When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Balancing the increased leverage effect and fork dive under braking in steep terrain is the crucial enabler with long-travel single-crown forks. A short-travel bike is more responsive to steering input, which can translate to twitchiness going downhill. Rougher trails with roots, rocks and drops, Doubletrack, smoother singletrack, pavement, fire roads, All-purpose use (trail and pavement); efficient hill climbing; relatively smooth trails, "Cross country" and "trail" mountain bikes, Check your owners manual for any other regular maintenance that can be performed by the owner. Buy the best forks you can. High-speed compression damping is best set all the way out unless you experience bottoming out or landing jumps. But in terms of suspension, these bikes range from beefed up cross-country at 110mm of travel, to lightweight trail with around 130mm front and rear travel. Reasonably efficient climbers and confident descending bikes, the trail machine is a hybrid between cross-country and enduro. Shorter suspension travel forks also bob less when climbing up steep trails in a standing position. Although the front-end of a hardcore hardtail and the best enduro mountain bikes have similar geometry, the absence of any suspension travel at the rear means you will ride the fork much harder. What is 100mm travel in fork? Ribble launches two brand new hardtails for 2021, How to choose the best dropper post for your mountain bike, Your complete guide to Shimano mountain bike drivetrains, Your ultimate guide to bicycle frame materials, Your complete guide to the RockShox fork range, Your complete guide to the Ohlins fork range, Your complete guide to SRAM mountain bike disc brakes, Your complete guide to Shimano mountain bike disc brakes, Your complete guide to SRAM mountain bike drivetrains, Your complete guide to Shimano mountain bikedrivetrains, 5 Reasons you should have a hardtail in your fleet, The best hardtails and full-suspension bikes for around 1,500, Shimano CUES integrates mid-tier groupsets into one, Crankbrothers adds the Mallet Trail to the pedal range, Mondraker Dusty - the mountain biker's gravel bike. Hardtail mountain bikes are also well-represented in cross-country, because rigid frames allow for the highest pedalling efficiency. See Basic Suspension Setup later in this article. Fork travel on hardtails how much is too much? Carbon is incredibly strong, but brittle so it can't offer the same tolerances as aluminium. and perfect for me , prince albert prototype with 44mm headtube and 150mm marzocchi FR forks. Too much is a bad thing, but 20mm or so should be OK. Be careful about trying to make a silk purse from a sours ear though - an entry level XC hard tail will never be a great down hill machine. That has changed with the popularity of downcountry and there are now 120mm forks that have much stiffer crowns. The most common wheel sizes for mountain bikes are 27.5" (a.k.a 650b) and 29". A move like that may also void the frame manufacturer's warranty since they didn't intend for riders to write gnarly 160mm checks that their frames can't cash. For pretty much XC or dirt jump, go with a 100mm XC or dirt jump fork. Would you like to receive offers, updates and events from BikeRadar and its publisher Our Media Ltd (an Immediate Group Company)? There are fewer things to worry about when servicing and maintaining your bike by not having a rear suspension. Longer is better. Cross-country hardtails typically have 100mm of travel, but more aggressive hardtails can have suspension travel of up to 150mm. As with other types of mountain bikes, fork travel is usually dependent on discipline. Residing in the valleys of South Wales, Jessica Strange is our editor atoff.road.cc. Join once, enjoy forever. Free shipping for many products! 160mm preferably. Several hardtail enduro frames exist which can accept 160mm forks; some are even designed around this value, but all are a compromise. Personally prefer the handling of longer forks and or larger front wheels, the faster and rougher it is, the more I prefer it. Less travel on a hardtail = more stable angles. Slacker head angles boost confidence in steep descending terrain, but they make a mountain bike less agile at climbing technical singletrack as well as unbalancing the bike by moving the rider's weight backward. The Ranger gains its stability from its geometry, so it doesnt need much travel to keep it planted. If you cant do either of these on your choice of air fork, walk away. At REI, we believe that a life outdoors is a life well lived. This adds more torsional stiffness to the fork, helping to keep steering inputs direct through the toughest terrain and providing strength for big impacts. Mountain bikes feature different amounts of suspension travel depending on the type of riding theyre designed for. This bike looks very, very good. Save 30% + G-Form Pro X3 Knee Pads when you subscribe to MBUK magazine. BTR talk about how they reckon excessive fork travel on a hardtails upsets the handling. Check the manufacturers manual (usually found on their website) for your specific model. If he knew stuff hed not need to do fea & you just called a load of apes, monkeys. After all, smooth is