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Hi All i have a MK2 comic soul i'm going to build up for my daughter and looking to put a rigid fork on it, thinking of a salsa cromoto 29r one?? Will be a general duties bike, i have a sus fork already but not needs for this application.
I know a lot of you folks have done this so let me know any issues/tips please.
cheers
I was pretty happy with the Carbon Cycles fork I got for my Coyote Dual a while ago:
https://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=0&rb=14&
In fact, here's one on a Cotic:
https://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/review-exotic-carbon-fork/
https://www.carboncycles.cc/?p=197
My mate's had one of these on his Whyte 19 26er for years. Taken some beating and still going strong. You can get them off eBay too.
EDIT: @BruceWee beat me to it!
I had a steel On-One fork on my mk2 Soul for a while and it was ok. Bit dead feeling. Had a Salsa Cromoto on a Curtis S1 and it felt much more "springy". Neither were as good as the Pace RC31 I had on another bike though...
*I realise I don't think you buy any of these new in 26" flavour anymore.
I ran 470mm A-C Exotic Carbon one on my Soda. Worked lovely.
not sure i can bring myself to put a carbon fork on it, i'll find a steel one with that A-C range, i've found a surly one and the salsa one, just a fair bit of £££
If you are looking at 483mm (100mm corrected) forks, Pipedream and Identity do things that are somewhat cheaper than the Salsa and Surly's
Or check out the Kona Unit forks at Bikes and Buddies
Secondhand you would likely find a bunch of things too
Second recommendation for Identiti as well, I got some rigid ones from them for my Dialled Prince Albert build.
Why not get a steel one from Cotic...? The one designed for the Cascade.
You'll need an adaptor for the brakes.
Details in here: https://www.cotic.co.uk/product/alpaca#compatibility
I just put an exotic carbon one into my mk1. You can choose length as if you were choosing a suspension fork, I went for essentially a "130mm travel" a2c andit also has crown room for 3 inch tyres. They're not that light, and they're quite flexy but they're properly strong- I had one in my original soul, which also spent time in my mmmbop and C456, so it got pretty well ragged on, hardcore hardtail hardfront 😉 Put a 2.7 dh tyre in it and did allsorts. Then sold it to Scotroutes who is still using it. I may throw paint at it just to "decarbonise" it though, the weave is pretty cheesy.
(when I got it, lots of people on here and elsewhere said "don't trust a no-name fork, you should get the Nukeproof one, or the White Bros one, or the Shimano Pro one." Literally the same fork, but those known-brand stickers add a lot of strenght apparently)
I had a Hylix for a while which was definitely a more sophisticated design, far lighter, also much stiffer but tbf I was scared of it a bit- it never did anything wrong but I trust the exotic with my face, I could never quite trust the Hylix, it was too light to settle my paranoid brain.
Wee note on comfort/softness/stiffness... It is a real thing. I had a steel fork at one point and the difference even just doing woodsy path stuff was really noticable, far more fatigue. The Hylix was similar, the stiffness made it much harder work. The exotic takes out a surprising amount of sting but the twistyness also lets it do a little bit of selfsteer. It makes as much of a difference as dropping 10psi or so, imo.
Why not get a steel one from Cotic…? The one designed for the Cascade.
Won't work on 26er Cotic, MK2 has a straight steerer and:
It is not recommended to run this on any of our droplink or 26” wheel frames
thanks everyone, i'll get the salsa fork as I had an el mariachi once and it was great and loved the singular one on my swift too. I like that style/type of fork having looked at the alternatives now.
I'll maybe look for a 2nd hand one first if not i'll bite the bullet. Its a nice frame still so deserves a nice fork!