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What's out there?
Somewhere 120-140 corrected range
Anyone holding the forks off their genesis tarn?
I was wondering the same thing.
I guess you are looking for an AC height of 490+mm?
I have a Kinesis Maxlight XI which is a QR fit and they seem to do them in Boost Thru axle only now. I think that is probably the closest you will get for a reasonable price. Not sure how much the Kinesis are but there's some very similar looking 490mm AC height ones on Merlin: https://www.merlincycles.com/force-rigid-carbon-mtb-forks-29-133168.html
Whiskey are 483mm so close(ish) but very pricey. Spec Chisel is 480mm, Salsa Cutthroat and Firestarter are 483mm but all pricey too. There's some 3T ones too but the AC height seems to be listed as anywhere from 470mm-500mm!
I'm sure someone, somewhere must be able to knock up some longer AC height, steel forks but I've not seen any.
My experience of longer 29er steel forks is that they are a bit noodly. I really noticed going from Salsa ones to On-one carbon ones (just 100mm corrected). Extrapolating, I would be wary of 490mm long ones. The ones that come with the genesis Tarns are ali - you would think if steel worked OK they would have used steel forks?
I have Travers Prong which are 485mm A-C, but I think they're 100mm suspension corrected. Not 120-140mm
Only the first tarn fork was ali, they have been carbon since 2017.
I do actually have one in the cellar, been considering whether to sell or not. Think I want to give rigid another try first with a high volume 29 tyre.
Ta, Couldn't see if that merlin linked fork was boost or not. Ive emailed for confirmation.
Let me know if you don't get on with rigid davros, I'd be interested.
The Marin pine mountain rigid is (I think) 120mm corrected but for 27.5. best I've been able to find is 490 A-C.
There is an outfit in the US called Waltworks or similar who has a bit of a following for his forks. He'll knock you up anything you want.
Running a 500mm 3t one to replace my 120mm travel magura 29er fork which was 530mm long unsagged. I was torn between these and the 470mm version but the bike feels good even on techy steep climbs.
Mine from Merlin was non-boost.
I have unused 3month old Genesis Tarn carbon fork sat in shed gathering dust
I also have a Tarn rigid fork looking for a new home! 😉
Exotic are 490mm A2C and the same as Kinesis iX, but £200, so more than the £150 for the Merlin ones up there, which look identical.
Exotic do a boost 15mm though.
pm'd ^
Are the Tarn ones boost? I was after some for an normal 100mm QR/15mm axle. 120mm correct geometry.
Last time I bought some they were only cheap (<£100) but now prices seem to have rocketed. I think limiting myself to aluminium or carbon is making things harder - but the aesthetics of skinny steel forks would look all wrong on the big tubes of my frame.
If anyone has anything gathering dust...
Love the Surly Krampus forks on my Solaris...
They are 483mm a-c, which is a bit shorter than the 120mm - 140mm forks that the frame is designed for, but I checked with Cotic before ordering and they said it would be fine, and it rides bloody lovely.
@the00, What generation Solaris is that? When I asked about rigids on the newest Solaris and Cy said it really wouldn't work with the frame as he designed it (not that it would break it, but it would ruin the handling) although a 29er fork on the Soul woukd not be too far out and might be okay.
that looks weird
I've a solaris max for them too.. specifically for a single day strava timed race.
2019 iteration obv 😉
Looks very long, must be the new one
I have rigid forks on my Solaris at the moment, has been like that for nearly a year now
I'm looking for a set of carbon rigid forks for my Orange clockwork 100 29er.
Konanige, Polisherman - still available?
I really like it. I'm more of a mincer than a warrior so I'm not going anywhere quick. It's been to the Shropshire hills, the Lake District and coed y brenin and I'm still here. Suspension forks would help in some situations but in many others the rigid forks are great fun. I'm happy rigid for now
@benp1 - thanks, when I got the response from cotic I was a bit surprised. There are plenty of 29er 120mm forks in the 530mm range. Minus 25% for sag means around 500mm. So a 490mm rigid doesn't seem a huge change.
I have some of the Kenesis ones gathering dust if anyone up there is still interested?
Tapered and QR
My bike above is a current generation LS Solaris Max, size XL. The website says suitable for 500mm rigid forks, but I couldn't find any of those off the shelf, which is why I emailed Cotic before ordering the Surly forks (483mm). There is no angleset, and the fork is listed as 47mm offset. I agree that it looks pretty relaxed, so perhaps it's a camera trick.
I love the bike rigid, it makes a nice counterpoint to it's summer set-up with 140mm forks. If Cy doesn't recommend it (contrary to the email Cotic sent to me), I'd question whether he has tested it.
Timp i've pmd you
FYI my Solaris is the Mk1, not the current longshot version
@the00
I don't want to put words in Cy's mouth but my understanding is that a 500mm rigid would mimic a 120mm sus at sag, but there aren't any available. The 483mm that is readily gettable would steepen the angles sufficiently that it would alter the handling/ behaviour. .
I haven't done the math on what effect a 17mm shorter fork would have on the angles
I think the appearance in the photo might be a parallax error because the fork looks slack and the seat tube really upright
@benp1 thanks for clearing that up. I think the mk1 and possibly the last non lingshot version were designed for a shorter minimum fork length. I should probably look for one of those to be certain of running rigid.
Replaced the 120mm Suntour on my Bizango 29er with an eXotic Carbon Fork ( 15mm QR 490mm A to C ) which I believe works out at 100MM sag and fitted an external 20mm lower Headset cup - works well - they are still on sale for £105 on ebay
one of these on the bottom..
extender
syncros made a 25+mm lower headset for the voltage but its ec49mm.
Static sag is 25% but av working ride height is around 35% into travel or more. Thf 460-480 works for 100mm corrected, 475-490 for 120mm. Anything in that general range.
@jameso -cheers for that. So with an e.g. 15-20mm lower headset cup with a 485ish rigid fork you should be well back into the right range. I wonder if I wasnt at all clear with the question I asked cotic, hence the apparently different answers.
Or different answers from different people at the same company of course.
On the Cotic answer... I can't believe half a degree off the HTA and a few mm lower BB going from the "recommended" 500mm AC rigid fork to a more available 483mm would make a blind bit of difference in practice
Really good points by James too that a sus fork will spend a lot of time compressed (obviously) so the static sag AC height to mimic is just a ball park start
Some Tarn forks have popped up on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Full-Carbon-Rigid-MTB-Fork-27-5-29-Inch-Boost-110mm/292994983213?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
I also noticed this slightly old post yesterday about Trek Stache 510mm AC height forks being available separately. Could be worth looking in to for those looking for something super tall
https://forums.mtbr.com/trek/1120-adventure-hcm-fork-stache-1088170.html