What ever happened to adjustable travel forks?

Do you mean adjustable without taking the lowers off? 

Some SR Suntour, Cane Creek, and DVO forks have adjustable travel that just involves adding/removing spacers. 

No, further back in time @droplinked, the likes of Fox and RockShox had forks that you turned a dial on the fork crown and you could increase/decrease the travel of the fork.

I suspect they died out as people stopped twiddling and just kept riding.

Yes, externally adjustable...ie you used to be able to wind travel up or down..

Old school 26ers were short and climbed terribly with "long" travel forks, the front end wanted to lift off the ground. U-turn, TALAS on the fly adjustable travel helped get the front lower and your weight forward.
Modern longer, slacker bikes are more balanced and climb far better IME.

With modern geometry, they became less needed for climbing.

The travel adjust compromised the forks performance.

Both my bikes have them (internally adjustable). I figure the likes of RockFox are happier selling more forks/shafts instead.

I had a pair of Rock Shox Psylo U turns on the front of my SC Chameleon back in 2001, I think they were 100-130mm. I really liked them, being able to adjust the travel on a fork makes sense to me, I’m not sure why it stopped becoming a thing. 

I had some RS Psylo forks that were 80-125mm adjustable via a dial on the top of the fork leg. Worked well on my old Cove Stiffee which climbed well in 80-100mm travel and absolutely terribly in 100+ mm!

Somehow my current (modern!) MTB feels like it wouldn't suit an adjustable travel fork plus it'd be too much like hard work ruining the flow of a ride....

Modern longer, slacker bikes are more balanced and climb far better IME.

Whilst I agree that longer bikes climb better, I'm not so sure slacker is better for climbing...

For pedally, tight singletrack, I much preferred a steeper, more engaging, flickable bike so adjusting HA by dialling down a fork for some sections of pedally singletrack or climbs was a thing, then up the travel (hence slacker HA) for the descent

And yes, I've used a variety of Fox TALAS forks bitd though I often forgot to change travel or un-lock then! In fact, I always run my rear shock open as I know I'd forget to un-lock until I'm half-day down a "rough" descent 😄

Steeper seat tubes.

120 - 160 u turn Lyrics on a Dialled Alpine. That bike went to the top of Rigi Kulm and down again. I've still got them downstairs in the cellar.

They went out of fashion. They'll come back again

Rockshox did a dual position Zeb in 2020 but I don't know if it's still available 

Steeper seat tubes.

Hmmm...good point. So, when is a seat post "too steep" 🤔

Got a set of 100-140 pike uturns on my 456. Got them from someone on here actually, maybe about 10 years ago. Still going strong, just need to top up the negative air chamber occasionally.

Loved the U turn revs on my Bfe.

I had a set of the original Brown Fox TALAS 36s. They may even still be in the shed somewhere, along with a pair of Manitou Minutes with their remote travel adjust lever.

I eventually figured out 130mm was the sweet spot for hardtail fork travel, so the forks never got adjusted, and I eventually swapped the TALAS for a set of Vanilla 36s with a spacer added to limit the travel to 130mm. I still maintain Van 36s were pretty much the perfect fork, as I've never had a set of forks since that feel as supple and just handled everything you threw at them :/

As to what happened to travel adjust, I think most people realised there really wasn't much benefit to it. Those I know who had it, the novelty generally wore off, and travel would be set then never touched again, bit like most suspension lockouts.

Plus I don't think modern geometry benefits as much from it, and there is the whole weight weenie thing. Travel adjust adds weight, and we all know how much unnecessary weight affects sales, and is why coil forks died a death 🙄

Had 140mm U-turn Lyriks.
Pretty much could never be bothered to change the travel and didn't find that by changing it the bike was suddenly better at climbing.

I suspect that's fitting for a lot of people.

I have 2 sets of 100-130mm Revelations in the shed if anyone's desperate to put their money where their nostalgia is 🙂

Steep seat angles and longer reach happened.

“So, when is a seat post “too steep” 🤔”

Depends on the person and how much pedalling on the flat you do, but it seems to be close to 80 deg on longer travel bikes (so sagging more uphill and riding more steep stuff) and even as steep as 77 deg on shorter travel bikes. (Hardtails steepen when the forks sag so you need to knock a degree or two off the max steepness numbers).

I had u turn forks on my Stiffee.

