Looking to upgrade from my current 140mm pike, there are some good deals on forks such as the domain with 180mm travel, its only 20mm more than the recommended 160mm, is it going to be too much? I’m sitting holding my fingers 40mm apart and it doesn’t look like it would be too much. Riding will mostly be of the pointing down variety with a few slow grinds up. If anybody has pics that would be great too.

Probbaly *slightly* over forked, but it would be worth it just to see how proper strong the headtube junctions really are. Lower it a bit with an integrated headset?

of course it’s too much, but do it if you want.

what exactly are you going to be riding that your front wheel needs 180mm of suspension while the rear needs none? 🙄

Maybe he rides on the front wheel alot?

“what exactly are you going to be riding that your front wheel needs 180mm of suspension while the rear needs none? [:roll:] “

It does seem daft on paper but it does work. I run a subzero with 66 SL1 ATA (140-180mm) and as long as your legs are strong enough to take the battering then it is a very good bike for rocky rough all round riding.

For stuff like trail centres the front is way too high at 180mm, and the bike feels much better with the fork wound down to 150mm/160mm. Climbing at 140mm is good too.

Overall a very confidence inspiring bike set up with a high volume tubeless rear tyre to take the sting out.

Never tried it but 180mm sounds excessive for most things. I run 130mm of travel on mine and its fine on downhills. I reckon with 180mm you will be wallowing about in the travel too much and it might not be too much fun to ride unless you just like riding into things fast

I cant’t see why you would want more than 140mm on an Alpine as the head tube is slack enough anyway, I’ve got 160mm forks on my Banshee but that’s because I found the head angle a bit steep with pikes….

There’s a shorter version of the Domain with U-Turn is there not?

I’m all for more travel, but if you are going to use the bike seriously I would avoid Domains.

I needed an emergency pair of forks so bought some and they were rubbish; I think what was happening was the bushes were heating up and contracting, giving massive stiction and reduced travel. In a day on the Mega course I got a whopping 130mm travel out of 160.

ok, i know there are shorter versions which is what i was intending to get, but there are some good deals on the longer fork, bike will be used on the north shore and at whistler so not just your average uk trail centre. Just wondering if anybody had tried it and what their experiences are. A 66 is another option but i’m very wary of recent Marzocchi’s even though they are also dirt cheap at the moment.

personally if you aren’t riding DH courses then I wouldn’t bother, as for trail centers you will never used 1/2 the travel, it will make it a bitch to climb on and make your bike seriously front heavy

I’ve got Lyriks on my Alpine and at 160mm it is ace on the descents, wouldn’t want to run them at 160 anywhere else though.

If you’re building a DH specific hardtail then 180 might be fun but if you want to pedal it along as well as point down then I’d go for a nice condition secondhand 66 from 2007 with 160mm or some travel adjustment.

lol – just how slow would you like to navigate singletrack ?