_“ And if you think about fork offset and the history of fork offset... I don't know this for sure, but I have some thoughts of how that all evolved over time. If you look at fork offset and you look at mechanical trail, and head angle and wheel size. When manufacturers were making forks back when 29 just started appearing, my theory is that they chose their offset so that the head angle would be constant between say 26 inch bike and a 29-inch wheel bike. So from a customer standpoint they look at the head angle and they wouldn't be confused. They'd say "hey, my head angle is the same between these two bikes and they feel comfortable," but it's not necessarily the right way to optimize the system. Now if you actually looked at optimizing the mechanical trail and head angle and offset then you'd have the flexibility to move those variables around how you'd like from a handling perspective and your conclusion is likely going to be different. And I think that's how it's evolving. Back then they chose that value to keep a consistent head tube angle but in reality **that might've not been the best choice from a performance standpoint.**”_
That’s not true, when 29ers first started appearing, they had the same offset as 26” forks, because that was easy for the fork makers.
As a result, most 29ers either had “sluggish steering” or used steep head angles. People liked the low trail feeling at the time, so that’s what the brands delivered. Using steep head angle, short offset and long chainstays (which 29er had back then) meant weight was extremely front biased, this is bad. So Fisher had tests done, and most test riders preferred the larger offset - slacker headangle combo. So I think, at that time, for those trail figures and riding styles, **_that WAS the best choice from a performance standpoint._**
That doesn’t mean it still is. Now that we have bikes with super slack head angles, wheel flop has become a big issue, as well as wheelbase and front tire loading, so I agree that currently it is good the offsets are being re-evaluated, for performance, just like it was good to have them re-evaluated when 29ers where becoming more common.
March 21, 2019, 7:10 a.m. - Tjaard Breeuwer
_“ And if you think about fork offset and the history of fork offset... I don't know this for sure, but I have some thoughts of how that all evolved over time. If you look at fork offset and you look at mechanical trail, and head angle and wheel size. When manufacturers were making forks back when 29 just started appearing, my theory is that they chose their offset so that the head angle would be constant between say 26 inch bike and a 29-inch wheel bike. So from a customer standpoint they look at the head angle and they wouldn't be confused. They'd say "hey, my head angle is the same between these two bikes and they feel comfortable," but it's not necessarily the right way to optimize the system. Now if you actually looked at optimizing the mechanical trail and head angle and offset then you'd have the flexibility to move those variables around how you'd like from a handling perspective and your conclusion is likely going to be different. And I think that's how it's evolving. Back then they chose that value to keep a consistent head tube angle but in reality **that might've not been the best choice from a performance standpoint.**”_ That’s not true, when 29ers first started appearing, they had the same offset as 26” forks, because that was easy for the fork makers. As a result, most 29ers either had “sluggish steering” or used steep head angles. People liked the low trail feeling at the time, so that’s what the brands delivered. Using steep head angle, short offset and long chainstays (which 29er had back then) meant weight was extremely front biased, this is bad. So Fisher had tests done, and most test riders preferred the larger offset - slacker headangle combo. So I think, at that time, for those trail figures and riding styles, **_that WAS the best choice from a performance standpoint._** That doesn’t mean it still is. Now that we have bikes with super slack head angles, wheel flop has become a big issue, as well as wheelbase and front tire loading, so I agree that currently it is good the offsets are being re-evaluated, for performance, just like it was good to have them re-evaluated when 29ers where becoming more common.