Is Rock Shox testing a long travel 29″er fork? Rumors have been whispered that the fork maker would be introducing some sort of long travel 29″er fork for at least two years now. Now there is some evidence that this perhaps is true.
CENSORED!!
Here is a photo from a thread on mtbr.com showing a Lenz Behemoth fitted with what looks to be a Rock Shox type fork. Note the through axle which looks like a Maxle which would be a dead giveaway that this is a Rock Shox fork. There also appears to be a bulge in the middle of the lowers that is reminiscent of the new SID design and has been seen on the new version of the Reba as well.
No word yet on the internals as the principals involved with the testing are not talking. Typically companies do not develope new damping technologies for their 29″er forks, so it would be fair to assume that the guts are based off some current Rock Shox platform. We are hoping to see some new 29″er product at Sea Otter next week and my feeling is that we will be hearing more about this fork at that time. We are also hearing rumors of a 29 inch version of the SID, as well, so Sea Otter could be chock full of springy news!
I think it’s pretty obvious that is the newly redesigned Reba to be launched at SO in a week. I’m sort of confused that you seem to not be privy…yet you have posted info on this site prior???
Judging from stantion exposure – this looks to be about 5″ of travel. It didn’t seem that the released Reba at Frostbike was more than 4″, so this would be something new, eh?
very interesting – thanks for the post.
Whatever it is, it’ll be a welcome addition. I’d love to see it turn out to be a U-turn Reba.
jncarpenter: As martini says, it doesn’t look like it is just 4 inches of travel and who is to say that what we are looking at doesn’t have a U-Turn?
I think it is something new, but there is a chance you are correct.
A Pike 29er? What offset 51 or 44mm? It owuld be ideal for Lunchbox or Blut LT 29er 🙂
why do you need a long travel fork? isnt that what the 29″tire is supposed to do?
trevor: My next post will be of interest to you and is about this very question. 🙂
The upcoming maxle’d Reba will reportedly be available as 80-100-120mm travel (which is only 7mm less than 5″) Those are pretty obviously Reba lowers and definitely no bigger than 32mm stanchions. IMHO anyways 🙂
How is that not a white brothers Fluid-29?
Censored?! Lame. Way Lame.
Dirt McGirt: Yeah, so it is, but the info is forthcoming after the “Official” release. That should be in the next day or so here at Sea Otter.
Let me just say that we have seen this before, it’s been pictured here back in February, and it was all over mtbr.com too.
Different flavors, same name. 😉
Know what I mean?
I’m testing a thru axle 120mm 29er fork for Rockshox.
As a xc rider it took some convincing for me to adopt the thru axle let alone stepping up to a 120mm.
During the first ride I was absolutely astounded how well the thru axle fork improved the frontend stability. Riding off-camber hillsides is where the thru axle shines with improved frontend control and stability
The 120mm rocked hard down the rocky trail with some good sized dropoff’s where as a 6ft rider I struggle.
A xc rider who values light weight over anything is totally sold on thru axle and very happy with the 120mm travel on rough Colorado trails