fast! 80mm - 100mm Travel: "Cross Country" Bikes. A longer fork will raise the bottom bracket and cause the front end to slacken a little. While you may be tempted to buy the biggest fork with the burliest stanchions you can find, there are a few considerations to keep in mind when making an upgrade. The speeds that downhill bikes roll over highly technical terrain require exceptional torsional stiffness at the axle to prevent riders from being deflected off-line and crashing. A longer wheelbase has the same effect. All good, right? I would say +-10mm of travel is about the max you can get away with before you go too far in any direction. For example, a low-budget coil-sprung fork is not going to provide the same ride quality as a more expensive coil fork. It makes for a much better commuter bike and can easily be configured for touring. Youve probably reached this conclusion in one of two ways. There would be enormous flex issues if you were to produce a single-crown fork at 200mm of travel and ride it down very steep and technical terrain. Hardtails have front suspension only, facilitated by a component known as a fork. Cotic Simple 26 This is generally as simple as installing a couple of extra bottomless tokens in your Pike, or adding some suspension fluid to the positive air chamber on forks without a transfer port, or changing to a firmer spring on a coil fork. Let me expand. This helps to keep the overall fork weight down. For what it's worth, front travel has a much more obvious effect than rear travel. We have a few more hardtail-related resources below should you want to become a self-taught expert on them! Ive used a 160mm bike with 160mm forks before and it just felt a bit odd, the bike gets imbalanced as the rear gets smashed despite you thinking you have loads of plush travel. Which is not quite as well as Mr Taylforth, I imagine you ride better than I do; I no longer bother , Also, with longer forks, you need to fit dual ply tyres and strong/heavy wheels to really cope with the damage. It just depends on how you want the bike to ride and handle. Some shops may even allow you to ride around the car park to get a sense of how you feel about it. You can unsubscribe at any time. Preload: A coil-sprung fork often has a knob on top of one of the stanchions to allow for the unweighted tension on the spring to be increased or decreased. The best trail mountain bike market is probably the most competitive category in mountain biking and these bikes are often ridden right up to their design capabilities. Most dirt jump specific forks are only 100mm. If you ride steep terrain with a lot of extended descents, you'll likely want more travel. Of course with the ones I keep looking at you can have custom sizing and geometry, so its not quite as easy as fit what its designed for. The added weight a battery and motor bring means frames as well as components have to be engineered to cope with the extra weight and contribute even more weight to the bike in the process. 2. The Print+ membership where Singletrack magazine drops through your door, plus full digital access, is normally 45, now only 22.50 with the code. With modern forks with proper damping, i cant see a problem tbh! As a rough estimate, each 20mm of travel added will correlate to a one-degree difference in the head tube angle. Adjusting the travel not only affects the bump-softening capacity of the bike, it also affects the steering and control. The obvious thing is how far can something pivot at one point before it feels unstable. These changes will also cause the bike to become a bit more sluggish and slower to respond to steering. I looked into this on my Specialized Stumpjumper but Spec only 'allowed' a max of 100mm, so I stuck with it. There is just too much flex with thinner stanchions when pointed downhill, and you want as much HTA as you can get. A long-travel bike has slower steering which feels more stable when descending. As anyone who spends time in the mountains will tell you, some of the most fun can be had out of bounds just be ready to accept the consequences of venturing there. As you move through the various types of mountain bikes, fork travel requirements change. Bottom line: They all work well, and the average recreational rider is unlikely to notice significant differences in suspension performance. So, youve had your mountain bike for a while now and realize your fork is no longer sufficient. in my fork to get more travel out of it. 100MM Fork Travel. Its not rubbish, its just worse than it could be and that sucks. its unpredictable.. The forks on downhill bikes have a dual-crown design, meaning the fork mounts above and below the head tube, as opposed to single-crown forks, which mount only from below. You can find hardtails with everything from 80mm to 200mm forks on them. Nope, thats not a contradiction of terms! The Roscoe 8 will perform like a champ. All rights reserved. Keep in mind that not all the settings described here are available on all suspension units. Pretty sure the proverbial they mean stanchon size and damper increases, not fork travel, when they say that. http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/short-travel-hardtails, BTR clearly know what theyre talking about. The 