I recently bought a set of forks claiming to have 120mm of travel from an online vendor. When they arrived I found them to be the exact same proportions as my old forks which I have always thought of as 100mm forks, is the stanchion measures 120ishmm but the actual travel is 100mm.

The merchant tells me that if I want 120mm of actual movement i need to buy 140mm forks… This all sounds a bit mad to me but it’s been a very long time since I bought forks so maybe things have changed..

I just can’t imagine manufacturers claiming 120mm and only giving 100mm, any thoughts?

sounds wrong but what are the forks?

The merchant (strange word to use – why not shop?) may be discounting sag.

The merchant tells me that if I want 120mm of actual movement i need to buy 140mm forks

You’ve got to say who the merchant is. That is hilarious!

Stanchions being longer than travel is no surprise, they often are, however a 120mm fork should yield 120mm, the measurement of 120mm is the travel not the length of the stanchion. Sounds like the vendor is a joker. Send them back and buy from someone else.

Thanks for the replies, the fork is a Dart 3 which he reckons he took a spacer out of to bring up to 120mm. My old fork is a bomber z4.

It’s a lbs up north that does some online stuff. The forks were originally on eBay but I ended up buying direct.

Sounds like you’re being fobbed off.

The ‘I removed a spacer’ story smells like BS personally.

I’ve always had stanchion length and travel roughly match, the stanchions are sometimes a couple of millimetres longer but certainly not 120mm long on a 100mm travel fork.
Telling you to buy a 140 in order to get 120mm of travel is taking you for an idiot, send them back and buy elsewhere.

Let all the air out or take out the spring and compress them to see how far they go.

Thanks for the input on this. I have sent them back and have ordered a proper pair of 120mm dual air Reba’s. Cost quite a bit more but seems to be a vastly superior fork…