Think outside of any boxes - The Ebonite-Bandit
The Ebonite-Bandit is the next chapter of Blackline Rightsideup forks at Intend. Increasing the stiffness of the complete fork/frame/handlebar system, especially hard and heavy riders benefit from this architecture.
The Bandit construction improves not only the discbrake side with more strength and stiffness, but also gives more space for any improvements of the air spring system. Larger negativ chamber? No problem, Lager positive chamber? yes, second positive chamber? yes.
Yes, the second positive chamber in the Ebonite fork is pressurized with higher pressure then the first air chamber. The lower initial pressure improves the small bump sensitivity, while it ramps up faster until it reaches the pressure of the second chamber, then they act like one big chamber with less progression.
And the big benefit of the Ebonite-bandit is, that you can set the limit of movement of the seperating piston and tune the progression in the last 20mm of the stroke to your personal needs. Sounds good ? Yes - is good!
The Air spring needs the following steps for setup:
Do not inflate the lower chamber first! Always start with the upper chamber.
Do not release air of the lower chamber with your fingernail - always with a mounted shockpump!
1. Inflate air in the upper chamber, approx your riderweight x 1,5 = pressure in PSI. E.g. 120 PSI for 80kg rider weight
2. Inflate air in the lower chamber , appro halb of the pressure of the upper chamber. E.g. In our case 120PSI / 2 = 60PSI.
3. To increase or decrease end progression, release air of the lower chamber completely with mounted pump, relase air
of the upper chamber (here no pump is needed) and unscrew the upper topcap with a 13mm hex socket. Install the long M6
bolt to a less-proession-position by turning in the M6 screw and to a more-progession-position by turning it out.Leave at least
a thread length of 5mm in the socket.
Torques of the upper crown:
5mm allen-key: 10-12Nm
4mm allen-key: 5Nm
To disassemble the crown it can halp to take a softhammer.
- Ride Style
Enduro
- Travel Range
Maximum stroke 180mm / Minimum stroke 140mm
- Wheel Size
29” only
- Max headtube length
145mm (meassured incl headset)
- Spring Type
Air spring
- Damping
Closed cartridge
- Adjustments
Rebound / Compression / Air spring / Progression
- Weight
2450g
- Colour
Black anodized
- Other
Royal flush coating / SKF D35 green dust wipers (Without collar) / Main and current sag indicators
CHECK SPECIFICATIONS FOR FURTHER INFORMATIONS
Technology
Why not upsidedown?
To be honest, in my eyes the upsidedown-principle has advantages over the rightsideup. But it also have disadvantages, like every construction.
So the whole Blackline is made to meet the wishes of the costumer. You are scared of torsional stiffness or no guarded lowers ? The Blackline forks will meet your demand, as it is a construction which you know from other brands. No thoughts about torsional stiffness and no thoughts about damaged lowers.
What is special about the Ebonite fork?
There is one thing I learned during making suspension fork. The weak point is the joint of the crown and steerertube. It is flexible, can creak and cause problems wherever you look. The steerer tube of the Ebonite is the same of the heavy Intend Flash fork, made with doubled wall thickness, so 6mm insteaf of 3mm of a normal forks steerer. And the upper 1 1/8″ side has 3mm instead of 2mm wall tickness. This is made to increase stiffness everywhere it is necessary.
Damping:
The damping of the Ebonite (and also all other Intend forks) is done with a shimstack based architecture. There is a compression piston and a rebound piston which provides the highspeed circuits, and there are lowspeed ports with external adjusters to get the setup done from outside.
There is a long rubber bladder on the inside of the stanchion. This makes it easy to assemble and disassemble the unit for service or tuning.
Air spring:
The air spring of the Intend forks are made with a special mechanism to fill both chambers, negative and positive in the same time. There are 2 valves, which gets connected when you mount a shock pump and gets seperated when you dismount the shock pump.
There is a special pneumatic air lip-seal to provide a friction-reduced air system. There is no second positive chamber. With the large negative chamber, the Intend forks have a super supple beginning stroke without a hanging curve in the middle. With this construction it is not necessary to go the way with third chambers. It is easier to set up, it has lower friction (just imagine a normal quadring instead of my pneumatic air seal, and then imagine you have TWO of this quadrings inside, this is the opposite of what you want…) and is easy to manage with volume spacers to avoid bottom out.
And you can add the travel by simply add or remove 10mm spacers, the black ones in the picture.
Upper stanchions with Royal Flush Coating
The upper legs of the Ebonite are double butted. This means they have bigger wall thickness at the area of high stress (on the crown side), and lower wall thickness at the area of lower stress to reduce weight.
What is the Royal Flush Coating?
It is a special treatment of the surfaces of the stanchions. It should not be too flattened, but not to rough, just a perfect balance.
And the difference is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7LkYRM510E
FAQ
Can I have black upper tubes for the fork ?
The upper tubes are only offered with the shown Royal Flush Coating, which stands for low friction, great hardness and low wear
How often do I need to service the fork ?
Depending on your riding style and time on your bike, it is recommended to make a small lower leg service every 3-5 month to achieve a perfect function, if you ride 2-3 rides a week or more. You can run it also without servicing it and it will work, but the best function is provided with fresh oil from time to time
Can I change the travel afterwards ?
Yes, you can. The manual for this is attached at “Service” on the top of this site
Do you offer different offset, axle diameter, steerer diameter ?
The Intend Blackline Ebonite is only available in 44mm offset, 110×15 boost axle, tapered steerer. There is no other option available
Can I ride a 27,5″ wheel in this fork ?
Yes, the Ebonite is designed to fit to 29″ wheels, so this means it is approx. 20mm longer that a 27,5″ fork. I can highly recommend taking a 29″ fork although you have an 27,5″. In this case I would choose 10mm less travel as you wanted to have, this means your fork is only 10mm higher than it should. This is acceptable – but – it the fork will fit in your future bike and this will be a 29″ for sure. And then you already have the right fork
