So the forks in the pic above sadly leaked both oil and air and have been returned.
I've now picked up a Tora fork but the spring in it is waaay to soft for me. I can get an extra firm replacement from TF Tuned or I could try and find a reliable used air fork OR I can think outside the box a bit...
26" forks with long travel, qr dropouts and a straight steerer are few and far between it seems. I'd prefer to stick to qr dropouts as I'm on a budget and moving to anything else means having to buy a hub or wheel. I need the long travel part to keep the geometry of the bike correct or rather, I need the a2c length of a long travel 26" fork to keep the geo correct.
69er
A short travel (or rigid) 29er fork would, in the very few cases I've researched, have an a2c around what I need and given that I'm used to riding rigid I don't imagine I'd miss the travel too much. I'm not smart enough to figure out what the effect would be of having the front axle a bit higher off the ground with a 29er wheel than it is/would be with a 26er wheel.
Fat Front
I could also go for a fat front wheel (and fork) but that stuff all seems a bit overpriced for what it is to me still. I could strip the undrilled 38mm rim out of the front wheel I got from Onza and rebuild that to a disc hub and that should be wide enough for a fat tire, the Dirt Wizard and Knard both say 35mm minimum rim width.
Is the adaptor not on the hub rather than the fork? I've if my front hub was a Pro2 I could get adapters for qr, 15mm, 20mm and maverick forks. It's an older hope hub that I have though which isn't adaptable.
So the forks in the pic above sadly leaked both oil and air and have been returned.
I've now picked up a Tora fork but the spring in it is waaay to soft for me. I can get an extra firm replacement from TF Tuned or I could try and find a reliable used air fork OR I can think outside the box a bit...
26" forks with long travel, qr dropouts and a straight steerer are few and far between it seems. I'd prefer to stick to qr dropouts as I'm on a budget and moving to anything else means having to buy a hub or wheel. I need the long travel part to keep the geometry of the bike correct or rather, I need the a2c length of a long travel 26" fork to keep the geo correct.
69er
A short travel (or rigid) 29er fork would, in the very few cases I've researched, have an a2c around what I need and given that I'm used to riding rigid I don't imagine I'd miss the travel too much. I'm not smart enough to figure out what the effect would be of having the front axle a bit higher off the ground with a 29er wheel than it is/would be with a 26er wheel.
Fat Front
I could also go for a fat front wheel (and fork) but that stuff all seems a bit overpriced for what it is to me still. I could strip the undrilled 38mm rim out of the front wheel I got from Onza and rebuild that to a disc hub and that should be wide enough for a fat tire, the Dirt Wizard and Knard both say 35mm minimum rim width.