Long travel fork, short travel frame?

mikezer0

Evening,

I've been thinking about getting a new frame and I remember a while ago Ragley were hyping up some mismatched fork/shock travel frames... Did anything come of them? Or does anyone have any suggestions? Mostly riding in the Peak District, so needs to pedal fairly well but strong enough to smash down rocky descents.

The Northern Monkey

There are quite a few out there...

Orange blood was 130mm rear travel and 160mm front travel...

supersonic

My preferred FS set up is this - I run my FSR XC ith 140mm out front and 120mm at the back.

felix.london

I'm setting out to build a big hitter with 180mm front, 160mm rear

mikezer0

I was thinking 100mm at the back and 140mm forks.

supersonic

Does depend on the frame, not all can take a longer fork. Mine should only be 130mm really!

rockmonkeysc

My next bike (Giant Trance) will have 120mm rear, 140mm front.
GT do quite a nice hardcore trail bike with 120mm (ish) rear and 150mm front.

welshkev

http://www.ns-bikes.com/2012/frames-and ... slope.html

I have no idea what it pedals like though :-)

Proutster

RockmonkeySC wrote:

My next bike (Giant Trance) will have 120mm rear, 140mm front.
GT do quite a nice hardcore trail bike with 120mm (ish) rear and 150mm front.

Exactly like mine, Revelation RLTs stepped down to 140mm on the front and standard, listed as 120mm but is actually 127mm, on the rear - feels perfect for those Peak district rocky descents!!

97th choice

RockmonkeySC wrote:

My next bike (Giant Trance) will have 120mm rear, 140mm front.
GT do quite a nice hardcore trail bike with 120mm (ish) rear and 150mm front.

If it's a newer trance it will be 127 rear.

rockmonkeysc

97th choice wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

My next bike (Giant Trance) will have 120mm rear, 140mm front.
GT do quite a nice hardcore trail bike with 120mm (ish) rear and 150mm front.

If it's a newer trance it will be 127 rear.

I prefer the 2010 frames. The newer ones should be better but I just like the feel of the old one

paul.skibum

I assume you mean the frames mentioned here http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Nukeproof-and-Ragley-Eurobike-2011.html I thought these looked good at the time but they don't seem to have made it to the Ragley website or production which suggests that having built some prototypes they either received little interest or they rode like a bag of the proverbial.

Common enough mismatching of fork to rear travel - slopestyle bikes do it a fair bit and I think it makes sense for downhill oriented rides, I'd always be tempter to have the front fork adjustable to wind down the front for longer climbs though.

Northwind

I love my Hemlock, 160mm up front, 120mm rear. When you think about it, there's no reason to assume that matched travel is best- both wheels are doing different jobs, and the actual suspension systems are completely different.

paul.skibum

For sure and if you are a hardtail fan a short travel rear with a suspension setup that stiffens through the travel would be quite appealing which is how they set up things like the Pivot M4X and the P.Slope etc - slope style FS bikes designed to appeal to dirt jumpers who like hardtails but are going big so need a little something out the back.

I run my Heckler with the forks up to 115mm from time to time (rear is 100mm) but I find as it wasnt really designed for that and the rear travel isnt as supple as the front it can tend to dive and alter the angles rather dramatically with a sudden hit!

rockmonkeysc

I quite like the look of the new Nukeproof Mega TR. 130mm rear / 150mm front and nice aggressive geometry. Should be fun.
I have had a bike with odd suspension before, 170mm rear / 160mm front. I have ridden a Cove DH bike with 250mm rear / 200 mm front. You couldn't tell the difference in front / rear travel. Shorter rear travel should have less pedal bob.

paul.skibum

Yeah the TR looks perfect for what I want - fork 140-160 on that, tough as old boots - u turn air maxle fork, air rear shock, decent wheel build and a couple of pairs of tyres depending where you are riding that day. Sweeet.

When do they go on sale?