Steel vs Carbon forks for reducing fatigue

[Tomwoodbury]

Hi, been getting out on the trails on longer rides a fair bit recently and I’m finding I’m suffering a bit with wrist / shoulder fatigue. I currently have a Brother Big Bro with steel fork, tyres at a sensible pressure and Jones loops.

Brother do a great looking carbon fork for the Big Bro for £299. I was wondering if anyone has made a similar change and how they found it.

Another option is to just bite the bullet and get a 100mm travel fork but I like not having to worry about fork servicing.

Many thanks

[Chew]

Positioning is key to fixing those issues.
It’s about taking the weight out of your arms and having a more relaxed position.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Either material can produce a very rigid, rigid fork and either can produce something more forgiving. It's more about what the manufacturer does with the material than solely the material itself.

[ScotRoutes]

Shape and construction matter as much (more?) than material. There's nothing inherently magic about either carbon or steel.

[Tomwoodbury]

I’m set up with the saddle pretty level with the bars. It’s more the bumps I think that are causing the fatigue.

I have upped my mileage a lot recently though (c.100 a month to c.400 a month) so this might have something to do with it. Does your body get used to it? Feel very stiff and sore now after 45 miles off road today (I’m only 40!)

[Wotsits]

Are your Jones loops al or carbon?
If al you might find changing them to carbon should improve comfort considerably..

[ton]

i have never ridden carbon forks until this year, well since jan. carbon is very forgiving on the road. moreso on crap road surfaces. i have found it more forgiving than steel.
offroad i would still prefer the strength of a steel fork if i were riding at pace. so carbon will be ok for me from now on....

[MuddyPete]

Ergon grips are pretty good; you may find it worth fine-tuning your position with them for a month or two, before splashing-out on a fork. I've fitted them to both bikes and both have swept bars (i.e. duplicating the comfortable riding position on both bikes).
They're about £35.

Perhaps raising your bars a cm or two will help, if your steerer tube's long enough.

[Tomwoodbury]

Thanks all. I have alloy Jones bars but have just stripped my old bike for sale and had carbon jones on it (had a wild moment). They’re on eBay at the moment but might as well give them a go before shelling out on a new fork.

[Wotsits]

Thanks all. I have alloy Jones bars but have just stripped my old bike for sale and had carbon jones on it (had a wild moment). They’re on eBay at the moment but might as well give them a go before shelling out on a new fork.

Sounds like a good place to start! The al ones are stiff as fook!!
What length stem are you running? Also worth trying something shorter & with a higher rise as well..

[In Reverse]

Another option is to just bite the bullet and get a 100mm travel fork but I like not having to worry about fork servicing.

The best option would be to buy a Lauf fork. 65mm travel and no servicing requiements. As someone who used to suffer badly in the hands/wrists/arms they've been a gamechanger,

https://singletrackworld.com/classified ... r-29-fork/

[Tomwoodbury]

That’s my fork!

Selling as it was very sketchy on the few rides I did with it. Anything rocky and the fork was pogoing all over the place making it hard to steer. Think the Lauf is ideal for gravel and sedate trails, but not stuff with rocks bigger than apples.

Stem wise I have a 60mm Thomson. I’ll give the carbon jones a go.

[voodoo_simon]

Grips can help too, I used lock in grips for years but changed over to foam and old school chunky BMX style things and made a difference to vibration/comfort

[In Reverse]

That’s my fork!

Selling as it was very sketchy on the few rides I did with it. Anything rocky and the fork was pogoing all over the place making it hard to steer. Think the Lauf is ideal for gravel and sedate trails, but not stuff with rocks bigger than apples.

Stem wise I have a 60mm Thomson. I’ll give the carbon jones a go.

So it is!

There's definitely a knack to riding with them - you need to treat them more as a rigid than a suspension fork. I know what you mean about the pogoing.

[Tomwoodbury]

I think the Lauf fork is an amazing product, but a little limited in application. It’s phenomenal on flatter off road surfaces and is well suited to gravel bikes but on an MTB Bouncing off rocks it made me a bit scared at speed.

