[andrepsz]

150mm travel bike??? Sorry maybe I'm wrong but Sparks back then were 110mm rear, 120mm front. Did you just take a measuring tape and measure exposed stanchion to assume its a 150mm fork or what?

That's a DT swiss EXC 150mm fork. Frame is 120mm rear. Frame geometry was made for a 100-120mm fork and I can achieve that thanks to the Launch Control locking system on the EXC fork, it drops 30% less of the travel but its partially open so still gives some plush (it's dropped on the picture). I mostly keep it locked down for pavement, gravel, fire roads, climbs...and when the rough stuff shows up I open to 150mm....add the 26x2.8 WTB Ranger tire in the equation... it's heaven on earth!

 

[Douwe]

For me, my 29er HT was stolen shortly before my wedding. I didn't have much money to spend on a replacement and I found this for sale for a few hundred bucks and felt like it would be silly not to take that deal. Sure it's not exactly what I was looking for, but it's more than I thought I'd be able to find on a small budget.
I literally picked it up today on my lunch break and haven't even tried it out yet, so we'll see how she does!

 

[mik_git]

That's a good point but what is the price of a fairly nice new bike out the door? If it's $1500+ then $100-300 in upgrades for a $300-600 bike make a lot more sense. My budget is not the point. I have $50,000 in credit, I could go out and buy a $5000 bike tomorrow. That's not the principle of it. This is an experiment, to buy a cheap 26" and see how much better I can make it with basic brake and fork upgrades. It's an idea many would vomit thinking about, and that's OK, I will point them to the bathroom. I really want to feel and experience the difference on trails between a $270 26" first without and then with brake and fork upgrades, just to prove a point to myself more than anyone else. Some people on here get what I'm trying to do, others look down on the older technology as not even worth discussing, like a 100mm fork is the equivalent of a carburetor on a car, outdated and worthless. How about I tell you that I do XC, no jumps, no boulders, just basic trails (some very rocky), and you tell me the bike I "need".

Yeah well that's fair enough, but taking a cheap bike and throwing cheap parts at it won't necessarily make it any better (it might, might not), but will suck up some cash.
But you also maybe need to study up on some stuff or just learn a bit first, a 100mm fork isn't old technology, there's plenty of guys racing world cup XC on 100mm forks, it's crap internals that are old technology. See you seem to think that "new gearing" will make you faster, as opposed to "being fit and fast", or that going from 80mm to 120mm will be better, when going to a really good 80mm fork may well be better for the application than 40mm extra travel on a cheap crap fork. Eg I have an 80mm fork, 100mm fork and 120mm fork, the 100mm fork is the best of the bunch, but the 80mm fork isn't exactly lacking in performance and is also the best application for the job/frame and I prefer it's feel over the 120mm fork.
But having said that, it's your experiment, go for your life on it and see how it works out, you could muck up the handling badly, or find it works perfectly for you, you won't know for sure till you try it.

 

[richj8990]

Yeah well that's fair enough, but taking a cheap bike and throwing cheap parts at it won't necessarily make it any better (it might, might not), but will suck up some cash.
But you also maybe need to study up on some stuff or just learn a bit first, a 100mm fork isn't old technology, there's plenty of guys racing world cup XC on 100mm forks, it's crap internals that are old technology. See you seem to think that "new gearing" will make you faster, as opposed to "being fit and fast", or that going from 80mm to 120mm will be better, when going to a really good 80mm fork may well be better for the application than 40mm extra travel on a cheap crap fork. Eg I have an 80mm fork, 100mm fork and 120mm fork, the 100mm fork is the best of the bunch, but the 80mm fork isn't exactly lacking in performance and is also the best application for the job/frame and I prefer it's feel over the 120mm fork.
But having said that, it's your experiment, go for your life on it and see how it works out, you could muck up the handling badly, or find it works perfectly for you, you won't know for sure till you try it.

Well I need to do something trust me. I just put on a 2.4 inch tire on the front and now the ride is super harsh. It's not tubeless so I pumped it up to 40 psi and OMG is the ride bumpy. So are you saying a $150 Rockshox 100mm coil fork is better than a $200 Suntour 120mm air fork? It's hard to tell just by reading on here but 80% of the people say air forks are way better than coil, period. However, on the low end of the mm totem pole maybe that is not true.

