Originally Posted by
ricohman
The reason the fork is off this winter bike is winter use. The suspension fork is a hindrance in the cold. At -45 there is no compression and it just doesn't work in the snow. I've ridden both my hardtail and a full suspension XC and rigid on both ends works the best for my conditions. Its hard to explain how snow acts at these temps. When I go to the rockies snowboarding the snow is very different. You can walk on it. The snow here is like dry powder.
But I solved all that today. I bought a Norco Bigfoot 6.2. I can hardly wait for the weekend.
At least we still have two months of winter left!
The snow at ski areas is walkable because they get out machines every night and compact it. Outside of a ski area, you can't walk on the snow. Even using snowshoes is difficult.
Not all forks are a hinderance at -45°. An air fork will probably still work...the shocks in cars are still functional. Changing to a lower viscosity oil would help. Or a spring fork like an old Manitou X-vert will work in any temperature. I have some experience with dry power snow along the Colorado Front Range. It's about all we get. I'd still use a suspended bike for dealing with it for the reasons that I gave above.