Home > Bike Types > Gravel Bikes

KS Suspension GTC Gravel Fork Bounces Carbon Legs on the Cheap

KS GTC gravel suspension fork closeup details
32 Comments

KS hasn’t kept their new GTC gravel suspension fork a secret. It was on display in prototype form at Sea Otter in 2021, which looked completely different.

KS GTC gravel suspension fork being ridden in the forest

Then they showed it in near final form at Taipei Cycle Show in March 2023, along with a wireless dropper and inverted MTB fork concept. Now, finally, it’s official and available.

KS GTC gravel suspension fork shown at an angle

The KS GTC gravel fork has alloy dropouts bonded into carbon fiber legs and brake arch on the lowers, with an AL6066-T6 forged alloy crown and steerer. That combo gives it a reasonably low weight of 1,385g (claimed).

KS GTC gravel suspension fork closeup details

Travel is fixed at 40mm with an air spring and 30mm stanchions. Tire clearance is rated for 700x50mm, letting you fit the biggest rubber in there. It’s compatible with 160-180mm brake rotors, flat-mount rotors only.

Adjustments include external low-speed compression with a lockout lever on top, and a rebound adjuster on the bottom.

The KS GTC fork is rated for e-gravel bike use, too, and comes with a stealth thru-axle with a hidden, slide-out lever. Here’s a quick recap of the specs:

  • AL6066-T6 crown, steerer & dropouts
  • High Modulus carbon lowers and brake arch
  • 30mm stanchions
  • 40mm travel
  • 46mm offset
  • Axle to Crown is 435mm
  • 700×50 tire clearance
  • Tapered steerer
  • External compression & rebound dials w/ locket
KS GTC gravel suspension fork closeup details

All this, and the MSRP is only $599. For the US, it’s available through dealers or direct from Bikefy.us.

KSsuspension.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

32 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Grillis
Grillis
10 days ago

What is the axel-crown measurement?

Matt Gersib
Matt Gersib
10 days ago
Reply to  Grillis

It says 435mm in the copy…

Il_Dottore
Il_Dottore
7 days ago
Reply to  Grillis

The Axle-crown measurement is really huge, and it’s why Slash decided to leave the band in 2007.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
10 days ago

This is heavier than some XC forks

Grillis
Grillis
10 days ago
Reply to  Veganpotter

Which forks?

Royboy
Royboy
10 days ago
Reply to  Grillis

Yeah… Name 1 XC fork that it weighs more than? Go on, I’m waiting

BobaBlob
BobaBlob
3 days ago
Reply to  Royboy

Lefty?

Andrew
Andrew
10 days ago
Reply to  Grillis

SID SL ultimate

a-aron
a-aron
10 days ago
Reply to  Veganpotter

I have 2021 sid SL 100mm at 1340g with race day damper. My 2023 120mm sid ult is 1415g.

Bewer
Bewer
10 days ago

Heavy and ugly

David
David
10 days ago

When are we going to finally stop saying alloy when we mean aluminum? It doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
9 days ago
Reply to  David

Thank you

FasterThanEwe
9 days ago
Reply to  David

My god yes. Alloy is any kind of mixed metals, which is basically every metal since the Vikings. Steel is Iron + nickel = Alloy. My magnesium frame has some other stuff mixed in. = Alloy. Cybertruck body panels = Alloy. All of those are not aluminum.

Dr. Corrector
Dr. Corrector
9 days ago
Reply to  FasterThanEwe

Uh… Excuse me, Ms. FasterThanEwe, you’re wrong. Those are all aluminum. How do you not know that? Literally everything you said is wrong. Jeez. Come here acting all smart and being completely clueless. I hope you’re proud of yourself. You have dishonored your family and your ancestors.

David
David
9 days ago
Reply to  David

I personally want cycling media to be relevant, but it’s hard to take seriously when I see words used this way – especially for so long. When alloy was a weird word that sounded self-important as an alternative to the soft steel frames silver soldered together like earrings in the 1970s, it had some plausible deniability. In 2024, not so much, especially when you’re talking cast aluminum components as part of a suspension fork for a gravel bike that also includes compression molded CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer). Except… I don’t really see any CFRP in that fork LOL.

