New forks arrived - what length to cut ?

tank121

My new Rockshox Tora forks arrived today and I'm just wondering whether to keep more of the length comapred to my current Suntour XC forks (100mm) that came on my bike.

The height appears OK currently but can it be improved ? How do i decide there getting fitted by my friendly Giant dealer on Thursday.

Deputy Dawg

The easiest way of finding out if a different hight is preferable is to leave it uncut & swap about the stem & spacers until your happy. Then cut it down to length if you don't want a stack above the stem.

cooldad

Fit it yourself and you can experiment.

tank121

Do you think i'll be able to sell my Suntour XC forks for a few quid ?

Huck Finn

I gave mine away recently Tank. I checked Ebay and they didn't seem worth selling, but i don't know what kind of condition yours are in.

I kept the full 200mm on the steerer of the new forks and made all my adjustments using spacers, that way, if ever you want to change things, it's just a case of removing spacers.

Try it and see what it feels like.

tank121

Thanks huck.

The issue being I'm dropping my bike off on Thursday evening and getting the work done on the Saturday. I happend to be on a photography course on Saturday so will need to ask my mate to pick my bike up.

By leaving the full length is it going to raised the handlebars level considerably ?

Do you know approxmiately the total length on the Suntour forks ?

cooldad

You can have the bars/stem any height on the steerer by the position of the spacers.

Matt 24k

Why not cut it to same length as the original unless you are thinking of swapping the fork to another bike with a longer head tube? Maybe go 10mm longer than original to allow some experimentation but Rockshox recommend a maximum of 30mm of spacers between the headset and the bottom of the stem. You can put some spacers on top of the stem as well.

cavegiant

Do not cut it down for a few months, you might regret it.

You do not have to have the bars at the top, you can have spacers above and below the stem.

I cut my old WB 150 fork 1cm too short and it pissed me off for ages (esp as a £850 fork).

leave it long, until you are 100% certain what you like riding.

tank121

I don't think I'll ever sell the bike without the new forks on it.

So the general consensus is keep them long when I get fitted ?

How long will it tech the shop to wip off the old forks and fit the new ones ?

The shop is open untill 7pm on Thurs when i'm going and I should arrive around 5.30.

I'm leaving the bike to have gears adjusted etc but will it give him enought time to get an idea ?

diy

Leave 30mm on top of the stem and stack some spacers on, it will give you options in the future and the ability to transplant them to another frame.

I dunno how long your shop will take, but it would take me 30 mins max, 15 if I had a new crown race.

Its a very easy job.

I'd also strip the head set down too and give it all a decent clean and relube.

allthegearnoidea

i left mione at 210mm when i cut it down (260mm std!!) as made future frame changes an optoin, i run mine with 4 spacers below and 4 above, some people would tell you its wrong, others wont,
measure what you have, if you have spacers etc. but keeping it around 200mm will mean if you upgrade frames or sell forks on they will be able to fit the majority of frames! (except the XL giant frames with the HUGE headtubes hahaha!!)

Huck Finn

tank121 wrote:

Thanks huck.

The issue being I'm dropping my bike off on Thursday evening and getting the work done on the Saturday. I happend to be on a photography course on Saturday so will need to ask my mate to pick my bike up.

By leaving the full length is it going to raised the handlebars level considerably ?

Do you know approxmiately the total length on the Suntour forks ?

Think the steerer on mine was 200mm. It was basically a straight swap with the Reba's i bought as they had a 200mm steerer.

As for the handlebar level and geometry, if both your fork steerer's are the same length it'll come down the axle-crown length on each fork. My rockshox reba's were quite a bit longer than the suntours. Hope that helps.

tank121

Bike going into tomorrow for it's major surgery LOL - new forks but just an after thought will my Giant MPH disc brakes fit !

As the connectors seem to be turned through 90 compared to current ones.

see pics

cooldad

Always a good idea to check your posts if you want answers

cooldad

But presumably you are talking post vs IS mount

tank121

I'm not very technical should there already be something on the existing forks like an adapter or do I need to buy something else

101_North

I can't check your images as they are blocked in work but from memory the Giant MPH calipers are IS mount and your new forks come with post mounts (up to you to check this is correct). To fit the Giant calipers to your fork you'll need an IS caliper to PM adapter. Based on the assumption that you've a 160mm front rotor you'll need something like this:

http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/productDeta ... goryID=739

Or this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/a2z-adapter-is- ... eep-160mm/

There is also a Hope adapter but it requires a larger (+20mm) rotor:

http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/21 ... -20mm.html

Hope this helps.

101

tank121

Just got off the phone with Giant, they're so good and knowledgeable.

The MPH brakes are designed to be post mounted but are supplied with the IS adapter to fit the Suntour Fork.

Worry over - now just the length!

101_North

tank121 wrote:

Just got off the phone with Giant, they're so good and knowledgeable.

The MPH brakes are designed to be post mounted but are supplied with the IS adapter to fit the Suntour Fork.

Worry over - now just the length!

I don't wish to disagree with Giant but the MPH 3 caliper is IS mount - not post mount as Giant told you. See pages 7&8 of the manual:

http://www.wrower.pl/instrukcje/Giant/2 ... manual.pdf

101

tank121

Giant owe you an apology North! Although the link refers to the 2002 model the same still applies to my 2007 model.

It could have gone horribly wrong and no bike for the weekend. I had the link for the wiggle adapter and the my bike techine brought up the same adapter on the Giant website 3 days delivery. aaaaaaaah!

The techie was not to be defeated and search every individual drawer of tools he had. Ten minutes later and he found a spare one of the correct model result!

Forks are now getting fitted tomorrow/Saturday and early morning ride Sunday.

I've decided to just retain an extra 10mm below the handle bars, there are already plenty of spacers on there and it can accommodate more see the links to my pics earlier. My existing forks have 30mm below and the techie said the max I could go to would be 40mm.

101_North

Glad you got sorted out OK in the end. You were lucky the bike shop had a spare adapter! Poor of Giant to badly advise you but it all worked out in the end.

You'll notice a big difference in the forks compared to the Suntours - my old Terrago was a different beast when I upgraded to Toras!

Enjoy

101

tank121

picked up bike with new forks fitted today! will post pics tomorrow trial run Sunday. time to get fit!

tank121

Do i have to set 'sag' up on these I wasn't present in the bike shop when they were fitted

tank121

As promised pics of my new forks in place an extra spacer was added above to add an extra 10mm. You'll also see my new grips - great colour but those bloody end caps want go
right in.

on a seperate note my gears were supposed to be adjusted by the cycle tech but there still appears to be a bit of rub against the bracket on the settings shown.

cooldad

You have to set the sag, it's personal to you.

And you shouldn't be riding in that combo anyway. Both extremes will rub.

tank121

What combination please elaborate

ravey1981

Meaning you shouldn't be using the small ring at the front with the small cog at the back, and same for big big combination. Choose gears that give a straighter chainline.

bamish1000

Looking at those pics, you might find it more comfortable to move the brake levers further inboard you'll also get better leverage.

Those end caps don't fit because the inner diameter of the bars is smaller than the caps. What brand are they? You could use an end cap like these ones: http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_ ... cts_id=324

allthegearnoidea

you'll often get rub on the front mech in big on the back or little cog due to the extent your chain has to move for the cassette,
but little and little and big and big are combo's to avoid using,
you may be able to make small adjustments to limit it a bit,

tank121

These ones Brand X

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=40745