Spitfire 140mm or 160mm fork

Y-rider · Dec 2, 2011

Hey all!

Been riding with a revelation 150mm and felt okay with it. But i want something less flexy, since i ride mostly in areas with short down and uphills i was thinking of getting a BOS deville 140mm. Been searching around and i cant find anyone who has written about riding carateristics with a 140mm. How much difference is there from a 160mm?

just dont want to get a 140mm if 160mm fork is more ideal for the handling and geometry and so on. (hard to explain)

cheers.

builttoride · Dec 2, 2011

I personally prefer the ride with 160mm forks. I like the slack geometry and slightly better pedal clearance. I've tried a few setups as you can imaging, and running a 160mm fork is what I have ended up sticking with for all day rides.

Y-rider · Dec 2, 2011

Thank you for the input!
Do you feel it climbs better with a shorter travel fork or is it not noticeable?

builttoride · Dec 2, 2011

I'd say that any benefit of having a lower front end was offset by more pedal strikes. I'm quite happy climbing with a 160mm fork... although if concerned you could consider an adjutable travel option.

MartinS · Dec 2, 2011

I've ridden my Spitfire with a 140mm Minute (I had a problematic Revelation that blew up several times) and as builttoride alluded to, the bb clearance is reduced. I did find that it climbed marginally better, but it wasn't significant. If you go with a 160mm fork switch to a zero stack lower cup if you haven't already and the geo will be pretty close to a 150 with an external cup.
Are you running a 20mm axle on your fork? I found the Revelation to be reasonably stiff.

Y-rider · Dec 2, 2011

MartinS said:
I've ridden my Spitfire with a 140mm Minute (I had a problematic Revelation that blew up several times) and as builttoride alluded to, the bb clearance is reduced. I did find that it climbed marginally better, but it wasn't significant. If you go with a 160mm fork switch to a zero stack lower cup if you haven't already and the geo will be pretty close to a 150 with an external cup.
Are you running a 20mm axle on your fork? I found the Revelation to be reasonably stiff.

ye im running with 20mm axle, but i have made up my mind i want something more "beefy". im running with external cups for the revelation, so i will switch to zero stack for sure if i go with a 160mm then, thnx for the tip on that

and also it would be ideal to have a talas with travel adjust. But if its just to find out what geo suits me best, i would properly just set it, and never adjust it again im afraid.

so i think the best option is a 160mm with zero stack.

thank you both for the inputs

Strike the primer · Dec 2, 2011

I have a TALAS 36 with a zero stacker and it is swell.

Basically just do whatever MartinS says. He is the goto TWEAK/GURU of our time.

Y-rider · Dec 2, 2011

Hehe awesome

hardboiled · Dec 2, 2011

just to be a contrarian, I will say that in my experience there isn't that much difference in stiffness between a Revelation w/ 20mm thru axle and tapered steerer tube and a Lyrik w/ 20mm thru and tapered steerer. I've switched back and forth repeatedly on my ride. also I don't think you can run a tapered steerer on your fork if you use the ZS bottom cup, which would reduce the difference even further. I think they are both nice forks, currently running the Lyrik but the Revelation is 1lb lighter, has excellent damping and is no slouch in the rough so it's tough for me to rationalize the extra weight for 10mm more travel but YMMV. some people think the Fox 36s are stiffer than Lyriks so maybe go that direction if you are after a stiffer front end.

Canadmos · Dec 3, 2011

I really like my Spitfire with the Fox 36 on it, with an external lower bottom headset cup too. Rips downhill fast and climbs good enough.

walt06 · Dec 3, 2011

Y-rider said:
Been searching around and i cant find anyone who has written about riding carateristics with a 140mm.

