Hi all,
I've recently bought a second hand Orange Clockwork 129 frame to put all the old parts I've got lying around onto.
The frame is designed to work with a 120mm fork, but having looks at prices and availability of second hand forks, 100mm seems like the way cheaper option. Is using a 100mm fork a sensible thing to do? would it affect the handling and performance of the bike much?
Cheers,
Matt
(frame for reference: https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bike-archive/clockwork-129-frame/2018)
All things being equal it will steepen the head angle. You might like that but hard to say. Not sure I would. What type of riding you planning?
The 100mm fork might even be longer, axle to crown than the original, if you are lucky.
Having had a similar dilemma with my winter Bizango build,I held out till I got some seconds hand 120's.
No idea, but go the other way 140 fork on 120 frame is all sorts of awesome!
Must be plenty availabilty of 140 forks these days?
Depending on the fork you've got you might be able to adjust its travel by moving some spacers around inside it.
It'll be fine, 20mm will only steepen it up by half a degree-ish.
That said when I was looking for my previous build I found some cheap older (non-boost) Reba 120mm for about £80 (IIRC), and a couple of weeks ago I scored some 140mm trace RL2 for £90, which I thought was a good deal (also non-boost)... Both times on ebay, which I normally expect to get silly with bidding fever, perhaps the knock on benefit of all the new standards is people have started turning their noses up an non-boost forks and frames? Dunno...
From a bit of research I think lengthening some 100s is a good option. Rockshox Judy 100mm forks are going pretty cheap second hand and you only have to remove a spacer (apparently) to get them to 120.
I plan to use the bike mainly for rowdy-ish xc so 100mm should be fine, I just don't want to ruin the handling of the bike
I wouldn't worry... slightly steeper, slightly lower bb but neither enough to really make a difference. Over the years ive run my Scandal 29er with everything from rigid forks to 130mm suspension forks and learnt you just get use to what you're riding. Saying that, with most RS forks, you can change the air shaft if you did find it an issue.
