Brian Johnson

Hi Beth,

For the past couple of summers I've raced my MTB with the suspension
fork locked out-- that is it behaves as a rigid fork. (Plus I race
cyclocross on a bike with a rigid fork.) I tried one STXC with my
MTB's fork active and found the bobbing to be annoying.

Personally I prefer a fully rigid bike for the short track races--
you're moving around so much (standing to sprint or power up a short
and steep rise) and the races themselves are so short in duration
that I don't feel a suspension fork confers any advantage.

I think most folks here would say that you don't need to buy a
suspension fork. Just race what you have!

However, for longer cross-country races or rides, a suspension fork
is a definite plus and can help keep you from feeling beat up at the
end.

Cheers!
Brian J.

> From: beth
> Subject: [OBRA Chat] short track xc w/rigid fork?
> To: obra@list.obra.org
> Message-ID: <4a2fc0b0ea1cb_d8bf409f053b84893@lizard.obra.org.tmail>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> New to off-road racing. Racing at PIR next week with a Kona Fire
> Mountain that's set up as a single-speed (it's basically sort of
> like a really big kids' BMX bike). Light and fast, and so far has
> been lots of fun to ride. I'm hearing from friends who ride lots of
> off-road that I ought to consider "upgrading" to a shock fork.
> Based on my experience and the type of racing involved, how much of
> an "upgrade" would this be? Am I missing something?
>

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