Awesome at 80mm going up, awesome down steep stuff at 130mm. Happy at 115mm most places.

It almost never clipped its pedals at 80mm. Which makes me wonder how high the BB was? High! It's final incarnation was with 140mm rc3 ti bombers. I don't really miss the travel adjust.

My Hello Dave cops its pedals at 160mm occasionally. I wouldn't want lower forks on it.

Both get ridden the same place which hasn't changed much since 2004. There are more jumps, but I didn't jump at all in 2004.

I had U turn forks.  I would always forget to adjust them at the right time so would end up long climbing and short descending  🙂

Personally, I never got on with them. More often than not, I'd forget to adjust them for either a long up or a technical down.

I also remember some dynamic analysis being discussed in forums that concluded that they were actually worse for climbing.

I guess rider experience backed that up as people stopped wanting them.

“It almost never clipped its pedals at 80mm. Which makes me wonder how high the BB was? High!”

This too! Bottom brackets got quite a bit lower (well they went up around 2000 and then started coming back down to roughly where they started out in the ‘70s!) If I dropped my hardtail’s forks down 50mm I suspect I’d keep smacking my (already short) cranks on things.

Talas forks worked well for me.  Automatic blowout meant they reset to full travel at the first big bump so forgetting to adjust after a climb wasn’t a problem.  

e.g. Fox TALAS?

34 140-160mm on my GF's Trance have decided that 150mm is their preferred setting and now won't "Talas" as they once did.

Had 160mm Lyrik u-turns on my old DB Alpine. That certainly made a difference on long alpine climbs.

U-turn was great, genuinely adjustable forks that worked well at all lengths. Still a bit of a niche but sometimes, you just don't know how long you want the forks to be. I reckon there'd still be a place for that even now, except, apparently turning a dial was too much like hard work.

Just about everything else only worked at full length, but also tended to work less well than teh single length forks, and be less reliable to boot. Well shot of that, TALAS might well be the most money anyone's ever spent in order to make their fork worse.

Still running TALAS 36s. They are the best firks I've ever used in terms of smoothing out trail chatter. Even the latest 36s with bleed valves, evolution, etc. Aren't as good for me. They also ramp up really well. If only they could fit a 29er wheel.

I put some 130-160mm Lyriks on my bike last year end they're great. As someone mentioned above, modern LLS geometry is great for stability downhill but not so great for climbing. Knocking my front end down to 130mm at the front certainly feels like it makes it climb better.

Pic in climbing mode yesterday on the pooch's inaugural trail run. He did great.

I bought some X Fusion Vengeance (decent forks at the time) a good few years ago.

Initially bought the travel adjust version, they were garbage and stuck down. When I returned them under warranty I was advised to go non adjustable and they were fantastic forks

Still have them on the Shan

Still have my 100-130mm Rev 426's and Boxxer Rides, the latter transformed my Pitch compared to the 140-150mm Sektors I originally got. Both are good forks, not as tunable as modern ones but tbh it's all a load of shite IMO, open bath Zocchis were just fine, I'd rather just get on with enjoying the ride than pretending I get kept awake by an errant pea.

Had some 130 to 160mm adjustable pikes, bizarrely when I’d lower them the bike would feel harder to pedal, almost like you were in 1 too harder gear. Could never figure out why it felt like that

had some marzocchi 66s you could drop from 180 to 130? ATA i think it was called
But it just felt weird tbh, pitched you forward too much and it was on my dh bike anyway, i only ever really used it in earnest doing the megavalanche

Im happier on a set of modern 160mm forks , tho miss that zocchi plushness

I'd also say my 2008-ish Talas 36 fork was one of the plushest I've owned 🤷

And I'd probably be interested in a U-turn Zeb these days too. That was so handy.

I had U-turn pikes 100- 140mm they were great, also had some 2 step lyriks that just didn't seem as good.

Pikes om Ragley blue pig.

I still have some U-Turn Psylos, Revelations, and Rebas. Brilliant system. My guess is that they never sold in huge numbers and modern geometry has made them redundant. 20 years ago, XC bikes mostly had 80 mm travel forks, 125 mm was considered to be a decent amount of travel for a trail bike. A 80-125 mm adjustable Psylo gave you a good compromise. Now XC bikes have 120 mm travel and still climb as well or better than the old 80 mm bikes there's not really much use for them on a trail bike.

