[jtarr]

Hi there,

So I'm sure this question has been asked about a million times, but I thought I'd asked because I'm unsure of my dilemma here. I recently got a Trek Procaliber 9.6 (a hardtail MTB) a few months ago and have been riding it quite a bit on a mix of pavement, gravel roads and canal paths. I have yet to go on singletrack though. (I did come across a little bit of rocky doubletrack section just outside Flagstaff however). I did a gravel ride in between Patagonia and Sonoita areas and loved it and I can definitely find myself riding a little bit more of types of roads in the future. With that said, I'm looking to shave some weight off my bike as I love climbing and a rigid fork sounds appealing.

As of right now, I'm looking to purchase either a carbon rigid fork (I have my eyes set on a ENVE Mtn fork or a Niner RDO fork - each have bosses for bags or bottle cages which intrigue me as well) or upgrade to a high end suspension fork which will still shave weight off the bike. Eventually I do want to get into some bikepacking. Right now I have a Rockshox Recon Gold RL with a 100mm travel up front. And I'm looking at the SID Ultimate SL as an upgrade. My question to you guys is it better it to go to a rigid carbon fork or upgrade to a much lighter fork for AZ gravel roads (forest roads, doubletrack etc.)? Would appreciate any advice and thank you for your time.

 

[DrDon]

Custom WaltWorks with a 2.8 tire, OneUp bars and foam grips.

It seems that suspension holds the edge by what I observed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[desert_rider]

Personally, I'd go with an upgraded suspension fork given the bike and set up, and if you plan on riding trails it's a no brainer. You will lose about 1 lb with the SID, 2.5 lb moving to a rigid, but the benefit of having suspension when you need it is going to make life nice, and will be needed if you get into bikepacking mountain bike trails i.e. AZ Trail (some can do it rigid on a single speed...good for them).
You can lock out the SID to have the benefits of rigid, and when things get rough, you have suspension. If you are getting into long days, it does help easing some of the stress on neck, shoulder, forearms, and wrists having suspension, and while most forest roads are pretty mellow, you will run into some that are rough, and it's nice having a bit of squish. You can run a rigid fork up front, with a wide tire on low PSI to ease the bumps, but then you are eating into your weight savings of the fork.
Or, you take a different path, and create a sound case as to why you also need a Salsa Cutthroat

 

[unerlaubt]

Hi there,

So I'm sure this question has been asked about a million times, but I thought I'd asked because I'm unsure of my dilemma here. I recently got a Trek Procaliber 9.6 (a hardtail MTB) a few months ago and have been riding it quite a bit on a mix of pavement, gravel roads and canal paths. I have yet to go on singletrack though. (I did come across a little bit of rocky doubletrack section just outside Flagstaff however). I did a gravel ride in between Patagonia and Sonoita areas and loved it and I can definitely find myself riding a little bit more of types of roads in the future. With that said, I'm looking to shave some weight off my bike as I love climbing and a rigid fork sounds appealing.

As of right now, I'm looking to purchase either a carbon rigid fork (I have my eyes set on a ENVE Mtn fork or a Niner RDO fork - each have bosses for bags or bottle cages which intrigue me as well) or upgrade to a high end suspension fork which will still shave weight off the bike. Eventually I do want to get into some bikepacking. Right now I have a Rockshox Recon Gold RL with a 100mm travel up front. And I'm looking at the SID Ultimate SL as an upgrade. My question to you guys is it better it to go to a rigid carbon fork or upgrade to a much lighter fork for AZ gravel roads (forest roads, doubletrack etc.)? Would appreciate any advice and thank you for your time.

just mind the axle to crown measure on those rigid forks, some of them can be a bit short on a mtb compared to the sus fork they are designed to work with.

 

[jtarr]

Personally, I'd go with an upgraded suspension fork given the bike and set up, and if you plan on riding trails it's a no brainer. You will lose about 1 lb with the SID, 2.5 lb moving to a rigid, but the benefit of having suspension when you need it is going to make life nice, and will be needed if you get into bikepacking mountain bike trails i.e. AZ Trail (some can do it rigid on a single speed...good for them).
You can lock out the SID to have the benefits of rigid, and when things get rough, you have suspension. If you are getting into long days, it does help easing some of the stress on neck, shoulder, forearms, and wrists having suspension, and while most forest roads are pretty mellow, you will run into some that are rough, and it's nice having a bit of squish. You can run a rigid fork up front, with a wide tire on low PSI to ease the bumps, but then you are eating into your weight savings of the fork.
Or, you take a different path, and create a sound case as to why you also need a Salsa Cutthroat

I appreciate the advice everyone. I actually did decide to go with the SID fork. You're right there are some roads which would be nice on a suspension fork and ultimately that's what it came down to. And damn that Salsa Cutthroat looks pretty sweet. I had no idea that something like that even existed. Looks comfy for long rides. Can definitely see that as my next bike. And looks like I could use the SID XC fork on it too (which is insane).