Trail forks

A 120-140mm-travel fork offers the ideal balance of plushness and liveliness for the trails most of us ride, most of the time; we put five of the best to the test

- Mick Kirkman

This year's fork test inspects trail forks in the 120-140mm bracket. With less travel and thinner legs, these should be lighter than those used on burlier builds, but still share similar damping and air-spring design with their longer-travel siblings. As such, forks in this category benefit from technology that has trickled up from pro XC racing as well as down from top-flight enduro competition.

Having less squish helps keep shorter-travel bikes feel tight and snappy, and this can be accentuated by purposefully optimising the tune to give them a sportier and less cushy ride feel - think Lamborghini tautness, rather than Land Rover plushness.

Presumably this tuning is based on the assumption that riders will be more athletic and dynamic on the bike, seeking a less sloppy sensation where efficiency is equal to, or more important than, outright grip and comfort.

To put that theory to the test, and find out which brand has the ultimate short-travel option, we've pulled together five of the latest models to put them through their paces. From RockShox we have the completely redesigned Pike, with new chassis, damper and clever features such as bleed valves and vibration-reducing ButterCups.

Float 34 Fox supplies its highly-respected with highly tunable GRIP2 damper in boutique Factory spec. We've also pulled in the all-new Öhlins down-country model, Marzocchi's budget Z2 and Suntour's feature-laden Durolox. Let battle commence.

USED & ABUSED

How we test

We tested these forks on familiar trails in North Yorkshire in order to produce repeatable runs and best judge differences between models.

All forks were tested on the same 120mm-travel Evil Following and set up initially to manufacturer's recommendations. Later, air pressures, air volumes and damping were tweaked in search of the ultimate performance.