When do you...

never have. a mate mine never does either.

On extremely steep, technical climbs, or if I happen to be riding the hardtail in town.

When speed is more important than shock absorbing.

peet9471 said:

When speed is more important than shock absorbing.

I do it when climbing, specially standing on the pedals, mine is a Marzocchi which will eventhough locked (ETA) will give about an inch of travel but very stiff. When I'm going down an asphalt or smooth road I usually block it too.

i use my lockout quite a bit while riding, usually only if im racing though. if i had it themk i would've especially used it in the last race i did (12 hour) the track wound through a grass field past everyones campsite which were the rider swapover points the grass part was pretty damn long so it would have been very useful to have a lockout on that race. besides that just on long climbs or long straight smooth parts of a track

Solanog said:

I do it when climbing, specially standing on the pedals, mine is a Marzocchi which will eventhough locked (ETA) will give about an inch of travel but very stiff. When I'm going down an asphalt or smooth road I usually block it too.

i use a marzochi too, very nice price/performace ratio.

strange but on rocky tech climbs i find it easier to leave it unlocked so the front absorbs impact with rocks and i dont get bounced off course too much. I get too harsh of a reaction when my locked fork hits a rock.

On smooth roads and pavement its nice to lock it down and get a more "roadbike" ride.

Nice to lock it too on smooth steep climbs. 🙂

When riding around for fun - never.

When on-road touring - all the time except on longish steep decents (I figure if you accidently hit a big bump, the shock will reduce the force on the wheel, hence a safer decent)

When racing - depends on the course. Last race I did was technically easy and had a few asphalt sections, I locked out the fork for the entire race. Normally though, I would unlock in technical or very bumpy sections and lock in non-technical sections.

I find the fork helps me in rough, technical sections, as robbielg says I find the fork really helps on steep, technical rocky uphills, as it helps you keep the wheel on track.

This is a good question for me to find that answer to..as I'm new to MTBing and have a Gary Fisher Ziggurat. I have no clue as how the fork is supposed to work, when it is best to lock out, etc.

Any advice for a newbie would be greatly appreciated.

Cheesy said:

When riding around for fun - never.

When on-road touring - all the time except on longish steep decents (I figure if you accidently hit a big bump, the shock will reduce the force on the wheel, hence a safer decent)

When racing - depends on the course. Last race I did was technically easy and had a few asphalt sections, I locked out the fork for the entire race. Normally though, I would unlock in technical or very bumpy sections and lock in non-technical sections.

I find the fork helps me in rough, technical sections, as robbielg says I find the fork really helps on steep, technical rocky uphills, as it helps you keep the wheel on track.

i remember seeing a warning in my fork's manual, it says NOT to lock the fork when going down fast technical downhill sections. self-expanatory i think.