lads,

morning!

wee question on the length of forks….just looking for a bit of advice, wonder if anyone can help?

according to the owners manual of my cannondale, the max length of fork that they advise I fit is 570mm…..NOTE: this is the physical length of the fork from the bottom of the steerer to the centre of the axle and not the amount of travel.

I have managed to purchase a 2nd hand set of Marzo 66’s…..and the physical length of these badboys is 590mm.

20mm too long :(………..I know, I know I should have checked.

should I just say what the hell and fit them anyway????

or could I being doing damage to the bike…..or even worse damage to me.

I don’t do full on DH racing or do huge jumps or drop offs…..more like hard trail riding….freeride lite perhaps.

just wondering how I should play this.

cheers in advance 🙂

That’s a heavy fork to be carrying around if you dont need the extra meat and sturdiness that it offers. Adding 20mm tip the A2C will materially alter how the bike rides as well as voiding any warranty on the bike. Maybe it will be ok maybe it won’t. There’s only one way to find out.

Alternatively what options have you got for sending them back?

Edit: if they are second hand maybe think about turning them around again on here or eBay and chalking any loss down to experience?

A quick stalking of your posts, I’d assume you’re going to fit them to a 2nd hand Gemini or Judge, neither of which will have a warranty… As there pretty slack and will have low BB’s already being DH bikes, I doubt it’d cause that much of an issue ride wise*.

You’ve seemingly gone to a lot of trouble to locate those specific forks too, so it’s a bit late now.

Have a search through MTBR cannondale forum, no doubt plenty of ppl will have done it in the past.

*Disclaimer, don’t come whining to me if you die. 😉

cheers gee,

was toying with the idea of chucking them on and see how well things feel….20mm isnt really that much when you see it in the cold light of day 😉

got the forks at a good price so if the worse comes to comes the worst like you say I could chuck ’em on here or maybe on the ride.it.out site.

thought I’d ask the question anyway just to see if anyone else has had that sort of issue.

ta.

EDIT: @ zippy 😆 yep on a gemini, there not the specific forks I’m after but near as damm it, the RC2X’s that I’m really after would have been a perfect fit…..but alas they are difficult to source 😥

Over the last few years I have been 20mm over recommended. Very unlikely it will fail handling may be out a bit but there is only 1 way to find out and it’s not posting here!! 🙂

So hopefully you’ll have gotten the frame as cheap as chips, cause no one wants them, gawd know why, as there ace.
So it’s hardly going to be end of the world if it breaks…. (assuming you see the crack before it fall apart on a landing).. just get out and ride it!

Oh and what you really want to do is keep an eye out for 1.5 steerer forks bargains, as they tend to sell for peanuts

sounds like you may have once owned/ridden a gemini zippy???

agree, superb bikes…..mine takes everything I chuck at it then laughs in my face for more 😆

got mine teamed up with 150mm 66 rc2x’s at moment.

I’ve gone 170mm at the back hence looking for 170mm forks up front.

reckon I’ll give the forks I’ve got a try and see how things go.

rock n roll.

check the cannondale frame/headset/fork steerer – you might be able to switch to an internal cup headset lower which will reduce the effective height of the fork by 10mm or so?

Yep had my (160mm) 900 since 04, though a lot more bike than I could handle (i is chicken), & as there worth very little I re-built mine last year, in a trail bike format rather than DH monster & given it a new lease of life (for me).

I would imagine your bike might handle for the worse. I dont think Gemini’s have particularly low BB’s anyway. Those 2005 marzocchis were renowned for being very tall aswell.

Yould you not swap the 170mm cartridges into your RC2X’s? They lessened the a2c height for 2006 I think.

Did the adjuster turn up by the way?

david, adjuster turned up…..sorry bud should have mailed you to let you know.

cheers for that 🙂