What’s better than getting your own custom tunes from a suspension manufacturer? For Giant, it seems the answer to that question is manufacturing suspension of your own. Already one of the world’s largest bicycle manufacturers, Giant recently unveiled their latest project – the Crest 34 suspension fork.
Yup, Giant seems to be moving into the world of suspension with a fork of their very own. According to the video above, the chassis for the fork was created completely in house and the lowers are cast using a proprietary smelting process with high pressure, temperature controlled molding called THIXMOLDING to provide an extremely stiff fork lower. A tapered steerer and forged crown also help to add stiffness to the chassis.
The forks offer a three position low speed compression setting with Open, Trail, and Lock-out settings, and a rebound adjustment knob at the bottom of the fork. The Crest is also compatible with remote lockout levers which will be available aftermarket from Giant for bikes that do not include one stock.
In the other leg, an air spring is used which offers adjustable volume with the addition or removal of air tokens.
A Boost 110 x 15mm thru axle is includes and it uses an indexed nut to allow for positional changes to the lever.
Forks will be available for 27.5 and 29″ wheels, with the 27.5 fork clearing a 27.5 x 2.6″ tire, and the 29″ fork clearing a 29 x 2.4″ tire. It seems that they’ll initially be offered in 100 or 120mm travel settings, so we’d expect these to start showing up on their short travel XC and Trail bikes in the near future.
what!!!?? no negative comments from the peanut gallery yet….???!!
According to the FB post, it’s only been up for 1-2 hours. Give it time, they will come.
Will these be available aftermarket, or is it just an oem offering?
Here’s one fo you guys:
Pfffft: only clears 29×2.4” tires. FAIL!!!
Here’s another:
This is an OEM product–such a superior product should be available to the masses…isn’t that what Andrew says there at the end of the video?
What? No Kashima!!!!!!!!!
I like the look of the arch and would happily own a bike with one of these. It would have been good to see the lockout lever look a little nicer rather than something you’d see on a $599.00 bike
sorry this doesn’t further the plot, but in the third picture after the video there’s a cheap Shimano resin-only rotor paired with a basic Sram Level brake caliper. wut? this is not how you sell brand integrity, Giant hype team.
This fork line is designed for “the masses”. The masses don’t ride $3500 plus bikes, they ride <$3500 bikes. So yes, probably resin only rotors, 100mm to 120mm yes, probably under 2.4 29ers. And no, no Kashima. I don’t think you would want this fork aftermarket, it’s probably a $350-$400. Another entry into the fork market though, keep innovating Giant and take it up to the top, let’s start the price war!
Good looking product but a shame they did not talk about whats inside the fork. I really like they also included the Asian team members in the video.
I got to ride one of these at a dealer event and I can say it’s awesome!
My understanding is that it will give the entry and mid-level rider a much better experience and performance than a lower end RockShox or Suntour fork that would normally gets speced on a bike of that price. It’s going to be a huge upgrade for that $1000 – $1,500ish customer .
What a shame it doesnt work on gravel. Woulda bought 2
XC fork with 34mm upper legs sounds great and I would choose it over a Reba or even base SID model, obviously assuming that it doesn’t come with quality issues, bad design choices, and that serviceability is as good as Rockshox’s.
Seriously, a boost fork that only clears a 29×2.4″ tire is a huge whiff, imo. 2.5″ and 2.6″ 29er tires are getting more common, even on oem builds. It’s an XC fork clearly but where does it position itself?