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158
Joined
2/7/2025
Location
Durango, CO
US
Edited Date/Time
6/29/2025 9:24pm
With Fox poised to enter the inverted fork market, it seems like a good time to dig into some of the current options.
Intend Edge: Air sprung, simple sealed damper (LSC and Reb only), 3 volume spacers to play with as well as Intend's version of a second positive air chamber (Travelizer). I have had this fork for over a year and know it quite well. It is currently in need of a full tear down, which gives some time to get familiar with the other one.
PUSH 9.1: Coil sprung, more complex damper, and an air bottom out system. Zero time on it.
The plan is to put the PUSH fork on and get familiar with it for a few weeks. See if the spring rate is correct, experiment with the damper and pneumatic bottom out.
Fork specs as of June 2025:
I assume you have logged some miles on a regular fork as well. Are you able to give some insight to the pros and cons on the intend compared to a regular fork?
For myself i just got the Intend Bandit fork on my bike now and have also been running:
- a old but freshly served Fox 36
- a freshly served Zeb(With a Truetune token installed)
The Intend feels like a space ship compared to the ordinary forks. Its something about the absent of friction on the Intend fork that just makes it work so well. Still need to log some more time on it to get used to it. But as a light rider that have a hard time using all the travel on a Zeb fork i feel like this is a legit upgrade.
I loooove USD forks on motorcycles; always have. However, I feel like the benefits of the design are somewhat muffled on a single crown setup for MTB use (More clamping area, smaller axle overhang to clear ruts). There's also more weight in a USD fork, I'm assuming. There's no doubt they look trick, though!
I remember a test in this very forum some time ago that compared the flex inherent in conventional vs. USD forks. Are USDs actually any stiffer? I thought they were, but I can't remember or find the thread.
For Downhill bikes with dual-crown setups, I'm 100% in. I think all DH bikes should run this setup.
The idea was to just focus on the single crown inverted fork as it seems to be a product that is growing beyond niche with Fox and Cane Creek both currently in development.
Having said that; I've run the Lyrik, ZEB, and Fox 36 all at the same travel and all on the same bike as the Intend. As you noted, the Intend is just super supple at all times. I think some of this comes from how the chassis is tuned. It does not feel like a noodle in rock gardens by any means, but it seems to have some "give" that makes it easy to stay on line.
This is apparent in comparison to a fork such as the ZEB which is quite stiff. For me personally the ZEB tends to be reactive and requires more effort to hold on line in rock gardens. Instead of absorbing impacts it seems to deflect at times. The Intend has a very calm demeanor where it just tracks where you point it.
In comparison to the Fox 36 (running at 170mm), the Intend feels stiffer in general. In the rock garden scenario, I feel the 36 has more chassis flex fore/aft which decreases the feeling of control. When pushed hard in rough terrain, the 36 is not as confidence inspiring as the Intend fork.
I have a little time on the PUSH 9.1 now, and it is quite different from the Intend Edge. More ride and setup time is needed, but between the damper and chassis, the two forks have a very different feel.
Not necessarily heavier. I switched from a tricked-out 36 to an Essentials, the Intend is super responsive and as active as any coil I rode before, and 600g lighter than the 36. It is relatively simple - both the damper and the spring aren't as sophisticated as the 36, but the chassis gives it so much performance boost that I see no need to yearn for any additional upgrades. The Intend is a chef's KISS.
Can't wait to hear your thoughts!
Is there anything in particular the Vital MTB population would like to know or see compared with these two forks?
Honestly, everything. If you wrote a ten-page comparison I'd read every word of it.
Maybe not ten pages worth, but there is a solid list going.
Both forks have an inverted chassis design, but they differ significantly otherwise. It will be an interesting comparison.
Can you share any feedback on the fork's torsional flex causing the front wheel to want to drive uphill on off-camber sections? I've heard this about the Push, and the user said they couldn't get on with it, I imagine, thanks to its unpredictable nature.
