biking – mountain biking – bike riding

Cross Country (XC) Suspension Forks

Light and short travel, XC mtb forks are often single crown due to the mild terrain and to save weight so not to make the bike too heavy to rise.

Historically, XC forks will have been spring loaded however the trend is now moving towards air sprung suspension.

The obvious advantages of such a change of keeping the weight of the fork as low as possible and making them simple to adjust this.

Downhill (DH) Suspension Forks

Have you watched the insanity that may be downhill mountain biking?  Massive drops, massive gap jumps and dreadful terrain over a short prtiod of time.  Downhill forks can have big amounts of travel ( ten inches isn’t unhead of ) to make allowance for the stress a DH bike is put under.

Downhill forks are usually coil spring to take on large hits but are also double crowns ; this is where there are 2 legs of the fork close to the top where the fork joins the handle bar.  Double crown forks offer double the suspension of single crown forks.

Dirt Jump (DJ) Suspension Forks

Big airs, giant jumps and massive tricks require forks which can take some punishment forks not designed for this purpose are liable to be damaged, or worse break, causing major injury to a rider.

A dirt jump ( DJ ) bike will typically be a hardtail and front suspension, although some riders do still like rigid forks.  Suspension forks will have tiny travel of 80-100mm and are normally coil sprung as well as being much heavier thanks to the increased strength than those designed for other off-road bike disciplines.

Rigid Forks

Though suspension forks are more and more a common sight on mountain bikes they are by no means the only option left.

For the die hards, those that do not wish to take a position in dear suspension or those preferring something lower upkeep there remain a number of quality firm forks available on the market.

extremely popular in the dirt jump and street MTB scenes as well as singletrack, stiff Forks provide a practicable and often more economical alternative choice to suspension.

The front forks of bikes have developed greatly since the introduction of the mountain bike. Suddenly a need arose for protection from impact of rocky terrain. A requirement that simply hadn’t been there previously.

Commonly on MTB’s now days you will tend to find that the forks at the front of the bike have an integrated set of shock absorbers, with the blades being made from upper and lower extendable cylinders, called ‘legs’. These telescopic tubes allow the impact of the extreme surface under the wheel to be reduced, thereby making the bike much easier to ride in rough conditions.

The design for MTB Forks can vary greatly, with the forks travel and handling characteristics setup to a specific discipline of mountain biking. For example, the XC mountain bike rider will need a different suspension fork to a DH mountain bike rider, who will have a different setup again to a freeride mountain bike rider. XC bikes will not need as much suspension travel, typically around eighty to 100 millimeters and can be made from lighter metal when compared to the suspension forks used on a downhill bike. This is basically because they won’t receive as much punishment as they might during cross country riding.

When suspension was originally introduced onto mountain bikes, a travel length of the 80 to 100 mm was typical. Now though, downhill forks offer typically around one hundred and fifty to two hundred millimetres of travel. There are some downhill MTB forks though which can offer anywhere up to three hundred millimetres of travel for really harsh terrain!

Some MTB forks may also enable the rider to adjust the suspension travel to fit particular sections of terrain. More travel for DH and extreme terrain, and less travel for the not so extreme cross country or up hill sections. The rider may even want to entirely eliminate suspension movement all together which would be an advantage on a smooth concrete road for example. This lockout ability may even be activated externally from the handle bars using a trigger.

Whichever discipline of mountain biking you do, it benefits you to choose your mountain bike front suspension forks carefully because when you pick the correct ones you will gain a significant change in performance.