Wren Inverted Fat Bike Fork Review | Wren vs Rockshox Bluto
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- In late March I received a package from Wren Sports: a 110mm travel inverted fat bike suspension fork. Not satisfied with the limited number of fat bike suspension forks available, I reached out to them to see if I could put the fork to the test. A few months later, I'm here with what I think of this controversial suspension fork.
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I replaced my bloto with a wren. Love it! So much more lateral stiffness. No problems at all
We really need the Girvin/Noleen fork brought back. With a modern shock they would obliterate the others, while the rigid fork legs would provide huge flexibility as extra mounting points for bikepacking and expeditions.
Inverted has been used heavily in XC racing but for a Fat Bike I would go Lauf only because of weight and zero maintenance. I have never used it nor do I own a Fat Bike but the Lauf just makes sense for such an all season/weather bike.
Me: my fork knocks when I do this
Wren: then don’t do that.
You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression! Thanks!
Having tried all the fat bike forks out there I say that the Wren is the best. The only issue I have is with this axle/dropout design which leads to loosing its tightness after every ride.
I need to get a Mastodon in for a long term test. I’ve used one on a few rides and it seemed great, but I’d love to do a back to back comparison of the two. The wren is definitely a huge step above a Bluto though.
@@RideYearRound mastodon is great, but the Wren works even better. I say that with confidence cause I ride the most aggressive trails anyone can imagine.
I had a Bluto fork and it was either a pogo stick or it fell through it's travel. No amount of adjusting would make it perform even adequately. There was no sweet spot. For a Fatbike, I would rather have a rigid fork than a Bluto.
I know what you mean. I'd still rather have the pogo effect to take the edge off on some trails, but a rigid fork is always fun on a fat bike.
Not a bad video, Bud.
Keep riding year round!
I can´t really complain about my Bluto so far, but then again, the bike I had before getting my first Fatty this year was a roughly 15-20 year old Full Suspension bike about on par with your average Wallmart Bike. Or in other words, probably any suspension fork would have been capable of impressing me.
Hey James, I’m looking for a fat bike fork with a bolt on axle, I have an ebike I’m planning to use with it, the problem is I have a hub motor on both rims.
I would love your suggestions and have a Nice day!
All the reviews I've seen pretty much say the same thing, heavy, smooth until you're push them too hard and then they break in one form or another, I hear the seals go out a lot.
Can anyone recommend which would be better on fat tire ebike, mostly ride city but its nice having suspension, especially when riding 20mph+
Hey James,
I just decided to put a fork on my flat bar Salsa Fargo and the “go to” fork for this conversion is usually the Rockshox Reba. However, the Wren has got my attention. Between these (or maybe others that you have experienced) what would you recommend for turning my Fargo into a hard tail? Thanks.
Wren also makes a boost fork, Hardtail Party is currently testing it out as well.
I approached this review from the point of view of a fat bike. As much as I like it, there are a lot of options in the mountain bike world to choose from and I’d probably consider something else first…at least until this top out knock issue gets resolved.
Did you ever work out the problem with the rebound adjustment and clunking noise? I've got exactly the same thing... My biggest problem to begin with was I put the bloody thru axle in from the wrong side, and the wheel came off, so that was nice... lol
No I didn’t, but I rarely heard it (at least noticeably) anyway. Unfortunately the damper failed at some point so I put the Bluto back on. Wren sent a replacement out the same day and I already have it swapped in, just haven’t put it back on the bike yet.
@@RideYearRound Top man! I wasn't actually expecting a reply, so thanks for that. I was chatting with Kevin Wren in the UK Fat Bike Group on Facebook, which got me thinking, I doubt I'd ever be able to strike up a friendly conversation with the dude who owns Rock Shox or Manitou, so on the customer service front if nothing else, Wren have got that side of it locked up quite nicely. I only got the Wren's because I bought some gigantoid 29 x 3.25 Duro Crux tyres that wouldn't fit underneath the crown of any other fork, lol, wagon wheels!
Yeah customer service wise they’re stellar. I wasn’t too happy about the damper, but I’ve also blown a Rockshox rear shock so I’m hoping it was a fluke. How do you like the 3.25s? I’ve been considering getting some just to see what it’s like haha.
@@RideYearRound The tyres are good, only thin sidewalls and not tubeless ready, but I got them set up tubeless easier than practically any other tyre I've had. I'm going to try them over winter because even at the slightest hint of mud I go arse over tit on my Jumbo Jims, and everyone tells me 29+ is the future, we just need for the bike manufacturers to work this out as well... If you get some, I'd love to see the vid, a lot of people didn't even know they made tyres that big, and when I was trying to do research on them, the only video I found was some dude that had stuck one on his unicycle, lol
I know this is about 4 months too late, but that is 100% the job of the rebound knob and the rebound damper it's to slow down the fork from clunking at the top of its travel.
Yes, a lot of forks have a little tiny rubber bumper in there to mask that top out clunk but if you pump up most suspension forks and take all the rebound damping out of it it'll top out pretty harsh. Especially something like the older rock shocks 35 golds that didn't have a decent negative air chamber.
Increasing your rebound is not going to make your wren fork ride worse, it's going to make it ride the way it's supposed to be ridden... It just has a wider range of adjustability it sounds because it's rated to -27° so you can open it up really wide for the winter when it's cold and it'll rebound at the proper speed, but then in the summer when it's hot you can turn the rebound up and make it slower and get the same feel in the summer as you do in the winter.
Any update? I’ve been looking at this fork and want to hear some more long term reports before I commit
I’ll have a long term review out this week.
Y que opinas de la manitou mastodon pro?
I don’t have enough time on one to give a good review, but I think once you get past the weight and overall size of it it’s a super good fork.
Sweet trail, what town ??
This video has trails from all over the west but mostly near Butte, MT.
just get a mastedon..WREN is rebranded aliexpress junk.
The Wren is better than the Bluto but no where near as good as the Mastodon.
If you have the money for a new Wren just go buy a Mastodon.
Big bonus though for the Wren is you can get it in a straight steer.
Yeah the option to run a straight steerer is nice, but I sometimes wonder how applicable it really is since fat bikes didn’t start gaining real traction until 5-6 years ago and the vast majority accept a tapered steerer. It’s also a $250 price difference between the wren and the Mastodon Pro unfortunately so it’s not quite in the same price bracket.
@@RideYearRoundthe bucksaw came out in like 2012ish and there are other older fat bikes than that. So there are a lot of existing fat bike frames that can only take straight steers. So there is a call for it
Smaller offset does not make steering quicker, you are spitting some major bs my man.
Oops not sure why I said that...The bike does feel more composed (as it should from the increased trail), but you're correct that smaller offset actually "slows" the steering which contributes to it feeling more stable. Thanks for pointing that out!
And if you want to know about setting the Wren fork up, this might help ruclips.net/video/mGKFZRQalH8/видео.html
Thanks Graham! I remember seeing your video when I was first looking into Wren.
Not a bad video, Bud.
Keep riding year round!