Purchasing suspension forks for mountain bikes is not as straightforward as it used to be. With countless different styles of frames currently available particularly engineered to a style of riding, made by different firms which allow a different size travel fork, purchasing suspension can just be a headache.
Cross country is probably what most people think about when they imagine mountain bikers a number of terrain across hills and mountains routinely ridden for fun or against each other or the clock. Whilst this is not the only form of mountain biking today it is definitely very likely the most popular in conditions of numbers.
Like the frames that they fit, cross country mountain bicycle suspension forks must be lightweight to keep the general bike weight down that may increase rider performance. They are going to require some suspension ( normally referred to as travel ) but will not be stiff in order to permit some kind of cover against the bumps and knocks a rider will encounter whilst riding on rough tracks. The quantity of travel normally permitted on cross country suspension forks is around 80mm-100mm.
Original designs of mountain bike forks used springs like you see on automobiles or elastometers however the design trend is now moving toward air sprung shocks. This change of direction in the planning of trail bicycle forks has a number of added benefits ; the absence of moving parts keep the weight to a minimum and air sprung forks are simply adjustable. The disadvantage of this change in design is the parts can frequently be harder to maintain and take less abuse than their coil sprung opposite numbers.
Costs of cross country mtb forks can alter greatly with the top of the range models such as the DT Swiss and RockShox costing over £400 ( $800 ) to the cheaper Ritchey and Kinesis forks costing slightly over £100 ( $200 ).
Tags: forks, mountain bike forks, mtb forks, suspension