 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Thinking of fitting burgtec offset shock bushings to increase the head angle to try and make make my 2012 five a slightly more capable climber. I have two questions: 1. Will it work to a worthwhile amount. & 2. What other effects will it have on handling and geometry.
Head angle doesn't affect climbing ability.
Fit an inline seatpost and slide your saddle forward.
And make sure it's at the right height.
And I don't think offset bushes work in a "steepen" way. As they gravitate to "shorter".
If you just fit bushings then you increase head and seat angles by the same amount. The Five already has quite a steep seat angle I think, so you might find that gets too steep.
An angle adjusting headset on the other hand makes seat and head angles go in the opposite direction. When trying to do the opposite with an older Five I fitted offset bushings and a Works component 1 degree headset and the combined effect was to reduce HA by 2 degrees but leave SA the same. If you fitted both of these the other way round it would have the opposite effect i.e. increase HA by 2 degrees but still leave SA the same. Of course, all this only really works if you change the length of the fork (in your case reducing it) as well.