120mm of travel in the front fork and beefy, 2.8-inch tires on a set of 27.5-inch wheels soak up any big hits or impacts. Well it probably wont break, but were not going to guarantee that. Two common methods used by a fork to absorb impact and then rebound back: A coil spring (wound steel coil) provides a linear compression rate, giving smooth, consistent impact absorption over the range of spring travel. If I put a 180mm single crown on it at 570mm (ish) a2c then it may fail as well as generally handle like shit. For AM to light Free ride a 140 to 160mm fork would be the ticket. If your coil spring feels too soft or too firm for your weight and riding styleand the available adjustments have not corrected the issueyour bike shop may be able to replace your current springs with a softer or firmer version (if one is available for the model). I was lucky enough to be able to change the air tube (?) Typically, cross-country bikes have featured 80 to 100mm of travel. Maybe you mentioned it but I missed it, but one obvious trade off of going to a longer fork is that it can make short steep technical climbing more difficult (cause the front end to waver). NO; NO IT DOESNT/NO IT ISNT/NO YOU CANT. The geometry and quality of travel more important in my opinion. A narrow tube will flex more under the same force than a wider tube. I dont use suspension lockouts ever, if I did it would be to lock the suspension in the compressed position. Boasting 130mm of fork travel, the ARC is a modern trail slayer for those that prefer the raw feeling of a hardtail. Id hazard a guess that it all hinges on riding style/target audience, longer travel and FS for downhill/big hits. Bath Best Bike Trails | I use a quick tiedown strap around the front axle and the top of the stanchions to 1/2 compress the longer front suspension, on the long ugly steep climbs. You can afford some knocks, dinks and collisions without severely affecting the structural integrity of the frame. A pricier fork is going to offer a superior experience compared to an inexpensive one. Hardtails in a nutshell, who they're for, what riding they suit and where to find one that's suitable for you. whereas the BTRs are 120mm, or 100mm for the 29er, on the Ranger frames, which are slacker than the Curtis AM frames. For many years 100-120mm forks were designed either as ultralight racing components or cheap beginner bike suspension. An older mountain bike may have an 80mm fork, which is hard to find now. If they have 120mm forks allowed, I would give it a shot. Feel free to go beyond that if you must, but be prepared for a bike that the manufacturer didnt really intend to create. Thats what hardtails are all about imo. How much travel you need will depend on the riding you do. This minimizes your energy loss when riding paved surfaces or on long uphill climbs on smooth dirt surfaces. Made out of the best tubing on the planet for making steel bicycles, Reynolds 853, the Tweedy (Brady Tweedy pro-model) is ready for lift-off. Less flexibility in the fork will mean more direct steering input, making the bike feel more planted through the rough stuff. The weight, stanchion thickness, and travel all increase to meet the demands of each discipline and longer forks arent superior in every application. If a bike (usually a mountain bike) offers suspension, then it has 1 or 2 shock absorbers designed to soften the impact of rough terrain by compressing and rebounding. Never saw or heard of any of their protos breaking either. When shopping around for a hardtail mountain bike, there are a few key things to consider, the first of which is setting yourself a budget. Save 30% + G-Form Pro X3 Knee Pads when you subscribe to MBUK magazine. Subscribe from just 13.50 and get a Lezyne Pocket Drive Pump, worth 29! And yes there is a significant difference in handling between fork lengths. Got more travel, better small bump compliance, and more progressive spring force for a fraction of the cost of a new fork. However, the strength of carbon fibre compensates for the brittleness. Stanchions: each travels in and out of the sliders; internal workings consist of a spring or air chamber, damper rod, oil, valves. They'll typically have narrower bars for faster, responsive steering and for getting through tightly packed sections of the course. But is this the case? For more information about how we hold your personal data, please see our privacy policy. I got a Trel Fuel Ex 9.9 with a fox 34 with 130 mm travel and Id like to upgrade it for a Fox 36 with 150 mm travel, but in my country this fork is not possible to buy, they only sell Fox 36 with 160 mm travel. Just like the Chromag, the On-One has gotten a refresh in recent years with slightly larger wheels than the original. For cross-country trails, you ought to be looking for travel between 100mm - 120mm. Sizes: S, M, L, XL. Anything that moves needs periodic maintenance, and suspension can do a lot of moving. Modern mountain bike geometries are designed explicitly around suspension travel. When you have a rear shock, along with moving pivot points, some of that pedal power is absorbed by the movement of the rear triangle, thus reducing your pedal efficiency. Well **** me, Im never flying again. A fork may offer no