Forks and travel XC riding.

avalanche_expert

Since buying my bike and spending months and over 1000 miles experimenting with the fork settings I have never used more than 75% travel on my fork.

The fork is a Rockshox XC 32 TK coil. It has 100mm of travel. I have noticed that the supplied medium red spring is designed for a rider heavier than me. The Rockshox chart suggests that I should have a yellow soft spring for my body weight. My riding is all cross country style, I don't do any serious DH and only do minor bunny hops, no real jumps. My riding is fast paced on rough trails, gravel tracks, grass, over small rocks, potholes & tree roots. Also some tarmac where I usually lock out.

I find the ride quality generally very good! The handling to me feels excellent and most of the time the bumps are smoothed out and well damped by the shocker. However I have never used the forks full range of travel and short choppy bumps can sometimes be felt through the bars. I'm considering changing the spring to the softer rating yellow version, but I'm wondering if I'd be better off upgrading the fork to an air fork of higher quality and lighter in weight. I'm sure the fork is adding quite a substantial weight to the bike.

What are your thoughts on this, my sag is set correctly and like I say the ride is really good. Should I be bothered about only using 75mm of travel?

rockmonkeysc

If you're happy with how it rides then keep it as it is. Why fix what isn't broke?
I would recommend giving them a lower lube if you haven't already. You might find that fresh oil and seals reduce friction and give you a little more travel.

avalanche_expert

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19684943#p19684943]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

If you're happy with how it rides then keep it as it is. Why fix what isn't broke?
I would recommend giving them a lower lube if you haven't already. You might find that fresh oil and seals reduce friction and give you a little more travel.

I agree in not fixing what isn't broken. I do overall like the ride quality of the fork and was thinking that it's probably time to give fork a service, as I haven't given it one yet. This is when I was considering swapping out the spring for the softer one. Then I got onto thinking that perhaps I could put the money of buying the spring kit and new seals towards upgrading the whole fork, where I'd perhaps gain more travel and lose some weight.

At this early stage in the bikes life, I'd ideally rather not be splashing out on upgrades just yet. This by far the best MTB I've had, it's been money well spent as I'm always off out on it. A routine service of the fork should probably be my main focus right now.

Is 75% of travel not something to get hung up about for my style of riding?

rockmonkeysc

If it's a GT avalanche I wouldn't put on a longer travel fork.
You might just not be hitting anything hard enough to get full travel. Give it a service and see how it rides. A service takes half an hour.

avalanche_expert

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19684986#p19684986]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

If it's a GT avalanche I wouldn't put on a longer travel fork.
You might just not be hitting anything hard enough to get full travel. Give it a service and see how it rides. A service takes half an hour.

Ha, ha! Maybe half an hour if you've serviced a fork before. I'll be watching YouTube vids and reading the forks manual heavily before undertaking the task. It may be simple, but still a touch daunting for the first attempt.

I don't want to increase the length of the fork, just get the most use out of the available 100mm. It is a GT Avalanche yes. I will get a service kit for it.

rockmonkeysc

I can do a lower lube on my BoXXers in under half an hour. The XC30 is about as simple as forks get, there's two bolts to undo, tap them with a mallet, pull off the lower, drain the old oil (if there is any) pop out the seals, new seals and oil in and bolt back together.
I could do them in 15 minutes, blindfolded, with one testicle tied behind my back (I would need both hands)

The Rookie

Agreed, 15 minutes or 25 with a tea break.....

Your usage is why you aren't getting full travel and short choppy bump performance is more damper based than spring. I assume you have preload set to minimum?

avalanche_expert

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19685782#p19685782]The Rookie[/url] wrote:

Agreed, 15 minutes or 25 with a tea break.....

Your usage is why you aren't getting full travel and short choppy bump performance is more damper based than spring. I assume you have preload set to minimum?

Sorry I missed your post.

Yes preload is set to minimum and rebound is set more biased towards the fast setting. I'm currently getting about 75 - 80mm of travel.

coulddobetter

https://www.sram.com/service/rockshox/7 just look up here for service

margo1000

I wanna change my fork,can you sort me out on how to choose a good fork?

brianbee

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19684931#p19684931]Avalanche Expert[/url] wrote:

Since buying my bike and spending months and over 1000 miles experimenting with the fork settings I have never used more than 75% travel on my fork.

