Did you miss it on the steep climbs?

Tempted by the BOS Deville for my Spicy. I have a buyer for the current forks (36 TALAS), plus I just sold some wheels, so there’s credit in the bike bits account. Just not sure it’s the right fork without the adjustment.

I’ve had Talas forks in the past and must admit, I very rarely used the adjustment on them. I also found them not as good as Floats in use which were much smoother and felt better as did my Vanilla forks. Just my thoughts though.

I went from u turn revelations 150 to Bos Deville 160 and I don’t miss the travel adjust.

Did you regularly use the Talas on your current forks?

I have travel adjust on all my forks and wouldn’t buy forks without it. TBH part of it is that my lower back doesn’t appreciate a high front end for long XC sections so travel adjust keeps the front down and my back happy, then, on the downs, just let the fork travel out until the bottom

I used u-turn revs and talas but now I’m on fixed travel Revelations. I don’t miss the travel adjust unless I’m on really steep climbs and even then I think I prefer being faff free.

I used to have both talas and lyriks. Hardly ever remembered to use the adjustment and I learnt to climb with them in long travel mode. They were both unreliable too.

I had TALAS forks on my mmmbop and kept forgetting to adjust them. In the end, I settled on the middle setting and just left it there.

Had u-turn Pikes on my Prophet very rarely used the travel adjustment. Now got fixed travel 150mm Revs, don’t miss the U-turn at all.
Also have uturn Pikes on my Mmmbop, never use the uturn as it climbs fine at 140mm.

Really depends on the bike… I like travel adjust, on some bikes it just means variety, on others it means you can build the bike with less compromise (my Hemlock can climb at 160mm, but the u-turn let me switch to a different stem and bar setup that’s better on the descents)

But, my Mmmbop just didn’t really seem to make any use of it.

had 2009 Fox 36 Talas RC2 and then 2010 Fox 36 Talas RC2 taper

converted the 2010 Talas to Float with some parts bought from Mojo (easy job, took 15 minutes)

totally transformed the ride quality (small bumps), never missed the travel adjustment as the 130mm setting on the Talas just made my 160mm all mountain bike feel “weird” even when climbing, and the 100mm setting made the bike basically unrideable

It depends on the sort of climbing you do. I’ve been flipping betweeen Talas 150s and Bomber 44’s.

The number of times i get a benefit from the TALAS on steep climbs is pretty evenly balanced by the number of times I descend with them in short mode after forgetting to change back

I’m pretty good at remembering to change back. There’s a few really steep, slippery tech climbs on one the trails I ride most often – I’m at the point where I can clean them all (apart from one, and I was only a few feet off on Sunday….aaargh) – I use a 50mm stem and stick the TALAS down to 100 for them, the front end wanders a little otherwise.

Just wondering if I can adjust for not having the TALAS with body position. I suppose riding it without the fork shortened is the best way to find out.

Yes

I just kept forgetting to adjust it so would have it short on descents and long on climbs. went to a fixed length of the right length

I’ve tried a few of the travel adjust systems over the years as the idea sounds great – shorten it for the climbs and lengthen it for the downhills = best of both… in reality what I found was that climbing is always a chaff amd descending is always fun… climbing with a shorter fork makes either no difference or on really techy fun climbs you get more pedal strike, and on the descents lengthening the fork raises the bottom bracket and leads to flip/flop handling issues.

My thoughts – get the right length fork, something like the U-turn on a Rev/Lyrik lets you figure out what that lenght is best (for you) much easier than putting spacers into Floats/etc (or being stuck at one length Like Vans/Deville etc), but as long as your not trying to fit a 160mm fork on a 120/140mm frame 10-20mm is probably not worth worrying about.

I went from pikes to float 32’s and don’t miss the u-turn at all.

The thing is everyone on this thread got rid because they did not really like it so you are getting skewed results.

The real questions is do you use it and do you rate it? Could you ride without using it?

I have it and would not remove it from my FS but don’t need or care for it on my SS or Hardtail.

Basically it is your call

Has some RS Psylos with u turn and if was a really steep climb then i would wind them down. Replaced them with Float 32s with slightly more travel (125mm vs 140mm) and cant say i miss it that much. Just make do with what you’ve got.

TALAS = pants

get a fixed fork = you wont miss the adjustment

paul

2009 140/120/100 32 Talas RL was OK
2011 140/110 32 Talas RLC Fit Kashima is excellent

I’ve personally found the newer Talas fork to be excellent. It better controlled and damped than a set of new 09 Float 32 RL I ran on a different bike at the same time.

They are also a massive improvement over the 2009 Talas I had previously. Less stiction, better small bump absorption and the 2 step adjuster is way easier to turn than the old 3 step one.

Went from Talas to Revs RLT 150mm with a lockout, IMO a plusher fork and no problem climbimg with the lockout.

Is the new 2-level TALAS good then? Old one was pretty ropey.

I’ve generally avoided travel adjust because I just see it as something else to break, but have had it on two forks; coil pikes and a pair of AM1’s.

Never used it on the AM1’s because the Sub Zero they were on seemed to climb fine, even on max travel. Used it sometimes on the Pikes (dropped the travel for BMX tracks / dirt jumping) but found it was a pain and had a habit of adjusting itself.

As said before, its different strokes for different folks but the right length forks for your bike should mean its not needed.

Hmm tough one, ive had a few different forks, going from fixed to adjustable travel and back again. Ive gone from Psylos to Pace to 36 Vans to Talas, then RS Totem to U turn Pikes then 36 Float and now im on 180 36 Talas RC2 and i think ive found my perfect AM fork.

I think with the likes of the Rock Shox U Turn and the older 36 Talas’ with 3 stage adjustment, the problem lies within the range of adjustment, as in there was too much of it and us being too lazy too use it all so just leaving it in one place, well that was my excuse anyway.

Having used the new Talas with just 2 options from 180-140mm for a few rides now im sold as the 180mm is too much to go uphill but the dogs danglies for coming down and the drop by 40mm makes uphills i piece of cake. Fair enough some say that the suspension system is not as precise/plush etc but i honestly havent noticed the difference going from fixed Floats to Talas. It all boils down to your type of riding/budget and personal taste i guess.

for me, i thought id use u-turn a lot more than i actually am.

I only use the ETA on my bombers for on the fly adjust, I have ATA, U Turn & 1st gen Talas(all wind down) and was too much hassle.

Got used to it but every time I get ETA back I love it!