The Ultimate Guide to Gravel Bike Forks

Gravel riding combines road and off-road cycling to give you greater access to more diverse riding experiences. Your gravel fork plays a starring role in managing various riding surfaces with the goal to give you a smoother ride.

A gravel bike fork is designed to provide stability and control on rugged terrain, yet it must also accommodate a range of tire widths, possess bosses for mounting gear, and be lightweight (sometimes all at once). It must absorb shocks, provide steering precision, and enhance ride comfort. Unless your gravel fork needs replacing or begs to be upgraded, you may not have given it a lot of thought until now. That’s probably because — when you buy your gravel bike, the fork isn’t often an à la carte add-on part that promises miraculous improvements to your ride performance. In other words, you can’t buy skills by replacing your fork, but you can earn them by altering your bike’s handling, stability, and comfort with a similar (but not the same) gravel fork.

There are two main types of gravel forks: rigid and suspension. Without any “bounce” to them, rigid forks give the rider more precise steering control, but they demand more dexterity to navigate rough terrain. They also perform as they should under loads. Gravel suspension forks smooth out the road ahead with short travel suspension, which has grown to 50mm (from 30mm) since the early days of dedicated gravel suspension forks.

Rigid forks:

Did you know? You can fake suspension on your gravel bike with a rigid fork by running tubeless tires at a lower pressure without risking punctures.

Suspension forks:

As explained in our gravel frames blog, the fork is part of the frameset, which — together with the frame — has usually been designed as a unit to deliver specific ride characteristics. When we speak about frame geometry, the fork factors into those measurements by affecting fork length, fork rake, and wheelbase. Before you go hunting for a new fork, it’s important to point out that swapping forks can influence the frameset's geometry and consequently, the quality of your ride. The three most important things to look for when choosing a fork are: head tube design; axle-to-crown length; and rake.

Head tube design: straight or tapered

Considered the standard design, straight head tubes have the same diameter — 1 1/8” — throughout the entire length of the head tube. A tapered head tube starts out wide at the bottom, 1.5”, and gradually narrows to a 1 1/8” diameter at the top.

Why should you care? While tapered head tubes have been around for a while, they’ve gained favor more recently for claims to improve bike handling, and because they more easily accommodate internal routing. However, there’s not much choice here since your frame will either have a straight head tube design or a tapered one, and therefore require a fork with a straight steerer or a tapered steerer.

TIP: it is possible to fit a straight steerer to a tapered head tube with a crown race reducer.

Axle-to-crown length

This is a vital measurement in millimeters from the top of the fork crown to the horizontal axis at the axle’s center.

Why should you care? It’s important because changing your fork length can knock over a whole row of dominoes with respect to your frame geometry, and therefore your ride quality. For example, a longer fork will not only slacken both the head and seat angle, but it will also raise the bottom bracket. It will also increase the wheelbase, which can affect agility. You’ll notice this most when riding out of the saddle. If you choose to replace or upgrade your fork, you should make sure that the dimensions of your new fork are as close as possible to the original spec in order to maintain the frameset’s intended handling characteristics.

Fork rake

Fork rake — or offset — is the distance measured in millimeters between the steering axis and the center of the axle. Extend those imaginary lines to where the tire makes contact with the ground to obtain the bike’s trail.

Why should you care? Fork rake affects the bike’s handling. More fork rake on your gravel bike will result in less trail to give you quicker handling, which can be useful on short gravel adventures over wildly varying terrain. Less fork rake gives you more trail and greater stability for all-day bikepacking or ultra-distance gravel racing.

Ritchey forks for gravel bikes feature a 47-, 50-, or 52-millimeter rake, depending on model.

There is room to be selective about a gravel fork, if you find that the manufacturer hasn’t quite nailed your specific needs. If that’s the case, here are the key features to look for when searching for a gravel bike fork.

TIP: When you install a new gravel fork, cut the steerer tube a couple centimeters longer than you think you’ll need because you can cut a longer steerer tube, but you can’t extend or adapt a shorter tube.

Ritchey WCS Carbon Adventure Gravel Fork

Ritchey WCS Carbon Tapered All-road Cross Fork

Ritchey WCS Carbon Gravel Cross Fork

Ritchey WCS Steel Adventure Fork

A fork failure can result in a catastrophic event with possible fatal consequences. You should always choose a fork from a trusted brand with a history of reliability.

Ritchey makes a point to exceed required international testing standards in the name of safety to users. You can read more about Ritchey’s testing methods on Ritchey’s product testing page.

The importance of choosing the right gravel fork for you cannot be underestimated. When considering a gravel fork, put yourself first and consider what kind of gravel riding you do (or aspire to do), set a budget, and explore your best options. Something to think about when shopping for your next fork is how the fork quite literally leads the way on your gravel rides, so as the leader of your next adventure, be sure to select the best gravel bike fork for the job.