I was riding up a fire road climb this weekend and dropped my TALAS forks from their 160mm setting to the 100mm setting thinking it would aid keeping the front end down.

As I did I’m sure the effort required to maintain the same speed became noticeably more.

Could this be, was it my imagination, what causes it?

Hardly ever change mine down now , the change in geometry makes it feel about a stone heavier on the front!!

Lakes_Puma – Member
As I did I’m sure the effort required to maintain the same speed became noticeably more.

Makes no sense at all.

sorry Al, was it the effect that make no sense or my description of what happened, if it’s the latter then smiththemainman summed it up well, the bike suddenly felt a lot heavier.

Yep.
Really wouldn’t bother with travel adjust.

This has cropped up on here a few times.
I have noticed it myself on the 5 spot. Must be to do with the geometry and/or riding position when front end is dropped.

Agree with all above except Mr. Al (doesn’t he always disagree ?).

Noticed it years ago on my old Kona Dawg. Only time it wasn’t noticeable was on climbs so steep they were barely rideable. Similar effect but less noticeable on a HT as well. Tried one of those Bionicons and it was the same.

Haven’t bothered with travel dropping forks since.

It sort of feels like you’re driving the front wheel into the ground.

I notice this when I drop the forks down on my Orange 5, always seems as if the front brake is on and I need to pedal harder.

(the front brake isn’t actually on, just gives that impression).

My 2010 FSR feels similar to that. Wind the fork down and it seems to take more effort to pedal, although I do find it easier to keep the front of the bike on track up steep climbs.

Never worked out if it is psychological or a real effect.

I agree with cheese.
I had a set of Marathon SLs which could be locked down for climbing, too about 4″ off the front end, made it better for me.
However, every rider will be different and if lowering the front end has upset your position, maybe making you lean further forward, you may not be able to produce the same power for the same perceived effort, therefore making it ‘harder’.
TBH on the kind of climbs where you are likely to want to drop the front end you are unlikely to be going quickly enough for the slight improvements in aerodynamics to be noticable, and if you are not honking out of the saddle and bouncing the forks up and down the lesser amount of travel probably won’t be noticed either, so it must be down to position and power output.

Same here on my five spot, unless (as said above) its mega steep..
Don’t bother with it anymore, next bikes having floats..

I think this is a real effect and that it is something to do with the interaction of front and rear suspension and the interaction of the chain and pivot points at the rear given the change in geometry that dropping the front causes. However, I don’t understand it well enough to even be able to begin to explain it.

Read Dave Weagle’s answer to Q4 here.