[KamikazeBikr]

I'm looking for a new fork my 03 Intense Tracer.
My rear shock is Fox AVA w/o propedal.

Right now my fork is adjustable from 63-108mm.

I like the idea of the windown travel to lower the head angle for climbing.

I'm looking at the Talas and Minute models but not sure if there overkill or tooo much travel for the Tracer...

any advice or comments would be awesome!!

thanks!

 

[derby]

Talas would match well

I'm looking for a new fork my 03 Intense Tracer.
My rear shock is Fox AVA w/o propedal.

Right now my fork is adjustable from 63-108mm.

I like the idea of the windown travel to lower the head angle for climbing.

I'm looking at the Talas and Minute models but not sure if there overkill or tooo much travel for the Tracer...

any advice or comments would be awesome!!

thanks!

My Tracer climbs with the best climbing suspension bikes using a 100mm fork, the only reason I could see to lower the front would be to race and I'd probably lower the rear to 3 inch travel too for better race importance efficiency. I've been very happy with my old Atom like '01 x-fly 100 with coil springs that I haven't really paid a lot of attention to other forks for years.

If you don't have a platform rear shock you shouldn't use platform in front or you'd get twisted up handling. Although the stiction of air springs does produce a relatively mild platform effect. But the Minute would be better matched with a Swinger (or 5th Element) or Romic.

If you want matched air stiction handling then the adjustable Fox Talas or fixed Float fork would balance best well with the non-propedal Fox AVA. If you ever want to go to coil then a coil fork is very neccisary for a good balance with coil rear suspension, with or without platform damping at both ends.

So far I feel that the Tracer rides best without platform damped coil front and rear. But I'm curious about trying a Minute 1, which is a wind down coil fork, with a Swinger coil rear shock if they make the shorter coil shock size, else a Swinger 4 air.

- ray

 

[KamikazeBikr]

My Tracer climbs with the best climbing suspension bikes using a 100mm fork, the only reason I could see to lower the front would be to race and I'd probably lower the rear to 3 inch travel too for better race importance efficiency. I've been very happy with my old Atom like '01 x-fly 100 with coil springs that I haven't really paid a lot of attention to other forks for years.

If you don't have a platform rear shock you shouldn't use platform in front or you'd get twisted up handling. Although the stiction of air springs does produce a relatively mild platform effect. But the Minute would be better matched with a Swinger (or 5th Element) or Romic.

If you want matched air stiction handling then the adjustable Fox Talas or fixed Float fork would balance best well with the non-propedal Fox AVA. If you ever want to go to coil then a coil fork is very neccisary for a good balance with coil rear suspension, with or without platform damping at both ends.

So far I feel that the Tracer rides best without platform damped coil front and rear. But I'm curious about trying a Minute 1, which is a wind down coil fork, with a Swinger coil rear shock if they make the shorter coil shock size, else a Swinger 4 air.

- ray

So more or less your saying is stay with a Fox Fork because I have Fox rear shock so it will balance my ride?
So would a Talas be a good idea...or would that be too overkill for a Tracer(too much travel the frame can handle)

Thanks

 

[jrm]

Well

I'm looking for a new fork my 03 Intense Tracer.
My rear shock is Fox AVA w/o propedal.

Right now my fork is adjustable from 63-108mm.

I like the idea of the windown travel to lower the head angle for climbing.

I'm looking at the Talas and Minute models but not sure if there overkill or tooo much travel for the Tracer...

any advice or comments would be awesome!!

thanks!

The talas works well on the tracer. I've used the 125mm setting on some occassions but found that the fork set @ around 115mm has less impact on the handling of the bike. Also buy the fork that you could picture yourself possibly transferring to other framesets too. heck ive had my talas on three frame already.

Also consider getting the AVA pushed. I'm using a propedal AVA r and it is such an improvement.

 

[derby]

So more or less your saying is stay with a Fox Fork because I have Fox rear shock so it will balance my ride?
So would a Talas be a good idea...or would that be too overkill for a Tracer(too much travel the frame can handle)

Thanks

Yes, the Talas would match your current AVA very well if you want a balanced suspension feel with wind down travel. More than about 105mm on the Tracer will slow the handling and raise the ride height to reduce the crisp handling, but it might be fun at longer travel for downhill runs.

Like Jrm says below the fork would adapt well to other bikes, having more rear travel too. And for an air fork it feels more like a coil fork than other air forks.

- ray

 

[noosa2]

I ran a 100mm Bomber on my tracer for 4 years and have just switched to a Minute 3. It took about 10-12 hrs ride time for me to get use to the more relaxed handling. Now I don't notice it at all except on the downhills were the extra inch of travel is great.

My rear fox shock is Pushed which works in harmony with the Minute Stable Platform.

 

[FoShizzle]

agreed..

The talas works well on the tracer. I've used the 125mm setting on some occassions but found that the fork set @ around 115mm has less impact on the handling of the bike. Also buy the fork that you could picture yourself possibly transferring to other framesets too. heck ive had my talas on three frame already.

Also consider getting the AVA pushed. I'm using a propedal AVA r and it is such an improvement.

In addition to Ray's very good advice, jrm makes perhaps the best point. I wished I would have asked this question when I had my Tracer.....Had I realized that I too would have been caught up in the moment of all the marketing jazz going on around "MORE TRAVEL GOOD", "NEED THE LATEST AND GREATEST", etc, etc, blah blah blah, I would have purchased the Talas instead of the Fox Float 100 for my Tracer. While the Float 100 I thought was about perfect for the Tracer, when I convinced myself somehow that I needed a new frame with 1" more travel, I could have used the Talas but instead, I had to sell the Fox 100 and buy a Talas. Listen to jrm on this one....

Cheers