It looks like Fox is developing a real gravel fork. Its current AX gravel fork is just a travel reduced XC fork and is unnecessarily heavy and uses a 15mm axle with post mount brakes. This fork looks like it will shave some weight, have a 12mm axle and flat mount brakes.
Hugo wrote:It makes no sense. Why not just buy a light and fast XC bike? Why suffer going into a niche of a niche?
Ted King has suspension, he doesn’t seem to be suffering in that “niche of a niche”. Last week I was on a 70 mile ride where 20 miles is pavement, 20 miles are gravel and 30 miles are rough doubletrack. With that much rough doubletrack I would like some suspension, but with that much pavement and gravel I don't want to be on a XC bike. I have a 22lb. XC bike and it is just slower and not as fun to ride on gravel or pavement as my gravel bike. The pic below is from that ride, a little suspension would have been nice.
Ha! I have the original AX32 Fork on a Niner MCR9 RDO. It's not bad at all, in my opinion. I've been able to tackle tracks like the photo above when I'd never attempt them on a fixed fork.
On the harder stuff, I just lock it out.
Sure, I'll look at the new one, but I'll never regret owning the "old" one. I've been able to do so many more rides and go to places that a rigid fork would never take me.. It's worth every $$ and extra gram, every day.
The adjustability's pretty good, and honestly, I think I'm going to be asked to part with many hundreds of dollars to save, what - 360g? And perhaps get a slightly better feel?
The link above is fairly negative on the old AX32, yet when I was making the decision to buy it, I found many positive reviews as well.
Just the other day I was doing an 8.5k tempo down a 5deg rutted valley road, rolling at approx 35-40kph, and I couldn't stop smiling at how the fork totally smoothed everything out - it really was quite amazing.
Well, if you need suspension, you need it. But its great to see a purpose built fork for gravel rather than a kluged down mountain bike fork. Gravel has different needs. shaving off more than 1/2 a pound is significant in of itself. Flat mount, and 12mm through axle are pretty important too.
ToeCutter wrote:Ha! I have the original AX32 Fork on a Niner MCR9 RDO. It's not bad at all, in my opinion. ...
The link above is fairly negative on the old AX32, yet when I was making the decision to buy it, I found many positive reviews as well.
I see your point. But I've done gravel race training rides on my MTB and Gravel bike, and except for sprinting (and weight on climbing), there really isn't much of a difference. on pure gravel (obviously pavement and single track bring out some difference). Heck, with the mountain bike I've done back to back centuries on it, and week long tours.
(Well, its 30 years old, so the geometry is ideal for a do it all bike, and I have done a bit of everything with it).
Ted King has suspension, he doesn’t seem to be suffering in that “niche of a niche”. Last week I was on a 70 mile ride where 20 miles is pavement, 20 miles are gravel and 30 miles are rough doubletrack. With that much rough doubletrack I would like some suspension, but with that much pavement and gravel I don't want to be on a XC bike. I have a 22lb. XC bike and it is just slower and not as fun to ride on gravel or pavement as my gravel bike. The pic below is from that ride, a little suspension would have been nice.
That MRP fork looks great, but its still pretty heavy. Rock Shox manages to builds a 100mm travel XC fork that weighs 1300 grams, but it seems that no one can make a 40mm gravel fork that is less...maybe that Fox fork will come in less than that.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Lauf Grit SL which comes in at 850 g with 30 mm travel. They also make a 1000 g MTB fork with 60 mm travel. Both have low unsprung weight and no maintenance but high cost and no adjustments,
After trying rigid, front suspension and dual=suspension variations on gravel, I decided I did not care about the weight and just built a gravel bike out of an xc-oriented dual-sus frame. I run it pretty soft so that it eats up the small to medium bumps and thus, probably only has about 60-80 mm of actual travel. The rear is about the same. It is a bit of overkill on some courses, but I don't get beat up in rougher sections and fly on the downhills. I was curious about the efficiency on pavement of the travel and tested it on my paved loop course I use for aero testing. At the same wattage I could not tease out any difference between fully open and locked out. I have not been able to do any reliable testing of the differences between climbing with suspension vs rigid on rougher courses or washboards, but I suspect it helps there, too. I just know the weight is costing me 10-12 watts on the uphills, though really less for me, because I would never be able to afford to build a 17-pound gravel bike. I can build up one of my bikes to about 23-24 pounds and so it cost me about 5 watts to have dual-suspension.
Turbogrover wrote:I'm surprised no one has tried to remake the AMP fork for a gravel application. Seems like a logical fit.
German:A (I think that's the name) has a linkage fork with a bit different geometry: 1.5 kg. They also make a telescoping fork: 1 kg/100 mm. No clue how good (or not) they are.
stu wrote:I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Lauf Grit SL which comes in at 850 g with 30 mm travel. They also make a 1000 g MTB fork with 60 mm travel. Both have low unsprung weight and no maintenance but high cost and no adjustments,
I have a friend who owns a Lauf and I am considering putting this fork on my Topstone, or even that 60mm fork. Going with the Grit SL would only add about 250g and make for a very interesting, and lightweight, full-suspension Gravel Bike.
I thought having a suspension fork on a gravel bike was unnecessary years ago when I had a cheap Schwinn 29er Hardtail. Now a couple years later and ~100lbs lighter I can actually take advantage of suspension. My “gravel bike” now is a Hardtail 29er (almost exactly similar to my old Schwinn) with a suspension fork and a suspension dropper post. This might be one of my favorite bikes I’ve owned so far 😬
Wonder what the axle to crown length will be? I think most gravel bikes probably range around 395mm to... 410mm? (just pulling numbers from bikes I've looked over)
I can't see these forks having anything less than 450mm as they would need that difference for tire clearance plus the 50mm+ of travel.
Not sure I'd like the geometry change for the bike since it'll raise the front end and also the bb height..
I like the idea of the future shock stem for a gravel bike over a fork. Something to take the edge off of stutter bumps. If you want mtb level suspension, you should just use an mtb.
You don't see UCI pro riders switching to suspension bikes to ride Strada Bianchi, (gravel roads) because it doesn't benefit them. If you're not racing, then you don't need a race bike on those same roads, so it makes more sense to use a bike already designed with suspension if you want more comfort.
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