Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Solaris: better at 100 or 120mm?
  • bol
    Full Member

    I’ve had my Solaris for a couple of years and loved it. I’ve only ever had 100mm forks on it, and have always wondered what it would be like at 120mm. Before I splash out on new forks, please can people who’ve run their Solari both ways let me know which they think is best?

    Clembo
    Free Member

    I run mine with 120mm SIDS. Love it, handles superbly.

    fatgit
    Free Member

    Hi
    Run mine with 120mm Fox
    Fastest hardtail I’ve ever ridden
    Love it
    Cheers
    Steve

    sheck
    Full Member

    Am running 110 here… Seems fine, my biggest fear of longer travel would be handlebar height

    bikeneil
    Free Member

    120mm X fusions on mine. One of, if not the best bike I’ve ever owned.

    bol
    Full Member

    I’m pretty tall and could lower the bars 20mm by swapping to a flat bar. Has anyone tried both?

    Scienceofficer
    Free Member

    I ran mine with 100 mm Rebas as an SS and I’m now running it as a 1×9 trail bike with 120mm Revs. Same baseline competence, higher front end and a wee bit slower. TBH the biggest difference is the high bars on the steep descents, and the generally more competent RCT3 Revs instead of an RL motion control.

    Mostly I changed up because I felt it was being a bit over-faced in the chop. I’d have trouble separating whether this was fork travel, fork damping and/or the low front end, but I prefer it with 120mm.

    I expect it was a combination of all three.

    metalheart
    Free Member

    My mate recently swapped his 100mm Reba’s for some 120mm SID’s on his Solaris and is well chuffed.

    But then they cost about twice as much…

    bol
    Full Member

    Yeh, I can’t afford Sids, it’ll have to be Revs.

    sparksmcguff
    Full Member

    Just changing to xfusion forks with 120 travel. Love my Solaris. Almost bought another to run as single speed.

    metalheart
    Free Member

    Aye Bol, might be worth looking at X-Fusions. Cy seems to be singing their praises (Slides are now the stock forks on Solaris built bikes/rolling chassis).

    alandavidpetrie79
    Free Member

    Also 120mm – feels perfect to me.

    PimpmasterJazz
    Free Member

    120mm here, but not run at 100mm to be fair. If I rode somewhere flatter I would probably drop it to steepen the head angle, but as there’s some steep stuff about I prefer a higher front end and an extra 20mm of skill compensation. 🙂

    danti
    Full Member

    Running mine with X Fusion Trace at 110mm

    sniffthebreeze
    Free Member

    120 magura’s, slammed stem and flat bar. LOVE the bike.

    AS above, V fast hard tail! great ride…. but then again i spend 80% of riding time on the dark side!

    Sniff.

    bol
    Full Member

    Thanks everyone. I’ll take the plunge.

    duckman
    Full Member

    120 mm and flat ti bars,ace!

    bikeryder85
    Free Member

    I’m curious to this as well…anyone on a small solaris with tall forks?

    KonaOwner
    Free Member

    It’s hard to evaluate these impressions without knowing what length stems people are using, as that has just as much effect on steering/handling as the length of the fork.

    If you go from a 100 to a 120 and leave everything else the same, you are bound to slow the handling down. Although people often insist it makes no difference, this is just wishful thinking or that they like the increase in travel so much that the handling still feels fine to them. However, you can keep about the same kind of handling as you had before if you combine the longer fork with fitting a 15mm shorter stem.

    Obviously if the bike already feels a bit small, you don’t want to make it even smaller, but if the bike currently feels slightly on the long side then fitting a shorter stem and a longer fork is usually a pretty good plan.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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