-
Posts
-
-
I am looking to upgrade my front fork and would like to know the difference between air and coil forks. I ride in the hills and street. Mostly hills but nothing too intense. I’m looking to spend between 200 and 300. Any suggestions
-
Coil sprung forks are said to be linear. In other words they behave the same regardless of part of the travel they are using. Air sprung forks are said to be progressive. E.G. as you progress through the travel the spring behaves differently. This article (http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173542) is about progressive and linear coil springs on Motobikes, the principle is the same. You can also google "progressive vs linear springs" and read until passout. Linear air forks are on the market. Zoke’s ATA and Fox’s TALAS are examples. You can put a progressive rate coil in a coil fork, but I haven’t seen it done.
Most riders prefer some amount of progressiveness on fork, the argument is generally how much. Personally, I don’t like progressive behavior in my fork. But, if you snuck a little in there I really wouldn’t notice. Progressiveness is often used to reduce bottom outs. The biggest problem I have had with progressive springs, front or rear, is they are not very predictable. For less intense riding, you probably won’t notice the difference at all.
Air forks, linear or not, save weight. While, it’s really unlikely that you would blow the spring on an air sprung fork, it happens (See fox DHX 5.0 air rear shock for examples). If you break a coil spring, you will be legend. So coils are more durable. Coil sprung shocks are most importantly cheaper. For less intense riding, durability isn’t really question, so it’s a matter of how much you want to pay for weight loss.
A quick scan of MTBR’s classifieds showed a used RockShox Reba Race for $225. That fork is pretty well liked and should fit nicely what you do. To make a more accurate suggestion more information is needed. What bike are you riding? What type of trails are you riding? How do define "street"?
-
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.