130mm fork hardtails..question questions?

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130mm fork hardtails..question questions?

71 posts & 42 voices | Started 2 years ago by Zone | Latest reply from poppa

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Zone - Member

Are they just for people that pick poor lines or for people that are at a level beyond my comprehension of riding ability?

Cos I don't get it...

I've tried to over the last 4 years... but the only bike I've 120mm forks on is a north shore type berm, jump and play bike!!!
For an "ATB" 100mm or even 80mm has always taken the sting out.. with out making me feel like the bike changes size underneath me.... when hit something hard...

what's the science bit??? or is it just mags saying "this is the trend" and " Uk trail specific design" then it becomes a trend and the bike makers driving it have something new to sell?

Too purist? or are we being herded like sheep?

**usual trail guru flamers welcome** Or even real opinions???

Zone

Posted 2 years ago #
scott_mcavennie2 - Member

Why is your question just directed at hardtails? Why not full suss bikes with similar travel?

Try taking a poor line with a 130mm hardtail. You will still pay for it.

Posted 2 years ago #
Zone - Member

Why is your question just directed at hardtails? Why not full suss bikes with similar travel?

Try taking a poor line with a 130mm hardtail. You will still pay for it.

exactly...So what's the point... I just don't like the pitch and roll and then the kick up the arse... oh and because that's what I'm talking about??? hardtails...

Fullsuss has similar questions... yours just as valid as any! but I have the answer thanks I don't need more than 100mmm front and back for them either for my uk riding....but of course you would need more for Alps and similar...for the sit back and enjoy the ride crew... or the beyond the "realms of comprehension of their ability" riders.

But keeping to the subject...

Posted 2 years ago #
LMT - Member

Ive got a 100mm travel full bouncer, and yep it does everything it should, but im currently building (nearly finished!!) a 140mm Travel hardtail, as my trail bike the reason for this is some of the new features at Trail centers are bigger than my 100mm can take and i often bottom out (did you see my pic thread??).

I also ride cannock alot and have enjoyed the DH stuff over at stile cop, while the new bike wont be a DH monster but will allow me to enjoy the DH that bit more than my current bike.

So i will have the best of both worlds, my trail bike for blasting DH and other stuff and my full bouncer for the natural stuff, hope that makes some sense?

Posted 2 years ago #
HoratioHufnagel - Member

its not just the fork length that changes, its the whole geometry and setup of the bike. they need riding differently too, its more work, but i think more fun hence i've been riding them for the last 10 years. To make the most of it i reckon you need big tyres, around 2.3, which helps take some of the sting out of the back.

theres more choice of bikes than ever. if everyone liked the same stuff there wouldn't be. no-ones being herded.

Posted 2 years ago #
lyons - Member

how many frames with a slack head angle, decent strenght and weight, which are big enough to be used for xc that are designed for 80 or 100 mm forks?

Plus 130mm takes the sting out of the bumps just that bit better...

Posted 2 years ago #
Swiftacular - Member

I ride a 130mm forked HT (Pace 303), and thinking i was missing something, i bought a Blur Classic 100mm full suss, and it was lovely. Lots more comfortable sat down, and very flickable and poppable (not sure if thats even a word), but.....riding it back to back, i found it couldnt do anything better than my Pace, but carried a little more weight.
For my enjoyment (im not talking performance here, i ride for enjoyment), the Pace is the better bike, i enjoy the ride and the feedback more, the angles are slacker, and i can do more with it, and when the going gets rough, who's sat down anyway?

Posted 2 years ago #
scotabroad - Member

I just built a prince albert 853 and stuck a par of u turn revs on it. It is a far better ride than an on-one I had for the descents. You take a similar line but at speed it much more controllable and can be ridden faster on rough ground. So it makes sense to me.

Posted 2 years ago #
Keva - Member

I've got a 130mm hardtail and whilst it is very nice and comfy to ride it does have far too much travel and I've absolutely no need for it all.

Kev

Posted 2 years ago #
Swiftacular - Member

I've got a 130mm hardtail and whilst it is very nice and comfy to ride it does have far too much travel and I've absolutely no need for it all.

Why not swap for a 4" ht and save some weight then Kev?

