A question of geometry, sus forks and bike options

gvpuntorno

Hi all, this might seem a bit protracted but please bear with me...

I live in the Purbecks and I've been riding a rigid 97 Rockhopper for ages. I love it to bits, but there are sections of my local routes which leave me hanging on for dear life and with white knuckle at the end. I recently bought a pretty much mint Forme Brute second hand as it fitted me great, had discs (the rockhoppers V's clog up with mud a lot in the winter) and was ridiculously cheap. Its a great bike too but heres my problem...

Thing is I now have 2 rigid bikes that i really like, but I've been on the lookout for some cheap, decent second hand suspension forks for either of these. Does anyone have any insight / advice regarding changing / ruining geometry etc? Or possible fork solutions to look at?

I really don't want to part with either of them, as I'd like to use the other as a more road / track oriented commuter for work, and keep one for the tougher muddier routes. I don't have a lot of money currently, looking to save up if a sus fork is a viable option, but a bit of insight / experience from anyone else would be really helpful.

Here's a link to specs on the Forme

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORME-BRUTE-M ... 0893719448

Thanks in advance, g

poah

you will need to measure the axle to crown distance to see what fork will fit without changing the geometry much. To give you an example, a 100mm travel 26 fork will have an axle to crown distance of ~475mm. axle to crown is the distance from the wheel axle to the top of the fork crow where it meets the frame.

gvpuntorno

Thanks for the advice POAH, I don't have much experience with the fork side of thinks, So if I look for this measurement and find something roughly comparable, this could work out for me? Do I need to consider travel at all?

rockmonkeysc

I think you would struggle with finding anything to fit the Rockhopper. I think it's got a 1" steerer which limits you to old and second hand.

gvpuntorno

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I think you would struggle with finding anything to fit the Rockhopper. I think it's got a 1" steerer which limits you to old and second hand.

Nah, it's 1 1/8, takes a standard Ahead stem, but I've been a bit apprehensive about buying anything due to some things I've read about changing its geometry too much depending on the travel.

cooldad

Period Rockshox Judy XC would fit then travel is only around 60mm, but get rid of the crappy elastomers, fit some decent springs (Kronos from this guy in the US are about £30 posted and transform the forks.) and if the rudimentary damping is still working, they are ok.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kronos-Spring ... xy4fVS~moq

cooldad

Good place to get advice on playing with a 1990's bike.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/

gvpuntorno

cooldad wrote:

Period Rockshox Judy XC would fit then travel is only around 60mm, but get rid of the crappy elastomers, fit some decent springs (Kronos from this guy in the US are about £30 posted and transform the forks.) and if the rudimentary damping is still working, they are ok.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kronos-Spring ... xy4fVS~moq

Thanks - I almost bought some Judy TT's the other day on Gumtree, but I did some research on them and they were the ones that got a product recall way back for something to do with the rods - Lucky escape! Ill look out for some XC's...

http://thebikerack.com/articles/rocksho ... s-pg60.htm

gvpuntorno

Does anyone have any thoughts for sus solutions for the Forme? It only cost me £40, and I have a few components I could upgrade on it lying around for the chainset. Was thinking it could be a low cost solution and would allow me to get a slightly more modern fork with a disc option...

Retrobike is a total time sponge for me cooldad, unfortunately my rockhopper isn't worth showing off on there though:) But thanks for the fork info I may see what other people have done to theirs.