100mm travel...is it enough for all mountain riding?

ross_mcculloch
ross_mcculloch Posts: 478
edited October 2008 in MTB beginners
As the question says, is a 100mm fork enough on a hard hitting all mountain bike?

Comments

  • BlackSpur
    BlackSpur Posts: 4,228
    Depends more on the fork that the amount of travel. A Rock Shox Argyle or wound-down Pike or similar would be fine. Really it comes down more to your skill that the amount of travel. What bike/fork?
    "Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling." ~James E. Starrs
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    Depends on your riding style I spose and what your happy to put up with by way of taking big hits.

    I've no experience of lotssa suspension bikes but have ridden the alps (Morzine) on my underspecced hardtail, the worst of it was with tyres that were getting pinch flats @ 40 psi and made some bumpy routes unrideable at 50 psi. It gets very fatigueing if you've nothing to soak up the ruts.
  • I would say I ride my bike pretty hard on the downs most of the time and mine is 100mm at the back. Although I it works fine and I do like it a lot I have been thinking of swapping the frame recently for a 5-6 inch. Partly because my forks are 130mm.
    Just not sure it would be much better going down and probably harder going up.
  • BOYDIE
    BOYDIE Posts: 528
    Im only 10.5 stone, so I get away with murder on my Trance 2 with 100mm travel, I ride everything from red/blue and black routes,natural trails and cope with jumps and drops,like the above posts its more about the rider than the travel,the smoother you ride helps alot instead of bulldozing through everything,pick better smoother lines,I still ride my Fullsuss like my old hardtail. :wink:
  • 100mm is still loads of travel! Far more is down to rider skill and technique than how much travel you have. The biggest difference you'd probably find is the change in head angle. I'm guessing at the minute your bike will feel quite slack with 130mm on the front and 100 on the back. This gives more confidence downhill, at the expensive of climbing agility.
    If you're not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much room!
  • Just look at the kind of things dirt jumpers and (sorry for using this word) slopestyle riders are doing on 100mm forks.

    Some short travel forks are built to be tough. Look at things like the 'zocchi DJ series. But to be honest i doubt your average rider would destroy many sets of forks. The fox f100 (i think it's called) is a lightweight xc fork, frequently used to race 4X on.
  • dave_hill
    dave_hill Posts: 3,877
    As the question says, is a 100mm fork enough on a hard hitting all mountain bike?

    I guess it depends on what you call "all mountain" - if you're going to build categories around suspension travel then it's pretty subjective.

    A couple of years ago, 6" / 150mm was considered the norm for all-mountain but it seems to have sttled around the 5" / 125mm mark. Anything more than 150mm is looking at light freeride territory, under 100mm your into XC. But then dirt-jump forks are often 100mm or less so are they in XC country?

    If the marketing men are to be believed, current all-mountain rigs should be equipped with adjustable travel suspension so I guess you could say that yes 100mm is enough, but you may need more if you take the all-mountain tag to its logical conclusion.
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  • BlackSpur
    BlackSpur Posts: 4,228
    tom_majski wrote:
    Some short travel forks are built to be tough. Look at things like the 'zocchi DJ series. But to be honest i doubt your average rider would destroy many sets of forks. The fox f100 (i think it's called) is a lightweight xc fork, frequently used to race 4X on.

    I am not disagreeing with what you say, but 4X riders tend to be very smooth, not putting much stress on the fork.
    "Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling." ~James E. Starrs