Had U-turn Pikes on my Trailstar LT, the good old days! Wind them in for XC/DJ, wind out for DH.

I understand the Formula Selva R can be adjusted from 120-160 with a screw-in valve that takes 5mins.

Bionicon FTW!

I ha u turn Psylos which I liked for longer climbs back when geometry was gash.

Had plenty of TALAS and Uturn forks in the past. Don't miss them in the slightest and now just have 150s on my hardtail and FS (both modern geo).

I have had a few. I hated adjusting it on the fly.  My contact points are all finely tuned to give the correct weight distribution and balance for comfort, and adjusting the fork cocks that up completely. However, I do love being able to fine tune the fork length as part of that process.  I had (and still have) 66 SLs with ATA, and I tried many lengths before settling on 170mm and leaving it there. The frame also had adjustable shock mount, so I could lower the entire bike, which made a big difference.  Yes, you can do the same thing with internal travel adjusters on some forks these days, which is good.

vlad_the_invader

Hmmm…good point. So, when is a seat post “too steep” 🤔

No - steeper seat tubes mean adjustable travel forks no longer needed - the reason they made climbing better was that they steepened the seat angle. Frames with steeper seat tubes put you in that position for climbing without all the disadvantages of a shitty fork

I had dual position pikes on my 2016 Giant Trance and they were noticeably worse than the standard ones on mates bikes. They were also more difficult to find parts for and the parts were more expensive.

I seem to recall a set of DT Swiss XMM 140 forks I had on my first proper full suss. They had 140mm travel but could be stuck down at 110mm for climbing. IIRC they would release automatically if you bounced them hard meaning you couldn't forget to unlock them for the descents. But I may be mis-remembering that bit. Nice forks they were, to be fair.

I seem to recall a set of DT Swiss XMM 140 forks I had on my first proper full suss. They had 140mm travel but could be stuck down at 110mm for climbing. IIRC they would release automatically if you bounced them hard meaning you couldn’t forget to unlock them for the descents.

I had some and they were lovely forks. Forgot to raise them for a descent, they didn't blow off and then didn't work as well afterwards! Still, they were the plushest pre modern Pike fork I ever had.

As for what happened to adjustable forks? Maybe something to do with us riding less do it all bikes and travel increasing? BITD 130mm bikes were allrounders, used for everything from XC to all mountain. These days 150mm+ is pretty standard where as XC bikes are still 100/120mm.

Have Rockshox made an adjustable version of their modern forks (post game changer Pike)? Before that the majority of people wanted Fox and I guess not enough people were buying TALAS so they stopped making them? Reviews saying the cheaper and lighter Float was the better fork can't have helped.

They were targeted at XC riders who wanted to feel a bit gnar on the downhill bits (me!).

You'd get off, wind yer forks out to max travel - and manually, yes manually kids(!), drop your seatpost - then clench your sphincter for the not really that gnar descent to come! 🙂

Speak for yourself - every descent is maximum gnar for me...not due to terrain, more to do with me being utterly useless at descents!

As for what happened to adjustable forks? 

They became unfashionable?

Have Rockshox made an adjustable version of their modern forks

I believe there were a few two-step (?) forks still around in the later 2010s, IIRC because the Germans were quite attached to the concept.

But as others have mentioned, mostly not needed due to improved frame geometry (not just fashion).

I blame all those UK frame manufacturers who came out with '456' type frames.

If you're a tight arse like me and you've bought a frame that was based around a 120mm to 160mm fork then you'd be crazy not to get maximum value for money by buying a fork that didn't go from 120mm to 160mm.

Even if you then spend all your time with the fork at 120mm, you're still getting maximum value for money!

two-step (?)

Dual Position. They were decent. I had Coil Sektors on my Dialled Prince Albert. 120mm for general riding, 150mm for more intentional DH/uplift/bike park stuff. Single switch: min or max travel, big bounce on the front to lock into the travel you just switched to. Not a huge compromise in performance.

Ha! Exactly as per BruceWee!

two-step (?)

Dual Position. They were decent.

Thanks for correcting, I was obviously thinking of DJ Pied Piper or Double 99.

This weekend I just dug my old pike 454s out of the loft to rebuild a 4x bike.  They seem to still be in perfect working order.  Just waiting on a few bits and I’ll find out soon enough,

personally I quite liked them.  Possible to do the uturn whilst riding as well with a bit of practise and a flatish bit of track