Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)
  • Help me understand why – shorter travel felt better!
  • rob-jackson
    Free Member

    Riding my pitch round jacobs on saturday and left the forks at 115mm (wound down lyriks) from a climb, got to a descent and the bike felt ace, poppy as ****, easier to manual etc.
    How and why?

    cloudnine
    Free Member

    The shorter travel better suits the bike geometry and you became a 115mm riding god/goddess?

    loddrik
    Free Member

    Went from 150mm forks to 130mm, feels so much better.

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    sprocker
    Free Member

    Bike is quite long with 160 forks so you will have shortened it a bit and a lot less slack so willing to move more.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    Just think how amazing you’d ride with rigid forks

    simon1975
    Full Member

    And the steeper head angle gives faster handling… Much more fun!

    JCL
    Free Member

    Yeah I’d put a rigid fork on and run 300psi in the shock for maximum enjoyment.

    ampthill
    Full Member

    less travel to reduce the effects of you “working” the bike

    Superficial
    Free Member

    I often did that when I ran Pikes – shorter travel makes the bike much quicker. On smooth singletrack, you can’t beat dropping the forks to 110mm and going flat out. Gets a bit sketchy when you reach rockier stuff though.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    The shorter travel better suits the bike geometry and you became a 115mm riding god/goddess?

    I’m gonna have a punt on Rob Jackson being a guy’s name

    wobbliscott
    Free Member

    Depens on the terrain you ride and how fast you want to ride it. I’ve gone the other way, from a short travel XC bike to a longer travel slacker bike. I ride terrain that is fairly steep and bumpy as well as groomed trail centres. I’m an order of magnitude quicker over the steeper bumpier stuff now – before I picked my way down, now I attack it and am looking for stuff to do little jumps off – a whole new world and great fun. On smooth groomed trail centres i’m slower than on my XC bike, but when on the descents i’m quicker and its more fun. For me its all about the fun. Also my body is expsed to less punishment now. Before after a long ride on a bumpy route, i’d have back ache, arms would be battered and i’d generally feel like i’ve been hammered. Now, though knackered i’m physically feeling better.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Bike geometry is a complex thing. Winding the fork up and down changes it quite a bit.

    Sui
    Free Member

    I recently had to put my Pikes on the GSpot (farewell Hustler) after taking the 66’s off so I could at least pedal it around. I have since found that running 95mm travel is brilliant and the bike is exceptionally nimble in the ST. A downside though is that the Pikes blew seals and cartridges at the weekend.. 🙁

    noteeth
    Free Member

    I’m still rocking circa 1995 63 mm Rock Shox Judys on a Bontrager Race – feels great, if dated.

    thepodge
    Free Member

    All this slacker is better stuff is rubbish

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Slacker is better for some things, not for others. Some bikes have an ideal angle, some do not.

    deanfbm
    Free Member

    Believe it not theres something pretty important that gets forgetten about, personal preference abd riding style.

    buzz-lightyear
    Free Member

    It just does with some combos of forks on some bikes, esp. hardtails. My Sov feels really good at 130/135 but less good at 150mm.

    soobalias
    Free Member

    edit: you know what CBA

    change it up, you might like it.
    change is as good as a rest

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    All my ex’s reported a simmillar experience.

    rickon
    Free Member

    I’m confused about manually being easier, as your weight would have been further forward, and the bars lower – so should have been markedly harder to manual.

    I’m actually confused on the physics of how it would be any different.

    soobalias
    Free Member

    weight would have been further forward

    relative to what, the front wheel axle, BB, rear wheel axle?

    rickon
    Free Member

    The bike.

    Higher bars, shorter stem, saddle further back (on the same bike) would all unweight the front end, and make the bike easier to manual.

    ampthill
    Full Member

    I’m confused about manually being easier, as your weight would have been further forward, and the bars lower – so should have been markedly harder to manual

    But the push down on the bars might have lead to more force on the front wheel and therefore a better spring up

    doctorgnashoidz
    Free Member

    It was a dream?

    rob-jackson
    Free Member

    think it was primarily because the sag was teh same so on the up stroke the bike left the ground quicker as it had 55mm less suspension to lift through

Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)

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