On race day there is nothing more important to me than a bike that feels like it's up for the job. Flex, even the slightest flex, is just plain annoying. Who wants to be battling with flex during a race? Let alone on the start gate, with the start being the most important part of the race you don't want to give anything away. There are a lot of strong forks out on the market today that can offer the strength and rigidity but can they also compete with the weight of the currently very popular carbon models?
The Supercross Pro Forks have been on the market for a few years now, in fact we reviewed an earlier model back in 2004. The Supercross Pro Forks offer all the weight savings of carbon forks and the strength and reliability of cromo forks for less than half the price of the carbons. Since the review we did on the previous model there have been some small changes that look like they may have been inherited from the even lighter fork from the Supercross stables, the Pro LT race forks. The Pro Race forks now have drilled out drop outs and a welded in star nut for the Supercross top cap and built in spacer.
By making these changes Supercross were able to shave 0.5oz bringing the weight of the fork down to 27.5oz (That's about 780 grams or 1.72 lbs). That weight includes the built in top cap and welded star nut. The top cap that comes with the forks is black, but you can change them to Gold, Blue (as pictured) or Pink to match other Supercross components.
I prefer the simplicity of the top cap, you don't have to take the front wheel off to work on the front end of the bike. You don't have to worry about lining things up without being able to see what's going on. You don't have to grab the bottom of the headlock to stop it from spinning when you are trying to tighten it up. I don't think I need to go any further I guess you get the picture by now.
The top cap has a 1/4 inch spacer built into it which is a nice touch to minimise the need for additional spacers. In all the Supercross Pro Fork set up is very tidy, very simple and, I can say from experience, very reliable. But not only that they always look good. The paint job always has an amazing gloss that lasts for many years. The decal design doesn't look to have changed, but that's cool with me it's a timeless design that still looks fine by me. The welds are perfect, and the classic and simple design of the forks will mean they will always have BMX appeal.
If you are after a set of high end race forks, but think you need to look at carbon for that, check out the SX Pro Race forks. And if you are looking for something even lighter, you should take a look at the Pro LT race forks and save an additional 4 ozs.
The current trend is to run carbon forks, but the Supercross forks are opening eyes and helping to change the trend and more and more people are swinging back to cromo. And with the money savings it's understandable.
Rating 20/20:
| Value for money: | 5/5 |
| Weight: | 5/5 |
| Functionality: | 5/5 |
| Looks/Finish: | 5/5 |
Comments:
The Supercross Pro Race forks are available in black or white, there were some Chrome versions made, but they no longer being made and are quite rare, if you can get some make sure you grab them real quick, they look sweet.
Check out www.supercrossbmx.com for more information
Supercross is distributed in Australia by Supercross BMX Australia sxaustralia@supercrossbmx.com.
Reviewed by Shane Jenkins/bmxultra.com Mar 7 2008