The fork is a Rockshox XC 32 TK coil. It has 100mm of travel. I have noticed that the supplied medium red spring is designed for a rider heavier than me. The Rockshox chart suggests that I should have a yellow soft spring for my body weight. My riding is all cross country style, I don't do any serious DH and only do minor bunny hops, no real jumps. My riding is fast paced on rough trails, gravel tracks, grass, over small rocks, potholes & tree roots. Also some tarmac where I usually lock out.

I find the ride quality generally very good! The handling to me feels excellent and most of the time the bumps are smoothed out and well damped by the shocker. However I have never used the forks full range of travel and short choppy bumps can sometimes be felt through the bars. I'm considering changing the spring to the softer rating yellow version, but I'm wondering if I'd be better off upgrading the fork to an air fork of higher quality and lighter in weight. I'm sure the fork is adding quite a substantial weight to the bike.

What are your thoughts on this, my sag is set correctly and like I say the ride is really good. Should I be bothered about only using 75mm of travel?

its a bit like broadband speed and battery life, what is claimed doesn't always manifest its self. what you have know with a bit left if you hit a brick is a lot better than it regularly running out of travel

cooldad

No, it really isn't anything like broadband speed. Or battery life.

Unless all the travel is used sometimes the forks are too firm. Having them set up correctly will get the full benefit.

And riding over bricks is quite silly.

rockmonkeysc

You only run out of travel if your fork is not set up correctly.
The minimum basics I would go for are the correct travel for the bike, an air spring, fixed travel (not talas of dual position), adjustable compression & rebound damping.
If budget is unlimited then all that plus separate high & low speed dampers for compression and rebound, maybe using something like a Fast Suspension damper upgrade.

The Rookie

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19759436#p19759436]margo1000[/url] wrote:

I wanna change my fork,can you sort me out on how to choose a good fork?

Based on the if (lack of) information provided, I'd suggest IKEA, they do a good range of cutlery.

For buying advice, start a meaningful thread in buying advice with details of things like bike and current fork.

avalanche_expert

Just to update since the thread has been bumped. I'll be speaking with TF Tuned as recommended on the forum about setting my forks up properly with a softer spring and a service.

My usage has decreased somewhat lately due to persistent gales and continuous rain. Turbo Trainer is my main form of exercise at the mo to keep me ticking over.

Thanks for the helpful info on this and my other fork related thread.

brianbee

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19759907#p19759907]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

You only run out of travel if your fork is not set up correctly.
.

NO, not as absolute statement. There are any number of things that could bottom out a correctly set up coil fork.

But he doesnt bottom out now, so there is a least a suspicion that his fork settings are near correct. If he puts a softer spring in. then it very well might do ?

cooldad

Not if he's never using the last 25%. It shouldn't be bottoming all the time, but it should get there sometimes. If not it's too firm.

mattyfez

To my mind I'd like to see 80/85% travel on the rougher hits of an average ride.. I'd say if your bottoming out regular then it's the wrong fork for the job or its not set up properly.. I'd only want to see a bottom out as a result of a rider mistake.

The Rookie

That's a matter of perspective, at a trail centre on 100mm SID's I expect them to get on the bump stops more than a few times, it makes the ride a little harsher when they do but the preload required to prevent it would ruin the rest of the riding, I could possible tune it with some tokens (pricey as it has a non threaded top cap) to achieve a better compromise than I have now, but generally I'm happy with the compromise between smaller bump sensitivity and bigger hit absorption, noting that I do set the air pressure higher for trail centres to change the compromise I'm happy with versus more XC type riding, in the same way as I fit a dropper and use a fixed for XC riding.

rockmonkeysc

If your fork won't take tokens you can achieve the same effect by putting the same volume of grease in the air spring.

The Rookie

Yes I know, or oil, or just about anything that won't compress.....

avalanche_expert

I thought I'd post an update to this thread. I know I posted it a while ago, but I've only just decided on upgrading the fork.

I've fitted a RockShox Reba solo air, the same 100mm length as my old XC32 Coil, to keep the geometry correct. What a difference in comfort and ride quality! I'm now finally using around 90 - 95mm of travel and experiencing a much plusher ride yet still with plenty of feel for what the front tyre is doing.

Other plus points are it's made the bike slightly lighter and it's more cosmetically apealling too being all black which matches the bike and the wheels perfectly.

I've ditched remote lockout as I never really used it, so now the bars are cleaner and the new fork has adjustable damping/lockout which will actually be of more use than just on or off.

Really pleased with it.