How common are suspension lockouts?
 

I had a cheap mtb in 2004 that I hated for the front suspension. I was trying to figure out if the problem got fixed and I stumbled across a mention.


Aside - Bike buying is tough right now. There's very little available on Craigslist All the Amazon bikes are sold out. Bike shops are all closed.


I was tempted to drive 75 miles to check out this 25 year-old Mongoose I found on CL, but I don't think I'd be happy if I waste a whole afternoon and the bike is junk. Everything closer to me is either junk or way too pricy.

Rigid forks are cheap. Just get rid of the suspension. If you had good suspension you probably would not want to get rid of it though, there is a difference, and you get what you pay for.

Is there a question here?

It's right in the thread title.

It depends. More common on some than others.

Because entry-level mountain bikes sold at bike shops commonly are used for multiple purposes, including commuting and casual leisure riding, they pretty commonly have fork lockouts on otherwise not especially great forks. On higher end mountain bikes, true fork lockouts are actually a little less common because a true, hard lockout is not frequently helpful for real mountain biking, outside of cross country racing where the ability to sprint out of the saddle is important.

If you never want suspension, I strongly recommend just buying a bike without any suspension as it will be far lighter, stronger, and more reliable.

As the price increases, enduro and trail bike forks lose their lockouts when they get adjustable compression, because those two features go in the same place. It depends on the model, too. Rock Shox RC dampers had it, Charger does not. Cross country racing forks absolutely do have lockouts and provisions for a handlebar lever. Rear shocks usually have a lever on the side for lockout. Some cheaper ones do not, I had a bike with an X-Fusion that only had rebound adjustment. Some XC racing ones have a remote lockout that goes to the same handlebar lever as the fork.

I haven't come across many rigid bikes so far. I'm a newb and the only things I've seen are some hybrids and some fat tire bikes, but I admit I have been searching in a pretty limited price range. 500-1000$.

The covid situation just changed and I plan to go to a bike shop later this week, so I will finally be able to try a bike rather than just read about them. It's better this way.

Thanks man. I appreciate the education.

It's not the norm. Marin Pine Mountain and Surly Karate Monkey are a couple of examples.