Il_Dottore
Il_Dottore
7 days ago
Reply to  David

Most writers assume the reader is well educated enough to understand the terminology used in the bicycle industry … being a pedant about terms and their engineering or scientific definitions won’t change the way the majority in the business (engineers included) converses on the subject.

In the matter of suspension fork lowers, magnesium alloys are used in higher quality forks, you only see aluminium and steel alloys used for lowers in cheap forks, and both of these alloys make for a heavy fork that delivers sluggish and heavy handling. Aluminium alloys are typically used on higher quality forks for the crown, steerer and slider tubes (stanchions).

David
David
6 days ago
Reply to  Il_Dottore

LOL. I knew someone would come out with the p-word. In my experience, people that don’t know what they’re talking about use terms like “alloy” in this context, and people that do don’t. It’s that simple! Take it for what it’s worth, but maybe your experience is different.

Engineers don’t say “alloy” – “journalists” and marketing do. But dude, it’s not a hill I’m going to die on. I left the bicycle industry for aerospace years ago because of this exact kind of thing. I made a snarky comment on a website I haven’t opened in years and here we are!

Il_Dottore
Il_Dottore
8 days ago
Reply to  David

The term ‘alloy’ means exactly what the writer intended. Alloy refers to any material comprising a mixture of chemical elements, any one of which is a metal, and in the realm of bicycles this metal is in the main aluminium, with another being titanium.

Using the term ‘alloy’ to describe components and frames is correct, because if you used pure (100%) aluminium for anything load bearing ir stressed (i.e. frames or components) you’d end up breaking it due to pure aluminium’s inherent structural weaknesses, and on a bike that could spell disaster for the user.

David
David
6 days ago
Reply to  Il_Dottore

Who’s the pedant now?

FasterThanEwe
9 days ago

“only $599” lol. What a world we live in.

Exodux
9 days ago

Great to see more companies entering the gravel suspension arena. I still think though that travel needs to be upped to at least 50mm with 60mm being about perfect.

blue
blue
6 days ago
Reply to  Exodux

With 60 mm, why not taking an MTB instead?

Il_Dottore
Il_Dottore
8 days ago

Carbon fibre lowers and 30mm stanchions, for a gravel fork? Umm , no thanks,… with that kind of spec I’d expect you’ll see some spectacular failures that won’t end well for the riders.

SeanK
SeanK
8 days ago

Yes it’s only 20mm travel, but I got my Redshift stem for £140, it only added 140g and I can switch back to my rigid stem in 20 minutes.

mud
mud
6 days ago
Reply to  SeanK

it says 40mm travel right in the copy

Jeff
Jeff
8 days ago

’90s cross country racers are laughing their faces off

Il_Dottore
Il_Dottore
7 days ago
Reply to  Jeff

Yes, because finally they’d have a decent fork to put on their 90’s cross country MTBs … if only they made it in 26” wheel size

Il_Dottore
Il_Dottore
7 days ago

I have the Fox Factory TC 32 FIT4 Float fork on my gravel bike, which weighed 1319 grams with an uncut steerer. This fork has 32mm stanchions, so it will be stiffer and more durable than the KC fork. I think the idea might be good, particularly given the price, but my concerns are around the long term durability, flex (and safety) of this fork due to it having only 30mm diameter stanchions, how well those carbon fibre lowers will stand up to continuous use, and in the case of this fork the dropouts being alloy bonded to carbon fibre as it is a well known problem that these types of joints are subject to failure due to fatigue of the adhesive in the joint, and dropouts are subjected to a lot of continuous stress during riding.

Dylan Sutton
Dylan Sutton
6 days ago
Reply to  Il_Dottore

Re alloy dropouts bonded to carbon lowers, that describes most dropouts front and rear on most carbon bikes until the last 5 years. It’s also the norm for threaded pedal inserts in carbon cranks (although those are normally steel).
30mm or even 28mm stanchions used to be common on MTB forks of much longer travel, for something with only 40mm travel it really shouldn’t be a problem.

M.m.
M.m.
7 days ago

I think that alloy aluminum parts are pretty strong , compared to pure aluminum. I have a mountain bike with an all steel suspension fork, except for the alloy crown that weighs in pretty heavy and has only spring steel coils,called the zoom element suspension fork.

mud
mud
6 days ago

The comment section at BR never disappoints!

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.