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Must Know for Beginners: Types and Characteristics of Mountain Bike Shock Absorber Forks
2024-03-09 17:57:07
The front fork of a mountain bike is an important component, and the question that friends who are preparing to buy a mountain bike often ask is: Is the front fork really important? In fact, the quality of mountain bike front forks will directly affect the off-road performance and riding comfort of mountain bikes. Therefore, according to your riding environment, you should choose different mountain bike front forks. Today, the editor will take you to understand the types and characteristics of front forks for mountain bikes.
Composition name of shock absorber front fork
Let's first popularize the appearance and names of various parts of the shock absorber front fork. Common shock absorber front forks are composed of upper pipes (rudder pipes), fork shoulders, shoulder covers, travel pipes (inner pipes), fork barrels (outer pipes), fork feet, brake seats, and other parts.
As the name suggests, shock absorption is an essential function of the front fork. When riding under the influence of gravity and resistance, the front fork is compressed to its extreme point, and then rebounds continuously to repeat this action, greatly reducing unnecessary bumps and providing a more comfortable riding experience. It also has the effect of avoiding injury and overturning. Now, let's take a look at the types of shock-absorbing media in the front fork, which can be basically classified as follows: U-shaped rubber front fork, spring front fork, oil spring front fork, oil pneumatic front fork, and double pneumatic front fork.
Uni rubber front fork: used as a shock absorber for mountain bikes, but now it is very rare. Youli adhesive is made of polyurethane material, with a light weight and simple structure, and relatively low maintenance requirements. However, due to the continuous increase in fork travel in recent years, Uni glue has had to withdraw from the market due to its own shortcomings. Because this material requires high stacking to achieve long stroke shock absorption, it cannot be compared to springs and air forks.
Spring fork: It uses a spring as the shock-absorbing medium. Its structure is simple, usually with one spring on one side of the front fork or springs on both sides, with the former being the majority. This type of fork has low cost and is not expensive. Famous brands usually cost around 300 yuan, while second tier brands usually cost around 200 yuan. This type of fork generally has a soft and hard adjustment function by compressing the spring to achieve different softness and hardness, while also losing a certain amount of travel. A fork with a nominal diameter of 80mm will lose about 20mm of travel when adjusted to the hardest cleaning condition.
Oil spring fork: This word should be understood separately: oil resistance+spring. This type of fork is based on the front fork of the spring and adds oil damping on the other side of the spring. Oil damping is the use of oil to adjust the speed of spring rebound. This type of fork generally has both soft and hard adjustment functions, as well as rebound adjustment, locking function, and some have stroke adjustment function. The price of this product varies greatly, ranging from 400 to 1000 yuan. In general, this type of fork does not have an advantage in weight, but the locking function can demonstrate significant advantages on flat roads and uphill climbing.
Oil and gas front fork: This is similar to the oil spring fork above, except that air pressure is used instead of the spring as the shock-absorbing medium. Adjust the softness and hardness by inflating. Generally, for drivers of different weights, there will be different corresponding air pressure values. But relatively speaking, the price is higher, usually above 1500 yuan. This type of fork also has the function of rebounding and locking.
Double air front fork: It uses a negative pressure chamber instead of a negative pressure spring, and the soft and hard (rebound speed) of the front fork can be adjusted by adjusting the air pressure of the negative and positive chambers. This is a high-end product. Adjusting the softness and hardness of the front fork with dual chambers will have a better effect. The weight is lighter, around 1.6KG. But the price is relatively higher, usually above 2K.
