I recently purchased a used Cove Hummer and was thinking of putting on a set of on one cabon forks 26ers for road riding as i have two bikes and i want to use this to go out with a friend with a road bike. These carbon forks are 440mm axle to crown which i think is equivalent to 80mm suspension forks. Will this be ok or would there be problems as cove recommend 100-130 suspension forks?

Another forum member did tell me the on one 29er forks would be better but bike is bit big 18 and prob need 17 so thought 26ers 440mm would lower top tube slightly.

Any advice welcome or thoughts.
Thanks

It will lower the front end, BB and standover height, and also steepen the head angle therefore you’ll get more road/XC like geometry. It will place more weight forward and in my experience of doing similar with slick tyres, the front will wash out if you don’t adjust your riding and saddle to suit (try moving the saddle back on the rails a tad).

I don’t think the frame will be harmed at all, that’s more likely to be a problem with longer travel forks and the associated increased stress (all IMO), however I’d advise you to look into the rake of the 29er forks as that may have some other effect on handling.

Thanks Swalsey
Sorry what do you mean by wash out? I have a 2008 stumpjumper hardtail so maybe it will be more like that. With forks on cove now fox 120mm front looks very high. They measure 50cm axle to crown so would drop 6cm at front with on one. Don’t mind xc geometry. What about rake of 26er? How would i know effects?
New to this but all info helps.

440mm are the equivalent of a sagged 100mm fork so you should be fine – 80mm is 420 a-c.

best bet is to measure your existing forks when you’re on the bike and see how much differnce it’ll make to the real a-c on the bike.

By wash out I mean the front wheel losing grip in corners and sliding out. Because more weight got positioned forward when I ran an inbred frame with 420mm Pace rigid forks, I had a few incidents where I came off as I was cornering as I was used to with the original geometry. Mountain bikes hae more weight over the back wheel. If you ride a road bike too you’ll be fine, I’ve since started riding road where you have a lot more weight on the front and you just learn to ride slightly differently.

As said above 440mm isn’t the shortest. The rake affect the trial of the forks, which influences handling – see here (from the late guru sheldon brown):

The “rake” or “offset” of a fork is the distance between the wheel axle and the extension of the steering axis. This may be accomplished by bending the fork blades, or by attaching the fork ends to the front of the blades, or by tilting the blades where they attach to the crown.
Rake is one of the three factors that affect the trail of the bicycle, which has a considerable influence on the handling qualities.

A fork which is curved forward at the bottom also adds a small degree of suspension compared with one that is not, by acting as a leaf spring.

and here:

Trail is the distance from the center of the contact point of the front wheel with the riding surface to the intersection of the steering axis (head tube) with the surface. The trail is a function of the head angle, the fork rake, and the tire diameter. Trail has a major effect on the handling of a bicycle. More trail increases the bicycle’s tendency to steer straight ahead. A bicycle with a largish trail dimension will be very stable, and easy to ride “no hands”. A bicycle with a smaller trail dimension will be more manuverable and responsive.

Basically, if you get a 29er fork, they have larger amount of trial to make them more stable with the steeper head angles associated with 29er frames. This may well be what you are looking for, but in conjunction with a longer axel to crown it may be too much as the head angle will not be as steep as it would be with a 26″ specific fork. Please double check this information 😉