Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 41 total)
  • New Forks – is Travel Adjust worth it?
  • Will-M
    Full Member

    So I am building up a new bike but I am considering opting for the cheaper standard forks over the travel adjustable version. Could people give their experience on whether it is really worth the extra £100?

    Jimbo
    Free Member

    Don’t worry about others: how many times in the past have *you* thought “My word, I could do with (xxx) here in these (xxx) situations”. If the answer’s “Why, yes all the time” then go for it. Else, it’s £100 saved.

    Just my take 🙂

    Rickos
    Free Member

    Depends on lots of things whether you’d think it’s worth it or not, but for my two-penneth, U-Turn is a pain cos it needs so many turns to lower the fork but Talas is ace – 2 clicks and it’s lowered 40mm. Marzocchi ETA is useful too, so don’t discount that as an option.

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    Will-M
    Full Member

    The trouble is, the new bike is so different to what I’m on atm I have little idea. I have an 80mm HT Stumpy and although it flies like a pine marten, it’s a little tough. Generally, I think I could do with “better riding ability” in “most” situations. Definately never thought that I needed “less” travel 🙂

    New travel will be around 130mm.

    jonb
    Free Member

    Use the ETA on my fork all the time. It would be much better if it was remote though. Makes a massive difference on climbs. It actually locks the fork down lowering the front end. I found ones that just lock the fork out completely useless.

    Not sure why else you’d want to adjust the travel.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    love mine – makes a huge difference on the climbs – wouldn’t replace the fork with one without the adjust.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Depends on the bike, I’ve settled at 120mm fixed travel for XC now – but wouldn’t want to be without the 36 Talas on my Reign.

    kiwijohn
    Full Member

    I’ve got a talas on my HT and a 140mm Float would have been a better pick. The balance is perfect at that. Dropping the travel makes it feel harder to pedal with more weight over the front wheel.
    Save your money and get the longest fork your frame was designed for.

    Pieface
    Full Member

    I have 130mm Rev U-turns and rarely use the adjustable travel. Only sometimes use the lockout.

    On climbs I feel that the suspension is more useful than not having it, therefore my findings are that adjustable travel and lockouts aren’t worth it, but I like to have them from time to time. If £100 is restricting more important purchases then don’t bother

    All IMHO of course

    Will-M
    Full Member

    Thanks for your input everyone, some conflicting experiences.

    The Rev Dual Air vs Rev U-Turns are actually the debated forks. I can’t afford TALAS so they’re out of the question.

    stuartie_c
    Free Member

    Same as Pieface.

    Revs 100-130mm on my bike for the last 3 years and almost never used the travel-adjust. It got some use initially but I’ve just adapted my riding style to move the weight forward a bit on steep climbs.

    I wouldn’t bother. New forks will be 140mm Floats.

    stuartlangwilson
    Free Member

    I get a lot of use from the travel adjust on most of my forks.

    Wee hardtail jumps better with 100mm, 120mm is better for trails.

    Heckler climbs steep stuff better on 115mm than 160mm, even when trying my best to use proper technique.

    A more xc hardtail has adjustable forks but gets left in 130mm all the time.

    I’ve had a few non adjustable travel forks and really missed the choice.

    AlasdairMc
    Full Member

    I use the travel adjust on my Pikes a fair bit too, it turns the bike from being something slack on which I can do light DH into something more suited for normal trails and XC climbs.

    Two of my forks have travel adjust (TALAS and ETA). I find them useful as I use them to stop the front wandering on long climbs. I also like the ability with the TALAS to shorten the travel on smoother trails. I hardly use the lockout on the fox as they are fiddly as hell to adjust on the fly.

    Will-M
    Full Member

    From what you all have said, it seems like travel under 130mm doesnt really need travel adjust too much, but over it is a boon. I’m going to plum for some 426s and change the spacer inside to get them down to 125mm to put on a Pace rc405. Slightly off topic, will the -5mm or +10mm difference in suspension balance make much difference?

    I also think I may always be too knackered to remember to change the settings.

    the_lecht_rocks
    Full Member

    i run TALAS 36’s on my Helius AM.
    superb versatitlity as the rear travel is also adjustable from 130 / 140 / 150 / 167mm.
    with the forks also being adjustable , it means the whole bike can be adjusted to suit my riding location.
    for this reason, i opted for TALAS rather than FLOAT.
    probably irrelevant and doesn’t help ?

    Paceman
    Free Member

    Will M

    125mm will be bang on for your RC405, it’ll fly up and down don’t worry about travel adjust 😀

    crotchrocket
    Free Member

    reasons I like 90-130mm for a weekend away:
    I can tweek bike to maximise the trail experience. long for decending, short for sharp handling fast singletrack.
    I can drop the front end for climbing steep stuff, but it also lowers the BB so I may get more pedal strikes.

    It’s all about compromise & flexibility. I’d pay £100 for that, but it is subjective.

    hicksville
    Free Member

    yes, used the maz eta, pace lock down bettersystems than u turn which I had on pikes. For me could drop the forks on climbs. Used it on forks 130 to 100 but way better on forks over 130mm in all honesty.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    I’ve never gone for lockouts or travel adjusters on front or rear ends. I used a bike in the Alps a couple of seasons ago and thought I really should give it a fair crack. However, I found that I accidentally did most of the climbs at 140mm and the decents at 100mm just because I kept forgetting to switch. It didn’t really feel as though it was making much of a difference anyway. I’m quite happy with my Float R 32 and my Van RC2 36 on my own bikes.

    Rickos
    Free Member

    I hardly ever used my travel adjust on my Pikes, just because it took so many turns it was a PITA. But, I find I use the travel adjust on my Talas forks a lot just because it’s so easy.

