I’m entering the Mega next year and have a few questions.

At the moment I run a Five with Fox 32’s (140mm). Do I stick a set of 150mm Revelations, 160mm Fox 34’s or 160 Fox 36’s on?

I probably wouldn’t keep the 160’s for all round use, so they’d probably be bought then sold soon after which seems a bit extravagant so at the moment the Revs at 150 are sounding like the best bet, but will they be enough fork for the Mega?

Your thoughts?

Something with a coil in would get my vote

Given that your probably a normal mountain biker and therefore unlikely to win, Id just service the current forks you have and use them.

Some of the course requires pedaling, lots of it id down to luck. Your not on a timed run on your own, so Id reckon the difference between the forks you mention is marginal in the overall scope of what can / will happen in that race.

Being a fit rider will count for more. Spend the time between now and the race training on upper body and core strength, rather than spending money on your bike.

I bought a pair of second hand 36’s for putting on my bike when we headed out to do the mega last year. It was either that or run my revelation xx which are fairly light weight. I was able to sell the 36’s for a very similar price to what I paid for them. Why not get some 34’s and then have them reduced to 150 when you come back?

Good call Trimix – I am a normal mountain biker with no chance of winning. A good dose of realism is always helpful, and I definitely need to work ok my upper body strength.

Highland28 – I can’t really afford to buy a new set of 34’s right now, so I should probably discount that idea. Buying some used 36’s then selling them on my return sounds like it could work though

All depends what you want from the whole Mega experience.

I did it last year on a Five with 140 RC3ti ‘zocchis. They were faultless.
I do think quality (plushness) is much more important than travel though, as a few of our group were suffering somewhat after enduring an hour’s unrelenting hammer. Coil rather than air for me everytime. 😀
The Mega race itself doesn’t warrant a big fork. The Quali is actually more demanding and it would probably make more difference there.

Would I have been any faster on a 160 fork? Maybe a bit but I wouldn’t rush out to buy one just for the one event.

Honestly, no fork will make up for lack of strength and training. Given you cannot really train for it in the UK just do some pull ups / push ups and squats between now and the race.

Watch some video of the event and you will see your more likely to fall off / get knocked off or just crash than gain time by upping your travel by 10mm.

Play to your strengths, so avoid trouble on the DH bits, sprint like a winner on the flat and ride hard on the climbs.

Save the money you would have spent of forks and spend it on Beer when you finish the event.

I did the mega 2 years ago with a fox 36 van, which was spot on the the downs and qualifiying but obviously heavier on the climbs.

I spoke to a guy after the race who used a meta5.5 with fox 32’s he said he was ok for the firt 30 mins but after that he was in a world of pain, he was annoyed as he also had brought a bike with 36’s fitted which he’d used for qualifyingand wished he’d used that. I agree a 32 is out of its depth in the alps.

Ideally a fox 34 or 36 float would do it. as mentioned to reduce cost go for a set of used 36 floats, can always sell them on if you dont want to keep them. You will get more out of the trip, riding the Oz downhill track etc.

I remember towards the end of the mega race thought woods I didnt know If I wanted a climb or a descent as legs and arms were in agony. Best thing I have every done a a bike though!!

Done it on Air & Coil forks – bugger all difference apart from the linear vs progressive stuff. Modern air forks will stand up fine.

My main criteria for the race and the sort of rising was stiff as there was a lot of rocks up top and some of the sections I wanted the bike to go the way I pointed it.

Trimix has it, work on your fitness and strength. Slightly stiffer, 10mm longer forks won’t make any difference.
Make sure your bike is in tip top condition before the race and all bolts are tight.
The Mega is an amazing experience. I want to go back and give it another go – last year was a disaster for me as I crashed in practice and didn’t even make the Qualifier! 😳

don’t forget the fun and confidence factor, you may not need bigger forks however having a touch more forgiveness afforded by a longer travel and stiffer fork makes some of the more hairy moments you might get yourself into big grin moments and that wonderful feeling of ‘I can’t believe I made it through that section whilst still attached to the bike’!

Depending on you current wheel / axle configuration you might end up having to change axle sizes from 9mm QR to 15mm or 20mm through axle.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I’ll probably get some Revs as I can use them all round and (I like to think) I’ll notice the extra stiffness over the 32’s I’ve got at the moment.

Off to the gym it is then. Bugger

edit: I’ve got Hope hubs, so changing axle sizes isn’t too big an issue.

Depending on what you want to achieve (survive, qualify for a mass start race, qualify for the main race or go for a great result) you will literally never be fit enough.

I went with work, and murdered myself solid for 12 months before to get fit. I just scraped into the top 75 on the main race, 10 minutes behind the winner. I redlined from the start for 50 minutes solid, and averaged over 190bpm wearing a Garmin heart rate monitor.

Your fork will be fine, you will be the weak link. One of my colleagues managed a top 50 with a Float 32 on the front.

Good point you make there butterbean – almost none of our normal riding has us Redlining for 50 mins !

Practicing that will pay dividends.

I’ll second the training part of it, but it’s also a test of how you can handle the bike. Like most of the technical endurance events taking the least amount of bike possible will help. We shared lifts with guys on skinny forks and 140mm rotors. Made us look overbiked, big difference was they had the skills to pay the bills 🙂

If you can find a bag of luck pack that too, the 2 I did both got screwed up by injury in practice and a bit of illness. Still managed 2nd race and a fairly decent time despite having to snot in my full face and going death grip with my right hand for most of the race after dislocating my finger tip on the Wednesday.

