100mm Travel Forks, or Not

abarth_1200

Hi everyone noticed when I got my bike the forks werent very good at absorbing they had about 50mm travel and that was using all my weight holding the front brakes on and pushing down on the front wheel, since then it has loosend up nicely a lot better at talking impacts and a pretty smooth travel but its still not 100mm of travel.

I went a long ride the other day following the river upstream 6 miles and around the forest back home. When I got home I noticed the stanchion had a line where the the dust was cleaned away by the fork seals, above the line was dusty and obvious it hadnt reached that far. I measured it at 75mm.

I then tried holding the front brake and pushed down on the wheel and I couldnt manage more than 85mm.

My forks are the Rockshox Dart 3, is it just that these are cheaper forks that they arent actually travelling 100mm.

Reason I ask is I dont want to spend £150 on a new set later down the line if 100mm travel forks cant live up to their name.

JamesBrckmn

need adjustment/service probably

peter413

Sounds like you are to light for the spring.

Try getting a new spring

lawman

on budget forks like the dart you very rarely get full travel, i had the predecessors to the dart, judy's, and even with the lightest spring in i couldnt bottom them out and neither could my 19stone mate. bought some rockshox revelations and now bottom them out most rides. cheap forks just arent very good, even the 130mm toras i had before the revs struggled to get more than 100mm of travel

abarth_1200

I have sticky label on my forks under the crown that says Firm.

Where would I get springs to do the job myself, is it easy and cheap to do

stubs

Reading the bike mags I have come across several reviews of bikes with Dart forks that didnt give the full travel.

They dont seem to be a very good fork and I dont think it would be worth getting them serviced. You could spend £80 and still end up with a piece of bouncy junk.

If you can stretch to £170 Merlin cycles are doing a special offer on a nice set of Rockshox Recons this week

Rockshox Recon air

Louis84

Why on earth would you want your forks to bottom out? Personally I would only want my forks to bottom out if I came off a very big drop.

If you have 100 mm travel forks, and after a ride you measured that they had used 85mm of the available 100mm travel (at some point) I'd be fairly pleased that they are set right

abarth_1200

Cant spend money right now (my GF is wondering after 6 years when shes going to get a diamond ring, soon)

Also its a 3 weeks old bike so cant justify it... yet.

So Dart 3 forks are actually 85mm travel and thats all there is to it, would softer springs make a difference?

Anonymous

It's worth bearing in mind that you're highly unlikely to get full travel on any fork just by holding the fork and putting your weight on it.

abarth_1200

I noticed that, the rebound works well though, I had to jump and push down with all my weight.

Anonymous

You still shouldn't be able to bottom them out by just putting your weight on them. They're meant to absorb far more significant impacts than just your bodyweight jumping on them.
Try putting a ziptie or something on the stanchions, and take them for a spin down a rough trail, if they're set up correctly, then you should be using their full travel about once or twice a ride.

xtreem

Here's your problem. The spring is Firm.
A mate has the same and, with my 10 stone weight I could barely push the forks more than
50mm. :shock: My mate which is heavier can sort of push them 80+mm.

But still, the spring is ridiculously stiff.
I have a Dart 2 with the standard spring and usually works in the 70mm range when the
seals are well lubed. It takes a bigger hit to move them above 70mm, which does not happen
very often. But if you bottom out the fork a bit harder, and then the damper fails (you get a Dart 1). :roll:

My suggestion is keep the forks for a while until you can afford to spend around 100+
quid on a new fork. Yours isn't broken, it's just the spring. Don't know how much will it
cost you a new spring but better save those money a buy a Tora one month later. Softer
spring will feel a lot better but still....
The best you can do now is keep your seals well lubed, so they can absorb impacts better.

Cheers.

Oxygen Thief

Forgive me if I'm wrong but I was assuming bottoming out of the forks isn't really a good thing? Especially not if you can push it to fully compressed. Surely that would mean they bottom out like all the time when riding over things?

Louis84

Exactly!

You shouldn't be able to bottom out your forks just by pressing your weight onto them you numpty!