You won’t just find ENVE carbon forks on the skinny tire bikes anymore, their all new carbon Mountain fork is now shipping. With the cat out of the bag at NAHBS, ENVE jumped into the rigid MTB fork market with a pretty sweet option. Not content to offer multiple forks with different rakes, ENVE designed an axle chip system that allows a single fork to run both 44mm and 52mm rakes. The rake has a slight effect on Axle to Crown with the 44 setting coming in at 470mm, and the 52 setting adding 2mm more at 472mm.
When designing a new carbon fork, why not add the option for a carbon fender? That’s exactly what ENVE did with their removable mini fender. Using the same clips as the brake hose retention, the fender snaps into place easily allowing for you to cut down a bit on the spray – at least the stuff that typically ends up right in your face. When not running the fork, carbon clips snap into place and hold the brake hose on the inside of the fork leg without the need for additional hardware.
The ENVE Mountain fork might not be as advanced as the latest suspension forks, but if you subscribe to the KISS principle, the ENVE fork looks extremely well though out. Details, weights, and pricing next…
Close ups of the clip system shows the non-fender version left and fender right. All together the fender adds only 25g to the total weight with the non fender version at 686g, and fendered fork coming in at 711g.
Really, the axle chip system is probably the real draw. Whether you’re unsure of what rake will fit your bike best, or you switch the fork between frames, or just don’t want to be stuck with the wrong rake in the long run, you’re covered. The fork itself uses a manufacturing process that uses continual strands of carbon fiber that are run from the steerer to the dropouts as well as a removable bladder molding process to produce the strongest and lightest fork possible.
Update: Regarding the different positioning of the rotor based on the axle configuration, ENVE tells us that the fork will ship with adapters and instructions on how to set it up for the different positions.
Equipped with a 15mm thru axle, the Mountain fork has a claimed tire clearance of 29×3.46″ and is capable of running 160 or 180mm rotors only. Sold in 29″ versions only with tapered steerer at this point, the forks will retail for $625 and are available now.