I just got done doing a nearby downhill trail and happy to say that the 26" with the hydraulic brake and tire upgrade now does the exact same time down the hill as the 27.5". It was 18% slower with mechanical disks and a 1.95 inch tire, then 8% slower with hydraulic brakes but still the 1.95 inch tire, and now the same time with the wider tire. A grand total of $140 to improve the performance 18% (if you count it that way). I do count it that way. The experiment is working. But holy crap is the ride bumpy. The 100mm fork on the 27.5" feels like a Tempurpedic mattress compared with the 80mm on the 26". I'll ask the LBS what they recommend. They will probably recommend some fancy $1000 fork...

 

[mik_git]

Well I need to do something trust me. I just put on a 2.4 inch tire on the front and now the ride is super harsh. It's not tubeless so I pumped it up to 40 psi and OMG is the ride bumpy. So are you saying a $150 Rockshox 100mm coil fork is better than a $200 Suntour 120mm air fork? It's hard to tell just by reading on here but 80% of the people say air forks are way better than coil, period. However, on the low end of the mm totem pole maybe that is not true.

No, no NO! thats not what i'm saying. I'm saying that a 100mm good fork (or 80mm) with be better than a 120mm crap fork. It's not more travel is better, it's having the right amount of travel and the best internals you can afford/justify. Cheap coil forks are cheap, but they are simple, and heavy and generally the people that have them don't ask for much more than they go up and down, a bit. Air forks are much more complicated,so the more you pay the better they are, so cheap +loads of travel doesn't mean good, it means cheap. But a good coil fork will be better than a cheap air fork.

Also, why are you running 40psi in a 2.4 tyre. A 1.9 tyre maybe, but not a 2.4. try taking out at least 10psi. I'm part of the high pressure brigade and even I don't run more than 30psi in a 2.4 (with tubes)

 

[chazpat]

Also, why are you running 40psi in a 2.4 tyre. A 1.9 tyre maybe, but not a 2.4. try taking out at least 10psi. I'm part of the high pressure brigade and even I don't run more than 30psi in a 2.4 (with tubes)

I'm also in the tubed high pressure brigade and run 28-30psi in 2.3 26ers and the same in 2.1 29ers. I think 40 would bounce me off the trail. And I only weight 140.

 

[syphen]

:/ I run 21-23psi in my 2.35 26er tires (Hans Dampf and Nobby Nic)
40 is way too high, tubed or not.

 

[richj8990]

:/ I run 21-23psi in my 2.35 26er tires (Hans Dampf and Nobby Nic)
40 is way too high, tubed or not.

I'm going to ask in the tires/wheels section but what is the lowest psi for a tubed tire before you start risking a pinch flat.

 

[richj8990]

OK I'll try 30 psi. 40 psi in the 27.5" was not bad at all (ride quality maybe went down 25%), but for the 26" it was horrible. It's just that I read on other posts if people went down to 25 psi on a tubed tire they started getting pinch flats when they were rough terrain. BTW can you believe the 26" is (now) as fast as the 27.5" on a downhill rocky trail??? I'm going to time them on longer trails to see if there is a difference. And I do understand that changing the fork is more of a risk than say adding hydraulic brakes; it's a much more integral part of the bike. And yes I will research more before I do it. I've just never had an air fork and I thought putting it on the 26" may help things.

 

[J.B. Weld]

I'm going to ask in the tires/wheels section but what is the lowest psi for a tubed tire before you start risking a pinch flat.

There's no one answer because it depends on a combination of many things including the tire (width, weight, etc) rim, terrain, riding style, etc.

It takes a bit of experimentation but for example I had no problems with 2.3 tires @ 25psi over rocky terrain, even a little lower for the front. You'll know if it's too low when you start getting a lot of pinch flats.

 

[Douwe]

Granted it was on a 29er HT, and I don't know if that makes a difference, but I got pinch flats anytime I ran below 35 psi. It is pretty rocky in my area, but I haven't ridden a ton of different areas so it's hard for me to judge if it woukd be considered super rocky or just average for that kind of terrain. Either way, < 35 psi = pinch flats almost all the time for me.

