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proper tight alpine switchbacks require steeper head angles, but with weight back. a shorter fork gives the steeper HA, but enables you to get weight back.on steeper stuff the longer forks are nice, but for tight stuff, shorter forks are better imo. hence why i've gone back to 120mm from long 130s on the bike i use in the alps.
Really disagree there. If it's that steep/tight, then you stoppie round. If you're rolling it, a steep headangle will have you so far over the front tyre contact patch (with the bars turned almost 90°) that the front wheel will just tuck under and chuck you over the edge. Slack angles are also less deflected by variations in trail surface, so add in short stem and wide bars for control, and once it gets really tight and tech it's much easier to keep the bike pointed where you want it.
Poppa, you got it back to front, the head angle would be identical at full tavel for either fork given the same frame, its the uncompressed head angle that would change, by around about a degree. All forks are not equal and paying attention to axle to crown lengths of various forks can help if you was ever to go down the route of overforking a frame.
The AC length of differnt brands and models of forks can vary by as much as 20mm for a given fork travel.
Really disagree there. If it's that steep/tight, then you stoppie round. If you're rolling it, a steep headangle will have you so far over the front tyre contact patch (with the bars turned almost 90°) that the front wheel will just tuck under and chuck you over the edge.
That's pish mate! Honestly!
Do you actually want bigger forks or an excuse for a new bike? I'm not sure it's entirely clear? 🙂
add in short stem and wide bars for control, and once it gets really tight and tech it's much easier to keep the bike pointed where you want it.
have to disagree again... ime the shorter forks helped me get round tight swichbacks, as the bike was quicker handling, and marginally shorter. furthermore, mid way through my alps holiday lsat yeaat i had to cut down my 710mm bars to 665mm, as at full lock, i could hardly control the bike - one hand in my groin, one way out front.
unfortunately my skills don't equate to stoppying round real tight stuff, and a lot of the switchbacks i was doing (at bike village) were either steep downhills or on loose surfaces, where stoppies were nigh on impossible anyway, unless you were a riding god...
fwiw, i'm not talking DH trails, but tight, technical XC trails more suited to HTs.
anyway, horses for courses an' all that.
Riding bikes - what's the point? 😉
People like different equipment/set-ups and people have different riding styles. If it feels alright, the it's alright. There's no right or wrong.
Hungry Monkey - Bike Village - as in les Arcs? Was out there too but with Trail Addiction. That's *exactly* the kind of riding I'm talking about.
Agree on the hardtail thing though, although mine had 160mm forks, 715mm bars and a 50mm stem. Stoppies are easiest on steep stuff - you only need the back wheel 1/2" off the floor to be able to swing it round the corner.
steep downhills or on loose surfaces, where stoppies were nigh on impossible anyway, unless you were a riding god...
Stoppies are easiest on steep stuff
=> JonEdwards = Riding God 🙂
Big Dummy - nope, but I've ridden with a few people who very definitely *are*.
NOT doing stoppies on steep bits is the real skill. 😉
Depends what you ride and where you ride. 150mm on my hardtail in France was nice cos it meant I had more room for error and some of the tracks there are fast and rough and very long.
Over here I reckon around 100mm or just over is good for all round stuff.
Depends what your riding background is i suppose but ive always ridden dj bikes with 100mm of travel or bmx's in the past so I find theres nowt worse than wallowing about in loads of travel when all you want to do is a jump or a bunnyhop on a trail. Defeats the point of a hardtail for me. If your into ploughing through stuff then get a full sus.
your doing your own nut in dude,i ride a rigid fork on 1 bike,100mm reba,130 revs,pikes and one with some fox 36 on,and love them all,can do most things with them all but when it comes to confidence inspiring,get out of trouble fast you cant beat long travel,
ive been down cwm carn dh track on revs and it wasnt that much fun,aving those big fat stanchions in front off ya feels good,everytime i ride mine i love em more,
just do it dude,you know you want to
Lock - talking sense 🙂 want v need... I don't think I need it but fancy a change - but the whole thing of length of forks baffles me.
JonEdwards "You *should* be using full travel every time you ride. If not, you're overspring/damped."
If every ride you ever do is on the same trail, that may be true. But if I turn left at the end of the trail at the top of my road, I'll use full travel, if I turn right I won't. Am I oversprung/damped? Should I change my fork pressures before every ride? Or is your rule just a bit sily?
