Originally Posted by FreeRangeChicken
You need to be really careful or you're going to end up with a really expensive wall ornament.
If your current bike has a 50mm fork and was designed for that fork, you could run into some big problems if you just slap a long travel fork on it. A few things are going to happen when you stick a longer fork on your bike:
1) loss of standover height - if you have a lot of standover right now this may not be a big issue, but if you only have an inch or two now, it cold be a problem
2) slackening head tube angle - This will slow down steering and if the change is dramatic, can cause the steering to feel like it flops from side to side. [edit]this also tends to unweight the front tire which can cause the front tire to wash out in corners[/edit]
3) slackening the seat tube - this shifts your weight backwards and may make it difficult or impossible to climb without lifting your front wheel off the ground.
I had a bike that I changed from a 64mm fork to a 80mm fork and found the setup to be completely unacceptable for me. ...
...Good luck.
FRC
