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XC world cup chatter 2019

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
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for those of us who like it. great seeing a US rider in the rainbow stripes again (K Courtney)!

also, random tech question - a couple seasons back RS make a big stink about the return of the RS-1 inverted XC fork, yet practically nobody is running it at the WC level. anybody know why?
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
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It's also flexy as fuck to a ridiculous degree.
A rider I used to sponsor had a set, she weighed maybe 55-58kg?
In pic's of her cornering at speed you could see the deflection in the forks in the photo!
somehow i'm not surprised. what i am surprised is that they still offer it.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
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also, random tech question - a couple seasons back RS make a big stink about the return of the RS-1 inverted XC fork, yet practically nobody is running it at the WC level. anybody know why?
Because it works like every other inverted single crown fork, it's heavy and flexy compared to right side up for the weight. Friend has one and on a ride last year one of the seals pushed out. They quickly tried to rebrand the fork as "marathon", but again, no good reason to run that 120mm over a sid extended to 120mm. Fox finally coming out with some all metal lightweight forks drove the nail in the coffin, although RS is still advertising the RS-1.

An all-carbon-upper inverted single crown fork is likely the "best" way to do that design, to retain any decent stiffness, it's still going to depend on the axle interface too, but the bottom line is that design is significantly less efficient as far as weight to torsional stiffness. So you either pour thousands of dollars into a turd design to make it decent, or you could pour thousands of dollars into a conventional chassis and it'll come out better than the inverted single crown. Exotic engineering and materials can make up for a lot, but spending that money on a better design usually nets a better product.

It's ok though, give it another 5 years and we'll see another manufacturer try to ressurect the single crown inverted idea. MRP, Manitou or maybe Cane Creek.
 
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