I have recently purchased a Whyte 603 hardtail and it comes with stock Suntour XCR’s which I was planning to upgrade straight away. The issue is it has a straight steerer and I’m finding it difficult to find any in stock or any at all!

I have found some suntour Epixon and looking at some rockshock Judy’s. (I’m new to this) are these basically a straight swap? or do i need to change any parts?

Thanks!

It’s likely that you can change the headset to make a tapered fork fit. Exactly which headset you need is tricky as so there are so many variations.

Fitting the new headset and fork is probably a job for a shop if you’re new to this!

As above. See if you can change the lower headset cup to an external one so you can fit a tapered fork. Lots more options then. Or a second hand fork, but prices are still a bit crazy

Ok cheers! I will have a look into some headsets it would make it easier for sure!

are these basically a straight swap? or do i need to change any parts?

The Epixon is a decent affordable fork, much better than the XCR. If it has a straight steerer, it should basically be a straight swap. You will need to remove the crown race from the old fork, this is part of the headset. For some headsets, it will just slip off by hand. For others, you will need tools to remove it and fit it to the new forks. You should be able to find videos online showing how to do the job, but getting a shop to fit the crown race might be a good idea if you’ve never done it before.

As above, you might be able to fit a larger lower headset and that will open up the range of forks that are available, with much higher performance forks available with tapered steerers. This will almost certainly be a lot more expensive than just fitting the Epixon, it could easily end up being nearly as much as you spent on the bike in the first place. If it was me, I’d just fit the Epixon and ride the thing.

Thank you so much, I’m thinking to get this fork as it will be a huge upgrade, will get a better bike in a year or so anyway and this will work well for what I want it for!

Thank you so much, I’m thinking to get this fork as it will be a huge upgrade, will get a better bike in a year or so anyway and this will work well for what I want it for!

Silly question, why are you planning to swap the xcr? Are you having a problem with it?

If you’re only planning to keep it for <12 months it seems foolish to swap it if there isn’t something wrong. No its not a great fork but, if the only reason you want to swap is people have told you it isn’t, just ride the thing, save the cash, put it towards the upgrade next year.

(the liklihood is, unless the fork is already shot, if you’re riding the bike “hard enough” to find a problem with the xcr performance you’re going to kill some parts of a bike at that price point anyhow so you’d be better keeping the cash to replace the brakes, wheels BB etc as they fail)

No its not a great fork but, if the only reason you want to swap is people have told you it isn’t, just ride the thing, save the cash, put it towards the upgrade next year.

The lower-end Suntour fork range is confusing, but all the ones I’ve tried have not been up to any sort of proper off-road riding. They’re ok for commuting and fireroads, but even moderate XC trails are too much for them. The Epixons are a decent XC trail fork. Obvious advice is to try the XCRs and then decide, but I’m pretty sure the Epixons will be a big improvement.

Yes, i had the bike from a cycle to work voucher, not much stock around currently so i thought I would get a get bike and upgrade bits, forks being first as i want an air fork. Ill be using it for trails, rocks, roots etc nothing crazy though. I had a cheap coil suntour on my last bike and it didn’t feel to safe.