neilheeney

Been riding a 2010 Crosstrail Sport Disc since September of last year and after 1,400 miles I've decided that I love the bike but could do without the suspension fork as I'm on the road 90% of the time and even though its locked-out most of the time its just added weight. I don't want a new bike, just tune mine up so its a little more "road worthy." Already replaced the 700x45 tires with 700x32's and now want to replace the fork. Was hoping to get some suggesstions on what fork I need. I was hoping to get a carbon fork to help dampen some minor road vibrations. Any specific suggesstions? Size? Brand? Thanks in advance.

GarthW

I was in your exact same situation with my DS 8.3. With your suspension fork, you'll need a long fork so you don't mess up your geometry. A 29er will probably be the best fit and easier to find than a suspension corrected one. Since you've got disc brakes, it won't matter that the canti brake mounts don't line up correctly. I'd recommend the Kona Project 2 29er. That's the fork I went with. It's fairly light and fits really well. Plus it's only 30 bucks! https://www.bikeman.com/KON-P2CANTIDISC29.html

badger1

As far as I know, the current Crosstrails (2010, 2011) are in effect '29er light' bicycles. So as said above, any rigid fork that is '29er specific' will work; you're looking for an axle-to-crown measurement of around 470 mm (give or take), carbon or steel. That will pretty much preserve the intended geometry.

mjwithtwins

GarthW can you post a picture of your 4.3 with the kona fork? I like my suspension fork but I am curious to see how a trek DS looks as a rigid bike

GarthW

I'll post a picture as soon as I get back to my house.

GarthW

Here's my rigid fork on my DS 8.3

ColinL

Nice bike! The new fork looks like it belongs there.

mjwithtwins

That looks good, did make a big difference over riding with the original fork when it was locked out? How much lighter is it?

GarthW

It's about 3 pounds lighter. It feels much better too. Even with the old fork locked out, the old fork had a little bit of movement and sort made a clicking noise when going over a bump. The rigid fork does feel lighter on the bike and seems to respond better. Overall I think it's better in every way. To the OP, I think it's a great idea to switch over to rigid.

tom d

lol Funny I just finished my crosstrail too. I bought it two months ago and did this change over. I love it even more now. I got the fork off ebay

GarthW

Maybe I'm wrong, but your geometry doesn't look right at all. From that picture, it looks like your pedal is going to hit the ground when just riding on flat ground.

ColinL

I don't think you are wrong, looking at the top tube effective angle and the pedal to ground clearance. Looks pretty scary.

It looks like a road fork and as you said, it needs a 29er mtb fork.

tom d

Actually the rear tire is flat (Bad valve just havent gotton to the bike shop yet for a tube don't feel like using the spare.) And i did take it for a quick ride and it seems great to me. But I do see your point I didnt realize they make a 29r rigid fork. I may considerit after a good long ride. Ill take a better pic tommorw. I do appreciate the initial comments.
The pedals to not touch the ground It does look like it though even with an inflated tire in the rear.

thanks

tom d

Okay lesson learned. geometry sucks. Pedal will hit if I'm not careful. Anybody have any sources for a 29er rigid fork? The link in the above posts I noticed is out of stock.

Thanks

GarthW

There's a bunch of other ones on Bikeman. Unfortunately none of them are going to be as great a deal as that P2 one. I would suggest ordering it and waiting or you could order that 29er P2 from another website, but it's usually around $70 instead of $30.

tom d

Yeah I just submitted a best offer on ebay for a Surley Monkey fork. It has very close to the same dimensions. If that doesnt work out perhaps I'll just spend the extra cash.
Thanks!!

bjjoondo 

Not on the bike you have in question but I did the "fork swap" for my old Fuji Monterey 3.0 and it really improved the road handling, well that at going to 700cX32 instead of 700cX50 tires!! Good luck!

tom d

That looks good man!!

irclean

I recently did two rigid fork swaps:

ryanpetersen

Guess this is a pretty old thread, but fitting because I'm wanting to do this on my 2011 Crosstrail. The pictures (minus tom d's) all look about the same as the original, so that's comforting. I did a lot of research on SR Suntour's website for the stock shock and found that what they care about and measure is not how most shocks are measured. I'm kind of stuck on whether to go cheap or spend a bit more to get something nicer. These are the two I'm leaning toward and stock fork for comparison:
- SR Suntour SF11-NVX 700c, 2600g: https://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/dst...-NVX+700C.html
- Voodoo Zombie 26/29, $75, 470mm, 1430g: https://www.bikeman.com/BTI-VD9526.ht...FYEc4QodKHcAdA
- Surly Karate Monkey, $110, 468mm, 1220g: https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...ls.php?id=6940

Either way it looks like I'm set to lose over 1200g or 2-1/2 lbs. Also, it lists the steerer length, how much of that have you all cut off when you did your conversions?

ryanpetersen

And ended up going with the Karate Monkey for $85 shipped. Here's some pics including the weights of the stock fork and the new one (uncut shown). I cut around 2 to 2-1/2 inches of the steer tube to match the old one which dropped the weight another 0.15 lbs (to around 2.45lbs). VERY happy with the swap!

stevenlsmith87

thinking about doing this with my DS 8.2 as well.....love the bike, but not feeling the front suspension

ryanpetersen

Just measure your current fork and search for a "suspension corrected" rigud fork that is about the same length. For mine it was 465mm and I can't tell any noticeable difference in ride height. Only thing I had to do was reverse the thick/thin shim on my brake pads because the Surly was designed for wider tires and therefore has a bigger gap.

addictedhealer

I just bought the Surly Cross Check to replace the suspension fork on my trek 7100. I'm hoping it isn't to short and throws off geometry. The current suspension fork is 456 with 50mm of travel. The Surly fork I bought is 400MM I figured if you subtracted the 50mm it would be damn near good enough. I should be getting it in today, so pictures will follow on another forum. I already changed out my threaded headset, that was easy.

ryanpetersen

Well a 400 mm fork will drop you around 30-40 mm from your stock unless your front suspension is always completely compressed. Hopefully this doesn't result in something like tom d's (above pic). Post a shot when you get it installed!