I’m not having a go at anybody, after all whatever floats your boat I guess, but what’s with the sudden flood of people using rigid forks on their mountain bikes?

If you want to do it fine, but I don’t get it. I mean, given the choice between a car with leaf-springs or one with independent/wishbone/McPherson strut suspension, you’d go for the latter every time, surely?

In my view, rigid forks belong on road bikes. I wouldn’t ride a fully-rigid MTB off road now for anybody.

Cue torrent of abuse from Neo-Luddite beardies… 😉

#justsaying

Low weight.
Simplicity.
Tame, familiar trails become quite technical.
I can totally see the appeal.

are you American ?

I love riding my rigid single speed off road.I enjoyed riding rigid bikes from 1984 until I got my first bouncy forks in 2002.Its simple cheap and I dont have any less fun

They’re cheap, they’re light, they make dull trails more interesting. I wouldn’t go without suspension forks for proper rocky stuff, but there’s a time and a place.

(N.B. I do have a beard)

A good rigid fork is far better than a crap suspension fork . A nice carbon one flexes enough to take the any harshness out the trail.

Lots of people drive classic cars, which have suspension systems that are absolutely terrible compared to a modern car. Why do they do this? FUN! 😉

are you American ?

Your point being?

And no, it’s worse than that – I’m from Lancashire.

It’s also safer for people with beards, because those beards can get tangled up in telescopic fork stanchions at critical moments, totally ruining things.

I bought a rigid SS bike for local trails (fairly smooth surfaced, bermy trails rather than rocky/tech stuff). It’s kind of fun but wrist-ache does get old fast and it’s more about enduring the ride after a while than enjoying it, I probably need to MTFU though. Riding it down a fast & rocky descent a few weeks ago though resulted in blurred vision and it was more luck than skill that I stayed on, was fun for about 10 seconds but I’d rather have a 140mm FS for that sort of thing…

“sudden flood”?

plenty doing it for years…I guess their terrain suits it.

Lots of people drive classic cars, which have suspension systems that are absolutely terrible compared to a modern car. Why do they do this? FUN!

Yup, that I understand – but what I’m getting at is, if you had two (hypothetical) modern cars which would you go for? The old-tech that handles like a puppy on wet lino or the comfortable, controllable version?

Unless they’re telling you your wrong for not using them whats your problem?

I have a winter bike with rigid forks as they require less maintenace, its also used as my touring bike. Riding a rigid bike on your normal routes makes them a lot more interesting and satisfying – its a bigger challenge.

Maintenance free on the singlespeed.
Nice how they move under the trail exactly how you expect.
Wouldn’t have em on my “proper” bike though.

The Challange – Ride with your local bike club and not get bored

johnellison – Member
are you American ?
Your point being?

And no, it’s worse than that – I’m from Lancashire.

I think it was your use of the word ‘already’ in your thread’s title. STW Wordists would have preferred you to have written ‘Why are a lot of people using rigid forks?”

BTW – not my current local club – they are really good 🙂

OMG like seriously.. why are some people using like, bicycles when, they could be using motorcycles or whatever already dude..?

I have a rigid 29er for lighter trails and commuting and a bouncy 140mm travel FS for bigger stuff. In the summer i might put some suss forks on the 29er and take some differnet routes home from work. But at the minute the simplicity and rigidity of the forks suit the riding the bike is doing. And they are cheap! 🙂

Edit: I only have substantial stubble not a full beard.

Non beardy here but i do have permanent stubble as i’ve not shaved for years and i’m not quite a luddite but i do drive a 29yr old MK2 Golf and have no TV, and i listen to the radio – may i offer you some abuse?.

I’ve got rigid forks fitted to my hummer, I also have a set of 2013 140mm all singing all dancing Fox Talas sitting in the bedroom (ohhh-er 😯 ) but to be honest i really like the way the Hummer handles with the rigid forks, it’s very light and i can pop the front up n’ over things, it’s nice n’ simple wi nowt to worry about regarding maintenance over the winter and to be fair i’m not bothered bout hooning round as fast as i can go, i like to pootle and admire the view, take my time to enjoy the ride and have a think bout stuff and if i feel the urge i can crack on at a rather surprising rate despite having rigid forks, i’ve rode rigid forks for the most part over the past 20 odd yrs and whilst front suspension is nice, especially my Fox Talas which are so plush and can soak up pretty much anything but the rigids are staying on till we get a summer and the trails have dried up a bit, so that’ll be 3 days in August hopefully.

I’ll be converting it to singlespeed once i regain my fitness, now that’s something worthy of of general abuse 😀

The old-tech that handles like a puppy on wet lino or the comfortable, controllable version?

I’d rather have a good rigid fork than a flexy bouncy divey suspension fork for the same money. Personally I’m sticking with my expensive suspension fork but I can see the appeal on a winter singlespeed hardtail (i.e. rigid), especially if it was built up as a DJ/pumptrack/XC-able bike.

Unless they’re telling you your wrong for not using them whats your problem?

Haven’t got a problem. Just interested.

Like I said, it’s each to their own, and I’m genuinely enquiring about why people want to use them.

For my part, I’ll never use rigid forks on an MTB again.

