What are the pro''s of running a rigid fork?

Darra8

Hi Guys,

I'm Interested to know what the benefits are of using a rigid fork apart from being lighter. I know what the down sides are, but would like to know what positive experiences can be had by using one.

Any replies would be much appreciated.

Steve

Levi_501

Easier to get up hills !

Kiblams

I love the feeling of control personally

ride_whenever

There are no benefits for riding rigids other than the lightness. I mean you can be a bit more of a beardy wierdo.

Main disadvantages are the reduced control and increased trail feedback.

P-Jay

Pros: weight / no energy loss when pedaling

Cons: EVERTHING else.

ride_whenever

You can set up most forks with a blow off valve not to have pedaling losses. Run them locked out with as low a threshold as you can get away with, pedaling doesn't move them, but bigger impacts will move them.

abductee

Maintenance?

Northwind

Increased nicheness.

It comes down to the old you + bike vs trails. How much of the effort do you want to come from the bike, and how much from you? I'll be building a rigid at some point, they can be great fun, if you find yourself thinking that your local trails have become dull then it might just put some shine back. But as my only bike, no thank you, I can't imagine I'd ever want to take even a very good rigid somewhere daft like kirroughtree or nevis or the alps.

ravey1981

rigid fork? I swear by them, i love the feeling of complete and direct control........when eating my dinner








as for on the bike....bouncy bouncy every time

.

Hercule Q

i prefer the all roundness of a spork

ride_whenever

If I want interesting i'll reverse the pawls and springs in my hope hubs and cycle my trails backwards.

Dull trails are more re-vitalised by night-riding than rigids, they're such hard work. That said, it won't stop me taking a cx bike round them.

supersonic

They can work well for many people. As with FS, what is better is purely subjective. Some do love the light weight, snd with some forks, increased stiffness, lock of bob etc.

Buckled_Rims

What I hate most about rigid is: The wrist snap. Hit a tree root at speed and it'll almost break your wrist - ouch.

What I hate most about suspension is: Weight, feel the difference in weight between a suspension and rigid. You'll notice it up a hill most.

If you are a fast rider, get suspension; if you are a medium/careful rider, think rigid.

wordnumb

Rigid forks teach you about line choice and give you a masterclass in controlling the bike / getting your wheels off the ground. Which is great for training, but most of the time you'd want suspension.

boogercj

I'd say Rigids are fine for about 5% of off road riding. The other 95% you'd want suspension. I tried it with my new build. Didn't like it, bought suspension. :roll:

It's fine if you want pins and needles in your arm every time you ride and it's great for grinding your teeth flat! :?

salsarider79

I you run a 29er wheel up front, you won't need suspension. I sold my FS 26er and went singlespeed, then rigid, then to full on 29er. I like suspension, but I'd go 29er all the way.

Rigid does teach you about line choice, also how to manual and, as some have said, brings new life to the same old trails that you have been doing over and over again. It's worth a try.

bomberesque

+

• less maintenance
• no bob (by definition) although some shock forks are nigh-on as bob-free as a rigid when they want / are set up to be
• more direct feel
• lighter and / or stiffer (although some carbon ones are not very stiff IMO)

-

• Comfort
• Comfort
  and ... erm
• Being called a beard

I no longer ride fully rigid offroad, but did for a couple of years and while I'd never ride rigid exclusively I have found that it is good training.

The lack of comfort means you have to go slower ... or choose more precise lines, but most often both. What this means, when you get back on a sus forked bike, is that you are riding more precisely, thus the suss fork is able to do its job (of helping you go faster) rather than what they're mostly used for (correcting your mistakes)

If you have a bike you're thinking of converting, I'd say try it first with a cheap steel fork. It'll be 200+gr heavier than a carbon one but can be had for (comparative) peanuts and you can always trade it for carbon later, if you get on with the whole idea.

Darra8

Thanks for the replies Guys.

A few interesting opinions there.

