increase travel - can it be done?

craigw99

ive a boardman team FS and was thinking of bumping up the travel to 150mm.

from what i can see(from sram service instructions) inside my sektors there is a bumpstop limiting the travel to 130mm if i take this out i should have 150mm.
for the rear my shock is 7.5" with 53mm of travel could i replace with a 8.5 shock with 70mm ish of travel to give the extra at the rear? (there is clearance to extend the shock)

im guessing the angles will change too so some offset bushes and a angle adjust headset could counter this..

after all this im wondering a) would i notice the difference in 20mm of travel?
b) is it worth the trouble?

thistle_(mbnw)

If the service manual says you can make that alteration then it should be fine, however is it a bumpstop or a spacer? A bumpstop sounds like it's needed as the 'damper of last resort' for when you bottom out. I took the spacer out of some rebas to make them 120mm from 100mm, but it was called a spacer in service instructions. Mine were an 'all travel' model.

Also be aware that some OEM forks might be slightly different inside to the retail version of the forks and you might not be able to alter the travel.

Is your frame still in warranty? If you put longer travel forks on it, and it wasn't designed for it they might refuse to honour your warranty in the unlikely event something goes wrong with the frame.

nicklouse

which FS is it? shock parrallel to the seat tube or to the top tube?

would a longer shoch actually fit without frame modifications?

You are trying to make it something it is not.

supersonic

I doubt you can do either of these things as per the design of the bike and warranty conditions.

Travel increase on the fork is not a bump stop, but a travel spacer on the piston head of the negative air spring - assuming is present, could be a custom fork.

craigw99

nicklouse wrote:

which FS is it? shock parrallel to the seat tube or to the top tube?

would a longer shoch actually fit without frame modifications?

You are trying to make it something it is not.

parrallel to the seat tube - for the shock its a 2011/2012 model, the brace is about 35mm from the seat tube so should be able to take the longer shock without mods.

im guessing my warranty is up this month (year old) and by the size of the welds what can go wrong :roll:

couldnt sleep last night in i thought of this! its prob a bad idea but was wondering if it could be do-able

the bumpstop is a spacer - not sure is its in the oem ones though...

supersonic

Do able, but I'd definitely say was a bad idea! The frame is pretty light with thin tube sections, the extra strain of the leverage and and the intended harder riding could be fatal for it. Plus you'd have some weird geometry!

TBH I wouldn;'t - I would consider selling and getting the Voodoo Canzo though.

nicklouse

craigw99 wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

which FS is it? shock parrallel to the seat tube or to the top tube?

would a longer shoch actually fit without frame modifications?

You are trying to make it something it is not.

parrallel to the seat tube - for the shock its a 2011/2012 model, the brace is about 35mm from the seat tube so should be able to take the longer shock without mods.

im guessing my warranty is up this month (year old) and by the size of the welds what can go wrong :roll:

couldnt sleep last night in i thought of this! its prob a bad idea but was wondering if it could be do-able

warrenty is 2 years EU standard.

looking at the linkage you will have a bike that hates small bumps and big bumps. (rising rate design with rising rate shock going to falling rate design and rising rate shock.
i would not bother.

craigw99

this will go in the no bin then - off to ebay for a play bike!