Varieties of M.T.B Suspension Forks Available To Buy
Cross Country (XC) Suspension Forks
Lightweight and short travel, XC mtb forks are typically single crown thanks 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 benefits of such a change of keeping the weight of the fork as low as possible and making them easy to adjust this.
Downhill (DH) Suspension Forks
Have you ever observed the insanity that can be downhill mountain biking? Massive drops, giant opening jumps and rotten terrain over a short prtiod of time. Downhill forks can have massive amounts of travel ( 10 inches isn’t unhead of ) to allow for the strain a DH bike is put under.
Downhill forks are usually coil spring to take on massive hits but are also double crowns ; this is where there are two 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
Massive airs, massive jumps and gigantic tricks need forks which can take some punishment forks not designed for this reason are responsible to be damaged, or worse break, causing heavy injury to a rider.
A dirt jump ( DJ ) bike will sometimes be a hardtail and front suspension, although some riders do still prefer rigid forks. Suspension forks will have little travel of 80-100mm and are typically coil sprung as well as being much heavier because of the increased strength than those designed for other off-road bike disciplines.
Rigid Forks
Though suspension forks are way more and more a standard sight on trail bikes they are by no means the sole option left.
For the die hards, those that don’t wish to invest in dear suspension or those preferring something lower upkeep there remain a number of quality stiff forks available on the market.
enormously popular in the dirt jump and street MTB scenes as well as singletrack, rigid Forks offer a viable and frequently more cost effective alternative to suspension.