Thursday 9 February 2017

testing the Wren Fork at the Forest of Dean

Ian and I drove to the Forest of dean for some quiet trail riding and I was here to try these new forks from www.cranknuts.com on some rougher terrain than we get locally (and hopefully a lot less mud!)
We started from Parkend and rode in on the family trail as a warm up. 
One of my initial concerns about fitting these forks was the weight. Now they are in no way particularly heavy but they are certainly not as light as the carbon rigid fork I was using previously but I'm happy to say the increase didn't seem to make any difference throughout the  whole ride, on the slight gradient of the 3 mile ride in and the much steeper and more technical climbs on the Verderers trail. So first test passed with flying colours.
the second test was how they perform on rough flat and fast rough downhill trails. well, with the inherent stiffness they hold their line well, I found i could turn in to any corner confident that i wasn't going to over shoot, these forks track very well, add this to the grip of that big tyre and even though the conditions were greasy my confidence grew the longer the ride went on that however fast i entered the corner the wheel  and fork was going to respond to my steering imput immediately.
As for downhill on rough trails, well wow! having previously only used a rigid fork my only experience of proper trail riding was one of reaching the limits of the fork. that big fat wheel acts as undamped suspension and once you reach a certain speed it starts to bounce making the bike hard to control causing you to slow the bike down to regain that control. the rigid fork is also very stiff which i always felt through my shoulders and upper back, again causing me to back off the speed. this fork is a complete contrast, with the damping circuit it uses it tames that tyre bounce and even though these forks are set to 110mm (150mm unadjusted) they soaked up everything i threw them at. I was able to go  as fast as i dared, with a bit grin on my face, they absorbed all the trail chatter, the big blown out holes and were unfazed by drop off landings even when my technique let me down and i landed front wheel first on a couple of occasions. i got so confident i even left the ground a couple of times on the final descent!
these forks are a revelation, suddenly my fat bike is now just not a fun bike to pedal around the woods it's now a full on trail bike. I've always resisted suspension as i didn't think the current crop of forks were right for a fat bike, afterall they are just an ordinary MTB fork that has been widened a bit. these Wrensport forks are designed with fat in mind and it really shows, they are going to open up lots of riding possiblities and i can't wait to see what else they can do.
UPDATE: having now added my data to strava I find i have one downhill PR and to climb PRs, may mean nothing but all the previous ones were set on a 29er or a B+ bike
ride 10
14 miles
168 miles

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