Some advice about front suspension

rmhodv

Hi all
I'm new here, although I have been around the commuting/road forums for a while. The husband of my wife's frienf has invited me to do a spot of XC MTB. I am looking to using my old commuter but with some decent tyres. The bike is a Carrera Subway 1. If I enjoying the MTBing as much as I think I'm gonna, I will invest in some mods. The first thing I would be intrested in would be to replace the ridgid front forks for some that have suspension. What implecations does this have to where you mount the fron brakes etc.

Any help would be great.

nwmlarge

just make sure you have v brake bosses on the forks you buy.
is it a recent carrera or a few years old?
do you have a pic of it then we could advise better

ride_whenever

Most aftermarket forks nowadays will only take disc brakes. You could look around for a second hand set of rockshox toras with the v-bosses, or potentially just buy a new bike...

:twisted:

rmhodv

nwmlarge wrote:

is it a recent carrera or a few years old?

It's a few years old now, I've just looked at the Halfords website, and it's not like the picture they show.

As long as I know to make sure that I have bosses on the forks to accept v brakes, I should be ok.

Thanks all.

BTW once you have the forks, is it a big job to fit them?

Northwind

Cost it all up carefully... forks + tyres is a decent downpayment towards an entry level mtb. The Subway should make a pretty nice rigid mtb though, it's really just an evolution of the last of the carrera rigids. Bigger tyres for comfort and grip, and possibly a bit wider on the bars, but it'll go.

(I grew up on rigid mtbs, a Carrera funnily enough, and I prefer a rigid fork to a cheap suspension one, i tmight be bumpy but at least you know what it's going to do. But maybe I'm odd)

26 to Life

rmhodv wrote:

nwmlarge wrote:

is it a recent carrera or a few years old?

It's a few years old now, I've just looked at the Halfords website, and it's not like the picture they show.

As long as I know to make sure that I have bosses on the forks to accept v brakes, I should be ok.

Thanks all.

BTW once you have the forks, is it a big job to fit them?

The scariest parts are transfering the crown race of the headset, cutting the steerer tube down, and fitting a star flanged/fangled (delete as appropriate) nut. Except for that, it's simples!

Any decent shop will be able to fit the forks with a minimum of fuss, and not too much cost, and advise you about the fork purchase.

Good luck and god speed!

gaz047

why not leave it as it is for a few rides to see if you like it and if you do, invest in a new mtb? as mentioned by the time you've got new forks on, that could be a downpayment on a new one. also its a good time of year to buy as everyones trying to get rid of 09 models.

jairaj

I agree with Northwond. I prefer a rigid fork to a budget suspension fork. If you look in the sales etc you might be able to get a good mid range fork for £200. As said your choice could be limited by the need for v-brake bosses though. Also relatively easy and cheap to get a LBS to swap forks over mine charged £15.