Every year, the Leadville Trail 100 is more about tech than the actual race itself. Yes, I love to watch the racing as much as anyone, but as a tech nerd, it’s a great place to spot new and one-off gear. The biggest story was, everyone was on drop bars with mountain frames. But it’s not that big of a story – it’s been done many times before. But aerodynamic fork legs and shifters on the fork… well, that’s a bit different.
Some things that caught our eye (and lots of others) were the RockShox Aero SID Ultimate SL (with fairings) and the super aero shifting bits on Kate Courtney’s SID Ultimate SL (no fairings) fork. Both Kate and Keegan dominated their respective categories. Kate Courtney set an incredible new record, and Keegan Swenson clinched his fifth victory.
Are Aero Fork Legs the Future of Mountain Bike Racing?
For years, we’ve known that aerodynamics is a game-changer for road and even gravel, but it’s always been an afterthought for mountain biking. However, recent studies have shown that a more aero position could save up to 23 minutes in a race like Leadville. That’s a crazy gain, and RockShox’s new aerodynamic fork prototype, tested by Sofía Gómez Villafañe on her Specialized Epic World Cup and Keegan Swenson on his Santa Cruz Blur CC, is heading in that direction.
The Leadville Trail 100, with its long, fast stretches of dirt roads, proved the perfect stage to debut this innovative new design. The fork in question is a RockShox SID Ultimate SL, but with the addition of “side fins” designed to reduce air resistance on those high-speed sections. While the fork looks mostly like the current model, complete with the Flight Attendant system, those new aerodynamic attachments could provide a notable advantage when speed is crucial. Even in the video above, Keegan seems to gloss over the fact that this fork is WILDLY NEW. But, we’re guessing that was 100% on purpose.
Will Aero Mountain Bike Forks Become Common?
Aero on a mountain bike? It might sound odd at first, but it’s a direction that’s starting to make sense in specific race scenarios, especially for XCM (cross-country marathon) events. It’s unlikely we’ll see this on every mountain bike anytime soon. Still, with speed and efficiency being critical in some stages, we may start seeing aero-forks like these making appearances on the circuit.
The future of mountain bike aerodynamics is still in its infancy, but RockShox’s prototype shows that the industry is thinking beyond the conventional. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing more performance-driven innovations like this in the professional world of mountain bike racing.
Kate Courtney’s Fork Shifters
Kate Coutney opted to run flat bars instead of the uber-popular drop bar setup like Keegan and most of the others in the elite field. So how did she stay so aero in the wind? Well, she relied on a super tuck style position that we’ve seen over the years, perfected by folks in NUE Races. This fork grab technique is very aero but has lots of drawbacks; it’s dangerous, uncomfortable (unless you train for it), and lastly, you can’t shift – just to name a few.
Kate Courtney has dialed all those drawbacks in slightly and pulled away with some thoughtful extras that helped her excel in the position. She showed off training in the fork tuck position in a few IG videos, and with a bike check video, showed off a unique shifting addition to her fork.
Her team is adding SRAM Blips to the upper stanchions, near the crown. These Blips are usually reserved for sprint shifters or super clutch dropper buttons, but this is a first for me. The addition of the extra shifters allowed Kate to fine-tune her gearing (not hammering) to get the most out of every minute in the tuck position.
The more popular and lucrative mountain and mountain-gravel become, I suspect we’ll see an increasing number of these unique designs.
What do you think – dangerous, dumb, or dialed?
