[castnblastut]

Just bought an '07 ? Cake 2 for my wife, nice bike, but I'd like to upgrade her fork from the RS Recon that came with it. Lots of options out there, any suggestions for a good XC oriented fork that compliments the geometry of the Cake? I was thinking something in an air, simple to adjust that smooths out the small / med. stuff real nice. Don't really need an adjust. travel, ie talus, uturn, etc., but don't want to underbuild a nice bike.

Appreciate the advice.

 

[shopcat_cycles]

Has she tried it out with the Recon yet? Maybe she should give that a go for awhile first. It's not a bad fork.

If you replace it, what are you looking to spend? Air would definitely be the way to go. Also, is this the Cake that is designed around 100mm of travel?

 

[castnblastut]

Recon needs some love, dump it instead?

Yeah I should have added that the Recon it's wearing is acting like it needs some attention, possibly a rebuild. Maybe put that $ towards a 100mm or 120mm instead. I believe it is currently a 100mm (feels like it) wondering how it would behave with a 120mm.

 

[shopcat_cycles]

Gonna be much less expensive to have that one repaired instead of getting a new fork that will outperform that one. Even better if you could just get the rebuild kit for it and do it yourself. They are not overly difficult to work on.

If you are wanting a new fork, you should just keep checking the net for good deals. Don't seem to be any on the good RS forks at this time. An ideal fork for her would probably be something like the new SID. You are looking at dropping a good $4-500 at this time. Maybe waiting until the end of the summer would pay off.

 

[Kook91]

FYI: The last year GF made the Cake was 2006. They were replaced by the HiFi line.

If it interests you, here is a good site to look up the original specs and components for your bike. If this isn't your actual bike, you can dig around and find the exact year and model...

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2006&Brand=Gary+Fisher&Model=Cake+2&Type=bike

 

[castnblastut]

That's the one, thanks

That's it '06 Cake 2. Wife loves it, it's opened up a lot of our Utah trails for her. I'd never owned a GF before but will always look at them now when I buy a new bike. BTW do they really expect me to mount a water bottle cage underneath the down tube right in front of the bottom bracket ? No big deal, camelbacks rock, but they shouldn't have bothered with the mounts. Checked out the SID and it's interesting, the RECON might be salvagable but she's already working it, thinking about going 120mm of some sort, would I have to change out the Swinger 3-way to match the geometry change ? Fun to have a new bike to geek on.

 

[Psycho Mike]

I also have the catalogue for reference, if you need it... I kept mine when I got my '06 Cake 2 DLX. My Cake came with a Float (130 for the DLX) and it has been a wonderful fork. I wouldn't suggest anything that long with the 4" rear, but I'd definitely say a fox fork would be worth a look.

 

[castnblastut]

Cheap to rebuild

Looks like the RECON is a fairly strait-forward rebuild and the kit is cheap so I'll give that a shot first although I've never actually opened-up a RockShock. Figure she can ride it through this season and see what we think, maybe buy a 120 mm in the off season when prices are lower.

 

[shopcat_cycles]

They are pretty straightforward and Rockshox has great manuals on the forks.

 

[Jmolina34]

Hey, did you ever end up replacing your rear shock with a longer one? I have this exact same bike and I need to find a replacement shock. Trek said it has to be 7" with 40mm stroke...no one makes that any more but the DLX models can take a 190mm with 50mm stroke. It looks like that shock size will fit but wanted to hear from someone that had done it.

 

[singletrackmack]

Cake DLX is same frame as regular Cake

Hey, did you ever end up replacing your rear shock with a longer one? I have this exact same bike and I need to find a replacement shock. Trek said it has to be 7" with 40mm stroke...no one makes that any more but the DLX models can take a 190mm with 50mm stroke. It looks like that shock size will fit but wanted to hear from someone that had done it.

Measure your current rear shock. If it's 7.5 inches from eye to eye with 2inch travel(190mm x 50mm) then that is the size shock you need to replace it with. And your bike has 5" of travel instead of 4".

I have an '04 Cake 3, not DLX, so it came with a 100mm fork and v brakes instead of 120-130mm fork and disc brakes, but the frame is the same as the '04 DLX with 5" of rear travel with same rear shock as the Cake 1 DLX. After 2 rebuilds, it was time to replace the rear manitou swinger shock. I just put a 190mm x 50mm Fox RP23 on 2 weeks ago. My lbs measuered it and fitted it and it works great, just more complicated than the original manitou swinger 3way. Still dialing in all the adjustments.