Here's my million dollar question about the recent batch of inverted single crown forks: Why?
Honestly, why would this be superior to a modern RSU single crown fork? They're heavier and flexier in torsion, right? I know that inverted seals stay lubricated better, but other than that, what's the value proposition? Is the sales pitch "engineered compliance?" Or do they offer better front-to-back stiffness under braking than a single crown RSU fork? The best reason I can think of isn't related to the customer, but to the production side of things, that smaller firms can do their own thing without borrowing someone else's magnesium lower leg casting or having to invest in their own. But that's not a sales pitch for me the customer, and that also wouldn't explain why big old Fox Factory is making one in 2025. Not trying to be a hater, I'm honestly curious what people think. I know Darren from PUSH [Editor's note: not Fox... brainfart) is active in the forum, too, so I'm curious about his thoughts.
You mean Darren from Push not Fox.
I think Darren has shared that it would have been cheaper to have magnesium lowers made in Taiwan than go the inverted route.
for me: noticeable more grip when braking and way less hand problems. i could ride every day in my 10 day finale ligure trip a few weeks ago with no rest day. the fork is just oh so supple. only problem: now i want my shock to feel the same, i felt my feet a lot more in this holiday in the evenings.
and no, they are not heavier, at least the intends aren't:
and flexy? you decide:
There seems to be very little real world experience on the Push out there, pretty much everything I come across is marketing, so an honest and unbiased opinion on it’s performance would be great, especially compared to a Zeb and 36
I rode the push and the intend.
Push: The spring was the right one for me. I honestly didn’t find anything special about it. It worked like my 38 at the same travel. No less friction, no less damping or flex. But a lot heavier.
The intend. I did feel the nice off the top and low friction difference, But the damper was not very supportive and the adjustments didn’t help. It also felt more flexy than the 38.
So as a customer, more weight, more cost, or more flex. Beside the lubrication advantage, i wouldn’t spend the money or take the weight for what those USD gave me.
The lubrication thing is a bigger deal than people realise - currently conventional forks have a tiny amount of oil and don't always perform as well as they could because that oil wants to sit at the bottom. Open bath forks are a little better but turning the bushings around makes for a much better system to reduce friction.
I service about 1 Rockshox RS-1 fork a year and they have been very impressive in how reliable they are - a sid or revelation with the same number of k's would have been destroyed! This one did over 10,000k between services on a single speed ridden in all weather and hardly showed any wear at all.....
I figured a while ago that the "perfect' fork wouldn't be a conventional design, but something else like USD or linkage. Obviously there is a lot to work out beyond just turning everything around, and so far right way up has been the best compromise but if we want things to get better (and they definitely can be) I do believe it will be in a different form factor.
Did you purchase your 9.1 directly from us or through a dealer? Riding a 38 Air fork compared to our coil fork should have been quite radically different. If you could provide either the serial number or your order number, I'd like to check out your specific build.
Darren
No it was a just back to back test with these 3 forks. Not any of mine. Which was good for not making the test biased. Sorry I do not have a serial number
Hopefully, this isn't too spammy.
Chassis:
The inverted design opens up the ability to tune for/aft, torsional, and lateral stiffness independently. This is a huge advantage in ride performance. With conventional forks, the stanchion diameter drives the overall stiffness of the fork and has very few options for its shape, as does the crown.
Weight:
A common misconception is that an inverted fork is heavier. Inverted forks can be the same or lighter. When we came out with our ELEVENSIX shock 10 years ago, everyone talked about how heavy it was because they were comparing it to the air shock that came on their bike. Coil shocks on trial bikes were not really much of a thing. Fast forward to today, and modern Enduro air shocks are not much lighter than their coil counterparts.
Much like then, riders are comparing the 9.1 to a comparable air fork. A better comparison would be a Zeb or 38 with a coil conversion kit, or the Ohlins 38 coil fork. In that scenario, we're very competitive.
