Is it possible to put a suspension fork instead of a rigid one on a gravel bike?

drywall_dan

I've seen manufacturers a couple of times put suspension forks on gravel bikes instead of rigid carbon forks. Yes, this fork was not in the top price category from RochShox or Fox, but still, is it possible to replace a rigid fork on a gravel bike with a suspension one? I plan on getting a RockShox Reba fork with 100mm of travel. And no, I'm not going to ride trails or use gravel for downhill, it's just that in my area there are a huge number of...

Originally asked by Weird one on Stack Exchange (bicycles) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Swapping a fork (rigid/suspended, suspended/rigid or even rigid to another rigid) is subject to the following considerations. I would assume that the wheel diameter is not changing. Geometry changes. Putting a longer fork (and suspension forks are generally, although not necessarily, longer) changes many bicycle dimensions, such as reach, headtube angle, bottom bracket height. This also changes the so called mechanical trail of the front. Unless your calculations show that the changes are minimal, you should be prepared for the fact that the feel of steering, and general frame fit, will change, and not necessarily for the better. To answer this question, find out and compare the values of...

Full answer by Grigory Rechistov: https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/a/83232 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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