Rock Shox – Long Travel 29er Fork

TwentyNineInches.com reported this weekend about a possible long travel 29’er fork that is in development by Rock Shox (SRAM).

Is Rock Shox testing a long travel 29″er fork? Rumors have been whispered that the fork maker would be introducing some sort of long travel 29″er fork for at least two years now. Now there is some evidence that this perhaps is true.

Here is a photo from a thread on mtbr.com showing a Lenz Behemoth fitted with what looks to be a Rock Shox type fork. Note the through axle which looks like a Maxle which would be a dead giveaway that this is a Rock Shox fork. There also appears to be a bulge in the middle of the lowers that is reminiscent of the new SID design and has been seen on the new version of the Reba as well.

No word yet on the internals as the principals involved with the testing are not talking. Typically companies do not develope new damping technologies for their 29″er forks, so it would be fair to assume that the guts are based off some current Rock Shox platform. We are hoping to see some new 29″er product at Sea Otter next week and my feeling is that we will be hearing more about this fork at that time. We are also hearing rumors of a 29 inch version of the SID, as well, so Sea Otter could be chock full of springy news!

Looks like Sea Otter is going to be a launching point for a lot of new products again this year. There is the possibility that this is the new Reba platform that gets the updates that the SID saw earlier this year with a little bit of added travel. I guess we will have to wait and see…

My thoughts on the long travel 29er fork…

We’ll have to see…the jury is still a little bit out for me, but if Rock Shox comes to the plate like they have been lately…then it should be great. The stiffness of the fork at that length is what worries me about the handling, but if they take the design off of the Lyrik/New SID lowers and crown, then that should help tremendously. The only other thing we are going to have to wait and see about is how high the front end of the bike is going to be with that kind of axle to crown. There is going to have to be some frame geometry shifting to make the bike still handle like it is supposed to.

I, for one, can not wait to hear about all of the exciting news that is going to hit with Sea Otter this year…stay tuned for more…

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