[canuck_tacoma]

Running a 36 Float 160 on my HD and find it to be a great all round bike. Climb's great and decends fine. But I can't stop wondering how it would feel with a 180 Fork.

Just wondering if those who are running 180 Forks on their HD's could share their opinions? Curious how it climbs and if there is an improvement in the decending? I could see myself loving this bike more with a little more capable front end, just worried about climbing.

 

[saxen]

I would like to know as well!

 

[morandi]

I was running my HD first with a TALAS 180, which I then converted to a Float 180 (much better). I ran the fork at 180mm for a while and then dropped the travel to 160mm and have been running that for a while.
I thought the Float 180 overall felt great on the HD. Definitely brings out a bit of the downhill bike feel of the bike, the extra 20mm gives you a bigger margin of error, and allows you to just plow through stuff more. Better for going down ledges etc.. I felt the bike climbed just fine with the 180mm. Fire road and grinder climbs were not a problem, obviously super slow steep techy climbs require a bit more body english and energy, but the front end never felt unbearably light.
I lowered the fork to 160mm to try it out, and I would say that overall the bike rides better with this setup. On the bike body position is slightly better. Not a huge amount lost on most descents, the bike gains a slightly spritely more bmxy feel, rails the corners, and better in techy climbing situations. The times I miss the 180mm is when I go big, or when I hit some of the rougher nastier descents. Because lately these instances make up a smaller piece of the pie, I am going to leave it at 160mm. Then again there is always 170mm........

 

[canuck_tacoma]

Cool........to bad there wasn't a 180 / 160 Talas. Leave it on 160 for most of the riding and bump it up to 180 for the odd gnarly trail.

I'm very happy with how agile this bike is at 160, both up and down.....it would be a shame to lose that.

 

[Iceman69]

Yeah, Morandi pretty much sums it up for the 180 fork on the HD. I currently use a Marz 66 coil on mine and its alot of fun, more so on the downhills. Tech up hill climbing requires a bit more forward body movement but thats not such a big deal.

 

[ED young master]

Just go for a 170 !!! :thumbsup:

 

[MINImtnbiker]

I have both a 160 Float and a 180 Totem for my HD. I got a deal on the Totem so decided to try it for Winter Park days about every other week. I actually like it better and have kept it on. I only use the trave adjust for the super steep granny gear climbs, when they're not too technical. And like someone said earlier, with the 180 you can just bash thru stuff climbing, even when standing. The only drawback is I can feel the extra 2 pounds (!) in the air, as it's much more front heavy.