Hey guys,

So I bought my first proper mountain bike early this year…I got a Saracen Ariel 2 (08); an 'all mountain' machine which was great value and has been great riding. After almost a year of riding i'm finding that i enjoy the freeriding side of things and i'm starting to hit bigger drops and jumps. The only prob is that with my bikes relativley steep head angle (of around 69/70 degrees) things are starting to feel real sketchy when i'm bombing down hill towards a jump!

I haven't got the money to buy a different bike at the mo so i've been considering getting a longer travel fork (currently i've got 130mm travel bombers) since to my mind that'd slacken the head angle (although also raise the bb height aswell) and give me more big hit ability. I read a breif note in a bike mag not long ago that suggested that it wasn't a good idea to increase ur front fork travel, but it didn't give any real reasons why not…so i was hoping someone could point me in the right direction or tell me from experience whether its a good idea or not?

Cheers in advance 😀

Shakey

You could break the head tube – warranty will be void – and the handling will probably feel quite boat-like. How big were you thinking of going?

it was probably designed for a 130mm. you warranty will go out the window if you fit a big one. contact sarracen and ask them what fork you can put on it.

joe x

Hey guys, not too worried about the warranty in all honesty but obviousley breaking the frame would be a bummer…i was thinking of maybe going up for 7" or 7.5"…not a bad idea joe perhaps asking saracen should be my next move…

madison have the brand now so i dont know what there view would be on one from before their time? good luck.

fair point…guess i'll just have to give them a try…has anyone actually tried it then (replacing their front fork with a longer travel version that is)?

I replaced my 140mm forks on my Pitch with 160mm Fox 36 Vans. Feels awesome downhill but pretty wandery on climbs. Can't say I've noticed a difference in the steering apart from that.

It does say in the manual that my frame is warrantied for up to 160mm forks though.

I have a bike designed for a 80 mm fork that has a pike with 95 – 140 travel on it. At full travel it does do funny things to the handling – or more importantly the weight distribution but the headtube has not torn off yet. Same on the tandem – that was designed for a rigid fork and now has a 150 mm on

I doubt there is much safety margin tho. If you are going for big drops you might use up your safety margin.

thanks for the info grumm, would u say the head angle felt noticably slacker after the change?

Thanks TandemJeremy, what sort of funny things does it do to the handling at full travel then?

7-7.5" fork is 180mm of travel. That's a massive increase on the 130mm you've currently got on it. It'll increase the stresses on the headtube immensely. Especially if you are planning on doing bigger drops on the big you'll be loosing your margin of safety in the design of the frame. Which is exactly what you want in those circumstances. If i were you & considering getting a longer travel fork i'd curtail your ambitions somewhat & limit it to say a 150mm travel fork, that is stronger & stiffer than your current fork, so atleast you're minimising the additional strain on the frame.

cheers frank4short, i c where ur coming from with the frame stresses…have u ever tried this urself?

Also bear in mind that no matter how slack/tall the fork makes it an 0mm travel, that at full travel, you'll be at the same steep/nervous position
Okay so you may gain 55-65mm fork height (unsagged) for a 50mm travel increase (130->180mm), but that will roughly only gain you 2-2.5(perhaps 3) degrees in head angle. So 69/70 to 66/67/68, which for a typical 180mm fork setup is still steep. With a 180mm fork diving all over the place, the nervous/steep/twitchy issues should be more apparant
A Marin 140mm FS (the 2009-8 Pike 140mm forked ones) were 66 degrees I think
66-67 degrees is roughly typical for a 160mm forked trail/AM full suss

Some so called XC/trail 100mm HTs have HAs as slack as 68 degrees (kona kula/caldera)

Maybe a better 130mm fork is the answer. 69 degrees isn't that steep.

shakeythejakey – Member

Thanks TandemJeremy, what sort of funny things does it do to the handling at full travel then?

It flops about at low speed, very light and wandery on the front, wheelies on climbs. Its not good except for bumpy downhills on 140mm. at 110 its fine

cheers james, i had a look at some freeride bikes like the Norco Shore 2 and lots seemed to have a HA of 66 degrees.

If changing the fork is only likely to have a negative effect, would getting a wider set of bars and/or shortening the stem be likley to improve the confidence feel of the bike?

That's a big difference. 140mm, sure, I'd go for that, maybe 150mm but you'd need a lot of faith in the frame to go higher. A nice argument against which I saw was "You only need the longer fork if you're riding pretty hard, and if you're riding that hard you're more likely to break it". 69 degrees isn't bad, there are a lot of slacker bikes out there now but it should do you OK.

A shorter stem would almost definitely make a big difference. how long is it at the moment? and wider bars made a difference for me… I would say that considering your situation your best bet may be something like pikes. You can then make the head angle steeper if you want and if the forks are budget, the pikes will work alot better.

cheers for the responses 🙂

Just measured my stem and its 100mm (between centres) or 150mm in total length. Not sure whether thats long, short or what…i suppose the only prob with that is that it would shorten my effective cockpit (good or bad i'm not sure). I don't really understand how a shorter stem can improve things, so i'd be greatful if you could explain it to me 😀

I've got Bombers on the front at the mo…i'll have a look at pikes coz like u say lyons i could adjust it to see what works…

Shorter stem will put your weight further back which is good for confidence going down steep stuff and off drops etc. 100mm is pretty long for freeride type stuff – most would have no longer than 50-60mm for that kind of stuff imo. Will make the steering quicker too.

Wider bars will slow down your steering which can feel more stable and confidence inspiring going fast downhill. (and counteract the quicker steering of a shorter stem).

Maybe 🙂

ok cheers grumm…i think i'll look into a shorter stem wider bars combo and see what that does to the feel of the bike, if it makes it feel better then it'll be much cheaper than replacing the fork i guess.

To the classifieds! 🙂

by the way, do i need to worry about the rise?

More rise = weight further back away from front wheel – again good for confidence DH but if you put the weight too far back it can make cornering harder as there is less weight on the front wheel.

A mate put riser bars and a short stem on his old Stumpjumper FSR XC and said it totally transformed the ride – was much better going downhills.

Fair…so something in the middle then is probably best…10 degrees?