26" short travel fork for a heavy rider

[chris667]

Hello

Someone has asked me about this. I know nothing about suspension, so I defer to all of you.

They want a fork for someone who weighs 18 stone. 80mm travel, 1 1/8" steerer. Disc or rim brake, 26" wheel.

Please don't say "he should ride rigid until he loses some weight". He doesn't want weight loss advice or amateur medical lectures, he just wants advice on a fork, and I'm going to help him fit it.

We also know it will probably be secondhand. That's OK, but how do you find a good one?

 

[Drago]

As a big lad myself, I can confirm that he's going to struggle to find anything that'll work properly. I ended up having to have mine professionally revalved and resprung to suit.

With air forks initial preloaded isn't likely to be a problem, but short travel jobs of any any moderate quality are not cheap and then the compression and rebound damping will still be poor for a heavy rider. Then the field is limited even move by being required in a 26" size.

I woul suggest rigid forks too, purely because at his weight he is going to struggle to find anything that works properly without serious investment, probably far more than any notional 26" bike is worth in the first place.

 

[Spiderweb]

As @Drago said, I would advise on a rigid fork too. Fit the largest volume tyre you can and lower the tyre pressures which should give a more comfortable ride.
You are talking a lot of money for a 26” air fork, that is if you can find one.

 

[chris667]

Oh, there you go - I thought you couldn't give 26" stuff away these days!

Nothing secondhand worth looking at?

 

[Drago]

You might get lucky used, but unless you're capable of overhauling it yourself you're going to have to psy someone to do so.

It really needs to be air, but even then you're looking at getting the damping revalved to handle that sort of weight. Nothing with a spring will handle 18 stone out the box - a 3 day old Tesco doughnut would have better springing qualities at that weight. I know all this first hand, hence sticking to rigid MTBs, all bar my best bike upon which I had the forks and shock professionally modified (£350 back in 2010).

Avoid rubbish like the Suntour XCM/XCR. They may look tempting, but they weigh as much as a small moon, have no damping, and while they supposedly are available with a heavier spring that is also useless.

Spidey has it really. Decent rigid forks aren't expensive, and with some quality high volume tyres are the best you'll get without spending serious lolly, at which point you're in buy-another-bike territory anyway.

 

[Threevok]

I may be splitting my Inbred (pictured) as nobody seems interest in buying it.

It has Rockshox Tora 318 U-turn forks, 26 inch, Disc Brake, 1 1/8" steerer.

It's coil sprung, but can be adjusted on the fly (using the u-Turn knob on the top). It can be adjusted from 85mm to 130mm travel.

Seals and stancions are sound, but the legs are a bit scruffy now. It may need new (or a top up) of oil, as I've never changed it and the lockout doesn't work as well as it did (not that they work perfectly on any fork). Steerer has some corrusion (as expected) but is sound.

I've run them at 16st with no problems, I can't see how an extra 2st would make a difference. They are pretty bulletproof forks, although heavy compared to most.

 

[Drago]

Trust me, the extra 28lbs does exceed them. You can't set the sag properly on them at 18 stone.

 

[Threevok]

Trust me, the extra 28lbs does exceed them. You can't set the sag properly on them at 18 stone.

You can't set the sag on them at all

 

[FishFright]

Look for something sold a Dirt Jump fork , they are tough as old boots. Ideally get a coil sprung model and then get it resprung to suit your weight.

 

[Jody]

Plenty of 26" short travel available but it depends on how much you want to spend.

Scour ebay for 26" 100mm and see what's about

They would easily take 18 stone but likely to need re-valving to operate at their best, like what Drago pointed out.

 

[Threevok]

The springs on all basic Rockshox coil forks (including the Tora) are easily changed to a stiffer spring, with a mere wave of a socket wrench.

I think the black ones are standard (fitted) and the red ones are heavy duty, if I recall

Of course, the higher end ones will need some faffing with valves and such too

UPDATE: Colour coding depends on the fork model apparently

http://cdn.sram.com/cdn/farfuture/t..._a_rockshox_oil_air_and_coil_chart_2014_0.pdf

A bit of reseatch suggests that the standard for my forks are red and the X-hard are black