 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
What up.
I have a set of unused Exotic carbon forks for my 29er (Stanton Sherpa) in 465mm axle-crown length - in two minds about fitting them. I'm currently running a Surly 1x1 fork which is 453mm a-c. When I used a suspension fork it (SID 100mm travel) I often felt the front end was too high with the stem slammed, mostly for climbs. Best to sell it on before it get used and go for a shorter rigid fork/stick with the (heavy) Surly?
Any other 29er riders find themselves wanting to get the front end lower?
No, I prefer a relatively tall front end on my 29er (Inbred).
All depends on the bike, rider, and the type of riding you do I guess.
No harm in trying the Exotic forks out is there?
I guess it's relevant to the size of suspension forks said 29er was designed to take. If it's one of the newer breed of hard-core hardtails then it'll require a longer a-c measurement than an xc racer that was designed to run with 80mm forks. Rule of thumb is establish the a-c of the suspension forks specced to that frame, subtract 15% to account for sag and that is pretty much what you want in your rigid forks..
You should base the decision on how it steers, not the height of the bar. The latter can be adjusted with negative stems and the like but the former will determine stability and front end feel.
For the record, my forks on my rigid 29er are 490mm C2A.
Thanks for the replies - I think a 470mm-ish rigid fork is about normal for a bike intended for 100mm suspension and seems the most common length available.
Reggiegasket - I know what you mean - though when I refer to front end height I'm partly talking about steering. When I ran 100mm forks (coming from a rigid 26er) I found the feel when climbing vague and had to get over the front end lots, hence the shorter rigid fork - the benefits of the big wheels on flat and coming back down are great but if you live in Sheffield without a car there's a lot of ups before the downs!
Interested to hear from anyone else running shorter than usual forks on their bikes...
I've got a 465 MRP carbon rigid fork on my Swift but that's designed to take a 470mm for and I don't imagine that 5mm would be noticeable; it seems to work really well.
Pjay - cheers, yeah 5mm here and there is pretty tiny - I was thinking more in the ball park of 30mm, e.g. using a fork of 440mm a-c or less...
It depends on the travel the frame's designed for though. I ran the same fork on a 26er where a 450mm fork would be more normal; however as the frame would take up to 130mm forks it actually worked really well.
Syntace do a flatforce stem, which will lower the bar height, without you having to shorten the fork 'too far'. If you fit a [i]really[/i] short fork then BB height issues will potentially come into play too.