Front axle standards are a whole can of worms unto themselves.
I’ve whinged before, so I’ll whinge again…The new Boost standard (110x15mm) is identical in dropout width to the old 110x20mm but with the 15mm axle. I’m baffled as to why Rockshox went down this route with the Pike, Yari and Lyrik, given the remit of enduro forks, a 20mm axle would make much more sense without having to reinvent a new standard. If you’re buying a fork, you potentially have four mainstream options, 9mm QR, 15x100mm, 15x110mm, 20x110mm.
I daresay that such standard knobbery is proving confusing for consumers who are new to mountain biking and the constantly moving goalposts are putting people off from buying bikes until it all settles down.
I may often criticise Fox, but at least someone in their design team had the sense to say “Screw it, let’s make the new 36 able to take any axle” and to go to the trouble of supplying the adaptors in the box.
It comes as no surprise to see the twattery start to happen with road bikes. These decisions aren’t taken by engineers, but by marketing types who really, really need the proverbial hoof in the slats.