Posted 2 years ago #
devs - Member

I don't need more than 100mmm front and back for them either for my uk riding....but of course you would need more for Alps

I guess your uk riding is around flat English fields?

Posted 2 years ago #
Swayndo - Member

DeVs ... am with you brother. More travel definitely helps where there's mountains.

Anyway ... I thought 130mm on a HT was now the norm rather than the exception??

Posted 2 years ago #
Zone - Member

Right...just got back... had me shower and eaten... good ride...bit hot.... Sun is shining though

Some great responses... lots to think about

I have a a few riders local that run hardtails with a fork set at 80mm/100mm which they use as it fits the geometry of the frame.. but they use a fork which they can wind it out or adjust on the fly to 130mm for downhill, slackens the head angle, raises the bb, lengthens the wheel base when it's needed...That's instead of running a bike running 130 as standard for it's geometry and winding it down for climbing. They all so use lock out a lot. This seems to suit long day classic rides given the option for adapting for downhill sections...

I just get the feeling 130+mm rolls your weight forward affecting you control and steepens the head angle too much... don't even get in to the fork compressing under hard braking

I own a whyte e120 in my bike stable.... tried it... and feel I don't need 5 inches for cross country and the bike is too short a wheel base of for the right frame size with that amount of travel.... the turning circle is fantastic... but the rock and roll affect on such a short bike is not working for me

the rumours of an e140 are about... i just hope they re think it abit.... 42.67" wheelbase on the e120 medium for trail centre use is short with 5" of travel front and back...
The bike I seem to ride the most is hard tail with 80mm travel cross country stylee....old school I know...but it works great.

I think I need to get back to owning one bike or maybe....er 5 bikes

Posted 2 years ago #
GW - Member

the answer is most sheep can't manual or pump trails and their jumping is poor and uncontrolled.

Posted 2 years ago #
Carpe diem - Member

So as a general rule if you have a bike with 130mm on the front, should it all be used for single track downhill?

Will the rider ( me ) make easier work with the full travel?

PS I very much have 'L' plates for this mtb'ing malarkey

Posted 2 years ago #
GW - Member

I have U-turn Pikes on the front of my hadtail but they are always at 95mm, I mainly ride DH trails and like jumping so when I ride XC/trailcentres tend to jump everything and take DH race type lines too rather than the well worn sheep lines. pretty sure I'd ride the same speed whether I had 140mm or 100mm but the bike is more stable/predictable and handles much better (ie. better turning, pop and pumping ability) with 95.
130mm+ hardtail riders I see mainly fall into 2 category's.. newbie kids with oversprung forks or arse on saddle types on big frames.
most of the chat on here about head angles and BB heights is re-gurgetated ill-informed pish.

Posted 2 years ago #
Zone - Member

GW... I agree. Wise words... Like your style

Posted 2 years ago #
davidtaylforth - Member

I run 130mm travel forks on my hardtail which I find ok for general trail riding and downhill. I'd probably run them a bit shorter but they dont have travel adjust unfortunately. I think around 120mm would be sweet.

They feel ok for jumps and dont suck up the take off too much. I used to have a dmr with 100mm marzocchis which were much better for dirt jumps though, but the forks were shite for anything else.

150mm forks were great in France but I definitely wouldnt use them over here. Makes jumping and everything else much harder work and theres no need really on the terrain we have. The riding isnt intense enough to warrent them I dont think.

Knocking people who run long forks on their hardtails seems to be the in thing to do on STW at the moment. Theres plenty of hardtail downhill riders who use 140mm+ forks on their bikes to good effect.

Posted 2 years ago #
johnners - Member

I mainly ride DH trails and like jumping so when I ride XC/trailcentres tend to jump everything and take DH race type lines too rather than the well worn sheep lines

Gosh. You sound like you're a very, very good rider indeed.

Posted 2 years ago #
rolfharris - Blocked

I couldn't be bothered reading what everyone else said, so here's my stance on it.

I had a 100mm hardtail for racing. It was good for most XC trails. Now I have a 100mm bouncer. It's good, I ride it around my local stuff all winter. But it's a very light and steep XC race frame, and not ideal for most of my day to day riding.

