Mtb rigid fork swap

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samsbike
Posts: 1178
Joined: 13 Oct 2012, 2:05pm

Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by samsbike »

I use my mtb for winter commuting and it has a set of 100mm suspension forks on full lock out. I am thinking of replacing them with something rigid - I guess to see if it rides better on the road and makes my commute easier.

The mtb is disc braked which makes life a lot easier in winter.

The alternatives are:

1. A Mosso Al fork for around £40 new
2. An On-one steel fork - £60 new
3. Exotic carbon fork - £100 new

I am struggling to find something decent s/h and am tempted towards the mosso one, as its nearly as light as the carbon ones. I guess the on one steel forks is about 30% heavier than the others.

I would welcome any recommendations as to which fork to buy and whether its worth changing.

thanks

sam
james01
Posts: 2116
Joined: 6 Aug 2007, 4:48am

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by james01 »

Is there much weight benefit from buying new forks? If there isn't you may as well continue on full lock-out. Fork changes usually lead to other expenses, eg headset bearings, and possible questions about geometry. For the sort of money you're about to spend you should be able to find a decent chromoly rigid 1990s MTB on Gumtree which you could use as your winter commuter. Then you'll have 2 bikes 8)
mitb
Posts: 9
Joined: 24 Apr 2014, 10:55am

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by mitb »

A while back I was commuting on my Cannondale mtb with somewhat rubbish but light manitou forks. I'd fitted those years ago over the original aluminium ones for off-roading but swapped back for road duties, and the difference was noticably for the better. Much lighter, no boinging and a nicer, tighter feel all round. However, the Manitous didn't have lockout...there will be a weight penalty over the rigids however good your sus forks are, how much that impacts your ride is debatable though. And you're probably miles ahead of this but the biggest difference to my mtb, which made road commuting so much better, was fitting slick tyres.
Bicycler
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Joined: 4 Dec 2013, 3:33pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by Bicycler »

100mm travel forks are standard so that they can be swapped, so there shouldn't be geometry issues. Just make sure that the rigid replacement forks are "suspension corrected" for 100mm travel. Agree about a second bike being a better option, particularly if you might want to make use of that fork for off road riding later. If you don't do much offroad then maybe a road/hybrid/touring bike would produce a greater performance benefit.
samsbike
Posts: 1178
Joined: 13 Oct 2012, 2:05pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by samsbike »

My off roading is very light as I dont like getting wet. I am running marathons on them and may try some big apples.

The big advantage of the mtb is the disc brakes and wider bars which help in poor conditions. However I would like the bike to be a little more responsive and direct. To be honest I would be better with a hybird but bought this not fully realising what I needed.
mitb
Posts: 9
Joined: 24 Apr 2014, 10:55am

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by mitb »

If your commute is more than a few miles I think you'd be better with a drop-barred bike of some sort but this is a whole other world of fact and personal opinion with evangelists on every side! If your Marathons are fairly skinny, it doesn't weigh a ton and your forks are locked out I think you're getting 80%+ of the hybrid experience anyway, but again, that's my opinion!
bensonboo
Posts: 268
Joined: 29 Jun 2009, 7:28pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by bensonboo »

I did exactly what you are thinking of doing, I first bought the Exotic Carbon forks from Carboncycles and after I had had these for a while bought some white Mosso ones from Ebay.
No geometry issues and saved a lot of weight, I would recommend either although I was always wary of the perceived fragility of the carbon forks, they were very light and looked great and never gave me any reason to be concerned other than they the fact that they were so light I thought they had to be fragile.
I will add that it made a huge difference to the bike on the road, much more responsive.
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recordacefromnew
Posts: 334
Joined: 21 Dec 2012, 3:17pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by recordacefromnew »

bensonboo wrote:I did exactly what you are thinking of doing, I first bought the Exotic Carbon forks from Carboncycles and after I had had these for a while bought some white Mosso ones from Ebay.
No geometry issues and saved a lot of weight, I would recommend either although I was always wary of the perceived fragility of the carbon forks, they were very light and looked great and never gave me any reason to be concerned other than they the fact that they were so light I thought they had to be fragile.
I will add that it made a huge difference to the bike on the road, much more responsive.


Did you replace a 100mm suspension forks like the OP has with the Mosso? I would have thought their A2C are way too different, like 450mm (after accounting for sag) vs 410mm for the Mosso, to have noticeably changed the geometry/handling of the bike, making steering jittery.
bensonboo
Posts: 268
Joined: 29 Jun 2009, 7:28pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by bensonboo »

recordacefromnew wrote:
bensonboo wrote:I did exactly what you are thinking of doing, I first bought the Exotic Carbon forks from Carboncycles and after I had had these for a while bought some white Mosso ones from Ebay.
No geometry issues and saved a lot of weight, I would recommend either although I was always wary of the perceived fragility of the carbon forks, they were very light and looked great and never gave me any reason to be concerned other than they the fact that they were so light I thought they had to be fragile.
I will add that it made a huge difference to the bike on the road, much more responsive.


Did you replace a 100mm suspension forks like the OP has with the Mosso? I would have thought their A2C are way too different, like 450mm (after accounting for sag) vs 410mm for the Mosso, to have noticeably changed the geometry/handling of the bike, making steering jittery.


Yes, although I first went to the carbon forks and then later the Mosso, it did quicken the steering, although it was done for the same reason as the OP wants, namely easier commuting and the slight drop of front end and lighter weight made this desirable and by no means jittery.
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samsbike
Posts: 1178
Joined: 13 Oct 2012, 2:05pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by samsbike »

Thanks at that price I may give them ago, but the carbon ones look nicer
Brucey
Posts: 44521
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by Brucey »

at one time I used to commute on an MTB, about half on and half off-road. I decided I was on average faster with suspension than without; over a week or a month (rather than on any one ride) simply because I got less beaten up. My suspension was fully active front and rear, with no lockout. I will admit I was fussy about my suspension (most of what you buy is rubbish); I guess I chose and then tweaked carefully so that I had most of the benefits of 'platform damping' well before the marketing men started muttering about it.

However, anytime I pedalled at a very low cadence or wanted to stand on the pedals, I felt that the suspension wasn't helping. I simply adapted my pedalling style with more gear changes in stop-go traffic, and spent more time in the saddle. If you pedal smoothly and swiftly (even with rubbish suspension) you shouldn't bob or anything. So, as a means to better pedalling I can recommend it, but I'm not saying that an all-tarmac commute would be better with than without it, more that it isn't as bad as you might think it is. As someone pointed out above, tyres are much more important.

Ultimately converted MTBs usually have (for my tastes) frames that are stiffer than I'd like, so +35mm tyres seem to be the thing to have where on a less stiff frame I might be happier with skinnier ones on the road. I think I tend to pedal less well anytime the bike gets stiffer, especially when I'm tired. By contrast a slightly whippy frame (and yes, maybe even suspension) more or less forces you to pedal smoothly more of the time; it is certainly easier to tell the difference between smooth pedalling and simply mashing the pedals, anyway.

Maybe a carbon fork will help with the comfort issue ( but most MTB disc forks are very stiff regardless of material...) but the frame stiffness isn't anything that anyone can do anything about. Maybe it doesn't worry you in the same way.

BTW I think I have a set of steel disc forks somewhere. Only snag is the short steerer maybe.... what length do you need?

cheers
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samsbike
Posts: 1178
Joined: 13 Oct 2012, 2:05pm

Re: Mtb rigid fork swap

Post by samsbike »

Well the bike has a 100mm fork so 450mm ish however the mosso is 425 so that may work as well
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