Finally, Maverick American has made an “official” announcement regarding the use of their DUC-32 and SC-32 forks for 29 inch wheeled use. Previously, several enterprising individuals had been converting these forks intended for 26 inch wheeled use to 29 inch wheel compatibility by installing spacers to reduce the available travel. This allowed the 29 inch sized rubber to stay clear of the under side of the fork in a fully compressed situation. Well, now Maverick has introduced “factory” spacer kits for their forks, making the forks compatible with big wheels with Maverick’s blessing. The as yet to be priced spacers reduce the travel from 150mm, to a 29er friendly 115+mm. Plenty of travel for a 29 inch wheeled bike. Of course, if you plan on running one of these fine forks, you will need the proprietary front hub, and disc brakes only. It’s an “upside down” fork design, don’t ya’ know?

All this leads to some speculation that Gary Fisher Bikes may be outfitted with these converted forks on at least some of their 29er offerings for the ‘06 season. Cameron Chambers, an endurance athlete with the Fisher/ Subaru team has already race tested this fork on a 29er Sugar. With the confirmation from Gary Fisher himself that a new full suspension platform for 29ers is on the way for ‘06, I can’t help but think that Maverick American forks will be gracing the front ends of these bikes. It won’t be long until we all find out, as the ‘06 line is set to debut at Trek Show, in August. Until then…….