Know how much they weigh? 29 ounces. That's under two pounds. As far as I know, they're the first non-race fork to drop below 30 ounces. S2 Directors are 30.2, Drive Lites (which I wouldn't run if you paid me) are 31.4, Eastern Ultra Slims are 31.7. Bombshell pro race forks are 28.9. A whole tenth of an ounce lighter than the Primos. With carbon legs.
Know how much a pair of Slam Bars weigh? 34 ounces. A regular "4Q Baked" Pitchfork weighs 47.7 ounces. More than a pound heavier.
Scary, right?
When you make weight the most important determining factor in what sells—which makes sense on some level, since it's easy to measure and explain—every new product you come out with had better be lighter than the last, or else why would anyone upgrade? The Kamikaze 2, Primo's "light" fork which preceded these, weighed 32 ounces. How did they safely drop three ounces from that? Who's designing these things? How are they being tested? Honestly, I'm not sure whether I want to know. But if I were considering running a pair, I sure as hell would.
Although.
Another thing you should do—which I didn't initially—is read the fine print. These aren't even up on the Primo website yet, just on Dan's Comp. And when searching for the dropout thickness, I stumbled upon the offset: 13mm. Huh? Maybe mention that in the initial description? It's important, no? A conventional fork has 32mm of offset, which could very well explain much of the weight difference (although the 'steep' Subrosa fork still weighs 33 ounces). It also means if you run these things along with a 75-degree headtube frame and 29" wide bars, you'll instantly be able to do longer nosewheelies than Dakota Roche. I promise. Because hey, it's all about what you ride, not how you ride it.
20 comments:
They are my next pare of forks!!
haha... I find them ridiculous, the cutout removes structual strength.
My limit is a odsy race and I even find those drops slightly thin.
Primo was left behind, as the fat kid in the class that nobody wanted, because their products remained in the heavy end for too long. So now they are differing by making a suicide fork, to get a cut back into the market. WTF
I've got a 2004 S&M Race Fork that I'm going to put on my new bike, and I'm pretty sure it weighs more than any S&M fork currently in production.
What Would Jeff Crawn Do?
seemed like only a matter of time until you posted something on these forks, which is understandable, because primo seem to have placed that cut-out in the most rediculous place possible. haha
its a bit scary when they have dudes that only ride curbs and knee high ledge designing products... Someone could really get hurt
The bigger question should be, how exactly is primo still in business?
Wow...dbz referenced Jeff Crawn. Is he still paralyzed? Poor guy is all but forgotten but was the Stephen Murray of his day in an time when there was no international show of support and money.
Russ, you made a solid statement recently along the lines of "places NOT to go light at all costs: your chain, stem, and forks." I still keep my S&M Ditchforks around to show kids what the other end of the spectrum was like (they consider anything pre-2001 to be 'old school'). They all pick them up and gasp in amazement, but last I checked, no one ever went to their face from snapping a pair.
The cutout probably wouldn't make much of a difference. The only problem that might cause is the splitting of the legs, but that would only happen if the legs weren't held together by the nuts on your hub. I don't think it's very likely that anyone riding one of these forks would do anything to make the nuts blow off and the fork bend or break due to the cutout. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trust these forks.
good post. I've been feeling the same way
Wow. Why would anybody rnu those? I'm running some Odyssey Pro Dirts from '04 that were on my friends old bike, I turst them. But these, wow, just wow. New BMX parts are getting alittle weird for me, and I'm concidered a "new school" kid to most people.
This is the best bmx website ever.
i love you mr sprfls.
29 ounces ?? That's just frightening... Try to imagine someone atempting this http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=svf8JQPl-mM
on a pair of those ...
I was die-hard Pitchforks for years. I held out until '05 before switching to ODY Dirts. They're light and proven as fuck. Why would you want anything else?
the funny thing is that we're in a time when there are loads of kids that have the most expensive set up, know all the vitals on everyone in the sport and the lightest bike in town is a badge of honor but the structural integrity of the parts aren't an issue because most of them spend more time in front of a monitor researching and/or talking shit than behind the handlebars so they really aren't in danger of breaking anything since so many don't really do anything too hard. and even if a part does break it's okay because then it's a good excuse to get the V2 that came out just minutes after they bought V1.
this post is to emphasize once more the spot on-ness of todd from albe's post. there is more emphasis on image and how your bike rides than an emphasis on structural integrity and most importantly, saftey. my friend just broke a pair of forks off at the steer tube on a 180 gone wrong. he doesnt run pegs and isn't hard on other parts. but his forks were probably lighter than yours.....key word "WERE"
PRIMO STRAND FORKS ARE 'FLATLAND FORKS'.
THEY STOCK THEM AT FLATLANDFUEL.COM.... WITH 990 MOUNTS.
PRIMO=STINKO
This is funny as hell. On par with George French's articles. I don't prefer reading blogs but this one is my new favorite.
i dont know whats scarier; doing a footjam into those forks or realising the fact that a crash on a pair of these death sticks would most likely be the equivalent of the crash that alex liiv experienced in the metal vid. my hawk frame scares me to go big bc of how light and thin the tubing is. i witnessed someone eat it on a 26 foot gap because he had to run a new 3-4 pound frame. broke both hips, shattered fibs and tibs, finished off his shoulder and face. rehab for the next 15 years. weight is too light anymore, its compromising peoples lives.
uh, dont people do footjams?i heard that if you foot jam them, you loose a few toes
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