Personally, I wouldnt consider putting a 32 fork on an Enduro type bike. Not ridden a 34, but I suspect they would be the perfect race weight/stiffness fork. I use 36mm stanchions for all my local and holiday riding on my Heckler. Yes I’m sure its slower on the trails around my area, but its certainly more comfortable and better tracking/stiffer than my old revs. 32mm on my HT, but I wouldnt take that to the Alps.

I’m looking to do it with a 150mm 32 talas next year. I think it all depends how smooth a rider you are as well. More travel just allows you to get away with more mistakes.

I’m interested in how people have trained for it in the past? I box 3 nights a week so my upper body will be pretty strong and I commute to work and spend most of my dinners riding clayton vale as well as hitting the peaks and roman lakes and stuff at weekends.

The travel vs mistakes thing is good but I would (personally) prefer more stiffness than a 32, tried some 34’s at the weekend and they felt much better.

Training
Ride, a lot, get used to rough stuff, as much off piste mountain riding as you can find and some DH. Lakes was a great place to practice as there were actually some descents long enough and rough enough to get going on. Being able and happy to make some very quick choices and commit to stuff really helped.
For fitness I was just doing laps of Whinlatter reds without stopping and the like in the evenings when I could. I was getting used to being on the bike on technical for as long as possible.
My final ride before heading out was Helvellyn down Dollywaggon, it’s better to get there and feel like it’s all a bit easier 🙂

Then I got a head cold just before leaving.

Other tips (plenty of threads about it) is not to treat it like a week in the alps if your half serious. Limit your practice to avoid burning out unlike a normal alps week it’s not about banging in 20 runs a day.

I wouldnt say it’s so may the travel(140mm+ is fine) its the the stiffness of the fork/stantions, 32’s are very flexy, I’ve had a 4 sets,even more so in 150mm guise I’m sorry to say. It holding your line which is hard on the 32’s.

matt1986 – with regards to training. sounds like you have your fitness covered, just get used to long decscents which is a challenge in the UK. Cwmcarn uplift day is a good idea. I used to go to cwmcarn, pedal to the top and ride straight down and pedal up again and keep doing loops witout stopping do that 3 times and you’re in peices. Good luck!

Cheers. I can’t afford new 36 or 34’s may sell my bike and if I do I’d look at something with 34’s I think. Too be honest with the bolt through it does feel pretty stiff. I was thinking of trying massive loops around edale and hope for the rough stuff. I also go farmer johns once a month or so.

Has anyone ever done it for charity and know how to go about it?

I’ve done it on my 140mm coil Pikes and I’d much rather have use the 36 Vans I have now. Whether it would really have made much difference I’m not sure but they feel massively better.

I wouldnt say it’s so may the travel(140mm+ is fine) its the the stiffness of the fork/stantions

+1

Looping the gondola at Fort William and not stopping on the descents and some kind of forearm/grip strength training would be the best way of preparing IMO. Arm pump is the no 1 problem IME.

OK then, which of these would you get.
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FORSRCT3SA/rockshox_revelation_rct3_solo_air_150mm

or

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FORSRCT3D15/rockshox_revelation_rct3_dual_position_air_150mm_fork

or

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FORSREVRLTDA/rockshox_revelation_rlt_dual_air_150mm_suspension_fork

What’s the difference between the dampers, and realistically, would anyone notice any difference/is it worth spending the extra £70 for the RCT version?

Can anyone help on the last question?

justinbieber – Member
Can anyone help on the last question?

Not Revs? Probably some cheap lyriks or Fox 36’s or Marz 55’s etc.

+1

I got the impression that people were saying the forks weren’t going to be the issue. But regardless, I’m still kinda confused by all the different springs and dampers found on revelations.

A slight thread hi-jack gents.I would like to do the Mega next year. tick one off the “to do” list. When do entries normally open?

Why do you think the Revs are going to be significantly different/better than your current forks? I’m not convinced you’ll notice much difference TBH. The stanchion size feels like it makes more difference than 10mm of travel.

Just seen your edit – dunno about the difference between the Revs.

Entries open in Jan.

For the fork what is generally being said is if you can handle a 32mm flexi fork through rough stuff then you will probably be fine and get going. However the Fox32 and the Revs are about as stiff(flexi) as each other. So swapping a 32 to a Rev won’t change much. Something a bit stiffer might do.

Grum – I thought the general consensus was that revs were stiffer than 32’s. I’ve also got a mate I ride with who has revs and his feel significantly stiffer than my forks, hence I figured revs would be light enough for regular use, but a little bit stiffer and therefore more able to cope with the Mega

Dunno, the revs I’ve tried didn’t seem that stiff, but admittedly I haven’t tried the 32s. I’d be surprised if there was a massive difference though.

To list what I’ve used recently in order of stiffness
FOx 36’s & Marz 55’s
Marz AM1’s Fox 34’s
Revs (20mm)
32’s (15mm)

In 20mm I still found the revs flexy and that wasn’t in big stuff. If I wanted to make a decent difference I would step it up a bit more rather than just a tiny bit stiffer.

Just to resurrect this thread in case you were all losing sleep, worrying over my fork dilemma, you can put your mind at ease now – I managed to find a cheap pair of Fox 36 TALAS locally. 😀

Job done (hopefully).

I’m intending to do it next year too.
My forks will be 6″ Marzocchi Junior Ts from about 2003 because that’s what I’ve got (and are more suitable than either Magura Durins or Trigon rigid forks…)