You were a lucky kid ,they were bloody expensive bikes.I have looked for that poster as well but not found it

Yeah i know i was lucky, i guess it was a few weeks wages for my dad back then as it was £350 or thereabouts if i remember correctly but i rode my old racer and bmx into the ground many many times and welded them back up in his workshop when they broke but i always managed to repair them somehow so they knew i would get use out of it, My Explorer was white wi yellow lettering and quite possibly the best present i ever got, i sold it in 1991 for a Marin Bear Valley and i’ve been progressing ever since 😀

I started with a Raleigh maverick in 1984 although I got to ride a mates Overburys crossfell quite a lot

I don’t actually own a bike with suspension anymore. Like the directness of rigid forks and generally like to keep the bike as unfussy and easy to maintain as possible so I can just concentrate on enjoying the ride, lower weight is a plus too.

It’s just a personal preference – not for everyone maybe. Been riding offroad for 25 years so it’s hardly a new fad – just what I started with and have developed riding style to suit. On the 29er I regularly beat mates on hardtails down techy natural descents.

When I used to race Gorricks on my rigid bike in the early 2000s I would never finish last and I’m rubbish.

What I would like is for these niche-y steel frame companies to make a matching curved (thus self-centering) rigid fork. It also adds to the compliance vs. all these straight blade ones you can only get now.

while we’re on the subject I have a Whyte 905 frame I was thinking about build into a rigid bike so I can use it for commuting when the roads are icy and come home cheeky when if the weather gets better and things dry out. And for the odd XC blast.

any rigid fork recommendations? The cheaper end of the spectrum looks a bit dirt jump gnarrr

(OP I have a Bandit for trail riding and cheeks as soft as a baby’s bottom so no Luddism here 😉 )

I spent the early 90s bouncing/falling down many of the hills in the Peak District on a rigid bike with awful canti brakes. Suspension and all those other new fangled inventions make riding more enjoyable no doubt. The flip side to this is that my local trails – the-nipping-out-for-a-quick-spin-after-putting-the-kids-to -bed trails – are too easy and boring with any half decent suspension and gears. As such I own a rigid single speed to put the fun and challenge back into my riding. The advantages of low maintenance, low cost and low(ish) weight are not to be ignored.

That said, I’m lucky enough to have more than one bike, so “the good bike” gets wheeled out for the more technical trails or longer days out. I can’t imagine ever returning to the days of a rigid bike being my only mountain bike.

Round here at the moment the trails are all the suspension you need.

any rigid fork recommendations? The cheaper end of the spectrum looks a bit dirt jump gnarr

Orange F8s are pretty good and cheap too…

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/.Orange-F8-Rigid-Fork_125995.htm

Or for a bit more, Salsa Cromotos

Surly 1×1 forks are also excellent if you don’t mind the canti mounts (the posts are removable though)

any rigid fork recommendations? The cheaper end of the spectrum looks a bit dirt jump gnarr

Lots of people like Singular. They work fine for me but I can’t give a comparison against others. Actually I can a little – my 26er had carbon forks, they felt a bit ‘twangy’, the Singulars are heavier, being steel, longer, being made for 29ers, and more flexy rather than twangy I think.

Rigid forks have flex not travel, riding them takes a different technique to sus – point and shoot your line, and be a little lighter on the front. It’s quite fun actually.

(Nice shade of blue!)

Just shaved off my beard. Going to keep my rigid forks though.

Only one complaint about use of a hashtag in OP.. dissapointed.

I’ll let you know 😉

I have Niner’s Rigid RDO forks on my AIR 9, I love riding Rigid. It’s a bike that I can pick up, ride it and throw back in the shed without having to worry about anything but some lube here and there.

It’s all well and good hitting trails on a big hitting FS but you just ride over everything, rigids take me back to that time when I didn’t have suspension and you had to read the trail better. I also find it a lot more fun, I can go just as fast on that as my mates on their full sussers, granted at the end my eyeballs have been shaken loose in their sockets and the hands may hurt a bit but it’s worth it because you have worked for it.

It’s well worth trying, oh and I don’t have a beard!

Ahem, I’ve got a pair of RC31s in very good condition.

They’re 425 A to C though.