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A few weeks ago when I was building up my new setup, I decided it was probably time to try out a set of new forks. I don’t know if you have looked around much lately or not, but there are A LOT of different options. I counted 46 on one of the mail-orders. After looking around quite a bit, I decided on picking up the Shadow Conspiracy Vultus forks. A friend of mine had picked up a set and I liked the feel of his bike, so why not? Right? Let’s take a closer look at these forks…
The Shadow Vultus is a post-weld heat-treated Sanko chromoly fork that has internal and external butting on the steerer tube, butted and tapered legs, a flattened tapering area at the bottom of the legs and 4mm thick drop outs. The fork has a 26mm offset with a 165mm steerer tube length (315mm total height) and a 6061 alloy compression cap. The Vultus fork weighs in at a lightweight 30 ounces which is right around where the majority of forks are at these days. It’s no Ditch fork.
I should also mention that this fork has a built in race for integrated headsets. My dumb ass put my race on not thinking since I’ve never had forks with that built in and if you look closely at the video you can see it. After I put the camera away I realized it and pulled it off. You don’t need it. I know I’ve seen other bikes where they put a race on as well and didn’t notice, but you don’t need it so don’t put it on…
All right, so what does that all mean? The post-weld heat treating, from my understanding – I’m no welder – means that after they have the fork welded, they heat up the metal to a real high temperature which causes the atoms in the metal to re-arrange themselves which helps to relieve stress points in the fork and allows the fork to actually become stronger. Given, this isn’t new technology and the majority of brands use heat-treating on most of their products. It’s comforting to know measures are taken to keep things from snapping under you when shit hits the fan.
The external and internal butting on the steerer tube basically just says they have shaved away unnecessary material on the steerer tube where the least amount of stress is put on it while shaving a few ounces in the process.
The same goes for the legs on the butting, but they also taper a bit and flatten at the end which, if I remember right / assuming right, makes the legs stronger because the tighter radius and the shape of the flattening.
The 26mm offset was one reason in particular I was interested in this fork. The steeper the rake of the fork, the easier it is to do nose tricks and gives the front end a little more responsiveness. The traditional offset is around 32 or 33mm.
Aesthetically the forks are very eye pleasing. They’ve got a real smooth design and look from the tapering and flattening with clean drop outs. If you look closely, the cut out in the dropout makes it look a lot like the Shadow Logo… No?
There’s also a cut out at the bottom of the steerer tube that looks like an inverted coffin. I’m not sure why they did it inverted, but still a nice aesthetic touch. The graphics are also pretty badass…
Overall, the Vultus fork has been holding up just fine these past few weeks and I’m impressed with the feel and look of the fork as well. My balance point on the nose has definitely been a little easier to hit. I know I’ve had a few hang fives go for a bit and I can’t even do that trick for the life of me. Do I think you should buy some? I think if you are in the market for a fork that gives you a little more turning response and you like doing nose manuals and hang 5’s that these might just be the proper unit for your shredder. I’m definitely a fan.
Note: Look at the peg clearance.
You can pick the Shadow Conspiracy Vultus forks up anywhere Shadow is sold (pretty much every shop should be able to get you a set). They run for $134.99 – $144.99 on Dan’s Comp depending on color which there’s a ton of options… chrome, matte black, matte white, matte purple, matte red, matte highlighter yellow and matte highlighter blue are currently what’s available. Staff also has the forks for the same price. They aren’t listed on the Albe’s or Empire site, but I’m willing to bet if you give them a call you can pick up a set.
