rigid forks?

robbie7

i have a cross country hardtail with some oldish sids up front and am wondering what carbon rigids would be like. obviously drop some weight but what do they ride like?

any help would be great

many thanks

robbie

Raymondavalon

I bought some eXotic carbon rigids on Ebay for £90
The weight difference was very noticeable indeed as the forks weigh under 1 Kilogram
These come in various lengths to compensate for 80/100/120mm forks and also come with V brake Bosses and Disc Mounts. For the price they are not bad at all and are well made items.

How do they ride compared to the (horrible) Suntours I removed? Well, I feel every bit of feedback from the front end on the handlebars. They took a little getting used to, the front end is more responsive, but I do like them. My braking has improved too - due to no suspension dive. I opted for Magura HS33 hydro rim squeezers on this particular bike which is now dedicated for commuting.
Here's the Ebay link Clickty Click!

HTH

Sarnian

I have used white brothers carbon rigid before on my Inbred when It was a single speed, and I liked them, they do soak up some of the smaller bumps and you can see them flexing certainly better then steel rigids that I had used In the past. The bike I had them on was a second ride so I did not take them over really ruff stuff but they put up with what I did throw at them.

I have just brought some of the once mentioned above and they arrived today and are going on the bike tomorrow, they look very nice.

edhornby

mmmm.... cool

I tthink OnOne do them as well

2tired2ride

As Nick larsen (from Charge bikes) said "If we had hardtails we'd all go down the hill, just slower"

I would of thought it apply to ridged forks too.

Kiblams

2tired2ride wrote:

As Nick larsen (from Charge bikes) said "If we had hardtails we'd all go down the hill, just slower"

I would of thought it apply to ridged forks too.

I agree with you 2tired2ride, I run Surly Instigators in the front of my bike and I will generally try most things that my mates (with suspension) will, have never felt the need for speeding through technical sections, just prefer to take my time and enjoy the bike.

Back on topic: I am intrigued by carbon forks as reviews do suggest a massive improvement in rider confort, just wish I had the monies and could bring myself to trust carpetfibre

bomberesque

I've tried Identiti Tuning fork steel forks, Nashbar Carbon (same as Winwood) and now Nukeproof carbon (which I think come from the same factory as Exotic/on-one/etc etc straight legged carbon forks)

Tuning forks are cheap, work well and quite comfy but heavy (mine were rev1s and 1400gr :shock: )
Nashbar are nice and cheap, look lovely and do the job, but not easy to get in Europe (Nashbar wouldn't ship to Belgium)

^those 2 are both non-sus corrected though (c. 400 A2C), so depends on your frame / current HA as to whether they'd work for you

The nukeproofs I've only ridden once but first impressions are good. 440 A2C about equal to 100mm fork+sag. They look great, are 800gr, cost under 200 from CRC (sounds like 90 off ebay is a bargain) and seem nice and compliant so far.

You will find they track *so* much better than an old pair of Sids, that much is guaranteed. For sure they transfer more of the trail to the H-bars and my rigid bike is the only one where I can honestly say that I feel the effect of carbon bars. Carbon bars are well worth the investment if going rigid.

Of course it's true that, perhaps excepting DH race courses, just about any trail can be ridden fully rigid, just at a lower speed. 20 years ago I spent a month riding Moab trails on a fully rigid. Of course I was 20 with the constitution of a god and no sense of my own mortality, but it just shows that it's all possible.

What riding fully rigid will give you (at least what going back to it has given me) is a better appreciation of the trail. You will be forced to choose smoother more precise lines ebcause of the constraints of the bike. If you ride another (suspension) bike (say FR or DH) then I expect that you will find this practice transfers back to your boingy riding by allowing you to pick more agressive lines than you did before, because you're doing everything more precisely; rather than using the suspension to allow you to forget the trail, you will be using the suspension in concert with it. Sound like marketting jargon, but it's working for me.

Dirtydog11

As Nick larsen (from Charge bikes) said "If we had hardtails we'd all go down the hill, just slower"

Move over Nostradamus!

2tired2ride

Dirtydog11 wrote:

As Nick larsen (from Charge bikes) said "If we had hardtails we'd all go down the hill, just slower"

Move over Nostradamus!

How is that like Nostradamus?

Dirtydog11

Its a prophetic statement.

Or, its being portrayed as a prophetic statement.

jairaj

+1 for the eXotic carbon forks.

Very light, well made and awesome steering response. The eXotic ones are exactly the same as other more expensive branded ones eg white bros (I think) but are much cheaper.

It took a while getting used to them as obviously they're not going to be as smooth as a sus fork, but once you do its awesome. They are so good at smooth, tight, twisty singletrack stuff. Where ever you point the bike it just goes there!

2tired2ride

Dirtydog11 wrote:

Its a prophetic statement.

Or, its being portrayed as a prophetic statement.

Fair enough I didn't think it was like that. I would of used a different person to Nostradamus personally though.

passout

Plato said,

Try Planet X carbons - great value. Or Kona projects if on a budget.