Looking at a set of Surly Instigator rigid forks but I can’t see anywhere that says they’re suitable for standard mountain bike quick release hubs and skewers…can anyone confirm this? I was looking through the Surly site and noticed they do a 1×1 bolt up hub so wasn’t sure if this is what’s needed…sounds a bit silly I know… 🙂

Can’t confirm it for sure but I own two Surlys and I can’t see why the Instigator fork wouldn’t accept QRs. The pic on their website seems to suggest it will.

I’ve never heard of a regular fork not accepting a QR hub.

I wouldn’t have given it a thought and was just about to order some when I saw a questions posted on the Wiggle Q&A..some asked: “Do the fork dropouts have “lawyer’s lips” for QR hubs on the dropouts like most suspension forks?” The answer was “No these forks do not have the cowled dropouts featured on most suspension forks.”

I wasn’t sure if this meant they’re not compatible?

I’m pretty sure the forks on my Karate Monkey have lawyer lips but then the instigator is an older design I think. You’ll be fine with QR’s, Surly don’t tend to design for things like bolt through axles or any remotely modern components.

they just mean they’re flat plate drop outs, not forged cowled things with recesses (lawyer lips) to prevent wheel ejection. (actually cowled drop outs dont serve the same purpose as lawyer lips. LLs prevent the QR nut moving in direction of the drop out opening. Cowels just look purty 😉 )

IMO not a great design when in conjunction with vertical drop outs. If theyre going to ignore lawyer lips, at least they should have forward facing drop outs…

Could be LL from that pic – I’d be surprised if they were absent.

i’ve got an instigator fork and have used it with QR’s…never checked the tabs tho 😳 but in my defense it’s on my path bike and it doesn’t get the ride time like my main mtb.

Thanks for all the replies…I emailed surly directly and got this very helpful answer:

The Instigator fork is compatible with normal mountain front
quick-release hubs. It also does have lawyer lips – as every fork sold
in the US must, given our proclivity to sue the crap out of each other.
They are just small extra bits of metal that require a couple of turns
of the QR nut before the wheel will drop out once opened. No big deal
really.

Yeah I have this fork, it’s , standard qr

love the reply!