The ride of these 600g steel forks is really nice. Lemond used a variety of tubing-specific terms to describe the (ovalized) tubing they used in the MJ & Zurich models that set them apart from the round tubing used for the BA or Tourmalet models that set them apart the Poprad & Wayzata.

Trek used Multitrack and Singletrack in their hybrid and mtn models with some descriptor on the decals regarding the tubing that's reasonably descriptive/accurate. From banging around the web, it appears(?) 'DirectDrive' is a term they applied to a proprietary 4130 drawn CroMoly tubing.Īnybody know what Specialized Direct Drive tubing is? What makes me laugh though is the whole 'DirectDrive' marketing thing, my bike has this written on it also and it always makes me roll my eyes at the term, i mean I've never seen an 'indirect drive' chain driven bicycle before, but the spesh boys and girls in marketing obviously thought that would make a snazzy name didn't they?Ya.they could have picked a better term as DD is sort of silly and not related to what it actually is. No answer here, but I have a slightly newer rockhopper 97? that i use as my winter bike, ride it daily. Would a 1 1/8ths threadless DirectDrive CroMo fork from a Rockhopper (or upper-end Hardrock) be the same as that used on a Stumpy?īonus question (slightly off topic): In the 1991-1996 range, were FS Stumpy frames any different than the rigid-fork frames or did they just mount a suspended fork on the same frame as the rigid bikes? They had fairly short travel suspended forks back then. Would a 1' threaded DirectDrive CroMo fork from a Rockhopper (or upper-end Hardrock) be the same as that used on a Stumpy? Not sure about the Hardrock as I've never looked into them much. Stumpjumpers transitioned to 1 1/8th threadless steerer tubes in 1994(per German catalog) and the top end Rockhoppers also went threadless. Given a rigid 1990ish to 1996ish Specialized Stumpjumper, are the DirectDrive CroMoly forks on a Rockhopper or (less likely?) a Hardrock-Ultra the same as the OEM Direct Drive CroMoly fork that would have come with the same year(approx) Stumpjumper? In the catalogs they tend to use the same terminology 'DirectDrive fork' with the rigid models. My knowledge specifically on Specialized bikes is limited as I've never owned one nor spent any time around them.

Rockhopper rigid fork