Description:Urban assault, North Shore, or big piles of dirt in someone else’s back yard – these are your playgrounds. You want a fork that can handle your Freeride adventures, look no further than the triple clamp FR 1.5 or the single crown DT 1.2. Both forks share the proven damper technology from their bigger cousin, the DH 1.8, so you know they can handle your needs. Aluminum stanchion tubes, massively built CNC’d aluminum arch with super stiff 20mm dropout lowers assure that your landings will be precise.
AC1 with 7 inch rear travel mod, SRAM/XT 8 speed, hayes hydros
Bottom Line:
This is a super light and very functional fork. Very plush and smooth. Rebound and compression damping really works well. The damper cart is nitro charged. Not sure when that'll need servicing but that's one of the things I don't like. I like to do my own maintanence and I don't have nitrogen handy.
The double crown 6 inches of travel is sweet! I've always bought Marzocchis for the rough stuff and White brothers for my XC/trail bikes. This was my first "crossover" to WB for long travel bigger hit riding. Love it! I think it's the damping adjustment but my bike actually feels like it climbs better compared to the Z150 SL I had on it, less crazy bobbing.
The only thing I don't like, and this happens to all my WB forks even with anal retentive style maintenance, is the really really minute amount of fore-aft play in the fork/slider interface. Probably the small/light weight bushings and the spacing between them. And the seals are pretty poor so I have to keep up with the cleaning. Hopefully Enduroforkseals.com will start making some WB seals.
The other thing is get the 20mm version. I got the standard drop out version. with 6 inches of travel, 20mm just seems more secure, plus it'll add to the stiffness of the fork. I may upgrade to the 20mm lowers soon.
Update the fork seals, bulk up on the bushings (atleast on the long travel forks) and widen up the fork and you'll get 5 chillis. For now I'll give 4 even though I love the fork and will be keeping it until it or I die, but the upkeep is just a bit too much.
$
Overall Rating:
