The front forks of bicycles have developed significantly since the introduction of the mountain bike. Suddenly a need developed for protection from impact of rocky trails. A need that simply hadn’t been there in the past.
On most mountain bikes these days you will tend to find that the front forks have an already fitted set of shocks, with the blades being made from upper and lower extendable cylinders, called ‘legs’. These telescopic tubes allow the impact of the rough terrain under the tyres to be reduced, which will make the bike much easier to ride in rough conditions.
The technical specifications for MTB Forks can change greatly, with the forks travel and handling characteristics setup to a specific discipline of mountain biking. For example, a XC mountain bike rider will require a different suspension fork to a downhill mountain bike racer, who will have a different fork again to a freeride rider. XC bikes won’t require as much suspension fork travel, normally near eighty to 100 mm and can be made from lighter material when compared to the suspension forks used on a downhill mountain bike. This is essentially because they won’t receive as much punishment as they might in other situations.
When suspension was initially introduced onto mountain bikes, a travel length of the 80 to 100 mm was normal. Now though, DH forks offer typically around 150 to 200 millimetres of travel. There are some downhill mountain bike forks though which can offer anywhere up to three hundred mm of travel for really harsh conditions!
Some mountain bike forks may also enable the rider to pump the suspension travel to fit particular sections of a trail. A higher travel for DH and extreme terrain, and lower travel for the not so extreme XC or up hill sections. The rider may even want to entirely eradicate suspension fork movement all together which would be an advantage on a smooth concrete road for example. This lockout capability may even be activated remotely from the handle bars utilising a trigger.
Whatever the style of mountain biking you do, it pays to pick your mountain bike front suspension forks carefully because when you choose the right forks you will benefit from a massive performance advantage.
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