"the world's first gravel fork"

[StressStrain]

I look forward to other innovative world firsts like:

first spoked wheel
first pickleball paddle
first alcoholic seltzer
first avocado toast

[robertbb]

Originally Posted by StressStrain

I look forward to other innovative world firsts like:

first spoked wheel
first pickleball paddle
first alcoholic seltzer
first avocado toast

You can't have avocado toast and this fork, unless you're a boomer.

[72gmc]

"It's the avocado toast of gravel forks"

[jbrainin]

Or perhaps the pineapple pizza?

[Talrand]

Originally Posted by vespasianus

How much different is it really? 40mm of undamped travel versus 60mm of oil damped, air travel.

What is different is the average rider has gone from 145 lbs to 200lbs. As a people, we have gotten fat - and stupid.

[...]

Oh good, another amateur philosopher watched Idiocracy for the first time

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by Talrand

Oh good, another amateur philosopher watched Idiocracy for the first time

50% of my point. What do you weigh?

[bicycletricycle]

Originally Posted by vespasianus

50% of my point. What do you weigh?

Give it a rest or take it to Reddit

[Mark McM]

Question: Is this fork intended for aftermarket sales, or are gravel bike makers designing around (this or other) short travel suspension forks? Even a short travel suspension fork is substantially taller than a rigid fork, and retrofitting one in place of a rigid fork will result in a significant change in the geometry, and therefore the fit and handling, of a gravel bike.

[spoonrobot]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Question: Is this fork intended for aftermarket sales, or are gravel bike makers designing around (this or other) short travel suspension forks? Even a short travel suspension fork is substantially taller than a rigid fork, and retrofitting one in place of a rigid fork will result in a significant change in the geometry, and therefore the fit and handling, of a gravel bike.

Canyon, Santa Cruz, and State (which means open mold) - off the top of my head are some mfgs designing with gravel forks in mind, I'm sure there are others. Canyon has had a gravel suspension bike in the market for several years.

Right now the industry loves slacker and more stability. End users seem to downplay the differences. The first time I rode a gravel fork on a frame designed without intent for it I was pretty blown away by the handling difference but the owner was nonchalant and said he hardly noticed anything.

I mean look at how regular Joes struggle to talk about trail - changing that along with reach etc, while also adding suspension is a lot to internalize and structure mentally to discuss with someone else. For most riders it's probably going to be a good thing anyway.

There does seem to be indications fork height is increasing. For "normal" rigid fork designs 395-400 atc is becoming less common with more forks 410+. Tire clearance and fork compatibility both benefits.

[C40_guy]

I have an Enve gravel fork on my LiteSpeed Watia gravel bike.

It's light, naturally damping, disk-ready and takes wide tires.

[spoonrobot]

They've shot themselves in the foot with the "no damper" sound byte. Their target market didn't know what that was but now they're confused about why it's missing because every MTB guy from the 90s says it sucks bc it doesn't have one.

[Old School]

That is definitely a damper on the right side, and it sure looks complicated enough to force the price up over $1000.

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

They've shot themselves in the foot with the "no damper" sound byte. Their target market didn't know what that was but now they're confused about why it's missing because every MTB guy from the 90s says it sucks bc it doesn't have one.

[bicycletricycle]

So, r u saying it has a damper or that forks actually don’t need dampers? I don’t understand

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

They've shot themselves in the foot with the "no damper" sound bite. Their target market didn't know what that was but now they're confused about why it's missing because every MTB guy from the 90s says it sucks bc it doesn't have one.

[unterhausen]

can someone please quote that picture again? I haven't seen it enough times.

[spoonrobot]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

So, r u saying it has a damper or that forks actually don’t need dampers? I don’t understand

Has air damper not oil damper, as noted earlier by mickey d. Once we get a service manual we’ll see what they decided to call it. I think this was a marketing mistake. Suspension forks don’t need an oil damper to function acceptably, Suntour has several air damper only forks that are indistinguishable from oil damper forks at the mid/low end. How well this works for the CC compared to other gravel forks is up for debate but if they said riders couldn’t tell the difference I find that compelling. I’d have a hard time believing they don’t already have the performance metrics for all the other gravel forks on the market to compare.