Lastly, how many riders are really happy with the durability of their front fork? In our experience, not many, and I'm not just talking about creaking crowns. The 9.1 is built differently, designed to take a punch, and right at home on a full-powered E-MTB. This comes with a few extra grams, but we find that our customers really appreciate it.
Internals:
The increased space inside an inverted design also gives engineers more options. Larger dampers, larger areas for the spring system, etc. This gives several options for performance and durability!
I could go on, but it already seems too salesy.
Darren
Ok...gotcha. Makes a bit more sense as riding one of our forks that is set up for someone else can easily produce a mixed result. Maybe some time in the future we could get you on a proper demo spec'd for you! 👌
It's an interesting topic you bring up @TEAMROBOT as with all things mtb it's hard to seperate marketing with actual tangible benefits. It's especially relevant to me, aka 'a bike nerd who is easily sucked in'.
I've spend a fair bit of time on a charger 3 zeb and ohlins rxf38 for the conventional fork camp and now a bit over a year on an intend flash. I'd like to think the honeymoon period of a new shiny thing is over so I can give an honest take.
I'm my experience they are superior to a rsu fork, it's pretty unlikely I'll ever intentionally run a rsu fork again unless I bought a complete bike. @TheSuspensionLabNZ you would see far more forks than my meager group and yeah I'm always surprised how clean the oil is on my usd and you don't seem to get that degradation in performance you do in a conventional fork. Ie it almost always feels freshly serviced!
The fore aft stiffness under braking is my favorite feature.
do you keep the oil then when you do a service or change it anyways?
Keen on hearing the comparisons...
Change it, just a routine 50hr service. When you slap it back together it's a case of oh. It's feels the same as before 😅
I owned and RS1 for a few years, also on a single speed hardtail (or with gears for backcountry missions)
The seal lubrication was great, but holy hell that thing could flex, I am not super heavy and I was running xc tyres, so not huge amounts of grip, but the flex in even a moderately supported corner was outrageous.
I changed out for a SID Ultimate which is better in almost every way, but u do need to service it a lot more often.
I can only think that its the evolution of marketing. I know years ago Fox had a prototype USD 40 that has 1 or 2 pics on the internet of it from more than a decade ago. Now I feel that has been something they have figured out for years in secret and are waiting to unveil it as the next greatest thing. Honestly, what could they change about the current all mountain forks that would make them so much subjectively better, that you would want to actually buy the fork by itself just because its that much better? I cannot think of much. Im still on the last gen 36 and still having a great time with it.
Long time lurker in the forums, thought I'd finally chime in since I own an Edge.
Riding background: 43yo ex middle-to-back of the pack pro. I don't take nearly the chances I used to (career and kids to think about) but I still like to ride fast and push myself.
I ran a Fox 38 Factory before I purchased the Intend. I liked the support the Fox offered, but could never quite dial it in to get the sensitivity I was looking for. With the 38, I always started experiencing serious arm pump, leading me to cut riding days short.
With the Edge, the thing I noticed right away was just how damn sensitive the it is. It erases trail chatter like no fork that I have ever experienced. I have not had a singe day of arm pump since installing this fork, which I did not expect. The fore/aft stiffness is also very noticeable. I found myself being able to carry more speed into turns with more confidence. It also is very apparent through rock gardens. Quite simply, the fork just tracks. I found myself putting in far less input through rock gardens to stay on line. As far as the million dollar question on torsional flex? I have zero issues with it, but I say that with this caveat. If your riding style is more groomed bike park and/or slapping berms as hard as you can then a USD fork may not be for you as I'm sure you would notice the torsional stiffness difference more than I. But if you ride more technical and natural trails, I truly believe that the Intend (can't speak for others as I have not tired them, but I would assume the same experience) outperforms the 38 hands down.
Also, as for someone saying there wasn't enough support on the Intend they tried, remember that each fork is custom-valved from the factory to the rider based on weight and riding style. It could have been that the owners setup differed from your ideal setup. I haven't had any issues with lack of support, in fact I barely had to adjust anything from the factory, dialed up the compression just a hair, but that was it. I set it and forgot about it, which was a breath of fresh air.
