Retro Bomber Z-2s on a modern frame?

[JohnH]

Most modern steel hardtail frames that I see tend to be designed to work with forks that have 120-140mm travel.

Has anyone successfully fitted forks with only 80mm of travel onto a modern disc frame?

 

[Huntso]

I had Z2 Atom 80's on a S-Works M5 and they worked very nicely

 

[JohnH]

Thank you, Huntso!

Off hand, would you know how old that S-Works M5 was, or when it was a current model?

[Edit: I've used Google Images to look for the M5, and it seems like quite a recent model -- it also looks as though it's made of ali...
http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=s-work ... 2&bih=1100 ]

 

[JohnH]

I've e-mailed Charge to see if a Duster frame will be compatible with 80mm forks. We'll see what they say...

 

[Neil G]

I ran the reccomended 100mm on my Charge but I'm sure 80mm would be fine, your just going to end up with a slightly steeper head angle and a quicker steering bike

 

[JohnH]

Thanks Neil! I read your reply and then I found this in my inbox...

Hi John,

Here is the link to the Geo specs:

http://www.chargebikes.com/products/bik ... .php?id=11

We are running the Duster with 100mm forks and 80mm will steepen the head angle to around 71.5 degrees.
Our team rider Sam uses 80mm Sid forks and loves it.

Hope this helps?

Neil Cousins

www.chargebikes.com

...which pretty much echoes your view.

I've had a look on Charge's website for a local stockist, and there's a shop in Worthing that sells Charge, Genesis, Whyte and Cotic -- http://www.questadventure.co.uk/index.asp?pageID=99 -- so that looks like a good place to find a steel frame.

 

[dyna-ti]

I put a 100mm on a frame designed for 3" tops
It was horrible
Very twitchy,kept on feeling like the front end was going to wash out at every turn
I've a 75mm on now and it handles so much better

Doing the reverse i have no experience of sorry

 

[legrandefromage]

I ran my Airborne with 80mm forks - I wasn't happy with the handling.

 

[cyfa2809]

what about 80mm with ahigher a-c

 

[Huntso]

Off hand, would you know how old that S-Works M5 was, or when it was a current model?

Here it is John with aforementioned forks, think it was a 2004, but can't remember for definite