• This topic has 20 replies, 16 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by mcj78.
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  • Travel adjust forks….. Brilliant or compromised?
  • flossie
    Free Member

    Hi all,
    I’m considering a pair of travel adjust Talas forks 120-150 for my wife’s hard tail Ragley. (Vicky Pea) 120 for general trail riding and 150 to be used for the rocky descents and this summers Alps trip. She’s 5’6″ so 120mm would be a good trail riding length for her.
    My question is, are the forks absolutely as good in each setting as a 120 or 150 fork or have some compromises had to be made and she’s better off with a fixed travel fork. Is the compromise in the weight?

    Thanks in advance
    Floss

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    She’s 5’6″ so 120mm would be a good trail riding length for her.

    Interesting conclusion, not heard that one before.

    TALAS is a compromise as it’s a liner air spring, means it behaves much more like a coil. It really benefits from a really good damping side to deal with that and give you more bottom out resistance.
    Is it the 32/34/36? 32’s are too spindly at 150mm and feel crap in heavy going rocks etc. 34’s are much better in that respect.

    It also depends a lot on the frame, I used to run TA forks TALAS/ETA/Uturn on older bikes that felt crap uphill at 150/160mm. Now I run Float 34’s at 160mm on my Blur LTc which feels much better balanced than any of the other frames, fine at full travel up and down.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    (Edit, I’m a dope, wrong spring type, but as I typed it I’ll leave it )

    U-turn spring works like a retractable pencil, the point the spring is connected to the fork lower moves by screwing through the spring, and as such doesn’t change the spring rate.

    What it does change is the travel before the ramp up occurs, as the non-u-turn part of the spring is progressive. Kinda makes sense, for longer travel you probably want more sag and compliance anyway.

    I don’t think it changes the damping, but I have only disassembled a MoCo damper, so I can’t really say for sure.

    Basically, I think it’s great.

    Getting the right spring for the riders weight is important though, I have a heavy spring in at the moment and I think it’s really holding me back. (In this case air pressure)

    *goes to find the coffee*

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Similar to Mike, I found they work well on bikes that aren’t designed for longer forks. Gives a good downhiller at longer travel but the climbing is compromised. The travel adjust ‘fixes’ that. Only used Rockshox U-turn but they seem to work well at any point. Generally you can live with them stiffening up for shorter travel as that fits with the terrain/usage, but I can’t really say I’ve noticed them doing that anyway.

    mintimperial
    Full Member

    I rode a pair of 120-150 Talas Foxs (2011) for a couple of years, some people slag them off but they’re not bad if you’re a light rider, so a 5’6″ lass would probably find them fine. I’m 5’10” and just under 11 stone and whilst they were a bit twangy at 150mm in comparison to the X-Fusion 34s I replaced them with, I still had fun riding them over all sorts of pretty rocky stuff (Peaks/Lakes/N. Wales) for a couple of years.

    In use I ran them at 150mm most of the time but I can’t say I noticed a massive difference in characteristics at 120mm. I also have a set of Talas 110-140s (2012) on my hardtail, they spend almost all their time at 110 but feel the same to me at either setting in terms of damping/spring characteristics. I’m sure there are some princesses expert riders out there who can feel a difference, but I’m not one of them. They’re ace, I love them. 🙂

    Northwind
    Full Member

    IME talas was always compromised, but I’ve not used the latest ones, supposedly they’re pretty much as good as a float? They were always decent enough, it was just that you paid a hell of a lot for fairly middling performance.

    U-turn was good, it was genuinely an adjustable fork, worked properly and well at all lengths just like a single length fork. But apparently turning a dial 6 times is unthinkably difficult.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I’ve never been a fan – I’ve had two sets of TALAS forks. Reviews at the time said they were 90% as good as the regular ones, or words to that effect, would you notice that 10% of better performance – maybe, maybe not – but it’s not nice thinking you’ve lost a little bit there for the sake of travel adjust.

    As for the feature itself – but in reality for me it meant constantly threading between rocks and roots to avoid pedal strikes, performance-wise it was pretty terrible too, it wasn’t like riding a bike with 120mm forks, but it’s not, I certainly wouldn’t recommend someone buying a long fork with travel adjust to fit to a frame designed for a shorter travel fork

    surroundedbyhills
    Free Member

    Run Talas 110-150mm and love them, ride the majority of time in 130mm mode but extend to 150mm fro big hits – don’t notice any difference in performance, but when climbing they’re ace at 110mm – would defo spec them on my next bike. Giant Reign FWIW.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I like travel adjust on my big bike – as well as adjusting for steep rocky descents it allows one to tune the geometry by changing the usual position in which you ride it. On the Patriot I was able to drop both the front and rear giving a lower CoG which improved handling.

    Milkie
    Free Member

    Rockshox 2 Step = Completely shit, always goes wrong
    Fox 36 TALAS 2015 = It works and it feels a lot better than Rockshox.