 

[syphen]

Granted it was on a 29er HT, and I don't know if that makes a difference, but I got pinch flats anytime I ran below 35 psi. It is pretty rocky in my area, but I haven't ridden a ton of different areas so it's hard for me to judge if it woukd be considered super rocky or just average for that kind of terrain. Either way, < 35 psi = pinch flats almost all the time for me.

Heavily dependent on terrain, tires, rider weight, aggressiveness etc.

 

[Zowie]

:/ I run 21-23psi in my 2.35 26er tires (Hans Dampf and Nobby Nic)
40 is way too high, tubed or not.

For you?

Heavily dependent on terrain, tires, rider weight, aggressiveness etc.

Hey, I actually agree with that.

So maybe 40 PSI isn't way too high, depending on circumstances?

 

[J.B. Weld]

So maybe 40 PSI isn't way too high, depending on circumstances?

Since this is the 26" forum I think that's applicable, way back when I had to run my flimsy 1.9 tires that high to avoid multiple pinches during a ride. 25 on sturdy 2.3's is so much nicer though, can't imagine riding on those hard, skinny tires now.

 

[syphen]

For you?

Hey, I actually agree with that.

So maybe 40 PSI isn't way too high, depending on circumstances?

Sure, I did run ~40psi on a 4 day 350km gravel ride of ATV trails, double track and fireroads. It was an attempt to improve peddling efficiency but I'd always prefer lower pressures. It made the bike feel way twitchy and without grip when stuff got rough.
I live in an area that is on the edge of the Canadian shield. Most of my riding is wooded, rooty with rocky granite whalebacks and such. I've pinch flated tubes around 25-26psi before. But the last couple seasons I've been tubeless and have no issues running lower pressures at all on the same trails. For single track - I'll always take as low PSI as I can, for the grip and handling.

 

[Zowie]

Since this is the 26" forum I think that's applicable, way back when I had to run my flimsy 1.9 tires that high to avoid multiple pinches during a ride. 25 on sturdy 2.3's is so much nicer though, can't imagine riding on those hard, skinny tires now.

Well, maybe for you. 2.3 @25 PSI in the back will last me exactly one mistake.
And I like making mistakes.

 

[J.B. Weld]

Well, maybe for you. 2.3 @25 PSI in the back will last me exactly one mistake.
And I like making mistakes.

I'm full of mistakes, seems like I often find a way to bash through the crappiest lines possible and never a problem ,but I'm pretty light I guess (#160ish). Like you said it depends on the circumstances.

Anyway I don't have to walk such a fine line with the psi anymore since I dumped the tubes.

 

[richj8990]

Yeah, I' lump Suntour into the craptastic basket (its not 1989 anymore when suntour was actually a good brand) as well along with RST and GUB, but thats just me.

option 2 is the best bet, 100 for to 26, then 120 fork on the first bike, less change in geo going from 80mm to 120mm is just bad.

But anyway, you already have a headset, you don't need an appropriate headset, you already have one, since you're obviously on a budget that's jsut throwing money away unless there is something wrong with it. All you have to do is pull the bearing race off the fork you have and put it onto the fork you buy (you will need a new star nut and cut the fork... on the asumption it's a threadless system, if not then yeah new headset). Just info, the head tube is the front of the bike, the headset goes inside the head tube, then the fork steerer goes inside all that. If your head tube breaks, then the frame is broken and you'll have a big accident.

Two LBS stores right next to each other. Good one closed now, generic one said pretty much the same thing as you. Don't upgrade more than 20mm or the frame can crack. That Suntour forks are not great for lasting a long time. Recommended Rockshox 100mm coil for $229 plus $30 installation.

 

[shwinn8]

26" ftw!!!!

 

[mountainbiker24]

The only issues with coil compared to air is weight and less adjustability. You may need to purchase different springs to match your weight, and even then you might not get it as dialed as an air spring. Coil forks have less seals, so they are usually a bit more plush and require less maintenance. If an air fork and coil fork have the same damping and rebound cartridges (or whatever system), there isn't a universal "better". I'd much prefer a coil with a better compression circuit than an air with a more basic circuit. I usually don't mind an extra couple hundred grams if it works better or costs significantly less.