Mountain biking pioneer, Gary Fisher, found the handling of 29ers to be too slow and ponderous. When 29ers first appeared, they didn’t catch on right away. 29ers had more trail due to the larger wheels and felt hard to turn compared to traditional 26" bikes. Why did 51mm offset forks become standard for 29” mountain bikes? Many mid-travel bikes settle near 90mm with a 51mm offset fork. For mountain bikes, the sweet spot that provides a good balance between stability and agility is around 80-100mm of trail. Increasing or decreasing trail too much makes a bike difficult to control. With a slacker head angle, the intersection of the steering axis and the ground is farther forward of the axle, increasing trail. If you draw a line through the steering axis to the ground, it intersects the ground farther forward of the axle, increasing trail. With a larger wheel (e.g., a 29” wheel) the axle is higher off the ground compared to a smaller wheel. Trail on a mountain bike is affected by three factors: fork offset, wheel size, and head angle. The front wheel feels easier to turn and it can make a bike feel more nimble. The front wheel feels harder to turn but also harder to knock off line.ĭecreasing trail improves agility. Increasing trail improves straight-line stability. It helps you stay upright when riding on two wheels. This same phenomenon occurs on your bike. They want to straighten when you push the cart forward. Trail is what makes the bike's front wheel self-straighten when it is moving forward. Think of the wheels of a shopping cart. If you draw a line through the steering axis to the ground (as in the diagram above), trail is the distance from that point to where the front wheel touches the ground. For 29" bikes, the 51mm offset fork has been the standard for nearly a decade. Its purpose is to adjust the amount of 'trail' in the steering geometry. The diagram above shows how the front axle is offset so it is forward of the steering axis. This offset is measured in millimeters. Shop mountain bikes What is fork offset?įork offset is the distance between the front axle and the steering axis of the fork. Let's find out how fork offset affects your ride, why reduced-offset forks are becoming popular, and how riding a reduced offset fork feels to the average Joe (me). I’ve studied the science and switched back and forth between reduced offset and “traditional” 51mm offset 29er forks on my own bikes. If you're interested in trying a reduced offset fork, this article is for you. Hungry for more speed, I was quick to buy a new fork and test it out. Mountain bikes equipped with reduced-offset suspension forks started getting buzz a couple of years ago. Dropper posts, extra-long reach, coil shocks, 29” wheels, tire inserts - I’ve always been quick to try any tech that claimed to improve downhill performance.
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