Quick one, i’m looking at getting a new full suspension bike and my current hard tail has remote lockout on the front forks which makes life much easier when out on the terrain. Most of the new ones i’m looking at don’t have remote lockout, so is it not needed? I read somewhere that new suspension is intelligent enough to recognise the terrain and alter accordingly.

Any help would be grateful.

Thanks in advance

I’ve found that front lockouts are mainly used for XC bikes (hence why you’ve got it on your hardtail). Unless your looking for a 100mm travel full susser and racing XC, I wouldn’t worry about the lockout. Really, you’d mainly use it for climbing, so it’s not hard to reach down and adjust the fork before heading up. And yes, modern suspension is pretty good and can usually be run “on” always.

I reach down and adjust the switch on the top of my forks regularly. Lockout(ish) for road and flat climbs, a few clicks out for gravelly stuff and then all the way out when I need it

Thanks, you have been a great help

Some people use them, some don’t. They add weight and it’s something to get damaged in a crash. It’s not really a better/worse thing IMO, just different. They do tend to be the preserve of XC race forks.

As a bona fide XC racer I never use lockouts (remote or otherwise) and happily forego them altogether, let alone remote.

Scott genius has (had?) remote CTD type lockout for front and rear of fthe same lever if that’s of interest to you

I have 2 forks with remote lockout (Reba’s), neither had the remote attached for long, it’s an extra cable, clutter on the bars, unreliable, and it’s really just not that hard to reach down and lock out for longer climbs.

used to always have a remote lock out. Useful when you are not very good at reaching down when riding up a steep hill or barrelling down a decent and have forgotten to switch and very useful when you are mid air and remember your forks are locked out 😀

Just built a new bike with a remote lock out and it’s a PITA. One of the newer rockshox push locks so an awkward shape like a reverb lever yet somehow even worse. Has ended up stuck vertical behind my shifter. It’s not an ergonomic lever position but it doesnt have to be, unlike a reverb were you really will be using it on the fly. It might get moved further in board when I start riding it so slightly more convenient than a crown mounted one but not worth the clutter.

A remote dual position button would be more useful on my long travel hard tail.

On the full susser no need to touch the shock.

On another note I prefer being able to adjust my compression damping on a non-remote lock out fork. I did have an old remote lockout/compression adjust knob (lever broke off in my torso during a crash leaving a lever shaped hole when it pulled out still attached to the cable) which you could set the compression damping with as well as lock out. But it took about 20 turns for the full range so was a load of crap really. A crown mounted knob has say 6 clicks and you quickly learn to flick it back to where you had it and maybe adjust the damping a bit depending on the terrain. A much more useful feature than a remote lockout.

I can’t stand them. Just another thing to think about/ fiddle with and get in the wrong position before a descent. Pretty much most forks and shocks have a suitable level of low speed compression damping that it isn’t really necessary. Set and forget.

I’ve got them on both of my fork, a hydraulic one on the RS1’S and a cable one on the Bluto’s. I use them both and I wouldn’t say a fat bike is an XC race bike

I run a Twinloc on all iterations of my current Scott Genius.
either 32, 34 or 36mm forks.
I ran a 34 without remote capability last year and really missed the lack of bar mount lever for the fork.
Its simply brilliant for the riding that I do. I use the bar lever to control fork and rear lockout as much as I use my dropper post.