1 1/8 straight upgrade issue

slc123

Hi all,

I think unknowingly I may have put myself in a bit of a poor situation with the bike I bought a few years ago. Naively I didn't realise the frame was 1 1/8 straight steerer and now from basic research I can see that I may struggle to upgrade the forks as there aren't many available.

The RockShox XC30 don't seem to bad for the trails that I've done. However, I i've done a couple of rides on more technical red trails and nearly bottomed them out, so I could see in the future I would want something with some more travel and something a bit more robust.

Any advice appreciated.

cooldad

Some decent second hand forks.

mattyfez

I replaced mine with suntour epixon air forks, very pleased with them.

The Rookie

Good forks at a good price = great value, although in a touch of irony, that would take a tapered steerer.

slc123, what frame? Most with a 44mm headtube (Zero stack headset) will take tapered with a new lower headset, so it may take tapered even if you think it won't.

slc123

The Rookie wrote:

Good forks at a good price = great value, although in a touch of irony, that would take a tapered steerer.

slc123, what frame? Most with a 44mm headtube (Zero stack headset) will take tapered with a new lower headset, so it may take tapered even if you think it won't.

Hi Rookie, thanks for the response. This is the frame I've got: http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... iew-50616/

Would be great to understand options as I really think the options will be limited otherwise.

The Rookie

Not a 1 1/8th head tube and will take tapered with the right headset.

slc123

The Rookie wrote:

Not a 1 1/8th head tube and will take tapered with the right headset.

Thanks again for the info, so what sort of headset would I need to make that work?

The Rookie

Its not exactly clear what the stock headset is (but its not external so can't be 1 1/8"), try the cane creak headset finder
https://www.canecreek.com/headset-fit-finder
Post back here the results and we can suggest non CC alternatives.

rockmonkeysc

Cannondale do some weird stuff but their 1/2" head tube means you can fit any size steerer with the correct headset.

slc123

Thanks guys, I am still not 100% sure about what headset is currently on the bike, but looking at some of the hope components it looks like you can pretty much convert most things to get what you need.

I was doing a bit of work on the bike last night in the dark and grabbed a quick picture of the top of the headset. Not sure if this sheds any more light!

The Rookie

None at all.

Have you used the headset finder yet, it will tell us the frame sizes.

cooldad

Especially as Photobucket is borked.

slc123

The headset finder is giving me the following:

Upper headset fit: IS42/28.6
Lower headset fit: IS42/30

On the trail frame, they only go back to 2014, but I am assuming it would be the same as I bought the bike 2015.

Thanks

The Rookie

In that case its a 42mm headtube and uses an integrated headset (hence IS42) and yes will only take a straight 1 1/8 steerer fork not a tapered.

What a stupid idiotic choice by Cannondale!

slc123

The Rookie wrote:

In that case its a 42mm headtube and uses an integrated headset (hence IS42) and yes will only take a straight 1 1/8 steerer fork not a tapered.

What a stupid idiotic choice by Cannondale!

Damn... thats where I thought I might be. I bought the bike based on the frame got some great reviews and I knew I could always upgrade the components.

I guess it puts me in a bit of a position with regard to the forks as they really can't deal with aggressive riding!

Thanks again for all the info...

mattyfez

As I said, epixon is a pretty good fork for the money without breaking the bank.
If you want a brand new fork you can't really go wrong, you can probably get something better second hand but then you run the risk of not knowing how it's been treated.
Depends how much you want to spend really.

slc123

mattyfez wrote:

As I said, epixon is a pretty good fork for the money without breaking the bank.
If you want a brand new fork you can't really go wrong, you can probably get something better second hand but then you run the risk of not knowing how it's been treated.
Depends how much you want to spend really.

It definitely gets some good reviews, although I am looking to increase the travel ideally to around 150mm to cope with some of the more aggressive and challenging rides!

The Rookie

And that would be just stupid. You could probably go to 120mm on that frame, anything more and you bought the wrong bike and you'd be better off buying the right one.

cooldad

You really don't want a 150mm fork on that. It will be awful, and probably end up breaking the frame, at which time you will crash and die.

110/120mm maybe.

It's not a gnarly aggressive trail bike - if that's what you want you have the wrong bike.

cooldad

I'm a really slow typist, but what we both said.

slc123

Thanks chaps.

Some recommendations for a bike upgrade would be warmly received. (£1,000 - £1,500) Currently the forks are 100mm and as I mentioned have struggled over some of the more challenging terrain. Do you think a 120mm would provide much better performance?

at which time you will crash and die.

Great response by the way.

mattyfez

Yeah. Longer travel does not nessesarily mean better.
You'd be better off with a higher quality 100/120mm fork.. Trust me going from an xc32 to something like an epixon is a revalation, the biggest boon for me is it being an air fork, so you can easily adjust it with a shock pump.
Cheap coil forks are literally just tubes with springs inside them and are pretty crap.

Edit, unless you want to do really rough stuff in which case you might want to consider a full suspension trail/downhill bike, but they won't be much fun for general riding.

slc123

Thanks for the info.

I think what you're saying sounds like it makes a lot of sense. Will see If I can find a good deal on the forks you mentioned. there isn't a whole load of options with regards to the 1 1/8th option so it's good to get some real feedback from someone that users the epixon.

I think I will bare in mind maybe getting a FS at some stage and just chop and change depending on what I am riding.

Uber_Pod

If bottoming out is the only problem, that's a function of the spring rate, rather than a lack of travel.
For example, a 150mm travel fork with a weak enough coil spring/low enough air pressure will still bottom out easily.

Maybe check the (presumably coil) spring you have now is right for your weight?

Nearly bottoming out is exactly what you want. Ideally you want to be able to use all of the available travel on any given ride.

slc123

Uber_Pod wrote:

If bottoming out is the only problem, that's a function of the spring rate, rather than a lack of travel.
For example, a 150mm travel fork with a weak enough coil spring/low enough air pressure will still bottom out easily.

Maybe check the (presumably coil) spring you have now is right for your weight?

Nearly bottoming out is exactly what you want. Ideally you want to be able to use all of the available travel on any given ride.

Thanks - I've done some more digging on geometry and setups since the feedback and all this makes a lot more sense. It is a fairly basic coil spring and I think it is fine for 50% of my riding, just not suiting the some of the more tricky stuff. I'm 6'1 and I wouldn't say overly heavy but ride quite hard I suppose.

Any other recommendations other than the Epixon (Which actually looks like a really good option)

The Rookie

Just for clarity, have you set the preload on your fork, what sag are you running?

If you don't know the answers, then the first thing to do is set your fork up properly.

You could look for a used Reba or Sid, both are fairly robust and reliable so worth considering used.

slc123

Thanks again guys, I am out riding tonight. Will have a play and check the preload and report back!