TRIBUNAL

So i bought a red Surly Krampus xl frame a year ago and it changed my life.
Im ready for some upgrades, first on my list is the fork.
The ride downhill has been a daunting one and im ready for some front end suspension.
I dont know anything about bike forks or suspension.
My initial thoughts are just to buy the one thats on the new model surly krampus, which I believe is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/RockShox-Judy...4888390&sr=8-4
I am about 340lbs, im not sure if weight matters when considering what to buy.
Any advice is appreciated, thank you.

2old

IMO, that's a great fork. The "gold" versions are more like the higher grade Rock Shox than they are like the "silver' which function fine but is heavy. Note the 15 X 110 thru axle to ensure that your wheel is compatible.
Bob

Canker

The Judy only has 30mm stanchions and with your weight that sounds like it would be pretty flexy. Is your frame the same and the current frame, thru axles and will take a tapered fork?

2old

I didn't know that the RS had 30 mm stanchions, and this is a valid point. I tend to look at things with "180 pound eyes".

TRIBUNAL

No idea, i wrote to surley to try and get the specs on the 2018 model because i can't find it anywhere. once they put up the new model they removed the old data sheets on their website. I dont even know what a stanchion is, looking it up now :/
ahh so the support tubes are small, hmmm. what a pain in the ass

2old

Currently, Surly specifies the Rock Shox 35 Gold RL front fork with the hardtail Krampus. Looks like sites have this available for $450 or so (possibly plus tax and shipping). Surly has been responsive when I've contacted them with questions about their products in the past, but pretty sure they would recommend this one for yours.

Darth Lefty 

IMO the 35 Gold is overbuilt and under featured. It was supposed to be an e bike product but I believe it got OEM favor because it looks like a Pike. You’d be better served with a skinnier fork.

I fell into an amazing deal on a blown out premium fork that was not too expensive to repair. But before that, I was looking at the Marzocchi Z2, which is a sturdy design (simplified Fox 34) that’s just a skosh better than a Reba, having shims instead of holes for damping.

On the topic of deals, you can shop used on Pinkbike

Kapusta

Look at the OPs weight

DMC707

I like Fox products —. They seem to support their older models a little better than Rock Shox, but there are a lot of good choices . But i dont know the budget, but if i were making this choice a Fox 34 of some sort is what id be seeking

but FWIW, On my personal new build (taking forever ) i was sso close to going Rock Shox since they make a 120 variant of the SID now with 35 mm tubes. But a sweet deal on a 34 SC kept me in the Fox camp

Darth Lefty 

Gotcha. Missed that.

Darth Lefty 

Safety factors on trail and enduro and e-bike MTB parts are high, consequences of something breaking at bottom-out would be very bad. RS just says do not exceed the max pressure. The 35 gold max pressure just for example is about 50% higher than the pressure for "220+" weight
pdf link https://www.sram.com/globalassets/do...ec-english.pdf

The damper's range of adjustment however is for a normal size range of people at the lower spring pressures and are underpowered for a higher spring pressure. If you are buying a fork from a smaller company, like DVO or MRP, they might be able to give you a custom tune, or you could send a nicer RS or Fox or Manitou fork to a shop that does tunes. Maybe you could give a call to MTB Tandems in Georgia. They work directly with MRP to source a version of the Ribbon fork set up for tandem mountain bikes. This is not true of the "Gold" forks, though, they don't have shim stacks, just holes for the oil to flow, so they don't have anything to tune.