carbon rigid forks for a 26er

Mike Muz · Oct 18, 2014

Morning folks,

Thinking of going rigid with my latest mtb carbon framed project. Can any of you recommend which carbon forks are any good, or should I look for metal ones? I'll be running v-brakes btw.
Any advice welcome

Mike

The History Man · Oct 18, 2014

Exotics are nicely made and a good price on fleabay

hamster · Oct 18, 2014

The surprising thing is that they always seem to turn out pretty much the same weight as triple butted steel. It would be interesting to find out if they are stiffer or springer than say a TB P2

PurpleFrog · Oct 19, 2014

hamster":1tgwmvsy said:
The surprising thing is that they always seem to turn out pretty much the same weight as triple butted steel. It would be interesting to find out if they are stiffer or springer than say a TB P2

Except for weight reduction, CF forks are nothing but hype and the placebo effect. I'd avoid them on a non-racing mtb because they're significantly more vulnerable to accident damage and catastrophic failure.

CF is poor at resistance to impacts on the material - and such impacts can lead to delamination, which is invisible but leads to a sudden fracture under minor stress later. Rare, but why risk it? Steel and alu forks are more bash resistance, show significant damage instead of hiding it, and fail gradually instead of instantly.

There's a good CTC thread on fork feel here:

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f ... c764a160ad

Mike Muz · Oct 19, 2014

Re:

Cheers PF,
So what aluminum forks would you recommend instead ?

Mike

suburbanreuben · Oct 19, 2014

Re:

Get some Salsa Cromotos.
There'sa chapon STW with some Niner 29"er forks in 853, going for £60, though the steerer is only 180mm ish.

Mike Muz · Oct 19, 2014

Re: Re:

suburbanreuben":209flm3r said:
Get some Salsa Cromotos.
There'sa chapon STW with some Niner 29"er forks in 853, going for £60, though the steerer is only 180mm ish.

Thanks but I'm after 26"

Reckon I'll go all southern softie and put the Manitou forks on it that are in the loft

rp16v · Oct 20, 2014

Re:

I just managed to pick il some bontrager switchblades in 26" alloy flavour definatley worth a look

dyna-ti · Oct 23, 2014

Had Pace RC-31's and they were fine.
A little scary at first from listening to all the horror stories from people who had never ridden them but because youre concentrating on picking youre way through the rocks you soon forget theyre there. At that point you realize theyre fine.

They are designed to be strong and absorb the knocks and bumps. Im sure there were many horror stories when Alloy forks first made an appearance on the MTB scene :?

And yes they are considerable stiffer than the equivalent in metal

monty dog · Oct 25, 2014

Yup, carbon is terrible at resisting impacts, I mean if you tried this with alloy or steel, it would leave barely a scratch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lsDXEEUlRE

carbon rigid forks for a 26er

Mike Muz

The History Man

hamster

Retro Wizard

PurpleFrog

Mike Muz

suburbanreuben

Old School Grand Master

Mike Muz

rp16v

dyna-ti

monty dog

Senior Retro Guru

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