Suspension fork on a gravel bike…Anyone done it?

I swapped my pickenflick for a cutthroat.  It has a much better riding position with the 29er fork and a more capable all-rounder, including descending.  Loving it.  But I did the SDW a couple of weeks ago and it was murder on the rigid fork.  I am planning some more long distance off-road rides and was thinking about a suss fork.

A SID or Fox 32 would look weird though, and I started looking at Lauf.  The Lauf gets a lot of criticism, though.  Has anyone done this sort of thing?  Part of me thinks I should have kept the Pickenflick and bought an XC frame and fork but it’s a bit late now.

Cheers

Rich

Sorry, don’t believe in gravel bikes. If you wanna ride rough get a xc mtb.

Why not a MTB? Drop bars offer nothing over a pair of flat or riser bars. Except fashion.

I’m firmly in the ‘ride what you like’ camp

Cannondale slate

I’m firmly in the ‘ride what you like’ camp

What a strange attitude, what if you encounter someone who’s wrong about what they like?

Sorry, don’t believe in gravel bikes.

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but they definitely exist.

I swapped my pickenflick for a cutthroat.  It has a much better riding position with the 29er fork and a more capable all-rounder, including descending.  Loving it.  But I did the SDW a couple of weeks ago and it was murder on the rigid fork.  I am planning some more long distance off-road rides and was thinking about a suss fork.

What tyre pressure are you using, I run mine at 26 psi with a 2.3 inch tyre, haven’t felt the need for suspension fork.

Why not a MTB? Drop bars offer nothing over a pair of flat or riser bars. Except fashion.

Hmm…more hand positions.

Baxter

http://www.ridefox.com/content.php?c=openproject

Or look at the Specialized Diverge with its FurureShock headset arrangement,.

TBH, for “gravel” riding I think I prefer rigid anyway. However, I’ve been thinking for some time that there’s a market for 40mm (ish) travel forks for bikepacking etc. – as long as they can be made light enough.

What tyre pressure are you using, I run mine at 26 psi with a 2.3 inch tyre, haven’t felt the need for suspension fork.

Running bonty XR1 tyres but admittedly probably too high pressures, trying to find the sweet spot between rolling speed and comfort.  I was thinking about trying a 3.0 Chupa on a wider rim on the front.

More seriously, the best bike I have for slightly choppy ‘gravel’ type paths is my slingshot. It just soaks up the trail chatter brilliantly.

Hmm…more hand positions.

I have never, ever required another hand position on my MTB, comfy all day. The only reason more positions on a drop bar is required is because none of them are any good.

YMMV.

scotroutes,yup I think micro suspension will be the next trend…#bringbacktheflexstem ;-)

Nobeer ,on wide flared drops ,it can be mucho comfi on miles of hard landrover tracks.

I’m firmly in the ‘ride what you like’ camp

Great vid.  Doesn’t look that weird.  He was almost permanently at bottom out on those descents!

I have a custom cx bike that I had built a few years ago that could be set full cx but also handle a bit of wide tyre and no interest in a front mech, something not available off the peg then. Anyway, I got a cheap lauf grit recently and slapped it on my rebuild (650, 2.1 low gears) for some action this summer.

The fork is good, and certainly encourages a bit more speed with a bit less chatter, and long rides are improved comfort wise (I did the ridgeway last week). ‘Bit’ being the word, it’s no nicely set up telescopic that’s for sure so don’t expect xc handling. I think the mtb version has more problems in the pogo department.

The fork is good, and certainly encourages a bit more speed with a bit less chatter, and long rides are improved comfort wise (I did the ridgeway last week). ‘Bit’ being the word, it’s no nicely set up telescopic that’s for sure so don’t expect xc handling. I think the mtb version has more problems in the pogo department

The Fox 32 Step Cast is only 300g heavier than the Lauf TR29 and about the same price!  Madness.  The Lauf looks superb though.

Daft point, but the cheapest way to reduce the bump fatigue might be to play with tyre pressures as someone above mentioned. There’s another thread on the go about gravel pressures and I reckon that a lot of people run them far too hard. Personally, I swapped tyres (Schwalbe G-One), switched to tubeless, dropped from 50psi to 30psi and this transformed the bike offroad.

Damn, there are some muppets on this forum. You asked a sensible question, and the first half dozen comments are arguing about why you bought the wrong bike. Ignore the naysayers. After years of strict MTB riding, I started riding road a couple of years ago and found something new in my cycling that I never knew had been missing. But there can be no question that the gravel bike is absolutely my favourite at the moment and I’ll ride it whenever I can!

I have never, ever required another hand position on my MTB

That’s because you can’t.

A SID or Fox 32 would look weird though, and I started looking at Lauf.

Jesus, are you blind?

