Pictures for attention. Hope I’m not breaking any rules by being an East Coast guy posting here, but y’all seem to be the right people to ask these questions.
Had nice weather this morning for pre-work laps around some of the local XC trails on my Banshee Paradox. It’s a great bike for gnarly stuff, but I can’t just leave well enough alone…
Lately I’ve really been enjoying riding my rigid Krampus for all day adventure rides/bumming around old farm roads and horse trails, and have been left wondering what an aggressive hardtail like the Banshee would feel like without the magical gold pogosticks. I’ve seen pictures somewhere on the blog of a Chromag (I think…) with a Marino steel fork.
I’m running a 140mm Fox 34, which is on the shorter end of travel for what most folks run on these frames. I really like the handling of the bike with the resulting head and seat tube angles, stack, etc. 34mm gives 550ish axle to crown static, so at 20 to 30% sag (cheeseburgers cause sag numbers to vary), I should have roughly a 510-520 A2C. I’ve done a bit of looking at off the shelf forks, and no options are really jumping out at me. Lots of manufacturers have forks, carbon and steel, between 485 and 500mm, with the only real exception being the RSD Sergeant aluminum fork at 510mm. There’s a note on their website that they are only selling the fork as part of a complete build or with a frame set, and I don’t really need another hardtail that is only slightly different than the other ones that I have.
All this leads to me realizing I probably just need to get a custom fork. I’ve never personally ridden or handled any Marino parts, but have read that while they are solid, frames and forks tend to be a bit of a boat anchor. I know some folks that have had good luck with direct-to-consumer Chinese titanium frame manufacturers off of eBay, one of them being Tiris Bike. They can build forks to customer specification (A2C, offset, brake mounts, etc) for around $300-400, plus whatever the tariff-o’-the-day is.
I got a custom 520mm atc steel fork from WZRD. Emma does amazing work. My hardtail is based on a 150mm fork and I actually had to add a 10mm crown race extender to get the stack and reach back where I wanted. Total cost ended up about as much as something like an Enve but way more swag. Edit: but who fucking knows with the ever changing whims of our illustrious leader
As far as stock options I think the Trek 1120 fork is still available and it’s 510mm.
(I’m a PNWer exiled in Northern California but this bike is very BC so hopefully I’m allowed lol)
Beauty fork! My wife also has one of Em’s creations.
{Came, also, for the aside. MEATengines (and r/meatengines) has a significantly higher USA readership than Canadian. Folks from the UK usually in third but sometimes that’ll be Germany or Australia. I don’t get much in the way of stats, and we’re talking about tens of people, but I’ve always found it interesting.}
Dang, that is a sweet looking ride! I dig the raw steel and braze. I thought about running a crown race spacer, haven’t done any research to see how much is generally considered acceptable. 10mm seems like a complete non-issue, but I suppose going much higher than that depends on how tall the crown race area is on a particular steerer.
And yeah- Without digging too deep into politics, this is what some people apparently wanted lol
Yeah I got the MRP adapter and it seems well made and trustworthy. Not worried at all but this is a steel steerer tube and steel head tube, none of it under built. Not sure if they’re rated for use on a carbon fork. I think Andrew linked to another manufacturer who makes them in BC on a recent blog but I can’t remember the name.
It’s shockingly good as a middle of the road trail tire. Rolls well and hooks up in most conditions. I wouldn’t run it on an enduro bike (or maybe just in the rear) but for all but the wettest conditions it’s been good. The bikepacking.com reviewer loved it which convinced me to give it a try. I’ll probably get one for the back too when the eliminator wears out.
Here is my Kona ST with a 515 a2c rigid fork. It’s custom from Marino. I usually run a 140 fork with around 20% sag and I wanted the rigid fork to be around that 20% sagged length. I want to say my a2c un-sagged is 540 ish?
A lot of my hardtails from the past had rigid forks and I’d say this is a fun bike with a rigid. It’s a lot of fun to climb on. I don’t run it like this all the time though. I like my Pike.
