Well, you've got a lot of things going against you on this one, but the short answer is no, that fork will not fit your bike. Your frame has a standard, straight head tube that only accepts 1 1/8'' fork steerer tubes, so the FOX fork's tapered steerer is too large. However, it would be a terrible idea to put a 150mm travel fork on your cross-country bike for two important reasons: one, the fork's extra length is going to put a lot of leverage on a frame that was really designed for much shorter forks; two, your bike will feel so unbalanced that it'll likely ride terribly. I'm big proponent of balance between a bike's front and rear suspension, and I'm usually not even a fan of companies ''up forking'' a bike with an extra 20mm of travel on the front. The 150mm travel fork you're thinking about putting on will not only cause your bike to not handle how its designers intended, the suspension action between both ends will feel awkward and unconnected. - Mike Levy |
The 2011 Element Sport is a cross-country bike that should never be fitted with a 150mm travel fork.
Your supposition that 130 millimeters of rear-wheel travel would be a good upgrade from a 100-millimeter XC trailbike is spot on. Most bikes we have tested in the 130 range retain the snappy acceleration and much of the stable ride height that makes a short-travel bike feel so good in the corners, and they add a measure of performance over the bumps that a 100-millimeter machine cannot attain. There seems to be a break point at 130 that defines where all-mountain begins and the capabilities of the classic XC based trailbike ends. As you pass 130 and near 150, pedaling feel and acceleration degrade quickly unless suspension aids are employed to prop them up, and fore/aft weight transfer becomes more critical to help balance the suspension's ride height in technical situations. Modern, pedal friendly suspension designs and adjusted geometry have nudged the acceptable limit of suspension travel for an XC/trailbike from 100 to 120 millimeters and now we are seeing that figure edging to 130. But, the in-between nature of that category has created a wider spread of "personalities" between makes, so ride a few before deciding. I'd suggest you ride the 125-millimeter Santa Cruz 5010, the 135-millimeter Specialized EVO 29, and the 130-millimeter Scott Genius 900 for a start to get a feel for the range. Also, remember that suspension numbers are not the end-all definers for performance. Most riders will go faster on bikes that feel familiar to them. Your XC skills may be better put to task in the more technical realm aboard a shorter-travel 120-millimeter bike with slacked-out frame numbers from an all-mountain specialist brand like Knolly. - RC |
If you're happy with the range of your current 11-32 setup, I'd recommend sticking with it when you switch to a 10 speed drivetrain. Going to a cassette with a 34 or 36 tooth cog as the easiest gear will make climbing a little easier, but it sounds like that's not much of a concern. By going with an 11-32, you'll have an ever-so-slightly tighter spread of harder gears - on a Shimano cassette the steps will be 11,12,14,16, compared to 11,13,15,17 on the 11-34 and 11-36 options. There's also the option of going with a road cassette, but you'd be sacrificing that climbing ability even further, especially if you went with a narrow 11-21 or 11-23 tooth spread. I'd stick with what you're used to for now, and in the future if you want to trim down your cassette even further, companies like OneUp Components and Fouriers offer spacers that let you reduce your cassette down to 7 speeds, leaving you with a drivetrain that's only has the gears you'd use when going downhill, and nothing more. - Mike Kazimer |
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simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Gummy_Joe
@moraleslori60
Coming soon to the Post yer Tractors hillbilly thread.
Strength wise... the frame was a coke can, I still sent some 20ft jumps on it. Today it lives it's retirement days as a commuter... with 29er rigid fork that I will soon change to 888RC hahahah
Personally I would go with the maximum sized cog that his derailleur can handle. In my opinion the extra smaller gear gives more advantage than having one extra ring inbetween the same ratios. Might be good for some, but at the same time it also slows your shifting down when you have to shift quickly from one side of the cassette to the other side.
When I started riding dh/freeride, there was a lack of good long travel bike options. So, we slapped long travel forks on shorter travel bikes and made do with ruined geometry as well as the consequences of snapped head tubes. With all of the options out there nowadays, we don't have to take those risks anymore.
I've got a 2011 Banshee Spitfire V1 with 130mm Travel in the rear and I put a 160mm Pike in there. The Geometrie if the bike is quite aggressive, so it still sits low enough, but it's such a capable bike now.
I will upgrade to bigger bike as soon as I've got the money, but I never thought I could ride a trailbike that hard. I'ld say I'm a good rider, but I know a lot of guys that are as fast or faster (much faster in some cases), but they always scratch their head when we ride enduro, because I've got so much less travel and still keep up with them.
I think with a 130-140mm Fork that would be waaaay harder, because would have to place my front wheel much more carefully.
The Spitfire is a amazing bike, though, I've had a Iron Horse MKIII and a Mondraker Foxy before, and the Spitfire is on another level to those!
The two most 'exciting' bikes I have seen are of course the 5010c and the Yeti SB5C which is out of my price range.
www.commencalusa.com/PBSCCatalog.asp?ActionID=67174912&PBCATID=2378996
It's still a bit of a silly solution, but it could work if you ride a hardtail and want less front suspension anyways. But in this situation it would mean you have less front suspension than rear suspension, and you'd have to set your fork harder than your rear shock. It just won't ride as well.
The point of him wanting that fork is that he can ride 150mm suspension up front. That's just going to feel bad.
The worst part of riding a fork that is too high hasn't been mentioned: it's that the frame is not designed to handle the bigger leverage and will most probably snap.
Frame manufacturers always post a maximum fork length for their frames. If you mount a fork that is longer than they said, all warrenty will be lost on the frame.
Usually 20mm extra shouldn't make enough difference to make noticable difference in strength..
Switching your front tyre from a 2.0" wide tyre to a 2.5" wide tyre would already lift your front end by 13mm, plus a higher stack a-head-set can also easily add 20mm in total. I can't imagine a frame going from strong to weak in only this small amount of change. Lifting 30mm or more is where it might start getting sketchy, depending on the frame.
You should check out the a2c length on your current fork, and look around what other forks you could mount so you don't add too much to the a2c, but still get more suspension. For example Manitou's and Fox' are generally about 15mm lower than Marzocchi and Rock Shox, for the same ammount of suspension.
This means that (generally) if you'd go from a 100mm marzocchi to a 120mm Manitou, your a2c length would only increase by 5mm. This is perfectly safe for sure.
There seem to be at least 3 options out there (SM-SH51, SM-SH52, SM-SH55 & SM-SH56)
I've always just used thoso which came with a new pair of pedals and now it is time to replace them...
I'm not being cheeky.. Ok maybe a little... But I'm honestly curious of the difference.
Could I go up to 125mm? Or is it all frame/bike dependent?
I will give you the same advice I give most people in your situation though: save up for a full suspension frame on buy & sell. lots of really good frames out there for not a lot of cash, especially for 26" wheels. Can't hardly give away 26" bikes anymore(I've been trying to sell one for months.)