Stoppies are easy yeah, it's getting the rear wheel to swing to the right place that defeats me.
Personally I don't think I'd want more than 140mm on a HT, but I'm definitely not a riding god.
watch some bike clips,dh free ride stuff in slow mo and watch the forks working ,plus on the bfe the forks will make it higher at the front so more confidence going down steep stuff,remember the 1st specialized big hit bike hade a 26 inch wheel up front and a 24 at the back.
more travel means you will smash through stuff and noy notice it as much,
for me the trying new stuff,bikes, forks etc is part of the fun,the more i try the more i know what I LIKE,thats all part of the hobby,
thats why i bought a 29er and ride cyclo x bike down golden birdie,and why i bought a bmx
CAUSE I WANT TO
cant remember where you live but well av to hook up for a ride dude
Hi on a hardtail i am not sure they will make that much differance.But with 6" back and front then that is a total didnt ball game.If you can ride all the downhill runs on lecky on 130mm then dont bother getting 160mm.Full-suss are way more fun when the ground is nice and dry.Get your self a ride on a Remedy then your see the light.
IMO anything over 140mm on a HT is a waste because your always limited by no travel on the back What you would get if you switched is a stiffer fork, have you thought about getting 36floats and getting mojo to reduce them to 140mm? That way you have the advantage of stiffer forks without the downsides of 160mm on a HT.
IMO anything over 140mm on a HT is a waste because your [sic] always limited by no travel on the back...
That would be because you've never used a hardtail which is designed to run on a long fork. On such a frame, it's entirely not a waste and is simply part of the experience.
Lock - loving what you're saying. I don't know how they'd ride so I think that's why I should try them to see how they would ride. 🙂 Learn from experience. I'm Cheltenham - I seem to remember you are Crawley way - a ride sometime would be good though 🙂
Remedyflyer - There are a few bits of Lecky I am not comfortable on - mainly because they get tooooo steep! One of the reason why I'm looking at longer travel.
the thing about a longer fork on steep stuff is that you dont need to get your weight back, you can keep centered and let the forks do the work, which helps on hairpins and basically allowing you to go faster everywhere, I tried 160mm forks on a ride last night that I have been doing for years and the downhill sections became so easy that I was looking to jump further and ride through and over obstacles just for fun, and thats only a 20mm step up from a 575.
gw, deffo does not hang around on his 100mm ht 🙂 🙂
high5 for the riding the other week dood
Sometimes think that what I want is a 100mm travel fork with varying axle-to-crown length... So like a u-turn but instead of adjusting the travel it just adjust the length. That way, get the geometry change and retain the tight short fork. I wind the SOul out to 130mm travel for confidence on descents and then I use the travel and just when I want the slackness most it's back to being steep.
High5 Jedi - best XC ride in ages! Ta! 😀
Northwind you do talk some amount of shite!
Fork length will completely depend on the bike as well as rider set up.
If the frame is designed to take a 160 length fork your fine, as for the difference between a 130 and a 160 well I say it's not as much as it looks on paper, I usually run more sag on a 160 than a 120/130/140. The height of the crown and fork height after taking the travel into cosideration is what to watch for, some forks have thicker stantions and crowns increasing height etc. Compair a pair of Fox 140mm 32's to a pair of Marz 160mm 55's and not just the extra 20mm travel is evident.
I have 160 on an NS at the moment, with plenty of sag, considering the extra sag and minimal difference between 160 and 140 why not. It's more about ground contact at speed and with 33% sag you are usually only left with around 100mm travel on a 160, 93mm on a 140, and 80mm on a 120. Not far off the difference of slim versus fat pedals or a fatter tyre depending on tyre pressure, you probably get as much height difference with less pressure in your rear 2.5 tyre. And pratically no difference when hitting a DH run with your weight on the front of the bike.
As for head angles I find the likes of the Van Nicholas Mamtor way too sketchy, and find the head angles of the Marin Quad XC sus bikes suit me better with 140/150 forks but others may find different.
"Northwind you do talk some amount of shite! "
Yes I do 
But it's true though, the only thing I use the u-turn for on the Soul is geoometry adjustment, not travel adjustment, and longer forks do have some drawbacks.