15mm axles are here to stay

RockShox is now offering three of its forks with 15mm axles, after originally holding out. Why the change, and what does that mean for mountain bike riders everywhere?

Find out for yourself.

The only way that there's a place for 15mm forks is if they replace 9mm, otherwise it's just a cash grab from the industry by forcing a new standard.

The only argument I've heard for why you couldn't us a 20mm axel for lighter weight applications is insurance, making axels different so that there's no confusion as to what a fork's intended use should be, and that should come down to marketing.

If you put the same people in a two rooms and told them to design a lightweight and strong enduro / XC fork, and told one to design around a 20mm axel and 15mm to the other, you'd get forks with VERY similar strength and weight characteristics, but one would require an entire market segment to re-buy the industry's new wares.

You can see where the push for change is really coming from.

I can see how rockshox would try to avoid this situation. Three different lowers for the same fork deffinatly is goina make inventory management just more difficult. This was more a ploy of other fork manufacturers to try to take a stab at a higher market percentage, and it worked, so rockshox had to follow suit.

Personally I see this standard in the end only really benifiting the wheel industry. Not many people are goina go out and buy a new fork just to get into the 15mm craze, but thoes that do end up with a 15 mm fork either with a timely upgrade or necessary replacement is deffinatly goina go buy a new wheel. And shimano wins again.

As a bigger rider I'll never ride a 32-mm fork again. Now many of the 6" trail bikes come with 15mm QR (i.e. the awesome-looking carbon 2010 Trek Remedy). But now upgrading the pinner fork means upgrading the wheelset as well (or at least the front one, creating a mismatch on a brand new bike). I guess it just means that those bikes are designed with a different rider in mind.

Overall I think it's a good idea and hopefully the beginning of the end for the 9mm front QR. If it means we end up with "big" and "small" axle standards then that's ok. I'll ride 20mm for everything anyway.

Personally I see this standard in the end only really benifiting the wheel industry. Not many people are goina go out and buy a new fork just to get into the 15mm craze, but thoes that do end up with a 15 mm fork either with a timely upgrade or necessary replacement is deffinatly goina go buy a new wheel. And shimano wins again.

I will boycott any bike that has a 15mm fork. The new Turner build kits all have 15mm for their spot. Before I knew this, it wasn't even a ? about which bike to get… now, I'm thinking about other possibilities.
There was an article in MBA when 15mm first came out. RS claimed that there was only a marginal increase in strength when you jumped from 9 to 15…

OMFG.

If SRAM came out with Rapid Rise i wouldn't be surprised. They've got some balls.

the bike industry is so frustrating sometimes.

I always said that 15mm was a silly "standard" introduced as a cash grab when 20mm would have been a much better option. That was before I rode a 15mm axle fork.

Now that my bike came with one, I find its actually worse than I originally thought. The fork is a noodle and I would say offers no additional stiffness over a 9mm q/r (given that my wife's Recon feels equally as stiff as my 15mm Fox).

Boo on the bike industry for this one.

I have been riding a 15 mm axel for for three years the 150 talus….love it. I found when riding the shore on previous 9mm forks at 5 inches the axel would flex, under my little guy weight…the 15 mm is perfect for any rider who does not race a lot, likes to ride up and down the mountains no matter where they live and is not in the mountain bike park or doing huge jumps or hucks. I think that is actually the biggest part of the market ( people who might do the test of metal-one race a season, they don't want to kill them selves on boogieman, and just love riding their mountain bike) this is who the 15 mm is for. I love mine.

However on a 6 [HTML_REMOVED] 6 bke I run a 20 mm talus 36, I love the fork as it is just so much plusher than the the smaller 32…I would never buy a 15mm axel fork for a freeride type bike, not meant for it…when I looked at the remedy this season I was shocked they ran a 15mm fork on such a ripper bike that should have a 20mm probably to keep the weight down and maybe that set up would work for cali riding but not here….

The hard thing to remember is that most bikes are not made around the shore…where stiffer bigger better equipment is most of the time needed, there are more buyers south of the border so many companies focus on the big picture as they know the smaller pieces of the pie will adjust their rides accordingly…I change both my forks to accommodate my riding style and enjoyment when out riding…

Yeah, I get totally stoked on fork axles.

Man. Rock Shox advertisements are so boring these days. There's not even an action shot in this one.

20mm forks are here to stay.

You don[HTML_REMOVED]#8217;t have to run a 15mm fork.

good.

It's incredible to me that people are so skeptical that they think that a company releases something that requires a different standard solely as a way to stimulate sales. You know the best way to maintain/increase sales? Make the best product. And most of the time, when a new standard is introduced, it's because it represents a step forward, not a convenient way to sell more wheels or forks.

Every time something new comes out, the skeptics run rampant, and that is a good thing in reasonable doses - Rapid Rise is a good example of something that the market voted NO on, even though some folks at Shimano will still claim it had something going for it, in the face of overwhelming pressure not to sell it anymore. But if new standards weren't championed by companies with the balls to do it, we wouldn't have things we take for granted now, like (irony alert!) 20 mm axles, or disc brakes, 1.5" steerers (let alone 1.5 / 1 1/8 tapered steerers), tubeless systems…do I need to go on? All of these things drew the same kind of ire - and all of these things are now embraced in the market segments they were intended for.

Not every piece of technology is for you, but the companies putting it out there aren't saying it is either. 15mm is not intended for use on the North Shore trails. People will do it, but that wasn't why it was designed. 15mm forks are not replacing ones with 9mm (for now), they're offered as alternatives. Bike companies spec them where they make the most sense but the aftermarket consumer still has a choice.

You cannot compare one 15mm fork to one 9mm fork on a completely different bike, judge it to be a noodle and condemn the standard - that is absurd. Front end stiffness is subjective, and it also depends on the system as well as a lot of other factors. Fork, bar, head tube, stanchions, bushing overlap - stiffness comes from all of these components. The axle is a big part of it but you can only compare the same fork on the same bike with two different axles to get an accurate idea.

The 15mm standard was co-developed by Fox and Shimano - SRAM's two strongest competitors. Obviously they won't just switch over to it immediately - they'll continue to defend the status quo while they decide for themselves. In the end, whether they switched for the simple sake of sales they might lose or because they changed their mind about the benefits of 15mm, who really cares? The consumer wins because now all the suspension co's are using that standard. You can bury your head in the sand and stick with 9mm if you want - the option still exists!

Take a deep breath, back up and take a look at it, and be a bit realistic. In the end, bikes are SO much better now than they were even 5 years ago, and it's these things that SEEM insignificant like axle width or 20g saved here and there that all add up to make it that way.

Man some folks seem to get emotional over this. I recall similar sentiments in road when Shimano came out with indexed shifters. Everytime the gear count went up one you hear the exact same complaints, disc brakes attracted the exact same whinging. They are forcing stuff on us. No they are not. You don't want it, don't buy it. Go ride your god damn fixy with you piss pot helmet and inside out back pocket (aparently the latest stylie thing) ..oops I got emotional about the latest fad.