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As above really.
Cheers for reading.
wtf kind of question is that?!
'Will using a fork within its designed capabilities damage them?'
What do you think?
If a coil fork that involves compressing a spring, would it not weaken the spring over time.
No, just no. And whilst I'm sure there's the chance someone might come along along with some pseudo science bullshit, they'll be many more other things likely to wear them out first ('Will riding adjustable forks in wet mud constantly damage them?')
I'd have thought it'd be the opposite? If the fork is compressed, there's more overlap of the uppers and lowers so less stress on the bushings from fore/aft and sideways pressures.*
*I am not an engineer.
I don't think it was a stupid question. It was something I considered when I got my Talas fork. I couldn't find any evidence that it was a problem. There are no warnings from Fox not to do it.
wtf kind of question is that?!'Will using a fork within its designed capabilities damage them?'
What do you think?
You've never asked a daft question in your life I hope?
🙄
I have some DPA forks. They seem to mention the lower setting is for climbing.
I don't think it is a stupid question in the slightest.
I suspect it depends on the mechanism and what you define as adjustable.
TALAS I suspect would be fine.
RockShox dual position forks don't seem to like it - the SRAM service tech I spoke to said that the dual position was only for climbing as it didn't change the spring rate so you damage things quite easily. Certainly the few time I forgot to re-extend the fork the performance was very poor compared to normal and I bottomed out very easily.
I have no idea how other manufacturers systems will work.
Bit worrying if it actually damages things.
Everyone who has used the lockout function on a fork has probably forgotten to disengage them at some point or the other! Ditto for adjustable travel I bet.
So long as the fork doesn't constantly bottom out harshly it won't do any harm, as mentioned depending on make and model you might lose some performance.
The bushings in the fork are both in the lowers, so the increased stanchion overlap has no benefits re bushing wear/loading.
Nice responses folks.
There's a slight risk with some designs, like DPA, where they shorten the fork but don't really adapt to it. So if you have it set up to work well at long travel, then drop it, you're much more likely to bottom it out really hard. Forks are built to survive that but they still tend not to like it much.
The best designs- like Rockshox old u-turn- were genuinely adjustable, I still use a set of U-turn revs permanently adjusted to a shorter setting and there's absolutely no drawback other than a sprinkle of grams.
The worst designs- like older TALAS (haven't used the new) can be set up to work alright in the shorter setting but they're still designed for full length primarily, everything else has compromises.