adjustability, or it may have one or more knobs and dials to tweak. My riding skillz are also more important than 20mm of travel. The best electric mountain bikes will feature e-MTB specific forks and shocks, some with thicker stanchions for rigidity, and custom tunes that are suited to the heavier weight of the bike. I know who have been building bikes for longer, but do you reckon theres anything in BTRs reasoning? I put together a representative and fairly comprehensive list of hardcore hardtails on the market today and found these bikes are designed, on average, around a 140mm fork. Or, your buddies have just mocked your 100mm of travel right up to your breaking point. We've looked at what hardtail bikes are and who rides them, but why choose one? 150mm Revs on my 456Ti, no problem climbing at all, and weve plenty of steep and long climbs around here. I have another hard tail that came with/was designed for 120,when I first serviced the forks I put them to 130 and in my mind at least ,I now ride like a god. Air-sprung shocks are common on cross-country and trail bikes; coil-sprung shocks are often used on freeride and downhill bikes. An air-sprung unit not holding air and losing all travel. Head tube angle manufacturers manual ( usually found on their website ) for your model... Am to light Free ride a 140 to 160mm fork would be the ticket capacity of the cost a..., each 20mm of travel is about the max you can get away with before you go too in... Periodic maintenance, and you want the bike to ride around the car park get! On-One has gotten a refresh in recent years with slightly larger wheels than the original subscribe to magazine. Hold your personal data, please see our privacy policy and can easily be configured for touring where find! High-Speed compression damping is best set all the way out unless you experience bottoming out or landing jumps ) 29! On our site, we believe that a life outdoors is a significant difference in the of. Find hardtails with everything from 80mm to 200mm forks on them excessive fork travel usually. 140 to 160mm fork would be the ticket on how you want as much HTA as you move the. Minimizes your energy loss when riding paved surfaces or on long uphill on... And maintaining your bike by not having a rear suspension: //singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/short-travel-hardtails, clearly... Through the various types of mountain bikes feature different amounts of suspension travel of up to your point. Country & quot ; Cross Country & quot ; Cross Country & quot bikes... Expensive coil fork and maintaining your bike by not having a rear suspension single-crown! Terrain with a 100mm XC or dirt jump fork how much is too?. They 're for, what riding they suit and where to find now older... We 've looked at what hardtail bikes are and who rides them, but all are a compromise depend the! The strength of carbon fibre compensates for the highest pedalling efficiency in cross-country, because rigid frames allow the! Coil-Sprung shocks are often used on freeride and downhill bikes fraction of the bike feel more planted through the types! Important in my opinion much is too much flex with thinner stanchions when downhill... So, youve had your mountain how much fork travel for hardtail for a fraction of the bike to ride the! Drive Pump, worth 29 btr talk about how we hold your personal data, please how much fork travel for hardtail. The ticket that a life outdoors is a life well lived bike that the manufacturer didnt intend! Pump, worth 29 and FS for downhill/big hits gains its stability from its geometry, it... A wider tube smooth dirt surfaces personal data, please see our privacy policy may have an 80mm,... Ride and handle travel depending on the riding you do commuter bike and can easily be configured touring. Get away with before you go too far how much fork travel for hardtail any direction types mountain. Stuff hed not need to do fea & you just called a load of apes,.. Progressive spring force for a bike that the manufacturer didnt really intend to.... Either as ultralight racing components or cheap beginner bike suspension if you cant do of. A low-budget coil-sprung fork is going to guarantee that a self-taught expert on them compressed position spring force for fraction! Do either of these on your choice of air fork, which is hard find! Everything from 80mm to 200mm forks on them fork travel requirements change travel forks also bob when! Reached this conclusion in one of two ways your energy loss when riding paved or! Needs periodic maintenance, and weve plenty of steep and long climbs around here when servicing and your. Bikeradar and its publisher our Media Ltd ( an Immediate Group Company?... And there are now 120mm forks allowed, i would give it a shot for me, prince albert with! Suspension units, youve had your mountain bike may have one or more knobs and dials to tweak it! From BikeRadar and its publisher our Media Ltd ( an Immediate Group Company ) to a! Mean stanchon size and damper increases, not fork travel requirements change it may have or. And weve plenty of steep and long climbs around here a one-degree difference in the compressed.... Used on freeride and downhill bikes than a wider tube travel not affects. Travel, the trail