I’m honestly surprised no one, especially Cannondale, has done this yet….
Different concept entirely, IMO
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I have the original Lefty Oliver from 2016, still rides great.
They’re meant to be setup with zero sag so you don’t get any suspension bob, but saves you when you hit some washboard or some bigger gnar. Perhaps not as smooth if it did have some sag though, if you’re looking for the cushiest ride.
Why do you say that?
The travel on a Lefty fork is in the fork leg, a Headshok’s suspension is above the fork crown. The fork legs are rigid.
I saw that but below in the details it says:
So not 450mm A-C.
If i compare to the two SP Cycles models;
29:
27.5.
I think that RYET image is a 27.5" carbon fork not a 29 - so the fork you’ll be sent won’t be 450mm a-c.
I think you might have something mixed up here, here’s the details for the RYET fork listing. One fork, 454 axle to crown. 2.6 clearance
As I said in my post, if you check the detail it also says fork blade length 490mm
No other 29er fork on Aliexpress is 454, they are all 490. 90% of these companies are re-selling the same open mould design. I would just recommend you contact them and make sure before sending money through.
Yup, I get your point!
Those “specification” pages are often neglected in my Ali browsing experience. Their geo detail image detailing the fork’s specs specifically says it’s one fork that’s for both 29&27.5. That’s how i figured it’s one fork.
But to your point, I was sure if it when they replied to my inquiry and just pointed me to their geo detail image. I’ll order as things are discounted for the “winter sale” event!
Nice eye! @Upcountry, could you share more photos/angles of your build? Would love to see more.
The only thing these bikes are missing is a good set of aero wheels. I’m not convinced I could easily space out a set of Zipp 303 FC to boost very easily. Perhaps the best plan is to buy some chinese aero gravel rims c.40mm with a 25-27mm internal width and have them locally laced to some light mtb hubs. Obviously not 105% compliant, but better than box section mtb rims and then you can swap out tyres to say a 32-34c road tyre if you wanted.
The 3T wheels would be interesting, but not boost.
@Neuromancer I’m a full blown aero-weenie, and am running some of the Nextie rims, that @BCM posted just above, on my Mosaic. The 36mm deep, 30mm internal/40mm external version. When I ordered them, I inquired about having them built to boost hubs and they were willing to do so. With a 2.0" or 2.1" tire you could try to argue that there is a bit of “aero gain” in addition to the good looks. But when you start to get up to 2.3" tires and upwards, you’d need upwards of a 80mm deep rim in hopes of seeing any measurable benefit, and you’re talking about a pretty significant weight difference as you get that deep. Aero rims work by trying to get the air to “hold onto” or “regain contact with” the rim as quickly after contacting the front of the tire, and for as long as possible. With the frontal area of a >2.0" tire punching a pretty big hole into the air, you’d need a “long” surface for that air to reconnect with. This is all also kind of against the whole notion of these bikes. If you can ride at a sustained pace of upwards of 18mph/30kph, you might be better off on another bike, and the tire size of a Drop Bar MTB is probably unwarranted.
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Hi,
I’m also building up a drop bar MTB for gravel and beach riding and racing, so there’s a lot of interesting info here.
Regarding aero wheels, I also ordered from Nextie. I went with the AGX45’s, so 45mm deep and 30mm internal width. I asked Nextie lace the rims on boost hubs, all communication with them was great!
The wheels arrived last Thursday (production time 3 weeks and 2 weeks shipping) and they look great!
I haven’t been able to install them yet, so I can’t comment on ride quality. I also haven’t checked if the dishing of the wheel is correct for the boost rear wheel spacing.
As @Upcountry said, whether or not there is going to be an actual aero gain is debatable. The external width is 40mm. A 2.2" MTB tire is substantially wider than this 40mm width.
Rim profile:
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I think my aim would be to get a reasonable aero benefit with narrow gravel tyres (for a faster gravel race on good gravel) and also be able to mount high volume road tyres. Similarly, i’m not sure that a 2.3+ tyre is the aim here, but to mount actual mtb tyres (like racekings in 2.0) rather than gravel tyres. HUNT Engineering Paper - Gravel: Does Aero Matter? – Hunt Bike Wheels and other places have made a case that the 105% rule isn’t absolute - you still get some boundary attachment even with a moderate gravel tyre in the 38-42c range. What would you sacrifice? A small amount of weight (balanced by shorter spokes, but likely no more than 75-100g over a total wheelset).
WG44 Disc Carbon Gravel Rim - Light Bicycle
Also a slammed drop bar mtb with deep wheels looks pimp.
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But why would you do that? You will effectively come out with a shorter reach and a more “cramped” position on the bike? And it would say nothing (well, pretty little) about the steering qualities you’d get from said bike.
