When you hear the word fork, any number of thoughts can come to mind, depending on the content: food fork, tuning fork, fork in the road, or why we’re gathered here today…suspension forks! We offer a range of suspension forks across our Gazelle bike fleet, all designed to smooth out imperfect road surfaces and make the ride experience more comfortable. Curious to learn what kind of suspension forks we offer on our bikes and which one might be best for you? Read on!
We have two primary fork types: single or uni-crown suspension and dual or air front forks. It is more common to see the uni-crown suspension style fork on our easy and lower powered active style ebikes. These include the Arroyo and Avignon bikes as well as the Ultimate C8. This style of fork offers modest, cleanly integrated cushioning from any bumps you may encounter on the road, and we typically pair this with a suspension seat post to add complementary suspension directly underneath the rider’s primary weight concentration.
Uni-crown Suspension Fork
We spec this fork to compliment the characteristic riding style of these bikes…more relaxed and lower intensity due to the upright riding posture of the easy category models and the lower torque and gentle power curve of our Active Line Plus active category models. Riding at a lower intensity means bumps are likely to be high with less force, and the lower resistance that comes from having front and seat suspension makes for an overall more leisurely style of riding.
Dual Suspension Fork
Our more sportive and powerful active style ebikes are specced with the higher travel dual front forks. These forks have travel ranging from 50 to 75 millimeters, significantly more than the uni-crown style, and we pair these with rigid seat posts for higher performance and intensity riding. All of our Class 3 speed ebikes (pedal assistance to 28 mph) have our highest travel forks, plus a fork lockout option to reduce resistance to deliver maximum performance and efficiency.
Fork Lock Out/Open Detail
Looking down a long stretch of smooth pavement? Lock out the front fork to optimize pedaling efficiency and get the most out of your battery’s range. Heading into some rougher territory like a dirt path or through a potholed part of town? Open up the fork to get maximum cushioning over rough road surfaces.
Neither of these fork styles are comparable to the kind of fork you would see on a mountain bike, where millimeters of travel start at 110mm and go up from there, but our ebikes are primarily designed for city riding on paved roads. Higher travel forks may deliver more comfort, but increasing the amount of up-down travel also decreases efficiency and draws down the battery more quickly, so we have struck a balance between the two. If you seek greater comfort in the saddle, we recommend a suspension seat post to add cushioning comfort where it can be felt and appreciated the most.
We hope this helps shed some light on the topic of suspension forks and also point you in the right direction for what will best suit your riding style. Ready to start browsing our collection of ebikes? Click here. Prefer to get the immediate feedback of a test ride? Find a Gazelle dealer near you here.
