Following on from another thread what bikes are you running adjustable travel forks on? & why do you change the travel setting?
I ask as I had some that adjusted but it was just a feature I never touched, they did however have a lockdown feature that I used all the time for climbing.
36 Talas on my Reign. Had the fork already. Only use the adjust for long, steep climbs - but I do use it.
95-140mm Coil Pike on Charge Blender, haven't ridden it enough yet but thought adjust useful to go from jumping to XC riding.
Went from a 100-130mm U-Turn Rev to a fixed 120mm travel Reba on my other bikes (Trance and Handjob) because 120mm just seems right.
If you have a long travel fork, it can really help to shorten the travel for long climbs. This stops the front end from waggling around all the way up. Then, when it's time to go down, as it were, you can whack the travel back up, have the slightly slacker angles and longer travel that's better for the speed and angles of going downhill.
The only time I ever use travel adjust (36 TALAS) is to get my bike into the back of a car for transport.
I never use lock-0ut either (other bikes) because I arrive at the bottom of a route thinking that was hard and realise I forgot to lock back in
Love rock-shox motion wossname!
Talas 140-120-100
140 - for long downhills only
120 - most of the time, set them here and leave alone
100 - winter gloop and long climbs
I have mine on a Ti456, is really a great set up for big days out with lots of climbing. Winding them down to 100 makes a huge difference if you want to get up anything big at speed.
If you sit back and spin up trail centre fire roads with only the downhills to come in mind then you dont need them.
Yep I see that CFH, mcboo, but really all the expense in a travel adjust fork can be cut out by just having a hydraulic lockdown feature in most cases couldnt it?
In the case of chapkings blender a travel adjust fork makes perfect sense.
I can also see travel adjust as a way of future proofing a fork for later frame changes.
Where I am heading is that lockdown is one of the most usable features on a fork and yet its not a common feature these days..
It depends on the bike. On some it's useful, on others not so much. I've got one bike with it (U turn Pikes on a Pitch) and the only time I use it is to fit the bike on a rack. My other biek (Inbred) is technically overforked with 140mm Vanillas, but it works fine and I don't miss it. My last bike (Yeti 575) really benefitted from being wound down on the climbs though, as did my Sanderson.
PP... another wind down for climbs, another case for a lockdown feature.
140mm on an inbred, I got 125mm on my scandal I had wondered if it could take more without being a bit slow steering... (I got a lockdown for climbing on my 125mm forks)
I used 80-125mm Talas on my Enduro and regularily adjust then down to 100mm for long climbs. The forks also have a lockout which I never use. In fact nearly all the forks I own have a lockout that I never use.
I've had forks with the ETA lockdown and found that more useful than a normal lockout.
epicsteve yup I had 1 set of forks that had a lockout I think I used it once for the London to brighton, lockout might help on SS when out of the saddle but its not a feature I would ever stump up extra dosh for.
I see a trend here that the travel adjust is just used for climbing in a lot of cases, travel adjust adds big bucks to a fork, where as if there were more with a lockdown instead lots of you could have high end forks for less ££.
I had ETA on some old MX Pros and never used it, but I was riding an NRS which had no need for assistance on the climbs. My current hardtail really benefits from U-Turn Pikes, as it need winding down on prolonged steep climbs. I never wind it down for XC, though - I like the high front-end feeling.
ive a set of talas forks im running on a blue pig at the min as i had them in the cupboard. it climbs so well tho ive not touched the travel adjust. i was thinking of swapping them for the floats i have on the turner but then id have to swap brakes too (and im not sure id even adjust the travel then)
tbh i dont even use the lock out on either fork either dunno why i got both rlc ones 
will no doubt buy non travel adjust non lockout next time
Ha ha, no I am not questioning anyones fork choice, but am questioning why a feature so useful like lockdown isnt more widespread...
Be nice if Fox and RS were to take note..
dunno mate it seems to me that as bike designs get better you seem to need adjustment less. my two mtbs with sus on climb and descend great at 140mm where in the past ive wanted to be able to adjust the travel on older bikes
agreed, Tinsy, eta/lockdown is very underrated. One of the reason i knocked my reba teams down to 105mm was the wandery front end on climbs, but it would fly back down if i had a bar mounted 'launch control' like pace had, and could pop it down to 90mm for climbs and then back to 120mmm for everything else.
I've had three u-turn forks and a mantitou equivalent and the windy business is just a bit of a faff, I just ended leaving it all the way out most of the time. But then I have bolt-up seat collars and never move my saddles so what do I know? 
i quite liked the eta on my old marzocchi all mountains, more specifically i liked that the front end dropped and locked so assisted with climbing and then a lever flick brought me back to full travel, no fiddling with ride heights it was either low and locked or high and bouncy. Very very good/simple forks.
since these i have used talas 32's with lockout and found i used the lower travel settings without locking out incase a lary bit of trail came up and i didn't feel comfortable changing travel on the move, but this often led to longer descents being done in shorter travel options, which sorta defeats the point.
My current forks Rockshox dual air 150mm are a return to simples, they have a lockout which is rarely used but does have a 'blowout' should i meet the lary bit of trail again, but other than that the + and - air chambers allow the fork to ride quite nice both climbing and coming down, I'll admit i am playing with stem's now though.
The Reba Teams fitted to my 01 Stumpy have U-turn (85-115mm) & lockout. I often lower the forks to 85mm for climbing, but keep them active, unless on a road/fire road climb where I'd probably leave them at full length & lock them.
The original Judy fork fitted was set to 85mm & with the Reba at 115mm, the front was quite wandery on climbs of any significant gradient - it was great at the 2009 24/12 up Clif Climb.
On the 2010 Stumpy, I have so far left the 140 TALAS at 140mm & even up some fairly steep climbs it's felt fine although to be fair I haven't really taken it anywhere 'steep' yet.
I did drop the fork to 100mm up a steady climb just to see what it was like & it dropped the front end massively so I imagine it would be a big help on real steep climbs.
Doesn't a lockdown, drops the fork but then lock it at that height? There have been many occasions with the Reba's on the old Stumpy when I needed the front dropping for climbing, but still wanted the suspension to actually work, which presumably a lockdown doesn't allow?
This topic has been closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
