First Fork upgrade advice needed

Silverdan

Hi everyone.

I'm wanting to upgrade the forks on my Specialized Rockhopper comp which are SR Suntour XCR to these

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=85073&gclid=CP_67qf45LQCFU3HtAod2nUAdg

Ive only chosen those on price though so i'm not sure if the difference will be that big? I wouldn't want to spend too much more, does anyone know of any alternatives?

I ride the Quantocks and Mendips regularly. A mate has 120mm travel, should i be looking for something like that instead?

Im a bit lost really, so hoping for some advice!
Cheers.

benpinnick

Im not sure I would bother, as the gain is marginal. Save another £100 (maybe less) and you can get a decent Air rockshox fork which will be much lighter and better damped. Other that probably being slightly stiffer, I dont think these forks offer much over the XCRs.

Richard_2013

I'd agree with Ben. You wouldn't notice a great deal of difference. Save your money and go for something like Rockshox Reba. You would notice a big improvement with air forks.

Look at someone like On One or Merlin Cycles. They manufacture/ put bikes together so you don't pay retail prices for the folks and are often considerably cheaper. You may be able to get better forks than you expected. Then take it to your local shop to be fitted as you will have to cut the steering tube, and if you cut it too short you can't use it!

As for the fork length you should really be looking at getting the travel distance recommened by the manufacturer for the frame. Supposedly if its different it will change the angle geometry of the frame and put stresses where they are not designed to be.

Silverdan

Thanks guys. Ill keep saving and looking then!

pastey_boy

Good price for a cracking fork . Make an offer and you could get it for near the price of the XC32's.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-ROCK-SHOX ... 460bd56210

anj132

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-SR-Suntou ... 2c5bc9a8ba

Just going to throw an Epicon option out there.

Plyphon

Merlin often have Recon Silver's for 100 quid or thereabouts.

Much better than the Suntour, wouldnt touch that XC 32.

supersonic

XC32 is a Recon Silver, it just has straight gauge uppers instead of butted cromo stanchion, and a slightly different crown. the coil internals and damper are identical. And will be a big difference over the XCR. That said at £160 it is overpriced.

Silverdan

See, i knew this was going to be difficult!
So for about £200 budget what's good?

supersonic

Recon Gold if you can find one, but this is a great fork:

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... 2012_Forks

mcnultycop

£2.45 over budget (with the online discount) Recon Gold, in stock.

Silverdan

Thanks mate.