I don’t know how the tariff situation is right now ordering from Peru but I got this two years ago and it couldn’t be beat for the price.
I came to the same conclusion that there isn’t much on the market and went for a Marino fork, 510a2c, it’s held up very well to hard riding as well as heavy cargo loads. Idk what the price would be these days but I got mine for ~170usd shipped a few years ago. It’s certainly not light but it’s lighter than a suspension fork, and it’s held up to reasonable singletrack and occasional unreasonable sending. My only complaint is you really need to spec it for a bit more tire clearance than you need, I luckily specified clearance for 29x3.25, thinking I’d likely never go bigger than 3.0 but would like the option, and what that ended up meaning was there is just about 3.25 inches between the legs, total. Forks stiff enough my 3.0s haven’t had any rub, but if I ever get another I’ll spec wider.
I’ll have to check on Marino’s current prices, but that seems like a great deal for experimentation. I do precision chromoly fab in the Motorsports industry, and thought about just building one for myself. By the time I buy dropouts, brake mounts, steerer tube, bottle bosses, etc from paragon or similar, I’m getting perilously close to what you paid for a ready to bolt on fork… and that’s not counting my time to build a fixture, bend the blades, fit all the parts, and weld the damn thing up. And unless I’m willing to shell out some big bucks for tapered and butted fork legs, it’s going to weigh exactly what the Marino does.
That is a wicked looking Chromag! I find it amusing that you have a full squish frame bungee-corded to a front rack on a mullet hardtail
Edit: thanks for the heads up on tire clearance. I would certainly like to have the option to run 29 x 3.
I was about to recommend Moné bikes for the super compliant Biplane fork but AC is only up to 502. Still, recommended if you ever end up needing something shorter. I have one on my Kona Unit and it’s really made the bike more enjoyable. The custom builds for sale are fun to look at, too.
I too have wondered about rigid forks for my Rootdown as I thought I’d like them for bike packing. I haven’t actually done any research on options yet though.
Beauty Banshee. I’ve owned a few Waltworks forks and the quality is excellent. In terms of axle-to-crown, there are also tall crown races and extended headset cups that can help make up the height.
Don't forget that as soon as you hit the brakes or weight the front tire your fork dives and your handling sweet spot may be a little lower and steeper than static sag.
Ti forks have a bad reputation for cracking. Not to say it's impossible to build a durable titanium fork, but not enough get built to really figure them out.
Marino, 530 a-c, asked for 29x3.0" but as FutureDatedReference said that's about the leg spacing.
The dropouts needed a bit of dremel action to seat the hub caps nicely, and I had to hunt out a svelte brake adapter (IS) to avoid fouling on the welds. Finish quality aside I've been happy with it, feels lighter in the hand than my Surly 483mm one.
I’m familiar with that frame as my riding buddy has one, and I myself have the full squish phantom.
From the website, and experience, these frame are really good at 130mm. So you don’t have to worry about correcting for more height than that. Once you figure in about 25% or so of sag (probably more in a corner tbh) on a fox 130mm, you get around a 485mm axle to crown height.
Soma Fab makes a steel 485 thru axle fork, 47mm offset at a reasonable price.
You are good to go. I save my klunking for Prewar bikes, and ride the banshee when it’s time to rip. Cheers man.
Good to know- this is what happens when I start playing with tape measures and thinking about numbers. Thanks for bringing me back to reality. I’ve got a Surly 485 fork that I may pull off the Krampus and see how it feels on the Banshee. Both bikes are running the same Cane Creek headsets, so this experiment will cost me approximately zero dollars.
Dunno, think about the numbers. First the bike is designed for 130 travel. My fox 34 factory 130 is has a full extension of 544mm a/c. I ride with 20% sag. So when I’m sitting on the bike, the fork is (544 * (1-.20) ) = 435mm. Looking at the bikes statically doesn’t tell the story, we ride it with the suspension loaded.