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to offer my actual experience.
no, not custom valved for rider weight and style, they do that on the shocks, but not on the forks. hear it from the man himself:
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/anyone-consider-the-intend-edge-new-age-fork.1131757/page-16?post_id=16481379&nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#post-16481379
you can though, if you insist, get a custom tune if you know what you want
Ahh fair enough. I was under the impression that when I filled out the form with my weight/ riding style and then talked to Cornelius that it was to tune the damper. Either way, I was completely happy with how my fork showed up and that's great to know that they do offer fully custom tunes upon request.
That brings me to one other point about Intend, their customer service is GREAT. I live halfway around the world from them and Cornelius always responded himself within a day to answer all my questions.
Here’s my $0.02:
Robot raises a solid point different doesn’t always mean better. There’s been a lot of hype around why USD is supposed to be superior, but honestly, I haven’t seen anything measurable (quantitative) that makes me a believer, especially in single crown setups.
Instead of starting with why USD might be better, I think it’s more useful to lay out some core problems with current suspension forks and then explore if USD might help solve them.
Compliance:
Across every sport I touch...skiing, moto, MTB there was a phase where “stiffer = better.” Everyone wanted to be the guy bending Head 103s or riding the stiffest setup possible. But eventually we all realized: this kinda sucks. I’ve had that same feeling riding a Fox 38. When I go back-to-back with a 36, my hands are happier, and I fight the bike less. Maybe I just need to go faster or suck less, but from stanchions to bars, we’re starting to learn that a bit of compliance is a good thing.
Do we need USD to fix that? I’m not convinced. Maybe Darren’s right and it’s easier to tune compliance into a USD design but I’m not sold you need USD to get there, especially in a single crown format.
Sensitivity & Bushing Performance:
We all want a fork that tracks well and doesn’t beat us up. Bushing alignment and low-friction movement are a huge part of that (especially under load). USD designs might help here independent legs, no arch to screw things up but again, you don’t need USD to nail this (I don't think?). The bigger issue is forks that bind under torsional/lateral loads. That’s where we lose performance. There’s been progress, but there’s more to gain, and USD might (???) improve things. I don't know, but I do know this is an area of possible improvement.
Lubrication:
Yeah, it’s annoying that oil pools in the wrong spot when the bike is upright, but wall mounting at 90° or tipping it to 12 o’clock for 30 seconds before a run solves it. If this is the main reason to go USD, I’m not convinced it’s worth the trade-offs.
CSU Creaking:
Every single non-dual crown fork I’ve owned ends up creaking. It sucks. I’m not convinced USD single crown fixes this either. I don’t think you have to go dual crown to solve it, but I’m over it.
Two quick thoughts to wrap this up:
1. The current Boxxer is insane. It's easily the best RockShox fork I’ve ridden manufacturing, ride quality, everything. And it’s about the same weight and cost as a Nine.One. I get it, most people can’t/won’t run dual crown, but man... that fork is special.
2. I’m a moto nerd and every dirt bike worth riding runs USD. Moto has a process that is a bit more darwinistic than MTB (it seems) and whatever has worked in moto also tends to work in mtb. I love the way I can work on a dual crown moto fork, and how I can easily adjust things like offset and there is no such thing as creaking. That said, every USD moto fork I’ve used has had a nasty spike issue on big square-edged hits at speed. No clue if it’s a damper or binding issue, but MTB forks handle that way better. So even there moto doesn't have it totally figured out either. I'm simply noting moto seldom steers us wrong (pun intended) and they go USD...soooo...
Sorry for the long post! Cheers y'all. And Darren, if you want to send me a Push Nine.One to test I'm all about it
The fore/aft stiffness difference isn't imaginary.
lots of blabla and no personal experience. try one maybe? i heard that helps a lot with judging a product…
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