The World's Fattest Man with no bike! aka - find hippy a new bike aka - Just get ( fill in blank )

Basically don't buy and XC fork unless you plan to use it for XC.

I wonder if there'll be forks made for bikepacking, plush in moderate speeds, service intervals that are longer than a ridiculous 50 hours, possibly some handy mounts to dangle a mug, even if it added unsuspensioned weight, etc.

It's got bigger stanchions than the Pike though doesn't it? and it's blue... and I'm not doing jumps and shit on this thing.

Ok so:
Pike or Fox in 120mm, 29er, Boost

What else do I need to know/specify/look for?

service intervals that are longer than a ridiculous 50 hours

Dafuq? it's not a 2-stroke supercross bike. I'm not servicing forks every 50hrs riding.

Both have 35mm stanchins, but Pike is stiffer and has a better damper.

Lower leg service takes about 20 minutes

What does a better damper get me and how much heavier are they? Enough to care?

That's 20min I almost certainly won't be spending on fork servicing.

What does a fork service involve?

~1600 vs ~1800 grams. It's up to you to decide if that's worth the additional stiffness and comfort.

Remove lowers, clean stanchions with alcohol, flush lowers with alcohol, put some oil in, re assemble the fork.

Like I'm going to waste alcohol on bike parts...

Does it require special tools for most forks?

You can also pay competent mechanics to do this job

As much as I hate working on bikes there's still more chance of me doing it than me paying someone to do it.

Does it require special tools for most forks?

Pike can be done with allen keys and a hammer, I haven't done my 34 as it was serviced by TF Tuned when they did the tune for my fat arse.

Opinions are like arseholes... and suspension forks...

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/best-120mm-xc-trail-suspension-fork.1065215/

So you have 34 and a Pike? What's the difference? Would I notice? Do I care?

I don't notice and I don't care. One came with a bike, the other one I got on ebay. If I were to get a new fork it would probably be a 34 only cos they come in orange.

What's the difference? Would I notice?

Since you're only buying one, no

:)

Did anyone mention offset yet?

And a bit less often, you should do a "full service", the damper, air spring, new seals and whatever, every 100, 125, 200 hours or something depending on the fork.

Bit late, but no, do not buy a SID. The only people who like SIDs are army types who consider an eight hour marathon XC race 'a quick ride around the countryside'.

The only people who like SIDs are army types who consider an eight hour marathon XC race 'a quick ride around the countryside'

@amey

The only people who like SIDs are Amey types who consider an eight hour ride around Richmond Park 'a quick ride around the countryside'

Yeah, would be great if it would harden the fuck up and not ask for nursing every week though. :D

TBH I don't have much insight on forks really.

damper

I remember this bollocks when trying to buy a fork. This is where I started to lose my patience with modern MTB tech

Looking forward to when you move onto trying to pick a tyre compound 💩