Good news for cross riders looking for an alternative to carbon fiber, Wittson Cycles has just added a European-made titanium cyclocross fork to their repertoire in time to get racing by mid-season. The new unicrown Ele disc-brake cross fork is just the fourth product in Wittson’s catalog, but like the rest of their offerings it is made by a well-respected frame builder who has been building for some top European companies for more than 20 years, and comes with a lifetime warranty. Since they are a custom shop where everything is made-to-order, anything is possible with straight or tapered steerer tubes and even back to canti brakes. Hop past the break for specs, weight, pricing, and time to delivery details…
Wittson tells us that the Grade 9 titanium from which this fork is machined and welded, results in one of the stiffest rides we would ever experience from a unicrown fork of any material, something far beyond what it’s simple design and usage of ti would suggest. They also appear to be the only bike company worldwide producing a fork from this material to offer 1.25″ & 1.5″ tapered steerers in addition to straight 1.125″. With the custom nature of the fork, there seem to be almost an unlimited number of options (rake, length, brakes, etc.)
The standard fork uses a straight steerer, QR drops, and a 160mm compatible post mount disc brake tab, but thru-axle dropouts are also available, as are canti studs. The typical fork claims a weight of about 790g (with a full-length 270mm steerer) with a 395mm axle-crown and 47mm rake. Tire clearance is a generous 40mm. The fork gets a low-key hand-polished finish with sandblasted logos.
The new fork sells for 440€, and worldwide shipping from their Lithuanian headquarters is at no extra charge. Custom order lead time is just 30-45 days, so time enough to get one before the season is over.
Wittson also offers a segmented and lugged rigid ti 29er fork as well, the Nulla. They tell us they’ve been getting a bunch of questions recently whether that 540€ fork was compatible with plus size tires. So they sent us a photo of one with a 3″ Surly Knard to show how much extra space it has. So there’s another option to build up a rigid mountain bike, again with their custom options, and with no rider weight limit on the roughly ~1000g fork.