I have been using a fully rigid for 3 months now around my local trail and love it. My bike weighs 26 lbs so feels much easier on the ups. I also feel much more in control, on the smoother bits anyway! It just feels right. Having said all that, I do struggle on the rough down hill bits and it really does shake the sh!t out of you. I can just about manage a 2 hour ride without my wrist feeling like they are about to snap, but it is worth it, because it's so much fun. I am also lucky as i have a full suss too, but used it over the weekend and felt like I was all over the place. I am toying with the idea of putting a suspension fork on it, but really don't want to add at least 2 lbs to the weight of it.

Cheers,

Steve

usedmarin

Northwind wrote:

Increased nicheness.

It comes down to the old you + bike vs trails. How much of the effort do you want to come from the bike, and how much from you? I'll be building a rigid at some point, they can be great fun, if you find yourself thinking that your local trails have become dull then it might just put some shine back. But as my only bike, no thank you, I can't imagine I'd ever want to take even a very good rigid somewhere daft like kirroughtree or nevis or the alps.

on both of our trips to kirroughtree one of my pals brought his ridgid single speed, equiped with v brakes... very light, we struggled to keep up with him on the ups and he wasnt a long way back on the downs really. and we rode it all a couple of times over the space of a weekend, his spokes did need tightning on the morning of the second day though!
as has been mentioned it just takes more care and probably less speed than with suspension.
we all did it as children most likely when suspension was in its infancy, having said that i have no intention to try it at the moment.

Salsa

Ok I have taken the light weight rigid thing to a bit of an extreme (19.06lb 8.6kg) & pretty much built my bike around a carbon fork (after ditching my Fox RLT80) so I doubt all rigid builds ride like mine does.
It's quite skittish to ride due to the light weight & instant steering if your not used to it, but if you have the control skills to push it it's really rewarding.
I think that if you want a rigid xc bike then an 80mm designed frame with a Ritchey/Token/Trigon style fork is the way to go. Those straight legged Pace/Exotic style forks are terrible in comparison as they are flexy as hell, the Ritcheys are loads stiffer & track way better but only work on an 80mm designed frame.

The minuses are obvious but not as pronounced as some will have you believe, the pluses less obvious.
Better tracking (I can feel sideways sus fork flex even at low speed) , quicker steering, you feel a lot more in tune with the bike due to the constant frame angles (this is a major plus imo), better acceleration (no more power going into compressing the shocks) a lighter bike that reacts better to body weight shifts & steering input, you have to concentrate more to pick lines & control the bike (good/bad thing depending on how you look at it). Sure it's a bit much over big stuff & repeated fast small hits but you learn to unweight your body over the bike & use your inbuilt suspension system (your body) to absorb or lift the light front end over things that you would normally push a sus fork into, learning to float slightly over the saddle when taking bumps that you wouldn't pedal over.

I ride it off road with friends & I'm overall as fast as my front sus buddys, they will be faster over some terrain but I'm faster than them over others. Fair enough some of my performance comes from having a bike that's a few pounds lighter & if theirs weighed the same with sus forks I would lose a chunk of my performance.
Plus speed isn't the be all & end all of off road, I have most fun riding technical stuff that's taken slower anyway.
Obviously I bottle it on downhill but that's not what my bikes designed to ride.
Maybe I've been lucky but the parts I've used seem to have struck a balance between stiffness in some areas & subtle flex in others where it's needed.
It's all down to personal preference though as to what style of bike you enjoy the most

ride_whenever

The issue i have with running rigids on a mtb is that it's such a half-arsed step to being more in touch with the trail. If you really want to do it, go the whole hog and get a cx bike. Far more in touch with the trail and a lot faster than a mtb on the suitable trails.

I would like to try a monster-cross bike though.

Darra8

Salsa wrote:

Ok I have taken the light weight rigid thing to a bit of an extreme (19.06lb 8.6kg) & pretty much built my bike around a carbon fork (after ditching my Fox RLT80) so I doubt all rigid builds ride like mine does.
It's quite skittish to ride due to the light weight & instant steering if your not used to it, but if you have the control skills to push it it's really rewarding.
I think that if you want a rigid xc bike then an 80mm designed frame with a Ritchey/Token/Trigon style fork is the way to go. Those straight legged Pace/Exotic style forks are terrible in comparison as they are flexy as hell, the Ritcheys are loads stiffer & track way better but only work on an 80mm designed frame.

