) weighs about 1 kg. The dirt jump version weighs about 1.5. I think the un-butted version that Wiggle used to sell for £30 is somewhere in between.

The On-One is nice except I had issues with mine with a Pro2 hub – could never get the damn wheel out easily even with the skewer removed – had to use too much brute force than I liked so I sold them in the end – perhaps I had just had a bad one though

the Orange ones are good but straight ones look cooler

If you are running v brakes at least there’s less than 100g difference between triple butted P2 and RC31s and some of those “generic” carbon forks are getting on for 1kg.

I’d go for P2s light, cheap and don’t break…

On-One is nice except I had issues with mine with a Pro2 hub – could never get the damn wheel out easily even with the skewer removed . . . perhaps I had just had a bad one though

Ah, so I’m not the only one then.

Mine do exactly that too. Like the fork is ever-so-slightly too narrow for the hub. I just have to pull the legs apart and I can slot it in and out easily enough …uh, so to speak 😆