[BordersSteve]

I'd say given your mileage increase its not surprising you're suffering a bit. Shoulders will get used to it, could look to incorporate some shoulder strengthening exercises at home. Wrists (and for me, hands/fingers) take a battering riding rigid but you should definitely experiment with different grips and lever angles to try and minimise. A big help for me is taking finger off the lever and full gripping the bar at a comfortable angle whenever feasible. Maybe the back sweep on the Jones bars is too much for your wrists?

Below might be an option? Never used one though:
https://redshiftsports.com/products/sho ... nsion-stem

I think there reaches a point where the trails you're riding and the frequency you're riding them mean a suspension fork is just the best answer. I've stopped riding certain sections or trails on my Swift because they destroy my hands holding on and it's just not much fun.

[Tomwoodbury]

Cheers Steve. I’ve looked at the redshift stem and it seems a lot of cash - circa 50% of the cost of a fork upgrade.

Given I’ve got a set of carbon bars I’ll give them a go first but was thinking a carbon fork would perform better than steel over bumps. Having researched this now I’m not so sure.

[fatbikephil]

I don't think you'll get much difference, carbon or steel as they are mostly straight legged these days so little in the way of vertical compliance. When I first went back to rigid it was on a pair of Surly KM forks and they were pretty brutal with a 2.2 tyre. A big front tyre helps (see the 29+ thread!) as well as a bit of bar flex, and getting them high up and close towards you.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I don't think you'll get much difference, carbon or steel as they are mostly straight legged these days so little in the way of vertical compliance.

Yes, you might not notice much difference between good steel and good carbon forks but you will know very quickly when you have a 'bad' set of either

I find using 25.4mm bars helps. I also spend a lot of time riding with my hands resting on top of the bars rather than gripping them.

[jameso]

Having ridden Ti and Al loops (feel the same to me) for ages I was suprised how stiff they were when I swapped between the old Ti H bar and the loops on my steel Jones. That has a really stiff fork and the frame's pretty stiff too, I took the loops of it after a while. The same loops feel fine on the Ti Jones , must be some frame and fork give in the Ti frame that negates the stiff bar.

All in all I'd take a more flexible bar and a stiff fork over the other way round.

was thinking a carbon fork would perform better than steel over bumps. Having researched this now I’m not so sure.

I took a (fairly basic) carbon fork off my old Equilibrium and put a Tange Prestige lugged fork on it, the steel fork is comfier. It's just got a bit more flex at the end. Carbon gets a lot of credit for vibration absorption but that's minor compared to simple flex. I guess a flexible carbon fork is the ideal, they just scare me too much : )
I'm not so keen on how comfortable fork flex turns into brake judder or the fork flexing back under hard braking on anything steep - ie no problem on a rim brake road bike, bigger problem on a loaded 29er with big tyres and 180mm rotors.

[Tomwoodbury]

Thanks James. The brother fork is very heavy cro mo and given they market their carbon fork as “an upgrade” I was thinking it’s probably a similar quality to a Whisky No.9 or similar. It would also be nice to shave some weight off the bike too as when loaded it’s a real beast. Almost as heavy as my Pugsley.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Travers Prong is one of the nicest riding carbon forks I've ridden.

[Tomwoodbury]

Lauf users - do you think I should persevere with it and try and adapt a bit? Sounds like it’d save my wrists a fair bit.

[In Reverse]

Lauf users - do you think I should persevere with it and try and adapt a bit? Sounds like it’d save my wrists a fair bit.

I really would. Start with the mentality that you're going to ride it like a rigid and progress from there, you'll soon get to know where the limit is. It's definitely not supposed to be ridden like a damped telescopic, even though it kind of feels like you can do.

[Charliecres]

A 29+ front is the biggest improvement in comfort and control I’ve experienced in years of riding rigid.

Ergonomic grips and experimenting with bar position (height and angle) also made a big difference.

I had some (non-loop) H-bars that were way more flex than the loops I have now. I didn’t get on with them for some reason.

On-One OG bars are a bit less swept and a bit more flex than a Jones bar. They’re also cheap, so might be worth a go. I rate them.