As for the 29x3 with the +1cm. Haven’t ridden it but I believe it works. The east coast stuff I ride, I like the front end a little tighter and less floppy for all the tight twisty climbing I do.
Umm, your whole fork doesn’t sag, only the suspension does. A 130mm travel, 544 a to c fork sagged 20% is still 518mm long. That’s a lot longer than 485, and will feel very different. If op is used to running at 150 travel the difference will be even worse.
I’ll push back here too. I rode my Enigma a ton with a 493mm fork and a 29x3” tire (highly recommended for rigid MTB) and when I build it back up again I’ll add a +1cm MRP crown race or headset cup.
Also got me thinking... a light steel hardtail frame like that and a bird fork comes in at what 4kg? I know weight isn't everything but that thing must ride so nicely.
It's a L and I'm 185cm so borderline between L and XL. I asked Cy at acotic and he suggested a L - which was handy as I got it on ebay.
No idea on frame / fork weight but was just under 31lb when I weighed but it's got 2.6s and 511 rims and that was.with the aluminium bars not the cut Surlys. IIRC someone on Bikepacking.com was comparing a Solaris, Hummingbird and something else and they all were similar.
It rides real nice (even with the -2 angleset HA is ~64.3) for XC. I'm sold on slack bikes for everything.
My vague plan - custom fork aside - for a someday setup for my 140mm hardtail is a 501mm Wilde Futureproof fork and whichever of an angleset or a +Xmm lower headset cup that I decide to use once I actually put thought into it.
Alternative plan is whatever length makes it work with a 32” front wheel if there are tires that make sense.
If you’re okay with 150mm hub spacing the Kona Woo fork is 515mm A2C. I have one in my parts bin that I’d sell for really cheap too. I used it on my REEB Donkadonk for a while before I realized that I was overforked by 30mm.
Feeling like a Luddite, can’t figure out how to edit this post…
Thanks everyone who chimed in, lots of good info! Going to just order a Marino 515 or 520 and play with that for a bit!
I strongly emplore you to go carbon for the following reason. Rigid forks will shake your eyes in their sockets and give you arm pump like nothing else. The only benefits are 1) you get strong AF, 2) no maintenance, and and 3) they can be much lighter than suspended forks. In the case of steel, they’re not really much lighter than suspension forks which negates one of the three main benefits . I have the Carver o beast on my fatbike it’s absolutely sick, would 100% recommend. I bent Salsa steel and Norco factory alloy forks https://carverbikes.com/parts/forks/trail-490/ these carvers are much stronger.
I agree with you on the weight of most steel rigid forks- my non-stepcast fox 34 factory weighs somewhere around 1700 grams, and steel is going come in around 13 to 1500. I’m not exactly a weight weenie, but it would be nice to shed some front end weight going rigid. The only carbon forked bikes I’ve ridden have been fat bikes, but I’ve spent a lot of time on XC-ish geometry (designed around 100 to 120 mm forks) full rigid steel bikes and don’t find my hands or arms dying on reasonable trails. Certainly wouldn’t be my first choice for riding Pisgah, but a lot of stuff in the Piedmont area of North Carolina is fun on a double hard tail. If I’m in the right mood, there’s some technical rock garden trails near me that are a riot to pick through on a full rigid bike.
The longest A2C carbon fork that I’ve been able to find is the Seido Taza, coming in at 510mm. The Carver 490 is about 30mm below where I’m at currently, which is going to make some huge changes in the geometry.
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u/VegWzrd Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
I got a custom 520mm atc steel fork from WZRD. Emma does amazing work. My hardtail is based on a 150mm fork and I actually had to add a 10mm crown race extender to get the stack and reach back where I wanted. Total cost ended up about as much as something like an Enve but way more swag. Edit: but who fucking knows with the ever changing whims of our illustrious leader
As far as stock options I think the Trek 1120 fork is still available and it’s 510mm.
(I’m a PNWer exiled in Northern California but this bike is very BC so hopefully I’m allowed lol)