Right, I’d fully intended to run my new Salsa El Mariachi with a set of rigid forks but I’ve never ridden an mtb with rigid forks so this will be a big change. So now considering running a 100mm ( so I don’t invalidate Salsa warranty). Any thoughts or recommendations on either would be appreciated, I’ve looked at 29 Reba’s.

Rigid is ace.

If you don’t like it try a bouncy one.

But it is ace.

It won’t reward plowing into stuff.

But it’s ace.

I had an older El Mar and just couldn’t get on with it – until I fitted rigid forks.

I would like to try rigid and that was the intention then googled some el mariachi pics for inspiration and loads had suspension forks and then the voice in my head started to niggle me. I had intended to run a 2.6 front tyre and a 2.4 rear tyre

I don’t know the El Mar, is it steel? If so go for it. I’ve run an Inbred, A Sherpa and a Stooge all rigid and they were all ace.

Yes it’s steel and the Salsa firestarter fork is also steel, but qr, not sure if that’s a bad thing in the world of axles.

My Stooge us qr.

It will be fine, especially with a 2.6″ front tyre, even more so if you can run it tubeless.

(Owner of Singular Swift, max is 2.4 but usually run 2.2. Some things get a bit blurry….)

Sounds good I’ll give it a bash with the firestarter fork then. Bonty XR4’s front and back then. I suppose the savings in the fork will go to a nice 1x drivetrain and nice new brakes. Probably both SLX.

I had an older El Mar and just couldn’t get on with it – until I fitted rigid forks.

+1, except I did it the other way round.

I had an older El Mar and ran it for a few years rigid and liked it. My local riding got more techy after I moved so bought a 100mm fork. Magura something or other, not high end but a perfectly decent fork.

I really couldn’t get on with it at all. Strava told me I was quicker, and it was good on the flowing trails but it felt sketchy downhill. I sold it and went back to rigid. The El Mar has quite a steep head angle – I think the rigid fork helps mitigate the OTB feeling by keeping the HA static. Obviously it’s very hard to hold a line if going down something steep on a rigid fork so it probably depends on where and how you ride what would be the best.

I’ve got one of those bikes, and I have rigid forks on it.

It is obviously rough as hell on rocky descents, but I don’t think of it as an MTB as such, it’s my ‘adventure’ bike. Because it has steep angles and is rigid, it is SO much nicer to ride on road and anything smooth that I just love it. There is no better place for me to sit and pedal all day. It feels so positive honking up a hill out of the saddle in a big gear when the bike isn’t boinging about underneath you. And even locked out suspension forks aren’t the same. I use it for Valleys rides where you have to do lots of road to get out to trails across the hills. I’d stopped doing rides like this when I got FS MTBs because the road parts were such a chore, but I do them again now on my rigid bike and suddenly I’ve got about 500x more trails to ride.

It isn’t quicker on anything rough, either up or down, but it’s just an absolute pleasure to ride. Sort of a modern hybrid. What we think of as hybrids originated half way between road bikes and where MTBs were then. But my El Mar is half way between road bikes and a modern trail MTB.

El Mar is the perfect bike for this due to the 70.5 degree HA – there’s no OTB issues because there’s no fork dive. If I could only have one bike of any kind, it’d be this.

My 29er is rigid. Im slower downhill but in a way I prefer this. The fork doesn’t save you, it makes all my regular descents a bit trickier and a lot more fun. Yes, you bounce about a bit but you get used to it. My friends have to wait about 30s at most which I easily make up on road sections or climbs.

Ive just put on a set of stans flow rims and a 2.6 nobby nic which has made a huge difference over the 2.35 maxxis.

I then keep my full suss bike for big days out. On a rigid bike there’s very little to go wrong.

I also find I tend to ride further on my rigid. I’ll often cycle to a ride rather than drive because its as comfortable on road as it is off road. To me, it’s the perfect all rounder.

At 51 I’m not a downhill demon so should be fine picking my line at a slower speed, and with a 2.6 tyre running tubeless and carbon bars should take the sting out of things a bit.
Anyone running a Barzo front/Mezcal rear?

Rigid is good.
Put a bouncy fork on my Swift in April – worked fine enough, but no requirement any more and back to original rigid fork, love it.