need a little help with forks
 

I’ve been riding a fitness hybrid for a couple of years, and I’m looking to add a mountain bike for off-road trails. Not planning to do steep downhills or jumps. I just want something that will hold up over roots, ruts, and rough dirt roads. I know about drivetrain components and gear ratios, but I’d appreciate some help comparing a few forks.

Here are three leading contenders for me from a couple of local shops. I’m including drivetrain information just for context, but the forks are the big question marks for me. I understand that they’re all entry-level forks and as such aren’t that great. But I can’t afford a bike with a proper air shock. To be honest, the $800 would be stretching it for me, but if it’s really that much better I can swing it. I like the full Deore drivetrain and double crank on the Giant; but since the main things that will distinguish this bike from my hybrid will be the suspension and tires, I’m willing to compromise on those other preferences if the XCR on the Fire Mountain or the Rockshox on the Blast are going to noticeably improve things much.

2017 Giant Talon 2
Deore/Deore drivetrain
Suntour XCM fork
$650

2017 Kona Fire Mountain
Altus/Altus drivetrain
Suntour XCR fork
$630

2016 Kona Blast
Deore/Alivio drivetrain
RockShox 30 Silver TK fork
$800

Given that you said spending $800 would be tight, I'd say go with the Giant but really, all three bikes are not much better off road than a decent hybrid.

If your hybrid can sport 38's and maybe a seat post suspension like the Thudbuster, I'd go that route over buying another bike that I don't think you would be happy with. If the trails you are considering are close to single track trails, then go with the Giant and ride the wheels off of it.

I really don't know if that rockshox fork is really much better than the suntours to justify the extra cash. What you could do is buy one of the cheaper bikes if you are happy with the rest of the components. Ride it for awhile till the fork starts holding you back and then upgrade it. Suntour has a nice upgrade program and you can upgrade to one of their air forks which are actually fairly good for around $200 last time I looked.

My hybrid is a Fuji Absolute... aluminum frame, composite fork, 35mm CX tires. It's just right for most of my riding, which is on hilly country roads (paved, but not always smooth). I'm not sure if it would take 38mm tires. Fuji told me the max was 32mm, but the 35s work just fine. Anyway, I don't really want to change it much -- certainly not enough to do the type of trails I'm thinking of. So if an entry-level MTB won't be much better than it, I'll just hold off on trails until I can afford something more suited for them.

Very helpful -- exactly why I asked. I don't want to pay for a "better" fork which isn't really much better.

Following up on that, another bike I tested was the Giant Talon 3 for $500, which has an XCT fork instead of the XCM on the Talon 2. It also has an 8-speed Acera/Altus drivetrain rather than the 9-speed Deore, so that will factor into things. But simply based on the fork, would you say if I'm getting an entry-level fork it doesn't really matter a whole lot which one? Just get one, ride it, and eventually replace it with a better one?

Here's my humble opinion on those forks... my son has a (used) GT Avalanche with the XCM-HLO... the first fork was in bad shape, so I replaced it with another.

The hydraulic lockout version of the XCM is entry-level, for sure, but it's not all that horrible. The cartridge that does the hydraulic lockout also provides nonadjustable rebound damping. This fork is very heavy and reasonably stiff. It uses plastic "slider" bushings and no oil bath. These bushings are cheap and easy to replace, but I don't expect them to have great longevity.

The XCR is a similar fork, but the stanchions are a little nicer finish and the lowers are magnesium instead of aluminum, shaving off a little weight. This Kona has adjustable rebound damping, a nice feature. The tapered headtube gives you a better path for future upgrades.

I think the TK is more like a traditional Rock Shox fork, with metal bushings and oil bath lubrication and a damper than can (and should) be serviced by the user. I think it's a more desirable setup than either Suntour option. It's still a low-end model, heavy and with an unsophisticated damper.

The only thing I've ridden on is the XCM-LO and only just a little bit. But I don't think it's all that bad. I think either of the three bikes would be just fine for the singletrack around here... a hybrid would NOT be just as good for singletrack.

I noticed that. The main tradeoff (Fire Mt vs Talon 2, roughly the same price) would be Altus instead of Deore in exchange for rebound damping. I wonder how well the rebound damping on an entry-level fork would work.