    Fox 2016 or Fox 36 2015+ are the dogs danglies. 😉

    Northwind
    Full Member

    2step was brilliantly awful, my lyriks exploded in the box before i ever fitted them, then after a warranty repair went again while riding along a towpath. Coil uturn ft very heavy but actually works w.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Coil uturn ft very heavy but actually works w.

    Modern frame not needed..

    Thats the up side of travel adjust forks

    eshershore
    Free Member

    I used to convert lots of Talas to Float for customers and then set the travel internally the suit their needs and the bike’s geometry

    the Talas always had a high break away friction, which was worse for smaller / lighter riders, no matter how well maintained the fork was and dosed with seal lubes it was always sticky compared to the Float

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    I have both TALAS and Uturn
    IME it is only useful if you want to adjust the travel for say uphill v downhill
    For example I sometimes clims the 5 in say 120 mm mode
    I used the TALAS on a 456 and i liked the fact i could play around with different modes [ IMHO it climbs poorly in 140 mode]

    It seems to me that they will work for what you want
    I cannot compare TALAS to FLOAT as I dont have any but the TALAS performs fine- also a lightweight rider [ actual weight not style 😉 ]

    moridinbg
    Free Member

    I have had a 110-140 U-Turn Revelation 2011 which I swapped after 4 months for a 120-160 Talas 36 2012.
    The Talas in 120mm mode feels like as if I have dropped the pressure compared to 160mm. And it is noticeable.
    The U-Turn Rev felt pretty much the same (hint: shit) between 110 and 140mm.

    And yes – turning a dial 6 times is unthinkably difficult when doing it multiple times per ride – you have to wind it, then to unwind it and in the end I just didn’t bother anymore, while with the Talas or the 2 step it’s just flicking the switch.

    I am more and more thinking about replacing the internals with Float, as I am ready to sacrifice TA, which is not that much of a game changer, for the added plushness of the Float.

    TroutWrestler
    Free Member

    I have Rockshox Dual Position Air on some Revelations. It works well. One switch, easier than U-turn and can be done on the go.

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    I’m a massive advocate for travel adjust and have experience of most of the options; they give you great flexibility in one bike, particularly if you run 160mm on a hardtail and want to reign it in a bit for climbing, or for singletrack. Saves you buying another bike for the rocky rides, or just gives you more capability when you need it.

    Rockshox U-Turn coil is the best by a long way, infinite adjustment, no air seals holding the travel level to fail, no additional friction as a result. The Lyriks were perfect, very stiff 115mm trail forks, or 160mm monsters, with everything in between. Main downside is that Rockshox don’t care about people like me and have stopped making them because everyone else complained that Fox were lighter.

    I have some fox 32 Talas which came on a bike. The 32s are a bit crap because they flex too much and I would have sold them, but there’s no market for Fox 32 150-120mm with a straight 1.5″ steerer. FFS. Anyway, the Talas has been fine, rides pretty well in both settings and I’ve had no issues with it. So I use it for general trail riding.

    I also have some Totem 2-step airs, which again have been great, no issues at all. Ironically, these actually benefit from not being coil U-turn because the weight saving is necessary to balance the bike. The coil ones are too tall to pedal uphill a lot of the time and the lack of U-turn compounds that. They’re a perfect antidote to the flexy F32s, I swap the two forks between the same bike. I have a Cannondale Jekyll which has 150 or 95mm travel at the rear, so for not steep, but rocky trails I can run 135mm front and 95mm rear and have super stiffness, or you can open both ends up when it gets steeper and have extra ability.

    So yeah, definitely get travel adjust, get coil U-turn lyriks if you can, if not look at the travel options on the different forks and match that to the riding style as best you can. Don’t worry too much about whether you end up with Talas or something else, they all seem as reliable as each other.

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    PS – Does anyone know if it’s possible to upgrade my Talas so the adjustment is done from the bars rather than the fork top?

    TroutWrestler
    Free Member

    Unfashionably I also have a pair of 2008(?) Marzocchi 55ETA on a 2005 Giant Reign. Once I got the oil level right, these have been excellent. I can drop the front end to 40mm for climbing, and at the flick of a switch be back to 160mm.

    I might put them on my Ariel 14X for Colorado/Utah this Autumn.

    igm
    Full Member

    On my 2011 Alpine 160 with 120-160 TALAS 36s, the bike handles better in 160mm mode, descends better that way and doesn’t climb noticeably worse.

    The 120mm mode is useful for stashing the bike at home and for transporting the bike on the bike rack.

    On balance I’d buy the Float next time (if there is a next time).

    mcj78
    Free Member

    Another +1 for Rockshox coil U-Turn, got 2 pairs of old Pikes – 95-145mm (one on hardtail, one on full suss) – on the fs the travel doesn’t really get moved all that much, but on the ht it comes in pretty handy for climbing as the head angle changes a fair bit when going from min to max travel.

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