Short travel gravel suspension is a real thing now, and SR Suntour joins the party with a completely new GVX gravel fork offering more & longer travel options, while staying more affordable than most.
The air-sprung GVX uses a straight, non-offset pair of lowers that looks more like a conventional gravel fork, but still packs in 40-60mm of washboard-taming travel in a design built for 700c or 650b gravel wheel setups.
SR Suntour GVX 40-60mm travel gravel suspension fork
SR Suntour tends to deliver solid performing suspension at a fraction of the cost of its biggest competition, and the GVX gravel fork looks to follow through on that. There aren’t so many gravel suspension forks available now, but at $500 the Suntour GVX will be several hundred dollars cheaper than gravel suspension from Lauf, Fox, or MRP.
What makes a suspension fork gravel-specific? We covered that in detail when the first crop of gravel suspension forks hit the market. But suffice it to say, short travel, lighter weight & a firmer no-bob ride. The new SR Suntour GVX gravel fork looks set to deliver on all of those fronts, although it also adds longer travel options than we are accustomed to on gravel bikes.
Suntour GVX – Tech details
Like several other telescoping gravel forks, the GVX uses 32mm black-anodized 7000 series alloy stanchions. But instead of dropouts offset at the end of the magnesium lowers to build in fork offset, the GVX uses an angled 6000 series forged alloy crown which has the effect of adding an extra millimeter of offset at each of the longer travel options:
- 436mm axle-to-crown at 40mm travel with 45mm offset
- 446mm a-c at 50mm w/ 46mm
- 456mm a-c at 60mm w/ 47mm
That also means that the profile of the fork looks more like the more common straight leg of a carbon gravel fork than a suspension fork.
The GVX is available in three different travel lengths – the most common gravel 40mm, plus 50mm & 60mm options. SR Suntour hasn’t yet explained how that works, but it seems like it is internally adjustable with the addition or movement of travel spacers since they claim a single 1,725g weight for all travel options.
That’s a few hundred grams heavier than existing 40mm travel forks, but doesn’t seem too bad when you consider the longer travel option, or the fact that it will sell for $300 less than the MRP Baxter or Fox AX.
Inside, the GVX gets an adjustable air spring, external rebound damping control, and a crown-mounted travel lockout lever (with an optional remote lockout lever in the works).
Under the crown a removable fender will minimize spray for the muddiest, wettest gravel riding, and it even has bosses in the lowers to mount larger full-coverage fenders, too.
The gravel fork will work with both 12mm & 15mm x 100mm thru-axles with a tooled axle, and features flat mount disc brake tab mounting. Tire clearance offers room for up to 700c x 45mm or 650b x 50mm tires.
SR Suntour GVX gravel suspension fork – Pricing & availability
The Suntour GVX fork has a $500 retail price, and is slated for consumer availability from August 2020. It is also rated to be used on Class 1 e-bikes to smooth out new e-gravel builds as well.
