I’ve been wandering how having longer forks effects the handling of a bike.
I have a SC Chameleon with Fox 36 Talas (at full 160mm travel) suspension fork and a rigid Orange P7 using an On One Steel Forks.
The Chameleon is a bike I really enjoy riding, its comfy and seems to skip along any downs and on the flats. However if I wind the suspension into 140mm or 120mm and its character changes drastically it feels like I am trying to ride the front wheel into the ground instantly I feel a lot more drag and inefficiency.
The P7 is apparently a 2007 model which I think can handle 140mm forks, The On One Steel forks have a Axel to Crown height of 420 which is a lot less than a 140mm suspension fork (roughly equivalent to an 80mm suspension fork I think), I would have assumed this bike would be the more nippy of the two, in actual fact its not at all, it feels dull and boring and again feels like I’m trying to ride the front wheel into the ground, im considering either purchasing a 140mm suspension fork or replacing the On One Fork with an Orange F8 Rigid fork with a Axel to crown height of 450.
Is this a common experience for people?
I don’t really understand why it would feel this way, my own thoughts on why this might be the case is that I have more of my substantial weight over the front causing more drag on the front tire.