help please, how much travel?

richie1973

Hello, people, all advice welcome.

I am taking the leap from hardtail to full Suss due to back trouble and wanting more traction. The problem I have is that I have no idea what suspension I need....100mm, 120...130 or more. Please help people, lol. I ride dalby red route and other places of that sort. I like to time myself and get faster as I gain more experience. Would take some jumps and drops, just nothing real hardcore.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Been looking at. .
Felt virtue elite 2012
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-virtue-elite-2012-1/



Felt edict elite 2012 on
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-edict-elite-2012-1/


Ghost rt lector 5700 2011 on chain reaction
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mobi ... elID=55733


Ps...sorry about posting 3 times, done in error on phone. Moderatores please delete other 2, sorry

chrisw333

I'd say 120mm. Maybe look at a Giant Trance from Pauls Cycles?

paul.skibum

What hardtail do you ride? What travel fork have you got on that? Do you bottom the fork out on it ever? Dalby Red isn't a known quantity to me but I am guessing its like a red in Wales which means it can be done on a rigid hardtail or a 160mm FS depending what you have and want. So a little info on what you ride might help us out!

richie1973

Currently a have a mtrax 4. It has 100mm recon fork and I don'tseem to bottom that out, although I am asking as a newish trail rider and want to spend wisely as I do hope to gain experience which hopefully in turn will give me more nerve to take on the bigger challenges, ie...bigger jumps and drops and just general trail speed. There does seem to be lots more available in the 100mm range so that may be the place to start? Just wanted your experience as a guide to helping of choose. Thanks people.

sofaboy73

as a very rough rule of thumb 100 / 120mm are usually more xc / race orientated, 130 / 140 more 'trail' focused and 150 / 160 mm more all mountain / enduro in it's design. however as i say, that a very rough guide as there are many other things to consider, not least frame geometry and i've ridden 'good' 130mm bikes that will beat a 'bad' 160mm bike down the same hill

as someones said above, you can get round dalby red on any of those, it just depends how fast you want to be or how hard you want to hit things. something like dalby is a lot of fun on a 130/140 trail bike and your probably overbiked for that trail on anything bigger. Personally i love my 160 nomad, for most red runs its too much, but lots of fun on steeper techier blacks and rocky natural trails. only having one bike, i prefer to have too much than too little if that makes sense?

have a think about the riding you want to do or 'grow' into. I've seen a lot of people buy fairly short travel full sussers as there first bike and quickly buy / want to buy something bigger as their confidence grows and they want to hit things harder. for many people the 130 / 140 mm travel mark gives good all round capability imho

richie1973

sofaboy73 wrote:

as a very rough rule of thumb 100 / 120mm are usually more xc / race orientated, 130 / 140 more 'trail' focused and 150 / 160 mm more all mountain / enduro in it's design. however as i say, that a very rough guide as there are many other things to consider, not least frame geometry and i've ridden 'good' 130mm bikes that will beat a 'bad' 160mm bike down the same hill

as someones said above, you can get round dalby red on any of those, it just depends how fast you want to be or how hard you want to hit things. something like dalby is a lot of fun on a 130/140 trail bike and your probably overbiked for that trail on anything bigger. Personally i love my 160 nomad, for most red runs its too much, but lots of fun on steeper techier blacks and rocky natural trails. only having one bike, i prefer to have too much than too little if that makes sense?

have a think about the riding you want to do or 'grow' into. I've seen a lot of people buy fairly short travel full sussers as there first bike and quickly buy / want to buy something bigger as their confidence grows and they want to hit things harder. for many people the 130 / 140 mm travel mark gives good all round capability imho

great advice, thanks bud. just need to decide between the 2 now

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-virtue-elite-2012-1/

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s1p426 ... %282012%29

rockmonkeysc

Travel is irrelivent. Geometry determines what a bike is good at. The DMR bolt has only 110mm travel but is surprisingly good as a downhill bike. The GT Distortion has 130mm rear travel but rides like a freeride bike. The Giant Trance is as capable as most bikes with 150mm travel.
A Giant Trance X or something similar (Specialized Stumpjumper, Norco Sight etc) would be good for trail centre stuff.

richie1973

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Travel is irrelivent. Geometry determines what a bike is good at. The DMR bolt has only 110mm travel but is surprisingly good as a downhill bike. The GT Distortion has 130mm rear travel but rides like a freeride bike. The Giant Trance is as capable as most bikes with 150mm travel.
A Giant Trance X or something similar (Specialized Stumpjumper, Norco Sight etc) would be good for trail centre stuff.

thanks for your input, am leaning towards the trance x advance 2.
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s1p426 ... %282012%29