Recommended travel for fork upgrade

cee

hey ho.

Hopefully some of you guys will have done this already and will be able to tell me your experiences.

I want to upgrade the fork on my 06 Hardrock. It is currently 100mm RST Gila. i know they blow but to be honest it hasn't stopped me hitting the blacks at Glentress (Freeride and Big XC) and I believe they have now almost reached the end of their useful life.

I have looked around the forums and read smashing reviews of various forks, but my question is how much travel should I buy. I understand that increasing the travel by too much would change the geometry of the bike, but how much is too much?

Thoughts please!!

ride_whenever

You could go up a little, but 100mm is the sweet spot for Hardrocks, I'd look at the reba's but it does depend on your budget.

cee

ok....

lets say i want to spend less than £300. I have seen other posts from people gon up to 130mm etc.

Again, this seems to be the usual response (no offence). How much is a little?

ride_whenever

Well once again the standard response is, 130mm would slow the handling and make climbing harder, but make it descend slightly better. However you will probably void the frame warranty.

For £300 you should be able to get a travel adjust fork that will allow you to change it for different situations on the fly. Revelations would be nice, the air u-turn ones go 100mm to 130mm and come in under budget. Given the riding you're doing that should be fine, although I'd mostly use the 100-115mm settings and save 130mm for really big stuff, which would be ideal for you.

Generally you don't want to change by more than about 20mm from what the bike is supplied with.

The Big Cheese

As above, Revelations are excellent forks - some good deals to be had on '07 models too

supersonic

£300 is a lot to spend - nearly much as the bike is worth! The Rev is a good fork however, and will transform the bike, and I defimitely agree with using a travel adjust fork.

Cheaper options would be the Tora and Recon. If I had 300 to upgrade a hardrock I would split the budget - new forks, wheels and cranks.

cee

cheers folks.

I am thinking the adjustable thing is a good idea. I also seem to remember a coupla spacers, but can't remember if they were above or below the headset. presumably if they are below the headset, then removing them will tighten the head angle (and the addition of a longer fork will balance that out)??

There is a plan you see to do the upgrading, and then finally get a new frame and swap the bits over. I have had it 20 months now. I got the bike as a birthday present from the girlie and it was an ideal starting point. This month see the arrival of an xt groupset. Jan sees the fork, then maybe march itll be a wheels and hyraulic disc kit from merlin.

After that, im thinking new frame in the summer. Swap all the bits over and robert/father/brother etc

supersonic

The spacers will have no effect on headangle, but will move the position of the stem and bars. You may find you prefer the longer travel position for some types of riding, and the slacker head angle.

cee

supersonic wrote:

The spacers will have no effect on headangle, but will move the position of the stem and bars. You may find you prefer the longer travel position for some types of riding, and the slacker head angle.

I was thinking they were on the underside of that tube though, literally just above the fork crown..

I initially though the what you said, but now im all confuzd by it.....

I would say for certain that if they were on the upper of the steerer tube then they would effect the position of the bar and stem, but as they are below the steerer (i have checked now) then the bar and stem would stay in the same place (as they kinda move the fork crown about 1/2 an inch lower)

As I said ....... confuzd

The Big Cheese

You can't put spacers underneath the head tube.

The headset 'lower cup' goes into the frame, then the crown race fits into the 'lower cup'

So there is nowhere for the spacers to go matey?

cee

see......confuzd

supersonic

The spacers for the headset always fit above the headtube.

The Big Cheese

as supersonic mentioned the spacers can either raise or lower your stem - thus changing the 'stack height'.

Imaging stacking pound coins on top of one another, then removing/adding one and you'll get a mental pic of that I mean

Although this can make a dramatic change, it won't alter the head angle of your bike.

cee

yip.. ive had a good look and a long hard think.........

I was looking at the bottom half of the headset :roll:

I see how the spacers would lower the stem (and bar) and can perceive how the fork length would change the angle the frame sits at

I'm now thinking I might go for a 100 or 115max.

Cheers guys.

I think my question has been answered

supersonic

The RS Rev, recon and Tora are all 85-130mm adjustable, so perfect!

nicklouse

my 2p.

if you go for a fork that can not have the travel adjusted buy whatever means, (for the RS all travel forks it does need a stripdown and semi service) do not go over 115mm (eg Reba) or you will be cursing the bike on climbs and other trails that do not point down.

Yes it is that noticeable.