The minuses are obvious but not as pronounced as some will have you believe, the pluses less obvious.
Better tracking (I can feel sideways sus fork flex even at low speed) , quicker steering, you feel a lot more in tune with the bike due to the constant frame angles (this is a major plus imo), better acceleration (no more power going into compressing the shocks) a lighter bike that reacts better to body weight shifts & steering input, you have to concentrate more to pick lines & control the bike (good/bad thing depending on how you look at it). Sure it's a bit much over big stuff & repeated fast small hits but you learn to unweight your body over the bike & use your inbuilt suspension system (your body) to absorb or lift the light front end over things that you would normally push a sus fork into, learning to float slightly over the saddle when taking bumps that you wouldn't pedal over.

I ride it off road with friends & I'm overall as fast as my front sus buddys, they will be faster over some terrain but I'm faster than them over others. Fair enough some of my performance comes from having a bike that's a few pounds lighter & if theirs weighed the same with sus forks I would lose a chunk of my performance.
Plus speed isn't the be all & end all of off road, I have most fun riding technical stuff that's taken slower anyway.
Obviously I bottle it on downhill but that's not what my bikes designed to ride.
Maybe I've been lucky but the parts I've used seem to have struck a balance between stiffness in some areas & subtle flex in others where it's needed.
It's all down to personal preference though as to what style of bike you enjoy the most

Hi Salsa,

Thanks for that.

I would not consider myself to be a good rider at all, so riding rigid probably makes things harder for me, but I can relate to a lot of what you have said. I do the same on down hill sections, by trying to hover over the seat and move my weight slightly back to lesson the weight on the front wheel a little. I have an alloy exotic fork fitted, it seems OK, but have nothing to compare it to though.

Steve

supersonic

WIth CX bike you can't run big volume tyres, which is a great addition to a rigid MTB. Plus the bars are very narrow for precise control. And the brakes are in a silly place.

Salsa

Darra8 wrote:

I have an alloy exotic fork fitted, it seems OK, but have nothing to compare it to though.

Steve

I was comparing the carbon versions, I expect your alloy one has quite different handling properties & is a lot stiffer. The flex on the straight legged carbon ones I had before was very obvious, looking down at the front rotor on even moderate braking I could see it flexing backwards. If I put the front wheel between my knees & twisted the bars again you could see the flex. My Ritcheys don't do either of these things thankfully.
It's good you are liking riding rigid & there's nothing wrong with that, I get comments off random people that my bikes nothing more than a glorified commuter style bike & will fall apart off road. If I'm lucky I get to ride with them & they change their mind when they find they can't lose me off road.
I don't think a cx bikes for me at all, if you look at my bike I'd hope you would agree it's more like a fast xc race style bike than anything else.


It's minus the spd's in that photo & I'm waiting on a new saddle & a couple of other parts.
Also I found a couple of tweaks that work for me, notice the lay back post with the slightly strange seat angle. This lets me put the seat a bit further back which lets it flex the shell a bit more for added comfort & the slightly pointed up front improves my climbing position.

joshtp

somone on here had a lovely rigid, i think built around a surly, but that may be wrong, it was light blue, loads of blue ano, and stuff, its a buitiful thing, 750mm bars, 2.6 tyres, thay may not be wxact, but it was using stuff like that,
that is the ONLY type of rigid i would consider.

Northwind

usedmarin wrote:

as has been mentioned it just takes more care and probably less speed than with suspension. .

And probably more skill! I'll happily admit I'd have been way out of my depth without my 130mm of safety net. I couldn't have got up the hills on a singlespeed for that matter (a mate of mine had his, and spent quite a lot of time pushing Heartbreak Hill, aargh)

Kiblams

Inspired by this thread and due to a shortage of money and the OH needing new suspension forks; I have put the Surly rigid forks back on the Pinnacle. Should be interesting hitting Cannock again this weekend, the missus should be faster (she gets my Toras) and I should be slower

I have missed them, will be good to see if I still feel the same way after FTD back on the rigid forks.