i have just been out on my hardtail bike after ive left it sitting in the cubby hole for months.. :cry:…. anyway…its back out in the light again, so, i currently have “rockshox recon race” forks on my specialized hardtail….which are about 80mm travel…..
question : my frame is only 13 inch…..so whats the maximum of travel i can have for my sized frame…..
cheers in advance 😉

Your frame should be rated for a specific range of fork lengths to suit its geometry, you can look this up in all proability. If it were sold to you with 80’s on then chances are you would probably be OK with 100s, possibly 120. 160s and you’ve got a Chopper.

You can probably remove spacers to get more travel from your current forks as well

If you look on the specialized website they have the specs for all the bikes they have brought out. Usually it tells you the max travel for specic frames on there.

i have 4 spacers (2 medium and 2 thin spacers…
well blow me down i never thort to look at the website…. just thort someone on here mite have and answer thats all.. 😉 the forks didnt come with the bike originally, i didnt like the femanine forks that were on my bike so i went to leisure lakes to get some beefier forks for the bike ( i remember they had to put a different kind of mount on for the forks i chose…
anyway i will have alook at the website see if i can find anything…
just thort you were all clued up on ere :wink:….thats is all for now….lol

tj means inside the fork spacers not headset spacers

they probably have a black 20mm spacer on the damper to take them from their normal 100 mm to 80.

wouldnt go above 100 on most spesh hardtails tbh

I’d worry about crown to axle length more than travel. As an example, a 2004 Marzocchi MX 120mm travel is only 3mm longer crown to axle than a 2006 Marzocchi MX ETA 105mm travel.

oh i dont know how many spacers are in the forks ???? i dont mess with forks …id only break them…lol everything i touch turns to dust these days..lol
anyway ive emailed leisurelakes bikes and asked them as thats where i got the bike and forks…so i shall wait and see the outcome.. 😉

Marzocchi are known for having pretty long AtC lengths, they certainly used to be longer than their fox or Roc Shox equivalents a couple of years ago. Anyway, most bike manf will specify the max travel for a given frame.

What frame and what year is it?

Exactly what trail rat says. The spacers are inside. The fork can probably go as long as 130mm, and as short as 80, and anywhere inbetween.

100mm should be ok on your HT, but no longer. You just need someone to open the fork up, remove 20mm of spacers, and reassemble. Doesn’t take long but you need to know what you’re doing.

so the forks are currently 80mm sould there be any difference in opening them up to 100mm (would i see any difference in perfromance wise….
i was hoping to get away with 120 forks at some point,
its a 2008 specialized Myka Elite frame …

Yes, I’m sure that can safely go to 100mm (IIRC the Myka Elite Hardtail is analogous to the Rockhopper). You’ll notice that the bike probably feels like your weight has moved back slightly and that the front feels a little less darty and more stable.

ok they need servicing soon anyway, so who ever services them i,ll get them to open the forks up to remove the spacers……. so a 120 fork would be a bad idea then ? would it be soo tragic to go to this lenght then… lol)
think ive been to spoilt over the last year and a half as i have 140mm travel on my full sus.. 😉 dam it… 😉

As I already tried explaining, the amount of travel you can upgrade to is dictated by the crown to axle distance (well OK, and the sag you choose to ride with). It is generally accepted than go can go 20mm in either direction without upsetting handling too much or unduly stressing the frame, and as I tried to show in my previous post crown to axle measurement is not tied to travel length.

120mm would probably make it handle a bit slow, and would raise the BB height significantly enough to make you feel less confident riding it, not more.

A good set of 100mm travel forks, well serviced and maintained, is plenty enough for most things. Amazes me the amount of people who ride 140 or 160mm travel bikes, yet you can see they never use more than 100mm of travel cos their fork stanchions are permanently covered in dirt from 100mm upwards! Let some air out, or fit a softer spring! 😉

seriously though, yes, get them to take them up to 100mm at the service, they’ll be great, but at 120mm they’d probably upset the handling a bit much.

cant let any air out cos they bottom out…. as i found out today.. my son twiddled the dampner buttton at the bottom of the forks too to slow the speed of the fork (it was coming back up too quickly (and put more air in cos i think the forks had lost alot more air too… hadnt ridden the bike in many months you see, been on the full sus and roadie bike alot… 8)
ok cheers guys for your input will get them up to 100mm at the service …sounds ok to me… 😉