Originally Posted by
pinholecam
I would say that the ultimate limitation to the bike is wheel size for gravel as rollover ability is limited by 20" wheels.
You get a bit more by changing to wide tires.
It already has a suspension fork and if it complies with the terrain enough, thats all that it will do even with a more expensive one since a better one will only give a better modulated suspension but not give much additional ability to rollover rocks, roots, etc.
Sheer speed isn't why I ride on 20-inch wheels. And root and rock climbing is beyond the realm of where and how I ride. Blue-green(ish) is about as involved as I'm prepared to do at this time. I ride 20-inch wheels because I like the feel of them, and a folding bike is the closest thing I could get to a geared BMX. The factory fork isn't a liability in and of itself; it does what it does, and it might as well be a rigid fork give where I live and how I ride, but I posted the questions because I wanted to explore my options. I've been looking at some fancy RST and Suntour air forks, but I'm also weighing other options (I started a thread about fully rigid XCs a few weeks ago.)