That said, the only “for” arguments I understand/can empathise with at the moment are “simplicity” (but then I don’t find suspension complicated) and “weight”.

I think it was your use of the word ‘already’ in your thread’s title. STW Wordists would have preferred you to have written ‘Why are a lot of people using rigid forks?”

Ah – mea culpa (and no, I’m not Roman…).

…to be fair i’m not bothered bout hooning round as fast as i can go…

Exactly! (Though most of the time I am, hence the sus forks).

there you go.. somafunk has elegantly communicated exactly what I would have liked to have said.. only my attempt would have come out as..

NNNNNNGGGnnfff f f **** off

OMG like seriously.. why are some people using like, bicycles when, they could be using motorcycles or whatever already dude..?

Why are you using a computer when you could use your crayons?

Point? Missing the?

there you go.. somafunk has elegantly communicated exactly what I would have liked to have said.. only my attempt would have come out as..

NNNNNNGGGnnfff f f **** off

Probably down to your lack of vocabulary and inability to drag your knuckles off the floor and towards a keyboard, by the sounds of it… 😯

sorry john, I really didn’t mean to offend, just bantering..

Why are you using a computer when you could use your crayons?

Point? Missing the?

no lad, I think it’s you that’s missing the point isn’t it..?

You have asked why people would use leaf springs instead of more modern tech.. so I ask why people would cycle instead of using more modern tech..?

If you would go for the smoother, slicker, faster, easier, more advanced option every time, then why cycle at all…?

keep up sonny jim.. 😀

lack of vocabulary

this sadly is true… twas more a dig at my lack of inclination to articulate my point as coherently as somafunk more than anything else.. sorry if it came across the wrong way 😳

Simplicity ,as in a rigid fork can`t go wrong ,as in lose air or oil and be rendered useless

Because I can,

I’m also considerably faster than Yowe

I tried rigid carbon forks and have to admit for Autumn/Winter riding and climbing they were brill, very light, precise and taught me to pick a line more carefully. Descending down anything that required speed and was bumpy was bloomin’ awful and caused blurry vision and I was bordering on the edge of control, now that bit I didn’t like. So a nice set of 100mm bouncers have been put back on and life is good again… Try them John you might actually like them mate…

The old-tech that handles like a puppy on wet lino or the comfortable, controllable version?

I’ll fix the above statement for you, the amended version is below

The old-tech that handles sweetly if you are an experienced rider with knowledge of how to pick lines and commit to sections with the confidence in your riding ability to control the bike or the comfortable armchair that you just jump on and point downhill whilst merely hanging on as the suspension takes the edge off the jumps and drops that you didn’t realise were there but so what – you hooned that hill man! – that was sick!, and ruled that mahoosive drop, rad to N+1 dudez!

Or what would you rather have?, a good analogy and i know for sure what one is the more involving (fun) to drive- runs rings round the lardy comfortable/controllable version as well 😀

194bhp as it stands now and less than 1000kg, no driver aids of any description – practically a rigid steel singlespeed.

VS

207bhp and 1378kg – every driver aid possible apart from the optional arse-wipe function – practicall an all singing all dancing multi use all day epic enduro trail riding carbon machine….but how much fun is it to drive?….zzzzzzz

Good point Mk.2 for me please but I have always had a soft spot for them.. Is that an 8v or a 16V?

So a bit like my mate riding an old Honda 400/4 round the island quicker than blokes on modern 600s then?

I had them on my ss 29er for about 6 months – they were fun for all the reasons above, but I had a bust wrist a few years back and it still gips me when I do some things – including riding offroad on rigid forks. Up to an hour, it was tolerable, then it became uncomfortable, and after about 90 mins started to become painful. It wasn’t so much big hits, which i’d mince over on rigids anyway, more the general constant chatter of roots, etc., even with the supposed benefits of a carbon fork.

Of course depends where you ride / how fast / softness of the trail as well, but given i can’t be arsed to preplan this I went back to a (decent, with lockout for grunty climbing) suspension fork.

I’ll have the puppy on wet lino option please! Sqreeechhhh………..

#justsaying

WTF. This isn’t Twitter.

I hate Hashtags.

Mine is a difficulty multiplier, it comes out of the garage when I want to make an easy ride harder, because challenge is fun. Not that complicated tbh…

(it’s also really good at snow, suspension can get a bit confused pushing through drifts etc)

Is that an 8v or a 16V?

When it rolled off the production line in 1984 it was an 1.8 8v with 112 bhp but still bloody good fun, 29yrs later it’s got a 2.0 16v ABT tuned engine wi 194bhp, still bloody good fun (but rather faster and cocks it’s leg over the lardy mk6 gti) 😀

On the car suspension analogy, plenty of old cars used lever arm dampers to make efectively a cheep double wishbone suspension.

McPherson Strut is a packageing and cost cutting exercise as it only needs two components installed on the production line (strut and wishbone) and takes up less space under the bonnet (you’d struggle to get a transverse engine in with double wishbones).

I like Rigid forks because:
It makes local rooty trails hard work
It weighs 1000g less
It costs £40 not £400

johnellison – Member
are you American ?
Your point being?

And no, it’s worse than that – I’m from Lancashire.

already ? 😉