I wanted to put a 140mm BOS Deville in my Spitfire, but it's still not available (tapered, without TRC). So currently I'm riding a RS Lyrik SoloAir travelled down to 140mm via spacer. I like the suspension balance between front and rear with this setup.
However I've installed a very high lower headset cup from RESET Racing (type Konan 1). With it the effective fork height sagged is: 525 + 17,5 - 35 = 507,5mm compared to a 160mm fork with zero stack: 545 + 4 - 40 = 509mm.

As I have also a 180mm FR bike, I wanted less travel on my trail bike to make trails more challenging and to get slowed down a bit for all day rides when wearing minimum protection (but sometimes the Spitfire is still too fast

).

MartinS · Dec 4, 2011

Strike the primer said:
I have a TALAS 36 with a zero stacker and it is swell.

Basically just do whatever MartinS says. He is the goto TWEAK/GURU of our time.

Hah!
That is somewhat ridiculous...

Y-rider · Dec 11, 2011

Been searching for some more info, and it seems like the 140mm deville have the same
A to C as the 150mm revelation. Think it was something with the older revelations being 140mm and then the 2010 models came with 150, but managed to keep their A to C the same. Cant really confirm this. Have to measure both to know, since i cant find specific data on both forks and dont own both either :-/

walt06 · Dec 15, 2011

Deville 140: 525mm AC
Revelation 140: 519mm AC
Revelation 150: 529mm AC

sram.com/sites/default/files/techdocs/user_spec_revelation_tapered_20_mm.pdf

Y-rider · Dec 15, 2011

Oh awesome! Thanks for correcting me on this

i was sure i had it figured out, but no.

climbingbubba · Dec 15, 2011

I really didn't like the feel of the revelation on my spitfire. It gave me no confidence and seeing a puny fork in front of me.

I personally would go with a Fox float or lyrik solo air and then you can internally adjust the travel if you want it lower. I bet a 150 lyrik or float would feel pretty awesome.

On my current bike I have a lyrik solo air DH (usually 170mm) lowered to 140mm. It adds extra stiffness and is just an all around awesome fork. Highly recommend this route.

nybike1971 · Dec 15, 2011

climbingbubba said:
I really didn't like the feel of the revelation on my spitfire. It gave me no confidence and seeing a puny fork in front of me.

I personally would go with a Fox float or lyrik solo air and then you can internally adjust the travel if you want it lower. I bet a 150 lyrik or float would feel pretty awesome.

On my current bike I have a lyrik solo air DH (usually 170mm) lowered to 140mm. It adds extra stiffness and is just an all around awesome fork. Highly recommend this route.

I played with both options (Revelation and Lyrik Solo Air) on the Spitfire and in the end I also preferred the damping characteristics of the Lyrik over the Revelation. I used to run the Revelation with a +5mm crown race (535mm total a2c) and I lowered the Lyrik to 150mm (exactly the same a2c). I have been running it mated with a Push Monarch RT/AM shock and this combination has treated me very well both in the slack and steep geometry settings.

PSI · Dec 18, 2011

if you dont mind the weight

than go with the beefy fork. the bike loves being pushed so the extra beef is very nice to have. on the flip side you gain a lot of weight. i switched from a 36 talas to a 32 150 and for the most part - even though i miss the extra beef of the 36 its - a completely different and lighter beast now.

sjordan72 · Dec 20, 2011

I moved to the Spitfire from an Uzzi VPP and wanted a lighter bike that pedalled and still was stiff up front. I'm running a 36 TALAS with external bottom cup and it's great. Only on really long or steep climbs do I drop the fork. The benefit of having 36mm stanchions and 20mm axle is worth a little extra weight to me. I'm 6-2, 215 lbs so it makes sense for me. If I was 150 lbs I'd probably be OK with a 150mm fork and QR15 axle.

Spitfire 140mm or 160mm fork

Y-rider

builttoride

Y-rider

builttoride

MartinS

Y-rider

Strike the primer

Y-rider

hardboiled

Canadmos

walt06

MartinS

Y-rider

walt06

Y-rider

climbingbubba

nybike1971

PSI

sjordan72

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities