Recommendations for a downcountry fork?

[danielG169]

Hey, all!

I am in the process of rebuilding an old german hardtail, I have messed with this bike a lot and it's the third rebuild. It currently has a rigid HASSNS fork and I would like to upgrade it to more downcountry or even trail capability.
I'd like a ~520mm A2C fork that's reliable. Most people online say to just buy second hand forks, but I live in Romania where there's not a lot of options, and Romanian people sell second hand stuff at the same price they bought it, so it wouldn't be worth it at all anyway.

My wheels are non boost QR, so 9x100 and my headtube takes a 28.6mm straight steerer tube.

I looked at Bolany and other HASSNS forks, but I'm not sure about the reliability, can anyone recommend anything?

[JoBru]

Hi Daniel,

Hard to give proper advice as you seem quite limited in options due to steerer and axle size. Assuming you're dealing with a 29er I advise you to check out Suntour Epixon Forks - they are air forks, cheap to get but decently light and reliable.

I bought one for my wife 5 years ago and it still works just fine (pretty much same spec as you're searching for) And at that price point not worth looking at Chinese counterparts IMHO.

All that said: in this price range / specs you're always dealing with xc to trail use oriented forks 😉

If you want to upgrade more future-proof think of getting a adapter headset to at least fit forks with tapered shaft for more sturdiness

[danielG169]

I could also go for trail, but as for XC, I would just keep the rigid fork. I have a carbon gravel bike with 40mm and ride it just fine on trails, so I wouldn't mind keeping the rigid fork on the mtb. I just wanted to differentiate the two bikes and make this one a bit more capable without investing too much.

I cannot justify $300-$400 for a fork when I can handle all local things with the rigid one, so I was hoping one of these $100 forks on Aliexpress might be good enough. I have seen Sam Pilgrim properly ride one such fork and it didn't break, he was even using them on a tapered head tube while the fork was straight, with no adapter. You could argue that he really knows how to ride and land on his rear wheel first, so he might not have put the fork under a lot of stress, but I can't imagine I would face catastrophic failure. I am just worried about longevity.

[Ludo]

Wolftick on YouTube tested a bunch of the cheap Chinese stuff and rides pretty agressively, may give you a good idea.

[FullCarbonAlchemist]

My suggestions: make sure it’s a real trail fork with the best damper you can get, not an XC race fork and definitely not the RS “Race Day” damper which from ky own experience and many others is objectively terrible. It can make 120mm feel like 40, and yet still unsupportive in that 40.

[JoBru]

"Real trail fork" and OP's specs (9x100qr,straight Steerer) don't match that well IMHO.

If you go by cheap forks as shown by the wolftick guys on YouTube you're always up to luck how well these things hold up - made this conclusion after I had the Bolany USD fork which they tested fall apart on me after 3months of semi-hard riding... So these Chinese forks are no real alternative I would recommend to anyone

In my eyes the best thing would be a used mid-tier xc fork from a well known brand (which are out there, although not so common as with the 29er trend many fork manufacturers switched to thru axle setups and tapered Steerer tubes for obvious reasons) OR save some money until you can afford some proper gear

[danielG169]

Thanks, all. I ended up going with a tanke 120mm fork, it hasn't arrived yet.

I'll be riding it hard but probably not too often, I much prefer my gravel bike. As for saving and getting better gear, I don't really feel the need, there's always better things to splurge on (like our mortgage)