The closing years of the '80s and the early '90's were a golden era in the development and popularization of bicycle suspension forks.
To my mind, the early era of mountain bike sus. forks runs up to 1994, 1995 bringing the entry of the early "modern" forks, Judy and others, bringing to a close the era of the early forks.
What was your favorite fork of this era (say, 1988 - 1994)? Which offered the sweetest damping, the best tunability, the lightest weight, the coolest looks?
I'd list:
Specialized FSX carbon/ti air-oil (duh... It's in me name, eh?)
- It's light! (I seem to recall something like 1.9# dry, no steerer, but have never weighed mine)
- It's reasonably stiff
- It's wonderfully tunable - Nice damping gave the 60mm (LT kit) a bottomless feel
- It used pretty accessible parts (RS Mag bits)
- It's worst feature was the lack of top-out springs (thuck-thuck-thuck)
Amp linkage forks (never rode one, always lusted after them)
- Oh, how cool they looked!
I remember when the first Judy's came out, I was working as a jr. wrench at my LBS. I recall being sooo excited as we unboxed the first bikes fitted with'em... And my disappointment at the feel of them in test rides.... Just didn't have that quality-damped feel that a good air-oil did...
What were your favourites?
J
To my mind, the early era of mountain bike sus. forks runs up to 1994, 1995 bringing the entry of the early "modern" forks, Judy and others, bringing to a close the era of the early forks.
What was your favorite fork of this era (say, 1988 - 1994)? Which offered the sweetest damping, the best tunability, the lightest weight, the coolest looks?
I'd list:
Specialized FSX carbon/ti air-oil (duh... It's in me name, eh?)
- It's light! (I seem to recall something like 1.9# dry, no steerer, but have never weighed mine)
- It's reasonably stiff
- It's wonderfully tunable - Nice damping gave the 60mm (LT kit) a bottomless feel
- It used pretty accessible parts (RS Mag bits)
- It's worst feature was the lack of top-out springs (thuck-thuck-thuck)
Amp linkage forks (never rode one, always lusted after them)
- Oh, how cool they looked!
I remember when the first Judy's came out, I was working as a jr. wrench at my LBS. I recall being sooo excited as we unboxed the first bikes fitted with'em... And my disappointment at the feel of them in test rides.... Just didn't have that quality-damped feel that a good air-oil did...
What were your favourites?
J