Fork dilemma

[GG89]

I was away to Glentress at the weekend and to my utter dissapointment after a 50 minute climb to the top of the main trail my front fork decided it didn't want to play and locked out completely and I had to ride the trail all the way to the bottom fully rigid.

The fork that broke was a RS Dart 3 100mm, I know these aren't great forks and I have been hankering after an upgrade for a while but I couldn't justify the expense while they were in working order so now is the time.

I spoke to the bike mechanic at the hub shop at Glentress and he advised not to go bigger than 120mm for handling reasons but Chain reaction cycles have a very good deal on Fox Float 32 RL forks at the moment, only thing is they are 140mm. The bike is a 2009 Trek 6300 FWIW

How much will the handling be affected by adding a fork with 140mm travel? is it worth it?

[itsnotarace]

Probably completely ruin it. You're looking at adding 40mm axle to crown, which also has the effect of turning the bike frame into a larger size as the headtube will be raised 40mm

Stick to 100mm if you can. 120mm will slow things down a little, 140 would be like riding in treacle

[P-Jay]

It's won't be great, probably enough to negate the advantage of having the bling forks.

It's crown to hub distance that's key rather than travel per-se might be worth checking that.

Marz used to make a fork called a MX Pro which was a cracking little airspring fork for about £160, looking now they only do a 44 which is coil sprung and has cromo stancions which'll be st.

Those 32's... I've seen them advertised supercheap, but they're all 1.5 stearer or tapered, don't know a bike with such relatively short travel with a 1.5 or tapered head.

[.Adam.]

Also, make sure that the cheap Fox fork haven't got a tapered steerer tube(assuming you need a standard steerer), the cheap ones did when I was looking a month ot two ago

[GG89]

Back to the drawing board then!

Thanks for the quick replies chaps, I'm really not knowledgable in the technicalities of the different forks available I just want something lighter and all round better than that god-awful Dart 3 - so is airsprung the way to go? Budgets around the £250 mark £300 at a push.

[P-Jay]

GG89 said:

Back to the drawing board then!

Thanks for the quick replies chaps, I'm really not knowledgable in the technicalities of the different forks available I just want something lighter and all round better than that god-awful Dart 3 - so is airsprung the way to go? Budgets around the £250 mark £300 at a push.

Yeah airsprung if you can, much lighter - coil forks are actually a little nicer feeling IMHO but coil forks at sub 160mm are really just budget jobs.

£250 - £300 should get you a nice set from one of the big 3 - personally I avoid forks with millions of things to adjust like pre-load, compression damping etc - rebound adjustment is enough for me, the rest is just something to 'make worse'.


Look at these:

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/Frame++For...

[GG89]

That looks a nice fork I maybe order that this week. I see this has remote poploc for locking the suspension, do you have to fit this as the only way to lock the fork or can you just not fit it and still have the lock just on the fork itself?

[.Adam.]

GG89 said:

That looks a nice fork I maybe order that this week. I see this has remote poploc for locking the suspension, do you have to fit this as the only way to lock the fork or can you just not fit it and still have the lock just on the fork itself?

Not really, the lockout is sprung loaded with the poploc, so that when you press the button it unlocks, the manual ones are friction. I believe you can remove the spring, but it involves taking the fork apart.

I've got a poploc, and given the choice now I would go for the manual lockout on the fork leg as I can't seem to get the poploc to disengage without having to reach down and help it along on the top of the fork leg, I've tried cleaning it, lubing it, changing the cable etc. Saying that, I wouldn't let it put me off getting a fork with one on though.

[GG89]

I really don't fancy my handlebars being cluttered by a little leaver I will rarely use the search goes on.

[Flippin' Kipper]

No all sub 160mm forks are budget at all!!

Anyway, I would look for some Rebas, very good fork for the cost.

[P-Jay]

Flippin' Kipper said:

No all sub 160mm forks are budget at all!!

Anyway, I would look for some Rebas, very good fork for the cost.

Oh christ no, I wasn't saying that, but most coil spring sub-160mm fork are. I know RS make some nice 140mm coil Pikes, but they;re really budget versions of the air ones.