Good morning,

The past 6 months I've been recovering from an injury and thankfully I'm back on two wheels, but taking it slow.

I think I'm ready to buy my n=2 bike, and am starting to find shops where I can test ride bikes.

I'm looking for a steel off-road touring bike. Drop bars, 50mm tires seems about right.

My question is: carbon fork or steel fork?

Is the vibration dampening that noticeable?

If a loaded bike falls over and hits a rock directly on the fork, could it break?

FYI I think I'm between a Jamis renegade s3 and Marin four corners 2. Geometry wise they look similar but for the slope of the top tube.

Thanks for sharing you thoughts!

by hello_moose

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1 Comment

  1. Personally, I changed from a steel to a carbon fork mainly for weight reasons. I have to carry my bike up and down stairs a lot because I live in an appartement. There is no noticable difference – for me – in vibration dampening while riding gravel. If that’s your priority, you can look at buying better wheels, changing the tire pressure, or maybe using a vibration dampening stem. Have no fear about breaking a carbon fork when it falls over, you need to have very very bad luck for that to happen in a way that causes the fork to break.

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