Warren Rossiter puts six comfort- and control-enhancing forks to the test
Warren Rossiter
Buyer’s Guide
Suspension on drop-bar bikes can be a contentious issue, with ‘Why not just get a mountain bike?’ or ‘There’s not much travel anyway’ two oft-repeated remarks. These both miss the point. Suspension on gravel bikes isn’t about landing big jumps; it’s all about increasing comfort and adding control.
A good suspension fork should all but eliminate vibrations and chatter over rough surfaces and, at speed, absorb those high-frequency knocks to keep your handling in check. Uneven surfaces can deflect the front tyre, which in turn puts forces into the bar, snapping it left and right and affecting your ability to maintain speed and navigate technical terrain safely. Constant vibrations also lead to premature fatigue in your upper body. If you can’t hold the bar because your arms are pumped and your shoulders ache, you’ll have to stop riding.
Fitting a fork yourself is fairly straightforward, though ensure your frame is compatible. All our test forks use a tapered steerer (widening from 1¼in at the top to 1.5in at the bottom). Most rigid gravel forks measure 395mm to 405mm axle (wheel fixing point) to crown (junction where the two ‘legs’ meet).
The average suspension fork is 435mm, so even accounting for 10-15mm of sag, the stack will be higher. Modern frames are suspension-corrected, but on older frames it’ll add to handlebar height and slacken the head angle, changing the bike’s handling.
We’ve tested these forks on many gravel bikes. Finlay Paton from Full Factory Suspension (fullfactory.bike) also stripped each fork down and offered his expert opinion on its design and build.
● Woz has tested hundreds of gravel bikes over the years. Throw a stick at Salisbury Plain and you’re likely to hit him on his well-worn trails.
Suspension tech explained
01 Damping
● The process of controlling a spring (using a hydraulic or mechanical system) as it compresses and rebounds.
02 Rebound damping
● This controls how fast or slow a fork can extend (rebound) after being compressed when hitting a bump or due to rider input (compression damping controls compression speed).
03 Binding
● Friction caused by flex in the system that makes it harder for the fork to compress (when the narrow upper stanchions telescope into the wi
