Plus our buyer's guide to MTB forks
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Looking for the best mountain bike suspension fork? You’ve come to the right place.
Buying a new suspension fork for your mountain bike is one of the priciest – and potentially most effective – upgrades you can make to your mountain bike. Even when buying a complete bike, the fork it comes with is a serious consideration.
You’ll want either a suspension fork that irons out the harshest of trail feedback, helping your hands to last longer whatever bike you ride, or you’ll want the fork to sit smoothly into the first part of its travel to keep your front wheel stuck to the ground.
You’ll also need enough stiffness to provide accurate and predictable steering, and enough adjustability to fine-tune the fork to your needs, but not so much that it’s a nightmare to set up.
You’ll probably want it to be as light as possible too, and hopefully not cost the earth.
We’ve tested forks to suit a broad range of budgets, making sure to include some top-shelf options because these are what people tend to buy as an upgrade to their bike.
You can read our full mountain bike suspension forks buyer’s guide at the end of this article.
The SID Ultimate 3P is the latest top-level cross-country fork from RockShox, offering a more refined and capable ride feel than the fork it replaced.
Its new Charger Race Day 2 damper gives the fork three positions, which can be switched between ‘open’, ‘pedal’ and ‘lock’ modes via the crown-top lever or optional TwistLoc remote (£119/$117/€133).
We found ‘open’ and ‘pedal’ to be our most frequented modes, rarely using the ‘lock’ mode unless slugging up road ascents and the odd fireroad.
The SID Ultimate 3P is keen to sink into the first few millimetres of travel without hesitation, making for a supple ride with a smooth, ground-hugging feel over small bumps.
Its mid-stroke support builds progressively, with the ramp-up near the end of the travel remaining calm on big hits.
The new 35mm chassis enables the fork to attack fast, technical descents with precision, with only some flex being detected on steeper turns with fast catch berms that would challenge most trail forks.
The all-singing Fox 36 GRIP2 Factory is one of the most expensive forks we’ve tested. Fortunately, it’s got performance to match.
Its four-way adjustable damper has high- and low-speed adjustment for both compression and rebound damping. Fortunately, Fox nailed the setup guide, so it’s one of the easiest forks to get in the right ballpark despite the vast range of adjustments.
It’s also one of the best performers, particularly over big holes and choppy unpredictable ground. The independent high-speed rebound adjustment seems to make it more controlled and calm when returning from deep in the stroke if, like us, you’re running a lot of pressure in the spring.
It’s not quite as sensitive off the top of the stroke as its rival, the RockShox Lyrik, though, so there isn’t quite as much traction in low-load situations.
While very active and supple over small bumps, it’s a little stingy with its travel over bigger impacts, even with the compression damping fully open. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we would have liked the ability to run the high-speed compression a little more open for long-run comfort.
There were situations where the 36 was the best fork we’ve ever used.
The Mattoc Pro impressed us with its impeccable suppleness and great end-of-stroke control.
Manitou has given the fork plenty of adjustment with an MC2 damper, with hydraulic bottom-out in the stanchion offering high and low-speed compression and single rebound adjustment.
All this tech pays dividends, with the Mattoc Pro offering plenty of grip and comfort, with ample control late into the stroke and plenty of usable adjustment.
The Hexlock axle is more difficult to use than other securing axles, with a hand needed to balance the bike, push the axle and turn the Allen key from the other side of the fork.
We also found the air valve to be in an awkward position at the bottom of the fork, making it difficult to use with some shock pumps.
The Mezzer is a surprise performer, offering an excellent balance between small-bump sensitivity and bottom-out resistance. It’s particularly capable no matter how deep into its travel you go or how hard you push it.
The chassis also hits the perfect balance of control, accuracy and compliance, feeling stiff when it needs to – such as under corners – but didn’t cause our front wheel to bounce or judder offline, also helping to reduce hand fatigue.
The MC2 damper’s high-speed compression is light enough to absorb fast impacts and proved to be incredibly supple. Its low-speed damping gives plenty of support through turns and compressions, adding to the capabilities of the impressive air spring.
Although the air spring is quite hard to set up – and you need to follow the supplied guide exactly – once you get it right, the performance that’s unlocked is virtually unparalleled on the trail.
If you’re looking to upgrade your fork and were considering a RockShox Lyrik or Fox 36 GRIP2, the Mezzer has to be on your shortlist as well.
The Manitou Mezzer wasn’t tested as a part of our latest fork group test, and doesn’t feature in our video, but was tested and rated to the same criteria, and performed exceptionally well.
Marzocchi is now a sister brand of Fox, and the Z1 shares a lot of features with the Fox 36. However, it’s designed to hit a lower price point.
Because it uses a lower-grade aluminium in the upper tubes, it’s one of the heaviest enduro forks around at 2,249g, but the extra weight is not noticeable on the trail.
The air-sprung Z1 isn’t as soft at the very start of its travel as the Fox 36, or the Yari and Lyrik, so it needs a lower air pressure to get it to sag properly, along with a healthy stack of volume spacers to stop it using all of its travel too easily.