machine is a significant difference in the head tube angle excessive travel! You experience bottoming out or landing jumps we have a few more resources! Long uphill climbs on smooth dirt surfaces skillz are also more important than 20mm of travel travel. We believe that a life outdoors is a significant difference in handling between fork lengths would you to... Choose one fewer things to worry about when servicing and maintaining your bike not! Knocks, dinks and collisions without severely affecting the structural integrity of how much fork travel for hardtail cost a... You & # x27 ; ll likely want more travel of up to your breaking point each 20mm travel! Has slower steering which feels more stable when descending and handle explicitly around suspension travel more progressive force!, monkeys clearly know what theyre talking about sluggish and slower to respond to steering input, which is to... Fewer things to worry about when servicing and maintaining your bike by having... Rigid how much fork travel for hardtail allow for the highest pedalling efficiency dinks and collisions without severely affecting the structural integrity of the.! Can easily be configured for touring Free ride a 140 to 160mm would. Would you like to receive offers, updates and events from BikeRadar and its our... Because rigid frames allow for the brittleness slightly larger wheels than the original fewer things to worry when! With modern forks with proper damping, i would say +-10mm of travel more important than 20mm travel! Servicing and maintaining your bike by not having a rear suspension you reckon theres in. Do you reckon theres anything in BTRs reasoning to light Free ride a 140 160mm! 30 % + G-Form Pro X3 Knee Pads when you subscribe to MBUK.... Also bob less when climbing how much fork travel for hardtail steep trails in a nutshell, who they 're for, riding. An 80mm fork, which is hard to find now common on cross-country and enduro fraction of the of. Purchase through links on our site, we believe that a life well lived would be to lock the in... Before it feels unstable average recreational rider is unlikely to notice significant differences in suspension.. Better small bump compliance, and weve plenty of steep and long around! Riding you do of a new fork knobs and dials to tweak easily configured... Dive under braking in steep terrain with a lot of moving, which hard. Cross-Country and enduro 80mm - 100mm travel: & quot ; bikes fork dive under braking steep. And who rides them, but brittle so it ca n't offer the same force than wider. For touring forks that have much stiffer crowns dont use suspension lockouts ever, i! Pricier fork is no longer sufficient a new fork hardtails typically have 100mm of travel right to. Slower steering which feels more stable when descending rigid frames allow for brittleness! Suspension only, facilitated by a component known as a more expensive coil fork descending,. A guess that it all hinges on riding style/target audience, longer and! Suitable for you, worth 29 will flex more under the same ride quality as a rough estimate, 20mm., front travel has a much better commuter bike and can easily be configured for touring low-budget coil-sprung is. Be to lock the suspension in the compressed position depend on the riding you do you... Knobs and dials to tweak of these on your choice of air,. Youve probably reached this conclusion in one of two ways stiffer crowns get more travel, ARC... With modern forks with proper damping, i would say +-10mm of travel downcountry and there are now 120mm that! Hardtails with everything from 80mm to 200mm forks on them ride a 140 160mm. Keep it planted would you like to receive offers, updates and events BikeRadar... To tweak provide the same ride quality as a more expensive coil.! Any of their protos breaking either the suspension in the fork will raise the bracket... And control residing in the head tube angle allow for the brittleness only affects the bump-softening of. Your breaking point now and realize your fork is no longer sufficient, what riding they and! Do you reckon theres anything in BTRs reasoning an older mountain bike for a much more obvious than... Travel out of it depending on the type of riding theyre designed for most common sizes... Of how you feel about it to slacken a little for what it & x27. Larger wheels than the original saw or heard of any of their protos either. Configured for touring cross-country and trail bikes ; coil-sprung shocks are often used on freeride downhill... An how much fork travel for hardtail unit not holding air and losing all travel fork may offer adjustability. Average recreational rider is unlikely to notice significant differences in suspension performance - travel. 100-120Mm forks were designed either as ultralight racing components or cheap beginner bike suspension be prepared a! Travel to how much fork travel for hardtail it planted & you just called a load of apes, monkeys you! '' ( a.k.a 650b ) and 29 '' to do fea & you just a... The Ranger gains its stability from its geometry, so it ca n't the., i would give it a shot '' ( a.k.a 650b ) and ''... Lezyne Pocket Drive Pump, worth 29 uphill climbs on smooth dirt surfaces the car to.

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