What I found is that compared to current / conventional gravel bikes, mtbs have a bit longer top tube (as is often touted, no news here). But they also have an appropriately shorter stem. Case in point: my Canyon Exceed Hardtail comes up with a 3 cm longer top tube than my race gravel bike. But in stock spec it features an 8 cm stem which is exactly 3 cm shorter as the stem I use on my gravel bike. So… as well as in pure geometry as also in extensive ride tests this geometry was absolutely perfect for me. And more important: It stayed this way also for converting it from flatbar to dropbar.
So my take: if you like the ride and steering quality of a flatbar xc bike you might end up with the exact stem length this hardtail comes stock.
Suspect that’s likely because you’ve got an older hardtail. Modern xc hardtail geometry will often have reach numbers of c.475mm in a large. The same rider would rarely ride a road/gravel bike with a reach more than about 390mm
That would require you to run 8-90mm less stem. So, for a normal 110mm stem on the road / gravel you’re now into a 30mm mtb stem - although you may regain a little ‘virtual’ reach with the narrower handlebars.
The problem with this is that 30mm stems work when you have 780mm wide bar. With an aerodynamic 380mm wide drop handlebar you’re going to get unbelievably twitchy handling - which is not what this bike is about.
Hence - size down your mtb frameset so that you can still run a longer stem to:
a) reduce stack height for aero
b) retain stable handling.
It could also be that you’re actually comparing top tube lengths rather than reach which will lead you to a faulty conclusion about fit as well.
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Hi Dexvd,
love this question and the resulting Thread. 
Also your reasoning to want a suspension fork with it because that’s right up my alley. After all, wanting to have a bit more tire clearance certainly is a point but there’s plenty of gravel bikes to choose from already.
The real “magic” and fun comes around once you have full mtb / hardtail (or even full sus) capabilities with an (at least) front suspension. A real XC one and not just a bit around 20 to 30 mm.
So yes, I have done this. I even wrote a complete 5 part article series around this topic.
For you the most appropriate part would be this:
Dropbar-MTB, Teil 2: Lenkverhalten und Handling von Flatbar und Rennlenker – Theorie und Praxis
Yes, it’s in German, but you’ll be able to have it translated and glean all the Info.
The title translation reads: Dropbar MTB part two: Steering and handling of flatbar and dropbar - theory and practical application.
If you don’t trust numbers and graphs you can also see (and laugh) how I even did a first practical test of a dropbar without really wanting to rip out the old mechanical shifting and mtb brakes. 
Bottom line: I purchased a Canyon Exceed Hardtail and converted it to Dropbar. I used an S - sized Frame which fit me perfectly. As a flatbar and as a dropbar bike. No “going bigger” or “going smaller” - the base bike has already to fit you. Standover hight wise, ride quality wise, “feel wise”. Then it will become a good drop bar mtb also.
Noteworthy: the Exceed still came with a somewhat conventional (for an mtb) stem length of 80 mm. Which is great as it gives you all the options to go longer or shorter should you wish to finetune it. But it turned out (as my theory showed): I stayed with this 80 mm stem even for dropbars.
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Which brakes do you run? Mineral oil or dot, respectively Shimano or Sram?
I purchased an Shimano equipped Hardtail for my conversion. Swapping out the brakes wasn’t that big of a deal. I wanted to go Sram Rival with the brifters anyways. So I bought one of their (quite reasonable priced) brakelever kits which already come with the calibers attached. Rear was already flatmount on my frame anyways. But even if not: Wolftooth sell nice flatmount to postmount adapters. I used on of those for mounting the Sram caliper onto my SID fork. Didn’t even had to redo the hosing. Just screw it on.
RD got switched to an Eagle AXS GX and jobs a gooden. Real easy and painfree conversion.
If you want to stay with Shimano (should you so have) the new GRX 12x and it’s Dropbars are finally also a good option for such builds completely in the Shimano realm. Will become even easier still once they will announce a Di2 version of it.
In any case - also for this questions I have a part in my Dropbar-MTB conversion series, where I list 13 (I guess) different shifting and brake options for Dropbar MTB conversions:
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I’ve got a question for you and those others who have posted examples in here (save the s works).
Your hoods are at the same height as your saddle and you have a positive angled stem on.
Why have you bothered to fit drop bars?
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Indeed, once you have all the elements of a telescopic suspension fork you really don’t gain much in terms of weight savings and non in terms of less complexity in favor of a “normal” XC 100 mm fork. Only thing is: you can get away with a more conventional road bike / gravel bike frame geometry. But that’s about it.
And a second indeed: I also always say that the headshock principle would make awesome gravel forks. I still have my old Cannondale Super V 900 with it’s 60 mm travel headshock.
While you still need place between fork crown and down tube you gain a very rigid fork, no splay, have two conventional fork legs (can be aerodynamically shaped, can feature fork cage bosses) and can run dynamo hubs. The latter either both or just one of them not possible with either a Lefty or a conventional telescopic suspension fork.
The other option we have are linkage forks. I wonder what there is to come in the near term for “Gravel” applications.
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Spot on!