That suspension stem idea isn’t a bad one:

Redshift Sports ShockStop Stem: At The Finish

Have adapted my Trek Superfly for Gravel duties (so… changed the tyres basically…) and only thing I miss is drop bars. Am stuck with one reach which is somewhere between the tops on a set of drops, and the hoods.

Would definitely prefer a shorter position for climbs etc. and a more stretched position for straights, descents etc. Think it’s telling that my shoulders end up tighter and more uncomfortable after 6 hours on the Superfly than after 6 hours on the road bike.

I still also think there are subtleties to the geometry of a drop bar bike which make it faster on the sort of easy stuff that allows you to sit and turn a gear for ages rather than in and out of saddle etc. Can’t prove it of course…

That’s because you can’t.

No it’s because I’m comfy. If I needed another position, I’d fit bar ends, but I don’t…

@13thfloormonk Try Jones Loop bars*, best if you have them set at the same height or higher than your saddle**

*Instantly attracts the ire of STW

** and the fashion police :-)

might as well go the whole hog

I find it funny that evolution of bikes is bringing us back to thinking flexstems and drop bars  on mountain bikes (Tomac style) are a good idea.

Won’t be too long at this rate that we will be using clips and straps again, possibly triple chainsets and maybe even v-brakes.

Or look at the Specialized Diverge with its FurureShock headset arrangement,.

I had a quick test ride one a couple of weeks back. suprisingly unnoticable, until you ride across a poor surface.

I’m thinking of putting a Reba on my Drove for all the same reasons, including SDW.

A bit like this one. Looks fine to me…

because that’s a mtb with drop bars. bet it would ride better with a set of mtb bars on it…

Well, after you’ve changed the frame geometry.

I find it funny that evolution of bikes is bringing us back to thinking flexstems and drop bars  on mountain bikes (Tomac style) are a good idea.

Bikes evolve and sometimes these evolutions go in circles, but I for one am glad that bikes have moved out of their pigeonholes, recognising that riders want more versatility. Downhill bikes have been (at least in part) superceded by enduro bikes, recognising that people want to ride up to the top of the descent and most can’t (or would rather not) rely on an uplift to get them there. Likewise, pure MTBs, which being great on certain terrain, are pretty bloody terrible on the road, so we have gravel/cx/adventure/touring/hybrid/whatever bikes making a (re)appearance to fill a gap. No, they won’t work on all terrain, yes the manufacturers want to sell more bikes, but that doesn’t mean they are a bad idea, nor that they aren’t fun to ride.

I’m doing a long ride in July which is 80% road, and 20% off-road. I certainly don’t want to slog around it on my XC bike, but the rough bits aren’t going to do any favours to my 25mm tyres on the road bike, so a middle ground works really well here. I could take a tarmac diversion, but I’ll miss some of the nicest bits of the ride if I do and this seems to miss the point of cycle touring.

My trip home from work takes me around 2 hours and is 95% offroad, on a mix of gravel, dirt and towpath and I reckon I’m at least 25% quicker on the gravel bike than on the MTB. I need to work hard to get that, but it’s fun and quick and that’s what counts!

Can’t see the problem with an MTB type of bike with drop bars, just as I can’t see the problem with a road type bike with flat bars.  You should ride what works for you and your riding.  For me that is a a bike that is fairly close to an MTB from the 80’s – rigid, steep angles, takes widish tyres and equipped with flat bars.

Or look at the Specialized Diverge with its FurureShock headset arrangement,.

I had a quick test ride one a couple of weeks back. suprisingly unnoticable, until you ride across a poor surface.

We have them in our hire fleet as our “road” bike this year. As you say, you’re not really aware of it until you run over a rough surface, then it just makes sense, I can imagine that the difference in fatigue over a longer (esp. multi-day) ride would be substantial.

No one is saying there’s a problem, but if you ask for recommendations of how to make your bike more like a mountain bike, it’s kinda expected that you’re gonna get that comment, is it not?…

Has anyone ever used an old 26″ fork? Must be a few old 63mm travel SID forks around, should be enough clearance for 700*25 or 650 * 47 etc?

because that’s a mtb with drop bars. bet it would ride better with a set of mtb bars on it…

It wouldn’t, for the very same reason the Cutthroat can’t be used with flat bars, the geometry is refined for drops, the flat bar version of that bike has a longer top-tube.

bet it would ride better with a set of mtb bars on it…

Only if you needed bars that were wider than the widest set of drops on the market, in which case you’ve massively misunderstood the point of a gravel bike (e.g. not hooning through technical chunder with your elbows out).

Jones Loop bars

Upon Epicyclo’s  recommendation will attempt to source some of these:

I had a quick test ride one a couple of weeks back. suprisingly unnoticable, until you ride across a poor surface.

I have had mine a while now it does brisk  group road rides, mixed terrain riding, mixed bikepacking and cross races with just tyre changes. The shock  does its thing without being noticed.