Forks.

Is it worth chancing s/h or would it be better to buy new low ends (Suntour XCR, RS Dart etc - even these will be better than most 90's forks right?). I need a 21cm tube which rules out most stuff on ebay and most of the higher end forks don't seem to have V-brake mounts either.

What to do?


Its a mid 90's Saracen tuff trax btw.

Lot more bang for your buck second hand. Pretty easy to pick up something from the mid 2000s for not much cash. Something like an RS Duke would have V-mounts and a decent air setup.

too long a fork will bugger up the ride. Marrzocci are always a good buy and pretty reliable.

legrandefromage":2hdygau4 said:

Marrzocci are always a good buy and pretty reliable.

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+1 for Marzocchi. They regularly come up for sale on this forum and if you get the coil/oil ones (old Z1s etc), they're one of the most reliable forks out there (including modern ones!).

Mid 2000's Fox Float 80mm will do the job, or some Pace RC39.

Second hand's fine, just do your homework and don't buy if they look rough.

Cheers

Could I get away with 100mm travel on a Tufftrax? The last forks had 80mm but there is 15mm worth of spacers under the stem - if I removed the spacers when fitting the new forks the overall height would be about the same?

If that makes any sense at all

Tbh I've been a bit disappointed at the price of retro forks - some RS Judy XC's just sold for nearly £50 + post which I think is a bit silly when new Darts can be had for £70 delivered?

Cheers

Could I get away with 100mm travel on a Tufftrax? The last forks had 80mm but there is 15mm worth of spacers under the stem - if I removed the spacers when fitting the new forks the overall height would be about the same?

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Spacers under the handlebar stem don't alter the geometry, but longer fork blades/legs do. It might be OK, but a fork with a longer axle to crown length will reduce the head angle, and increase trail, albeit very slightly with just 20mm increase, which will generally make for slower steering.

There's also another issues, which is wheel flop, which is complicated to explain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_an ... e_geometry, but definitely something you don't want as it makes for very odd feeling steering.

You might be fine, especially as with suspension forks, once you take sag into account the difference between 80mm and 100mm of travel might only be 5 or so mm with the bike in a neutral position.

How sensitive you are to the changes might also be a very personal thing, I've seen a few bikes this forum with the "wrong" forks and people seem perfectly happy, whereas I fitted a set of rigid forks to a frame that were 15mm longer than the originals and I thought they felt awful, a 200 meter ride up the road was enough to know that there was no way I could put up with them; I think wheel flop was the main problem as the bike "fell into corners", especially at low speeds.

Don't assume that modern low-end forks are better than, or even comparable to, decent forks from 10 years ago - Darts in particular are utter rubbish.

Cheers for the help. To be honest, since playing about with the tyre pressures its really quite good rigid so no rush- will keep a look out for a decent s/h fork.

I have a pair of Rock Shox Reba SL 80mm travel, and I believe 100mm travel Rebas can be converted to 80mm with some internal spacers, so you could shorten them if they felt wrong at 100mm: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/w ... rk--26840/

I don't know much about suspension forks, having only ever had these as they came fitted on the bike, but they've been absolutely no trouble whatsoever in 1,500 miles or so.