Would putting a 120mm fork on an Intense Spider (older model, not the new Spider 2) ruin the handling/geometry ? I'd just like to change it slighly to be more 'XC/trail' than XC/race'.

What do you think ?

Yes, you at the back, Thomson isn't it ? Stand up laddy ! Anything to share with the class ?

I've got Fox Talas 100 to 130mm forks on my Spider XVP and it seems ok whether at 100 or 130mm…so far.

I was wondering the same thing after spending the last week riding in Wales – a longer travel fork would certainly make the head angle a bit slacker (just like Intense have done on the Spider 2) and less twitchy on the downhills & technical bits. Surely the XVP is built well enough to take a slightly longer travel fork without cracking the HT-TT weld.

@djc1245 how long have you run the TALAS up front?

People were doing this in the US, which is why they developed the spider 2, iirc

Don't know what they warrant the frame for though

ve put a 120mm reba team maxle fork on my Santa Cruz superlight and it's the last of the old model bought in 2007. It was only recommended to run a 100mm but the handling is improved and I'm not doing anything major like 7ft drop offs so I can't see there being a problem- it even helps raise the slightly low BB.
Before I did this, I checked on forums such as mtbr where loads of guys in the states had done it and didn't report any problems- might be worth trying this first just incase, but the spider is a similar bike to the superlight and I guess it would be OK

I think the older model superlight can go to a 125 fork. Haven't had the Intense all that long and usually run it at 100mm anyway. Only tried 130 occasionally, so can't really comment too much, but no problems…… as yet

i'm having an „old“ spider fro, bought as used demo with a magura md120m in it – unfortunately the rare model w/o adjustable platform, so it's fixed @120mm. worked quite well for me downhill, but it's been my first fully, so i can't really tell..

but for me it was a little too much uphill, that's why i'm just changing it for a sid race.. curious myself how this will affect downhill performance, but for my (rather modest) bodysize the 120 simply were too much on this frame..

greez.