My 140mm forked hardtail is, in essence, a full sus replacement. I don't want to spend money on shocks, bushings and pivots. I bought a burly frame because I want to ride DH tracks on it, freeride parks, dirt jumps as well as ride all day XC rides. I didn't want it to break on any of that, so I got a tough-as-old-boots frame.

This is designed around a 130-150mm fork. So that's what I put on there. For most of my local trails 100mm is enough, so I do sometimes run it that low, but when I go to Laggan or similar (which is very regularly) I like being high up (I don't get this "low front end" business that's going around on DH/FR bikes) to get a position I like over the techie bits, so I almost always run it at full travel. I also ride in the Peak and Lake district a lot and like to have a fair whack of travel to soak up the rocks. As for out back, your legs are better at suspension than your arms so it just soaks everything up fine.

I'm just about as fast on the hardtail as I was on my old full bouncer, but don't have to worry about maintenance. It's great. I could well do a lot of the freeride stuff with 100mm- big drops and things don't take much travel- but for the techie DH tracks (like Dunkeld) and XC trails I like having more give.

Posted 2 years ago #
ballsofcottonwool - Member

The trick is to nose-wheelie through the rough stuff

Posted 2 years ago #
rolfharris - Blocked

Johnners- don't mess with GW. He will pour scorn on your inferior trail skillz because he's really Greg Minaar.

Posted 2 years ago #
jonb - Member

130mm isn't nearly enough, you need at least 140mm

Posted 2 years ago #
allyharp - Member

I ride u-turn revs which go up to 130mm, but I never feel the need to go above 110. Granted, my frame was designed for 100mm but I still think it handles fine at 130 - just not quite as good at climbing.

Posted 2 years ago #
racing_ralph - Member

luke why are you posting as Al?

Posted 2 years ago #
rolfharris - Blocked

I was faffing about and keep forgeting to change it back.

Posted 2 years ago #
Sid Killerest - Member

Im currently loving riding a short wheelbase 100mm hardtail that's built like a bleedin' tank.
Feels solid as hell, climbs ok, and bombs downhills.
Never miss that extra bit of travel, small steel frame, loadsa fun.
Got the original 130mm forks all serviced etc... dunno if i'll be putting them back on now!!

Posted 2 years ago #
johnners - Member

Johnners- don't mess with GW

As if. I'm totally in awe of him.

Posted 2 years ago #
steve_b77 - Member

I had U-turn Rev's on my Handjob, it was a good laugh, but it climbed way better at around 115mm and just felt beter to ride.

So the Rev's went onto my 90 to 130mm travel FS and got replaced with Reba Races in 115mm mode, they made the biek much better, lighter front end and zippier through the single track but don't fancy black runs or rocky descents on it as much now, thats what the FS is for

Posted 2 years ago #
thisisnotaspoon - Member

Depends where in the country you are,

In the Peaks I always felt underbiked on mine, realy should have bitten the bullet and bought a full suss.

Arround Reading it feels hopeless, it's just a dog to heft arround, I began to think maybe I'd lost my MOJO, but went on holliday to the Lakes and it all meade sense again

May bring it down again and flip the stem, remove some spacers and get the geometry more like an XC bike, or might just keep it for hollidays. Ironicly there seem to be loads of 6" full sussers being ridden arorund here???????????????

Posted 2 years ago #
Vortexracing - Member

130mm isn't nearly enough, you need at least 140mm

RUBBISH !

'160mm+ is where it's at baby'

(spoke in a Austin Powers voice for full effect)

Posted 2 years ago #
the_lecht_rocks - Member

i'm really looking forward to 'bumping' into cynic-al at one of his regular trips to laggan

Posted 2 years ago #
the_lecht_rocks - Member

oh - to the OP, if you don't need 130mm, you don't need it.......some of us do

Posted 2 years ago #
topangarider - Member

You don't need to get it - the people with 130mm forks need to get it. I do and love to ride with them, to me thats all that counts - not what you lot think!

Posted 2 years ago #
rolfharris - Blocked

Lecht- I'm up there around once a month. I love it there, the best manmade trail in the country with Golspie. Do you know Jo Cardwell? I ride with her a lot.

Posted 2 years ago #