DT Swiss F 535 ONE 130 fork £924.99

DEVELOPED TO BE AS‘ SET UP AND FORGET’ AS POSSIBLE, IT STRUGGLE SIN HARD AND FASTCONDITIONS

DT have spent three years developing their new trail/enduro fork to be as ‘set up and forget’ as possible, but it struggles in hard and fast conditions.

The F 535’s ribbed legs, big geometric brace and concealed air valve and axle-end give it a distinctive appearance, and the broad bolt-on mudguard is the best we’ve used. A T10 Torx key hidden in the axle lever and different-labelled valve caps to show how many volume spacers you’re running are neat details too.

At 2,180g (without the 80g fender), our 29er sample was more than 300g heavier than an equivalent RockShox Pike. Despite this, it fluttered and twisted under heavy braking/cornering and compressions. DT say this flex is deliberate, to improve traction and reduce fatigue compared to the stiffest forks in this class. The brand also proclaim that their online air pressure and rebound calculator will give you a perfect set-up first go. They even hide the air cap under a screw-down cover and say you’ll never need to touch the adjustable low-speed compression damping, whatever your weight or aggression levels.

This self assurance is based on a unique spring system that pairs a super-soft coil (to control the first 8mm of travel) with a deliberately linear-feeling air spring. DT’s ‘PlushPort’ damper is also unusual. In the recommended fully-open setting, oil bypasses the compression damper in the first 30 per cent of the fork’s travel. Past that mark, a floating piston begins to close the port, so oil starts to flow through the low-speed compression circuit and then, by the second half of the travel, mostly through the high-speed circuit. This is intended to provide an ultra-supple start to the stroke, with the damping then kicking in to give mid-travel cornering support and stop the fork blowing through its travel.

During testing we rode a 130mm-travel 29er version with crown lockout and a 160mm 650b fork with remote lockout. Mid-stroke stability is indeed good and the fork corners well on smooth flow trails. While it moves with barely any pressure in the initial coil-spring phase, sensitivity up to the sag point is at best average. It dives under heavy braking and/or aggressive turning-in too, unless you ignore DT’s advice and add some low-speed damping. In contrast, the non-adjustable high-speed damping is too firm, so it slaps and spikes when ridden hard into rocky sections, particularly over multiple hits. While it uses full travel easily on rolling compressions, on the rocky trails where you want that movement most, we found it would choke around 60 per cent of the way through its stroke, regardless of how many volume spacers we ran. Guy www.madison.co.uk

Unique plush-to- irm feel, but heavy, not truly ‘ it and forget’ and lacks the consistent control of its main rivals