What does pinned forks mean?

[JoshNunez]

I have seen some people pinning their forks. They run this bolt through the fork tube at the very bottom. What does that do?

Good example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gofggqJ0TAk


Please answer kindly, kinda of a noob here

 

[Michael Rankin]

It keeps the forklegs from separating from the forktube. An example would be the Frend iD fork. French iD's are 2 separate pieces glued together, and when the glue fails, people pin them together.

 

[JoshNunez]

Oh, so pinning is kinda of a bad thing, you want something that is a one piece fork, not glued together right?

 

[Michael Rankin]

Once you pin it together, it's a perfect fork. The whole point of pinning is to hold the two pieces together, and once you do it, it's basically a one piece fork.