If I was to put some longer forks on my bike, I’m a bit worried about lifting the front end up too much for comfort, due to a long headtube.
I already have a Crank Bros Directset, a flat bar and the stem is slammed. But, the stem has 5 deg rise. Would flipping it to compensate for the lift be a daft thing to do? So I can get the benfit I want of a slacker head angle, combined with a comfortable riding position.

Not at all – it’s getting very common on 29ers

First things first, will your frame be able to take longer forks? Do you just want the slacker head angle? Couldn’t you get one of those fancy headsets that do that?

Could always get like a -15 deg rise stem if you want to get low. Top marks on the slam – any pictures? 🙂

Clubber – Lovely.

Slamming for the sake of it is stupidity personified. It’s the equivalent of riding a bike three sizes too small for you because you think it looks better.

Mine’s only set up as above to get the bars to the right height.

Its a Voodoo D-Jab, designed for 140mm forks, but the head angle, even at 140 isn’t particularly slack, which means when you get to the bottom of the travel, its bloody steep!

got some 2012 Thors which are a bit longer, but shouldn’t be too short when compressed.

I think the anglesets only work in OS headtubes

My concern is that it makes sense on wagon-wheel bikes where everything is lifted up, but I’ve not seen it on long-forks 26″ bikes

Works components for an angle set that would work in 1 1/8th head tube or alternatively for the biggest change possible a custom one from http://www.ofanaim.net Saar, who runs that is a great guy.

I had one in my Nicolai for ages. worked a treat. A degree makes a huge difference.

Cannondale have been flipping stems for years

Works are making them for 1.1/8 headtubes, you just have to order them according to length and they dont go as slack as the bigger tubed ones.

I run my stem flipped on my swift too, gets the position close to a 26″ XC bike.

Slamming for the sake of it is stupidity personified.

On the road I’d agree as the bars are much lower than the stem, but on an MTB you’d struggle to get them much lower than optimum.

I think the anglesets only work in OS headtubes

On-one are doing one I think I saaw on their newsfeed?

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/HSWCSLS118/on_one_slackset_by_works_components_for_1_1_8_headtubes

Brant – what’s the stack height on the slacksets? No point changing the angle if its going to change the height too much.

Top marks on the slam – any pictures

suprisingly, no. 🙁

ah-ha, found one:

Voodoo magic by Pimpmaster Jazz, on Flickr

clubber – Member
Slamming for the sake of it is stupidity personified. It’s the equivalent of riding a bike three sizes too small for you because you think it looks better.

Mine’s only set up as above to get the bars to the right height.

and you define the ‘right’ height how?

What works for me.

My point being that slamming is entirely arbitrary so while it happens that mine may be slammed, if the head tube was 5mm shorter, I’d have a 5mm spacer under the stem to get that same ‘right’ height.

do you have a known measurement, for example relative to saddle height, or do you just go for trial and error?

Both as it goes – it depends to some extent on the bike and what it’s used for. My SS is slightly higher than my geared bike at the front (and slightly less saddle to bar drop) because I don’t ride it the same way. That has no real relevance though to the question of slamming which is just mindless positioning of a component for ‘aesthetic’ reasons.

Yes, after fitting a taller fork, flipping the stem can help keep bars low, if that’s what you want – take some before and after measurements.

But it does nothing about the effects of an increase in BB height, or the slackening of the seatpost. I counteracted these effects by increasing the fork and air can sag (lower air pressures) and increasing the fork compression damping to counteract the resulting wallowyness. But overall, it all just worsened the performance of the bike. So in the end I reverted to a fork closer to the original spec.

YMMV.

cheers Buzz.
Hadn’t really thought about it affecting the BB height. I like how the Voodoo rides normally, and these new forks are only 10mm longer than the last set. If I run it with more sag, it just takes me back to square 1.

But, the Lift-Select on the new Thors drops them down about 30-40mm, in which case bingo, I’ve got a normal fork that can popped out for descents 🙂 I’ll see how it goes…

Flipped stems look Boss. Fact.

Mine’s only set up as above to get the bars to the right height.

Doesn’t stop it looking dope 😀

ir_bandito, great pic. I’m not sure at all, but from that picture your grips look at the wrong angle. If you tilted the ergo bits down more, your wrist would be more behind the handlebars, rather then on top, giving you better control on steep stuff and make it less likely for you to go over the bars. You might need to rotate your controls too though. Again, not sure, but might be something worth trying before you go looking for new forks, headsets, stems, etc.

Realman – that pic is a bit old and the grips and levers are rotated back now (and Rohloff shifter, but that doesn’t make any difference!)

as for looking for new forks, I already have them… (warranty replaement for old Thors)

“these new forks are only 10mm longer than the last set”

Well that will probably be fine – 10mm isn’t much.

My problems were going from Fox 120 to RS 150. It was just too much of a change. Shortening the RS to 130 (internal spacers) did the trick.

I’d go with the slackset tbh. Will slacken it up a bit and slightly lower the BB etc. Or maybe even the slackset with the Thors which would end up with the BB about the same.

Not totaly sure about the slacksets. Fitting them really does strike me as “should have bought a different frame” (which I may yet do)

Fitted the Thors. Not flipped the stem.
Its bloody marvellous 🙂

Photos to follow after the weekend 🙂

and you define the ‘right’ height how?

By slamming it 😛

I usualy find that lower bars give more weight on the front and more controll, the only time I’ve deviated from this recently was in Spain where I flipped the stem back up again as I’d f*****d my back and needed to be upright.

On the road bike I’d agree it’s silly, but a mountainbike has the same diameter wheel, with a bigger fork crown, 4″+ of travel a comparable headtube length, then flat (ish) bars where the road bikes drop ~6″. So assuming the same headtube length the MTB’s bars are 10″ higher than the road bikes (assuming 6″ drops and 4″ travel).

Updated pic:

DSC_0652 by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Didn’t flip the stem in the end and it handles great 🙂