[jaysix79]

hi guys I have a mountain cycle mountain bike (XC).... my current set up is 5th element on the rear and rock shox reba race on the frot with 120mm travel... I'm thinking of getting a longer travel fork maybe around 160mm would that work well with my rear suspension which is about 5 inch travel.. or should I stay on what I have right now... also having longer fork on the front would change how the bike stand would that be bad for my handling ?

 

[dru]

Your question has been asked about a million times by others. Changing to a longer travel fork will generally slow the steering. How much depends on the amount of sag you are running in addition to the extra travel of the fork itself. Don't quote me on this but I think it is 1 deg. shallower head angle for each additional inch of travel. Use the search function and you'll find countless threads on the subject.

Drew

 

[ettore]

Don't quote me on this but I think it is 1 deg. shallower head angle for each additional inch of travel.

I quoted you ! The guideline you speak of is VERY based on each bike and almost never holds true.

Longer fork will definitely CHANGE the handling ... will it be bad? Probably the main factor is what you want to use the bike for. If I were you, I'd keep the fork seeing as how it's a good fork, and matches the rear travel almost exactly.

 

[jaysix79]

dru: thanks dru.. i search google and i didnt find any good info about it but i didnt search the forum yet.. i should've done that sorry about the repeated question.. but thanks about info about slow steering.

ettore: the reason I ask is I do a pretty good amount of downhill but i have an XC bike.... I'm not a downhill guy just that where me and my friends go to go mountain biking we do alot of climbing and also a good amount of downhill.. my probably is on a steep downhill my bike seem not to handle very well seem like i bottom it out... I thought a hight front end would help from bottoming it out and also help a little about the angle so it wont be that scary lol... Well i think its better for me to keep my fork the way it is...i just gotta pump my front shocks for so it doesnt bottom out.. thanks for the info though..

 

[ettore]

I am not going to lie, I don't know much about the Reba forks (never owned one) BUT blowing through travel when the sag is set properly is USUALLY compression ... otherwise, it's just doing things the fork was not meant to handle (bigger drops, basically). If NOTHING changed with your fork and you were to magically get another 20mm of travel, I bet you'd STILL blow through all the travel due to not having enough compression damping. Also, you need to consider that increasing fork travel adds a LOT of extra load to your headtube. You don't have to search for very long to find video of a headtube ripping off; it's generally a really bad accident. It's completely possible your frame is rated to a 160mm fork, but I would almost guarantee that is WAY beyond it's design, ESPECIALLY for "aggressive" riding.

If your fork can adjust compression, you might want to increase it a little when you're thinking of beating on the bike a bit more. If you can't adjust it, then you probably need to change the oil weights (like I do with my Fox Van R) ... probably a really easy process.