Anyone feel that 140mm is too much travel when riding cross country?. Does it depend on the bike?

Depends on the XC route & how you ride.

depends on the terrain

Not too aggressive. Yet. I raced cross country years ago when i was 18. 30 now and after “life” took over for a while, i’m getting back into it proper this time. I miss it. So 120mm is the minimum i’d go.
What do you reckon… or would your answer be the same lol

i had a 2010 spesch stumpy fsr comp bike (when they changed to 140mm) would do cc no problem (had even ridden it from devizes to bristol and back,on k & a canal/bath to bristol cycleway with no issues) but did swap it for my anthem x2 as i did feel over biked for what i rode.

I probably do more xc miles on my 160mm ML8 than I do on my HT – it’s pretty light (28lbs) and climbs well but I rarely feel over biked. All depends on where and how you ride I guess.

really depends on where you ride, but i would say even 120mm is more than most people need most of the time. More weight, slower handling,

Surely it’s what you’re comfortable with and what you can happily ride with. I have 140mm at the front and 125mm at the back it works well for me. I can climb well and I like to to do a bit of jumping on a ride as well if it allows. If it’s causing a problem with the handling of the bike then you should be bothered but if it’s not don’t worry about it.

You’ll have to forgive me BenJim but when you say handling, do you mean how it rides generally or specific aspects of the ride?

Depends on bike, rider and your idea of cross country. My big bike’s overkill for most XC stuff (160mm at front) but it doesn’t kill the fun- it’s just unneccesarily hard work and can make finding a challenge a bit harder. I took it down fort william’s world cup route one day then along a chunk of the west highland way the next 😉 Modern bikes can be very versatile.

Sounds like a nice trip Northwind!

I’ve tried them all, but now going back to 100mm hardtail lightweight bike for most of my riding. I still use a 160mm Cube Stereo for playing around locally and big rides in the Lakes, but generally I’m finding I don’t want to lug around the extra weight just to go down a hill a few seconds faster. A lightweight short travel bike is making my whole day out a more pleasant and challenging experience. Usually ride in the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District. It’s all good tho, I’m not saying big bouncy bikes aren’t fun.

Nah, ride what you like, it about having fun afterall.
I love my 140mm Prophet & regularly use it for XC, don’t need 140 mm travel for anything i do, but the bike too much fun not to use it.
I also happily ride a 100/115 Superlight, it’s faster & still loads of fun, just not as much on the way down stuff.

Cross country for me is generally the Lake District, so no not really. Believe it or not I can enjoy riding the same bike on pootles down the cycle path as well.

My bikes got 130 mm of travel which I often feel is too much. However probably what I actually don’t like is the relatively slack angles of the bike. Imo the geometry has more effect on how a bike rides XC than absolute travel.

my epiphany is a 5″ bike that weighs just over 24lbs with 2.25 tyres on it that goes up hill as fast as my shorter travel xc bikes but is also much quicker in the fun bits, so personally, I’d say yes but it depends on the bike. Some 140mm bikes are squishy oingly boingly monstrosities 😀

I use my 140mm fs for the daily commute with pro pedal on, as well as all my off road riding too. Ride what you’re happy with!

The too much bit for me is the head angle, weight and the position on the bike. A ponderously slack head angle is not a good thing in the lower speed twisty flatter sections and a position on the bike with bars above your saddle and generally rather sat up stance is not going to help you move around an xc route particularly well or up hills particularly quickly. You obviously don’t want to carry around any more weight than necessary too but you can look at your waist line as much as your bike for that!

If the bike in question does not fail on the above does it really matter too much if you only use half or 2/3rds of the available travel whilst mincing around an xc route? Obviously when you see what the xc race boys can get around at speed with a steep head angled hardtail and 80mm forks a 140mm full suss is more than needed in the strictest sense of the word, but if it is going to ruin your fun is a question only you can answer. 100mm front and back is a good compromise.

I absolutely don’t need the 140mm travel of my BLT2 most of the time, but for 20% of my riding its perfect. I’ve only got/want one bike and it copes with everything I can manage either up or down hill so spot on for me.

Would I like a slightly lighter bike? Possibly, but I’ve taken mine up 10 Munros now, including over an hour with it on my back so I don’t reckon a pound or two lighter would make that much difference

Well this is what i’m looking at. Taking on board the comments about the slack geometry, i think this is okay then!

http://www.mondraker.com/11/eng/bikes/Foxy-R/114

It depends on the geometry more than the travel IMHO.

its not what you need but what you like and get used to. If you are XC racing and super fit, then less travel is generally better as you don’t have to worry about loosing energy into the suspension, and can concentrate on your speed. Suspension makes riding more comfortable and reduces impact so definitely can help on long rides. With suspension you may also find it allows you to push yourself on tech bits such as drops without less risk of injury. I have 140mm suspension on my hardtail (Dialled Alpine) and its great for nearly everything. 140mm of travel is not much in real terms…its just like a slight bend of the legs…I think many people get caught up in exactly how much travel to use. The important thing is that the travel you use suits the bike design and wont spoil the angles or turn it into a “chopper”.I never wind the travel down either on the Alpine as the frame is designed for 140mm and it climbs fine. Im happy riding everything with it. Sometimes I ride my SC Nomad on “XC Trails” in the summer …thats fine too, I just find myself riding different lines and feeling less beaten up afterwards. Yes the Nomad is a great Alps machine but its lots of fun here too.