Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Reminds me of the coffee related named Marzocchi models from before they were bought out by Fox...
I think a lot of the roll in the rear wheel is generated by the way the frame is designed and I would not be surprised there is fairly little (compared to the rear) roll going on with the front wheel. You would be twisting the wheel basically towards the stanchion where the fork is the strongest. I'd guess most of the loading generated in this direction would be deflected to a different axis/plane just due to the structure of the fork, it buckling out of axis, etc.
If we are talking about roll specifically, I would not be surprised if roll was a much bigger factor with USD forks (no bridge) than with rsu forks (I also tested a bridge less RSU fork in that analysis and it's a noodle) but at the same time I would be surprised if the main factor generating roll was rider's inputs vs. The fork itself - the forces generated by the spring are not the same as the forces generated by the damper, on the return stroke they are not only not the same scale, they are even working one against the other so actually working really strongly to generate roll. With an USD fork the stanchion-interface-to-dropout, dropout itself, the axle (diameter and thickness) and it being clamped into the dropout and the hub assembly is the only thing preventing roll generated by the stanchions moving unsynchronised.
Clamping down on the axle is what improves torsional rigidity of an usd fork. Besides bending the stanchions also twist a bit and also twist around the axle. Clamping that down makes it a bit stiffer.
They were also promoting very low anti squat (or even pro squat), no chain growth, very little to no progression at all etc. And here we are 🤷🏻
It's not hex axle, more like square with rounded edges. Nothing new from them, it's a same design as helm forks used from the get go.
There's a chance he is so fast because he wants to finish before his cranks explode.
Nah cappuccino coating was more like bronze color and also very shiny. This looks almost like matt in appearance and shade is also very different. Performance wise dlc/pvd would be most likely the best option and not too hard to get, colour options are in that region as well
Your chin is the mudguard now 🤷♂️
Will it be the return of frame mount mud guards?
Actually, it was called espresso 🤓. I had a 350, good sliding but boy that thing went down as fast as butter on a hot toast.
Heh not it seems the Mocha one is the closest I think from the color palette I posted above. As long as it's not latte macchiato coloured it's fine by me 😁
Yeah, cappuccino would be much lighter
Does anyone know something about a new Megatower?
Towers are not tall enough. Said to be a new 32”. Going to be called MegaSkyScraper. Remember me as I just leaked the companies biggest news. Theyre coming for me.
I actually hope this USD fork excitement brings the revival of the all mountain Lefty. Maybe Im the only weird one on this.
Don't know anything about the Megatower, but 2026 colours and builds have been released. The newest gen 2025 Hightower was released in September 2024, so if I had to guess the new Mega would be released during the second half of 2026. I have the current Mega and it's a sweet bike.
some really interesting stuff w/ dakotah and his bike setup (the rim stuff was cool)
Hey all, learned a lot about bending and tube shapes in this discussion. To your point, clamping a tube is extremely effective at preventing rotation, i.e. the handlebar/stem interface or seatpost/seattube interface. No one makes hexagonal seatposts or handlebars, because bolts and clamps seem to work just fine. Not a lot of rotation if things are clamped down properly.
I disagree with @TheSuspensionLabNZ (which doesn't happen very often, or ever?) that the axle of a USD is not experiencing significant torsional loads. I think the front wheel on any MTB fork is experiencing tremendous torsional loads because of one-sided disc brakes. I learned this on an illuminating and frightening road ride on an early-generation disc cyclocross bike with a QR front axle. I like road rides that are steep, hilly, and fast on the descents, but this fork was twisting dramatically in the wag/yaw axis whenever I jammed on the brakes, so much that I was being pushed wide on turns at 40+ mph, which was horrifying. I had to ride at basically half speed on all the descents because the front of the bike would wander and push/pull so much when I braked. Yikes.
That's an extreme example, and thank God no one makes QR disc forks anymore (for road or mountain bikes), but the lesson remains. When you make a USD fork, by removing the arch from a traditional telescoping fork, you're asking the axle to do all the work in preventing that torsional wag/yaw force under braking. I think that's more of a concern for than rider input forces, but when you combine all those [braking, trail, and body input] forces together it gets really bad. And then add in the left/right imbalance in forces from single-sided dampers and springs that others have mentioned, that are adding roll forces at the axle. It’s a lot
Imagine a steep set of grippy jagged rocks that you have to brake through into a turn, where you're braking, compressing, decelerating, setting up to turn, and leaning the bike all at the same time, with body inputs in every direction, and maybe stuffing the front wheel into some weird rock shapes that want to deflect the front wheel in the wrong direction, too. That's the scenario where a set of overbuilt and "too stiff" Fox 40 lowers are going to be your friend. By comparison, when you're coasting and not braking on a slippery off-camber, the USD fork is going to be brilliant and the Fox 40 is going to deflect. Trade offs. And this trade off is going to be amplified when we're talking about a single crown USD fork. Color me suspicious of these new single crown USD forks. Would love to try one to see if I’m wrong.
Other Fox stanchion color options for the U.S. suburban market:
If y'all ever want to test what real torsional flex feels like, just take a usd fork for a ride with the pinch bolts loose 😬
The different front axle configurations are interesting, iirc intend dropped the 20mm option because it didn't yield a significant gain.
I don't know enough about this stuff to have an informed opinion but fwiw Darren Murphy (of Push) posted a bunch of stuff about flex and torsion when they were developing the Nine One. His conclusion was that the real-world torsional deflection on their fork wasn't significant enough to offset the other gains the design offered. (Can't find links atm but I do remember that that the "hold the front wheel w/ your knees and turn the bars" test was one he was pretty adamant had almost no bearing on real-world performance).
What was old is new again!
I had a silver "carbon fibre" coloured version on a Marzo Shiver SC on my Giant AC-1!
This is the best, and only way!
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2F…
Pon are all in on ebbbssss the MT is dead.
I'll make you feel young again; Acerbis fenders on a chromo Mongoose IBOC.
Frameworks sea otter bike check with Fox usd fork
Both of those vids are great. Neko, FW, and the team are the coolest thing to happen in a long time!
No, I love the Lefty too. Dual crown, inverted, great torsional stiffness, all at that cost of having to deal with Cannondale's customer service.
All these forks have the air spring on just one side anyways, so why not put the damper over there too and dump the other leg?
What patents does Cannondale still hold on it?
yeap, you definitively need to try one of the new single crown USD ones.. keep in mind the crowns are massive, not comparable to conventional and do better job that crowns in conventional that are kept slim and lean for weight targets.. normally.. ..(I can only talk about intend, look at the flash)..Push seems equivalent...
Vital MTB podcast content. Apparently there's very little twisting torque coming in from the contact patch to make steering too vague with an usd fork, making it a non factor.