I don't know enough about mountain bikes to understand what you mean here, but I'm curious now.

After reading a little bit about Suntour's upgrade program, I'm pretty close to scratching the Blast off my list. For $200, I can upgrade any Suntour fork to a Raidon air fork. So instead of paying $800 up front for a slightly better coil fork, I could pay $650 for the Giant (or $500 if I would settle for lower components) plus $200 upgrade -- total of $850 for Deore + double crank + air fork.

And that's the thing. I wouldn't need to upgrade the fork immediately. I could ride it as is for a while to see if the type of riding I'd be doing would actually need a better fork.

That's the impression I've gotten just from my test rides of some of these mountain bikes. They are definitely less jarring on bumpy terrain compared to my hybrid.

http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/j...-headtube2.jpg
http://carbonbike-diy.info/wp-conten...ner-forks2.jpg
The one of the left is tapered, you can see how it is bigger on the bottom. Almost all good forks now are only made in the tapered form so just make sure you can still get the raidon in straight if you need too.

Very helpful pics - makes a lot of sense now. Thanks.

I checked out Suntour's website, and the Raidon does have a tapered steerer tube. And from what I can tell on Giant's website, the Talon does not have a tapered head tube. I'm planning to stop by both shops (Giant and Kona) this afternoon, so that will give me something to take note of.

This seems like a pretty significant difference in these bikes - having a serious upgrade path or not. Something I never would have thought to look at on my own. Thanks for the help!

EDIT: Upon further review, although the pictured Raidon fork is tapered, there are two options available... 1-1/8 straight, or tapered. So at least for now, both styles would still have an upgrade path.

Have a look at the Suntour North America site: http://www.srsuntour.com/pages/upgrade

Raidon: http://www.srsuntour.com/collections...nt=27529039171

I'm not seeing a difference between the information on that page and the one I linked to. I think they're the same content with two different URLs. Or am I missing something?

I stopped by both shops today.

The guy at the Giant shop said he wouldn’t recommend buying the Talon with an idea of upgrading the fork down the road. He said it would require a wheel upgrade as well, due to the switch from quick release to though-axle. But he wasn’t trying to upsell me – he actually said he thought the Talon would give me many years for the type of riding I’m looking at.

The guy at the Kona shop wasn’t quite as down on a future upgrade; he said it wouldn’t really be much extra work to upgrade a wheel hub. But he also said that he thought the entry-level fork that comes on the Fire Mountain would be plenty good enough for my purpose.

So I’m now deliberating between the Talon 2 and the Fire Mountain. It really boils down to this:
Altus drivetrain + XCR fork + tapered head tube
vs.
Deore drivetrain + SCM fork + double crank

The Kona shop is brand new, so I have much more experience (all good) with the Giant shop. But I’m leaning toward the Kona bike mainly because the XCR has a damping adjustment. Wasn’t able to ride the Fire Mountain today, as they won’t be in until next week. Not sure how much an in-town test-ride of a mountain bike will tell me about the effectiveness of the rebound adjuster, but it should at least help.

The forks you would want to upgrade too from suntour use standard QR hubs so you don't have an issue there. For the type of riding you are talking about doing they are probably right and the entry level forks will be fine. Like I said if after a year you start riding harder and the fork is holding you back you can start thinking about upgrading fork/whole new awesome bike.

Just trust your gut and go with the one you like best, for whatever reason.

You're right. I took a closer look at the image of the Raidon and it does have QR not thru-axle.

Thanks, guys. I've learned several things from this thread, among which is that I don't need to worry much over the differences in these entry-level forks. I'll test out the Fire Mountain once it's in stock, and then just go with whichever one feels like the best ride.

Ended up getting the black Fire Mountain. Besides having a rebound adjustment, the XCR also has slightly beefier stanchions (32mm vs 30mm). It doesn't sound like much, but they are noticeably bigger just by looking. So all things in consideration, I opted for the better fork hoping that this way I won't need to worry about upgrading it. The Altus drive train shifts just fine, and it's easy enough to upgrade a derailleur if need be.

Thanks again for the input -- it definitely helped in the decision-making.