There were a lot of new items in the Alchemy booth for NAHBS, but it was very hard to overlook the Fox in the room. After a number of Instagram leaks, the prototype adventure forks have made their debut at NAHBS. Alchemy took the opportunity to showcase the fork on one of their newest bikes, the Kratos gravel/adventure bike. The Kratos is built around a rigid ENVE CX fork, but that doesn’t mean the AX isn’t right at home…
While the AX Adventure Cross fork is clearly purpose built for gravel and adventure bikes with 40mm of travel, it’s not hard to see its roots in the 32mm Step-Cast fork platform. It even still had the ’32 27.5′ sticker on the back of the leg. With the same 44mm offset as one of the 27.5″ models, it’s not hard to imagine that this is just a cut down version of a mountain bike fork to adapt it to the 40mm of travel.
At the bottom of the fork is a typical rebound adjustment and 100x15mm tooled thru axle, while up top you’ll find an air spring and two adjustments for damping which looks to be the same as the FIT 4 damper on the 32 Step-Cast. Shown with 700c wheels and Teravail Cannonball tires, the fork should also fit 650b road plus tire set ups since it looks like a mountain bike casting anyways.
As for the bike itself, the new Kratos is a “stock” bike from Alchemy with set sizing and titanium tubing. Built around the ENVE CX carbon fork, tire clearance is said to be 45mm front and rear and is an evolution of their Chiron cross bike.
That evolution includes features like lower bottle cage mounts to accommodate half frame bags. Those frame bags will be made to fit by Andrew the Maker and will bolt directly to the frame with dedicated braze ons. Made in the USA, the frames are available in 14 colors with a frameset price of $3,999.
KRATOS SPECIFICATIONS
• $3,999 frameset
• MADE IN THE USA (Denver, Colorado)
• Size-specific titanium tubes
• 45mm tire clearance
• Flat mount, thru-axle rear dropouts
• 31.6 seatpost offering a large diameter surface for securing heavy seat bags
• 14 Ethic Paint Works color options
• ENVE CX Flat Mount Fork
• Electronic and mechanical shifting friendly
• Internal brake routing available
• Rack mounts and third bottle cage options
