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I ride a '98 Kona Hei Hei and am looking for new forks. The problem is that the Rebas I'm after only seem to come in 120mm travel with the 15mm axle.
I've been using 100mm forks with no problem, would the extra 20mm cause a problem with a wandery (?) front end?
Cheers.
What did the bike come with? You can get away with forks 20mm more usually. Get some longer bars and a shorter stem, keep your chin over it and you'll be fine on those climbs.
120mm is probably pushing it a bit for that frame... Lovely bike, but not designed to have a front end as high as that. Stick with 100mm Rebas and you'll be fine.
Had a '97 King Kahuna with 100mm travel. Still got a '95 Kilauea with 100mm travel. Dont think id go any longer than that. Kona never changed the geometry on their XC hardtails between '94 and the early '00 years. They only lengthened forks and shortened stems. That said they didnt go higher than 100mm travel. 120mm is putting a much bigger longer lever on the front of your bike ready to snap that headtube off. You could of course buy the fork and stick a 20mm spacer in to drop the a-c down and then it would be fine. Failing that there's plenty of 100mm Sids and Fox forks pop up on here and Pinkbike second hand.
Are you definitely after a 15mm axle? I just ask as I have an older Recon air fork (100mm travel with 9mm QR) that I'm not looking for much for. It used to be on my wife's bike and has probably only been ridden around 10 times.
Most Rebas have travel adjustment. Worth checking if it can be done.
haggis1978 - Member
That said they didnt go higher than 100mm travel. 120mm is putting a much bigger longer lever on the front of your bike ready to snap that headtube off.
Say 490mm as opposed to 470mm, so maybe 4% longer (not that much bigger and longer then) - and that's when fully extended,once you factor sag into it it'll be less than that.
Anyway, over the last seven years I've been using a '95 Kilauea with 120mm Marzocchi Marathons. To be honest, it handles perfectly fine (very well, in fact) climbs well with ETA and a 70mm stem and hasn't broken yet - I doubt that it will.
If the frame was originally designed around a 100mm fork I think you'll be OK. If it was originally designed around 80mm fork I think you'll be pushing it a bit too far by messing up the geometry and risk stressing the frame too much. Rule of thumb is 10mm or 20mm extra is usually OK but not more.
Most Rebas have travel adjustment. Worth checking if it can be done.
Older dual air Rock Shox forks can be adjusted by adding or removing spacers from the air shaft. Newer ~2012 onwards RS forks with the solo air spring need a replacement air spring to change the travel. I think it costs around £50 for a new air spring.
Thanks all, I'll do a bit of digging around on the original spec (bought it as a frame only).
I reckon this will be the last year I'll be able to get forks that fit before the industry makes my bike obsolete, gutted.
Did the Alltricks ones fail to tick the box?
James, it looks like they all have tapered steerers although in one box it says 1 1/8 and then lower down says it's tapered.
I have the warn you about this website link. If you chose to stray from the path provided, your bank balance can take a helluva wallopin'! Should assist with determining what fork was originally on your bike though and by the looks of it, its an 80mm fork.
Retrobiking is addictive. n+1 Forever!!
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