Hey Everyone,

Got myself a Big Wig in lockdown and surprised myself with how much I took to riding it. It’s the 2013 model, the guy I got it off put 120mm Raidon forks on it as he was wanting the good ones. I’ve now outgrown and destroyed those forks and am in major need of an upgrade.

Has anyone here run longer travel more modern forks on one of these? Seen some posts talking about 140mm forks, and that seems fine, but I’ve found a nice set of Pikes that are 150mm, is that asking too much and would it stress the frame too much?

Last question, some of the specs on it I’ve found talk about max travel being 150mm with an internal headset, 130 with an external. Is this actually an issue? Finding non-tapered forks is proving pretty tricky now.

Thanks, Donald

I’ve got a later version 2016/17/18, can’t recall exactly which. Not sure how much the geo changed since 2013, but mine runs sweet with 150mm Pikes.

I’ve got the 2021 (I think) Big Wig with a Revelation 140mm fork on it and it’s ideal. Given it’s a hardtail 29er I don’t think you need much more than that, though 150mm is what they’ve got on the Race version for the same year.

I guess the main issue is how much the geometry has changed from your year to now, and if chucking too big a fork on it will throw it out too much.

The 2013 is 68.5 on the head angle, the newer models reduced that to 65 I think. If the other geometry changed, I don’t know by how much, but I assume the reach increased on the newer ones as well.

Fairly sure the new fork will have a smaller offset than the current one, so that should help with the ride too.

The other fork I was looking at was a Fox 34, but it’s a fair bit more used that the Pike, same price though. Any thoughts on things to consider there?

I have that model of Bigwig (which my daughter now rides) and it has a 140mm Fox 34 on it which seemed to be the sweet spot after trying 120mm & 150mm options back in the day.

Nice, thanks for the info. What size is that frame? Or would that not matter for this? Does it have an external headset, or did you find a straight fork for it?

I don’t know if it makes any difference but it’s an 18″ frame. The bottom cup is external and the fork has a tapered steerer.

I gave the forks a service the other week, and fitted a new drivetrain, so just to check everything felt ok I stuck a longer seatpost in it and took it for a hoon around the local woods. I’d forgotten just how much fun it is to ride.