Longer travel fork: Will it be better?

Devyhead

I've not long purchased a Cannondale Trail 4 and find the 100mm SRSuntour XCR makes the bike feel nice and lively with it locked out at full travel, but when unlocked the sag makes me feel hunched over the front.

As most of the parts are going to need replaced sooner rather than later, I've wondered about fitting a longer (120mm) travel fork. In theory the sag should mean the bike stays lively, but should I be worried about it effecting the geometry at any other point i.e. fully extended? This is assuming the replacement fork would be pretty much 20mm longer than my current fork.

Thoughts/theories welcome

supersonic

If you are running 25% sag then you will have an effective height of 75mm vs 90mm so 15mm more height rather than 20mm. It won't drastically affect things but make sure the frame is warrantied to take the extra travel.

rockmonkeysc

The XCR is a poor fork with very limited adjustment so you might have too much sag. The bike will be designed to work with a 100mm fork with 25% sag.
If you have too much sag a good air fork with the same travel will be an improvement. A longer fork will increase stability but make the steering slightly slower.
Are you riding off road?

The Rookie

You could raise the grips by 20mm of course.....

Devyhead

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The XCR is a poor fork with very limited adjustment so you might have too much sag. The bike will be designed to work with a 100mm fork with 25% sag.
If you have too much sag a good air fork with the same travel will be an improvement. A longer fork will increase stability but make the steering slightly slower.
Are you riding off road?

supersonic wrote:

If you are running 25% sag then you will have an effective height of 75mm vs 90mm so 15mm more height rather than 20mm. It won't drastically affect things but make sure the frame is warrantied to take the extra travel.

I measured it with 20% sag. The farily short time I've had it I've come realise it's not brilliant, but it will have to do until I can upgrade (the awful Hayes brakes need to go first).

Good point about the frame warranty, so I'll check that with Cannondale before getting one. I use it for on and off road, though I've only noticed it on the road, if that makes any sense? I don't want to keep the fork locked out all the time on the road, plus a little extra travel and a better quality fork won't hurt

The Rookie wrote:

You could raise the grips by 20mm of course.....

I've got some Specialized gloves that make it feel like that, provided I don't actually grip the bar