Hi have bought a lapierre spicy 516 frame as it was a major bargain. But only ever having had a hard tail not really sure on travel for the forks I need. I believe the rear travel on a spicy is 160mm so do I need to match this on the front can I go 140/150 as I'd like lockout on the forks and seems like with a 160mm fork it's rare to have that option.
Cheers in advance
Rich
X-fusion slant comes with lock out
So I do really need to go 160mm then
U don't need to put a 160 fork in it but that's what the frame was designed for, ie 516, 16 refers to the travel, 5 refers to the level of build.
I've got TALAS RLC 36's, they've got lockout and wind down to 120mm for climbing, which is mighty useful.
Rockshox Lyrik RC2L forks - also lockout.
New Pikes will also lockout - due July
you should really try to match the rear travel...otherwise you may find a shorter travel fork will give you a steeper head angle than the bike was designed for which make handling somewhat odd...if this was the case then you would probably end up running more sag at the rear to counter this and to get the geometry right again, but this this would leave you with a rear shock that would bottom out too easily...all this would make a mess of the bike and set up would be very fiddly...
i did this with my dh bike..where the fork had 170mm travel but the rear had 200mm...i got away with it because the fork had a long axle to crown length (marzocchi 66rc) and the rear of the bike had adjustable geometry and wheelbase length...but i doubt you'll be able to get away with it like i did...
there are long travel forks that have adjustable travel and lockouts as others have mentioned so its not all doom and gloom...
I'm running a 160mm Lyrik on my Dune and never felt the need for lockout.
Have lockout on my Rev's on the GT but never use it. The only times I have I forget to turn it back off again... 😳
Ok thanks. Only reason I wanted lockout is thought climbing may suffer with that much travel. But I don't know that it would just guessing really