I’ve a Rockshox Rudy on my bike and for some reason I just want to simplify. I often switch between lock out and open and it’s pretty difficult to tell the difference. Its more weight, complexity and something else to service.
I ride a lot of UK lanes but also do rides on terrain as pictured and casual races like Grinduro.
I‘ve never ridden a fully rigid bike for any significant number of miles.
I’d be putting Sonder’s OEM carbon fork on it; but if there are any better, similarly priced forks I’d consider those.
Does anyone have any experience of both? Would love some thoughts. Thanks!
by colourofsound
10 Comments
Talking bout a downgrade. The biggest spring on the bike sits on the pedals, between the saddle and handlebars.
Try it out man!
What is suspension?
I did a literal 180 and put a Rudy on my gravel bike 1 month ago (Finna Odyssey). Opted for the version without lockout because of the notoriety Race Day 1 had, and partially because Gen1 Rudy was offered with a HUGE discount on bike-discount back in December.
Currently planning to downgrade back to the original rigid fork. Weight increase and the need to service it regularly are not worth it for my user scenarios: the travel is still not enough for hardcore gravel and singletrack, so it still doesn’t turn your gravel bike into a dropbar hardtail do-it-all machine. It does help to alleviate fatigue on champagne gravel though, so you might feel an extra load on your wrists with a rigid fork. However, you won’t feel much of a difference on the terrain pictured.
Your experience may also be different since you have a titanium(?) bike, but I’d give a rigid fork a try anyway.
You might consider the Lauf fork or a Redshift suspension stem to alleviate your qualms. But to be honest a ‘rigid’ carbon fork with your tyre setup should be absolutely fine for your use case. I like clipless for gravel as well because it gives me more confidence in using my arms and legs, they have more travel than most enduro forks after all.
You can try a Specialized Diverge with their fork stem suspension (Future Shock). Minimal complexity with more confort over rough terrain.
Yep. Riding all solid now, just let out more air from my tires or go slower
I have a mountain bike with a Fox32 fork on it, so I don’t see any reason to have suspension on my gravel bike. If it’s really chunky, I’ll just ride the mountain bike. I recently built up a drop bar MTB, and I chose a rigid mountain bike fork. The same goes for a dropper post. If I need a dropper post, I’ll ride the mountain bike instead of the gravel bike.
You’ll definately notice the difference between 40 mm of travel (properly adjusted) and none at all, especially on the kind of terrain that is pictured.
Suspension stems are where it’s at for gravel imo
I went from a full suspension trail bike to a rigid gravel bike for my local trails and have significantly more fun