Just like those old forks, the new Rudy Ultimate XPLR features an aluminum crown, an aluminum steerer tube, aluminum stanchions, and cast magnesium lower legs. The Rudy name is a play on the company’s old Judy mountain bike line from the late 1990s (and perhaps also pays homage to RockShox’s old Ruby forks).

The new RockShox Rudy Ultimate XPLR looks and feels like a dedicated gravel-specific suspension fork. RockShox is the first major player to formally announce a new gravel-specific fork called the Rudy Ultimate XPLR. Now that the segment has apparently reached critical mass, aftermarket component brands have finally decided it’s worth investing the time and resources in gravel-specific suspension: stuff that’s smaller and lighter-weight, with more appropriate tuning and features. Cannondale’s Lefty Oliver fork has probably come the closest functionally, but its single-sided design and proprietary hub present its own hurdles to adoption. They were heavy, they were ugly, and the afterthought tuning just didn’t work well enough to convince enough people that they were worth the substantial hit in weight and cost. Several of the most popular ones were just chopped-down obsolete mountain bike forks, and they looked and rode like them. Do you really need suspension on a gravel bike? The idea of suspension forks on gravel bikes has always been a contentious one, and the bike industry hasn’t exactly done itself any favors given what was available early on.

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