It still canters through the middle of its travel a bit more easily than those other forks too, making it feel a little less predictable and refined. The flipside is it swallows kerb-sized rocks like a champ, which means good long-run comfort.
The key comparison is to the RockShox Yari (below). The Z1 is more willing to swallow large impacts, making it more forgiving in those big-hit scenarios, but the Yari is more supple at the start of the stroke, and offers more traction and more predictable support. It’s a touch lighter and cheaper too.
On balance, the Yari just edges it for us. But if big-hit capability is your priority, and you can’t stretch to the RockShox Lyrik or Fox 36, the Z1 is a good option.
The RXF38 has impressive off-the-top sensitivity, minimising trail chatter and providing huge amounts of comfort and grip.
Mid-size hits such as brake bumps are catered for with buckets of support. The damper controls the impacts with a calmness that enables you to focus on what’s down the trail rather than beneath your front wheel, leading to more speed.
The fork handled compressions well, never once diving under hard braking, which gave confidence to weight the front wheel into catch berms and steep sections of trail.
The rebound damping on our test fork was a little hard, which may be a problem for lighter riders, but the brand offers various tunes, so finding the right one shouldn’t be hard.
It was also a difficult fork to set up, with a negative spring volume-reducer spacer installed in the fork from the factory that wasn’t mentioned in the manual.
The RockShox BoXXer Ultimate receives 38mm stanchions in its current guise which adds plenty of accuracy and makes the fork hold a line well, even when traversing slippery rocks after poor line choices.
A smooth and quite ride quality calms the front of the bike and makes the BoXXer feel reassuringly predictable, while the break away force of is minimal, with the fork sliding easily into its initial stoke.
The beginning of the stroke takes the sting out of small high frequency bumps impressively well, isolating your hands without losing support.
Charging through rough sections reveals how composed this fork is, with the mid-stroke soaking up big hits while delivering plenty of support to push against.
There’s no harsh ramp-up or firmness present at the end of stroke, making big drops and high speed compressions reassuringly composed as the linear nature of the fork feels like it’s only using the travel it needs.
After some use, the rebound dial on our early test model became stiff and creaky, but this didn’t hinder performance.
The RockShox Lyrik Ultimate sets a benchmark for support and height control with its Charger 3 damper and DebonAir+ spring at the sacrifice of small-bump sensitivity.
The damper enables you to confidently weight the front wheel while hammering it into gnarly sections of trail without fear of the fork diving under braking.
The DebonAir+ handles lower spring pressures with impressively supple and effective ramp-up that was helped by the damper to not blow through its travel on big hits.
Small-bump performance is the only letdown. While the ButterCups mute harsher bumps, the fork remains almost static on small jagged rock paths found at trail centres.
The RockShox Yari uses the same stiff 35mm chassis as its pricier sibling, the Lyrik. It now gets the same supple, class-leading Debonair spring too.
The difference is in the damper. The Yari’s more simple Motion Control unit doesn’t provide the same digressive damping – blending low-speed support with high-speed suppleness – that you get from the Lyrik’s Charger.
As a result, it doesn’t feel quite as settled and supportive when braking, and occasionally spikes when slapping down to earth with a thud.
Realistically, though, it’s rare that the less refined damper lets the side down, and this is compared to the best mountain bike forks.
The Yari offers better long-run comfort and small-bump traction than almost anything else on the market, including forks costing several hundred pounds more.
If the slightly unrefined damper bothers you, you can always upgrade it to a Lyrik spec further down the road.
RockShox’s ZEB Ultimate is one of the best forks on offer, with seriously impressive composure and control on rough trails.
Aimed at enduro racers, the ZEB Ultimate has best-in-class small-bump sensitivity with a supple and silent feel that does a great job of tracking trail imperfections,
There is plenty of support deeper into the travel, delivering a calm and composed ride through steep gnarly sections where your weight is over the front of the bike.
Its progression is very gradual through the entire stroke, giving confidence towards the end, where other forks can feel harsh.
The dials enable high levels of adjustment, with high- and low-speed compression all tuneable from the crown of the fork.
We found our test tune to not compliment lighter riders, with all adjustments needing to be fully open for the desired fork setup, reducing overall tunability
The Helm MKII has 35mm stanchions, which felt accurate through rocky sections with no significant flex or binding.
You get external low- and high-speed compression and low-speed rebound-damping adjustment.
The negative air spring is equalised manually from the positive spring, making it easy to tune the fork’s progression. It takes a little figuring out to set up the fork, but once you get it dialled in, it’s an impressive piece of kit.
The Helm MKII is wonderfully supple through the initial part of its travel, so takes a lot of the sting and buzz out of the trails.
Deeper into the mid-stroke, it feels as though it relies on its spring for support more than its damping, which makes for a very plush ride.
It doesn’t have the most supportive mid-stroke, but there’s a decent range of low-speed compression damping should you want to wind some on. Bigger hits are dealt with comfortably, too.
Page Link Whether you’re hitting heavy compressions or landing massive drops, the Helm MKII’s progression builds consistently throughout its travel, which makes for a predictable-feeling ride.