suspension forks

[deano69]

Bought some rockshox for my bike to replace cheap zoom coil spring ones not yet fitted though at mo, the new one is duel air and will raise front of bike by 60mm or so...............will this affect handling or cause probs other than the obvious like seat and handlebar alignment ??????????

Thanks in advance
Deano

 

[Cubist]

It depends on the original bike.
Yes, it will raise the bottom bracket (a bit) and it will elongate the wheelbase (a bit) but whether the increase of 60mm at the front end will affect handling much is something you will only notice once you fit it.

Upping the front end by a great deal can cause vague steering, sloppy turning and so on, but unless you are used to scalpel like precision on the current bike I somehow doubt it will cause big issues. After all, there are plenty of forks out there that have a 40mm travel range (80-120mm U turn for example), and Cubester's fork on his Ragley adjusts between 100mm and 140mm on the fly.

It'll certainly slacken off the head angle, giving you a bit more of a sit-up-and-beg ride, but you could compensate with a longer/lower stem if this was an issue. It may even be more fun on the steep downhills!

 

[deano69]

I think I would prefer the front to be raised as it feels a little low with present forks and currently sits a fair bit lower than my mates trek 3900 which feels a lot higher more comfy and more responsive than mine so im hoping for an improvement there once I fit the new set on, I guess its a case of try and see.

cheers anyway

 

[Norm]

If "front of bike" means the head stock, then I reckon adding 60mm to the front will have a fairly noticeable effect. You are adding at least a couple of degrees to the steering angle and probably the trail (depending on the specific fork designs), which will have an impact.

 

[hotmetal]

The only thing no-one has mentioned thus far is the extra stress a longer travel fork may put on your frame and the refusal of any warranty claim relating to it. Longer forks do subject the frame (in the head tube area) to greater strain. If your bike is out of warranty anyway, or you're not intending to get too hardcore, I'm sure it'll be fine. You may as well fit your new fork and enjoy. I only mention it for completeness' sake, and just in case you're worried about warranty.

It will feel different though like Norm says. May feel better on descents with the slacker head angle and more upright ride. You'll notice it being a bit more stable on descents (the flip side being slower-steering in the twisties). You may also notice a difference in how the muscles in the top of your thighs feel. A higher BB will give you a little more clearance under the chainrings. Depending on how sensitive you are to such things, you might find yourself wanting to fettle other things (seat and handlebar angle and height etc) to compensate - but these would be minimal if at all.

I stuck a sus fork on an ancient (1988) Cannondale which I had in the days when all MTBs were fully rigid (or had FlexStems like in the pic). OK, 'Dale frames from that vintage were seriously heavy duty, but I've given it all sorts of stick over the years and it's still fine. This frame was never designed to take a sus fork. Everyone told me the same things as I've just mentioned, but like I say, the frame coped fine and the bike's handling was so fast that it needed calming down slightly anyway.
Shame really that this once-magnificent singletrack slayer has been relegated to my shopping hack.

 

[deano69]

Basically th cheap ones it came with are so stiff and the large oversized coil inside takes a heavy person to depress them at all and then going through woodland trails etc over roots they absorb virtually no bumps at all and all you hear is the annoying knocking where they are topping out and the fork rises back to its top position and knocks loudly after probably being depressed by 10mm max if that arrrrgh this knocking is annoying.

I wont be doing anything more major than a little trail riding at no real high speeds so will be ok I think and they are dampened so no annoying topping out noise with the new ones that will be the best thing about them