    SteveTheBarbarian
    Free Member

    I got some TALAS forks for my last build, and wondered if I’d ever use it. Turns out I use it hell of a lot. Never used the compression adjust though.

    firestarter
    Free Member

    swap you my floats for your talas kiwijohn lol 🙂

    moremudplease
    Free Member

    have talas on my stumpy fsr hardly use travel adjust and feel I am just cycling around with a very heavy fork compared to my other bikes making it feel heavy on the climbs

    Will-M
    Full Member

    Plumbed for a pair of RS 426s, only £256 on CRC. I’ll see what they’re like, if I find I keep saying “Gosh I wish I could wind these down” I’ll flog em for a pair of Talas’.

    Cheers guys

    Mugboo
    Full Member

    36 talas here on a Cotic Hemlock. Glad i bought em over Float on nearly every ride.
    If they weren’t so easy to use, 110/130/160 at the flick of a switch i probably wouldn’t use em.

    mieszko
    Free Member

    I had Manitou Black with RTWD 90-120 and used it only on longer and steeper climbs as the front end was wandering and lifting, but having them at 90mm lowered the bb and I was sometimes hitting on rocks or roots with the pedals.

    After the climb I found it pretty annoying that I had to set the travel again and catch the rest. I rarely used RTWD, most of the time I used the lockout. I would say ECC or ETA in Marzocchi would work pretty good. As You wouldn’t take You ages to change the travel.

    If I would have to choose I would save the £100, 130mm is not that much and if the frame is built for that travel than it will cope well without lifting the front end on steep climbs.

    kiwijohn
    Full Member

    Sure thing Firestarter, can you deliver? I’ll take you for a ride that’ll make your eyes bleed.
    Really dropping the travel feels just plain wrong on the HT. It’s perfectly balanced at 140mm.

    firestarter
    Free Member

    well ive some lovely float rlc that id rather have a talas instead of 🙂

    firestarter
    Free Member

    no doubt your actually based in new zealand tho lol

    firestarter
    Free Member

    no doubt your actually based in new zealand tho lol

    firestarter
    Free Member

    well ive some lovely float rlc that id rather have a talas instead of 🙂

    firestarter
    Free Member

    well ive some lovely float rlc that id rather have a talas instead of 🙂

    buzz-lightyear
    Free Member

    My old HT has coil U-Turn 80-130mm. The actual suspension travel never seems to be more than 100mm and it give just less than 10% sag. Around 100mm seems best compromise for general riding, but on steeper or rougher downhills, 130mm slackens things noticeably which helps make me brave!

    The Giant FS has a light F120 which gives about 100mm of non-adjustable travel and I pressurise it to give 10% sag. Downhill I wish it was slacker, uphill I wish it was lower.

    I had thought about putting the coil U-turn on the Giant to see what happens, but it’s about a kilo heavier than the F120!

    kiwijohn
    Full Member

    Whoah Firestarter, that was 5 in a row. & no, I’m not in NZ anymore. I live in Tasmania now.

    clubber
    Free Member

    I use the u-turn on my revs quite a lot:

    – to set my bike up for the type of trail I’m going to be riding (eg local stuff which is very singletracky suits a slighly shorter fork for faster steering)
    – To match the fork to the frame – I have two full sus frames that I swap the revs between – a 5.5″ Enduro which I almost always ride with the revs at full travel and a 4″ rocky mountain element which works best with between 100 and 115mm travel.

    I almost never change the travel during a ride though and certainly not for climbing/descending as I’ve found that if my bike’s set up right, it does both fine on one setting.

    TheLittlestHobo
    Free Member

    I had RS Recon with 85-130mm travel adjust and poplock on fitted to my pipedream sirius hardtail.

    I now have RS reba SL’s fitted at fixed 115mm and no poplock. I guess the travel adjust was handy when trying to find the happiest compromise but once i did i never adjusted my fork. A well adjusted fork, set up for your style will serve you better than one where you just dial it in and out at every given oppertunity. People dont take into account how much of a difference a couple of clicks on the rebound dial can make to a fork, they just assume that longer travel means better performance. I havent bottomed my Rebas out once but they are much shorter forks.

    firestarter
    Free Member

    dunno what happened there lol 🙂 im currently not sure which way to go on my new build. Ive a five spot with talas on and my new 456 has arrived and ive a set of floats so i was thinking floats on the fivespot and talas on the onone as it takes different forks the talas may be more useful on it

    kiwijohn
    Full Member

    Sounds about right. I had 125mm Vans on my Switchback until I got the 140mm Talas. 120mm on them just feels wrong now.
    As for the On-one, I’d just leave them at full travel.

    baronspudulike
    Free Member

    I tried some Talas forks on my hardtail a few years back. Fancied running 5 inches downhill and 4 inches on the flat and uphill. The frame geometry suits 4 inches for speed. I found that whilst the extra inch was good, after a few rides I couldn’t be bothered changing the travel, I just left them on 4 inches all the time. After a few months I just sold the Talas and bought some floats, much easier to self service and a little more plush.
    I recently tried some revelations on a full suss I have, it can change between 4 and 5 inches rear travel and suits between 4-6 inches on the front. I generally wanted to run 4 inches with the 5 inch option. Again I found I wasn’t interested in changing travel mid ride and didn’t like the feel of the revelations, with having a negative air spring as well as positive it seemed to be quite sticky to get moving. Anyway swapped over to Vanilla’s and set them to 4 inches. I service all my forks myself and I can very quickly change the internal spacers in them to change the travel between 4 and 5 inches before rides if I know I want more travel.
    I’d always go for the floats and just swap out the spacers to give 4 or 5 inches of travel for the ride you are going on.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 41 total)

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