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Hi there guys,
For a little background:
I’ve got a hinky neck/back issue. My atlas sometimes gets out of whack and when it gets bad enough, it locks down my range of motion and causes me to lose feeling in my arms & hands. Keeping it in adjustment helps, but riding my bike is the most frequent cause of trouble, as my head is rotated up to look ahead and the violent jarring through my arms into my shoulders while braking is really amping up the issues I’m having.
In a perfect world, I would whip out my wallet and buy an AM bike with feet of travel and frolick through the woods like being strapped to an airbed. I, however, am broke. I just paid the bike off last month and am looking at owning a hardtail for a very long time.
The bike has a RS Reba shock on it(I’m guessing 80mm). I’ve read on other forums that a common upgrade is to 100mm Manitou fork but I’m wondering if I could pull off a 120mm? I understand that it alters the geometry but when you’re looking at having to stop riding because of an injury, a slacker head angle and worsening climbing characteristics don’t seem like as big of a deal as they did before.
So my questions: What do you think I can get away with on the travel of the front fork and what fork might your recommend I look for on the used market?
Thanks for any insight you might have!
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Not sure, but you want a more upright position?
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Schwim…I can’t answer your techincal questions but I am going to capitalize this because I am yelling! IF YOU BUY A USED FORK MAKE SURE IT IS FROM SOMEONE REPUTABLE YOU TRUST AT YOUR LBS OR YOU MAY BE THROWING YOUR MONEY AWAY! DON’T BUY A USED FORK ONLINE FOR A "GOOD PRICE" IF YOU DON’T HAVE MONEY TO REPAIR IT.
OK got that out. I just had a friend who bought a Fox fork online and ended up paying $180.00 to send it to FOX to have it rebuilt 😈 . He could have a bought a newer one for cheaper. Take care of yourself. We like having you on the forum and the trails.
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Thanks very much for words of warning, eikiya. I’ll definitely try to steer away from deals I can’t verify the integrity of.
Olly, I’ve gotten my riding position as upright as I can really, through a raised bar and shortened/raised stem. What I’m hoping for with this change is a somewhat less rigidish fork experience and a bit more squish at the front.
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Now I’ve got you 😳
I don’t think, 120mm travel will give you more comfort than 100 on a HT. From my experience, RS forks didn’t work as smooth as Fox forks, but they ain’t cheap. Dunno about the Manitou. If you change to 120, make sure the overall lenght of the fork isn’t way more.For used forks – You can maintain them by yourself easily with an almost basic toolset. Only need the bearings.
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If you go too big you could end up damaging the frame, they’re designed for a fork of X length, and longer forks have more leverage to put more stress on the frame. It’ll void the warranty too.
Have you tried putting a BIG front tire on and really airing down the pressure? I use a WTB Weirwolf 2.55" on my rigid single speed at around 20psi, or less. Gotta be tubeless of course.
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+1 to bigger tires with low pressure (gotta be tubeless). I wouldn’t just stop at the front tire though. If you sit down a lot when you ride, a large (low pressure) rear tire will help absorb some of that shock off your back as well. Just make sure you can fit a bigger tire in the rear triangle before you spend the money.
A carbon handlebar will also dull some of that trail chatter you feel in your hands and arms. I swear by them now.
As for your front fork, Rebas have come in different sizes for a while. I believe the only thing that changes the 80mm version to the 100mm or 120mm versions is the addition or rearranging of an internal spacer. I have heard of people doing this before and it was relatively simple. If you have your manual for the fork, it should include the directions to make the change. If not, look it up on SRAM’s website.
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"schwim" wrote
The bike has a RS Reba shock on it(I’m guessing 80mm)
No guessing!!!
You need to know exactly what fork you have, then you can make an educated decision about what to upgrade to.
Also, sorry if I missed it, but what year and model is your bike?
+1 for Fox over RS, I’ve ridden both and I find that Fox gives a noticeably smoother ride. An RL model would be good, an RLC would be even better due to the low speed compression setting. I got my Fox 120 RL remote for $300 from an LBS as a "new take-off"
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"maddslacker" wrote
[quote="schwim":3bjmgiz4]The bike has a RS Reba shock on it(I’m guessing 80mm)
No guessing!!!
You need to know exactly what fork you have, then you can make an educated decision about what to upgrade to.[/quote:3bjmgiz4]
Fair enough. As we move into specifics I will do my best to inform instead of throwing about estimates.
The fork is a Roxshock Reba SL(pic). I can not find any model numbers or anything informative for that matter along the fork body.
Measuring the exposed compression area, I have 70mm to the top of the dust seal(76mm where the dust seal meets the bottom tubes), so 80mm seems to be the case. I did extend the spacing as far as I could by hand to ensure that it wasn’t squatting any.
Also, sorry if I missed it, but what year and model is your bike?2009 Giant Talon 2
+1 for Fox over RS, I’ve ridden both and I find that Fox gives a noticeably smoother ride. An RL model would be good, an RLC would be even better due to the low speed compression setting. I got my Fox 120 RL remote for $300 from an LBS as a "new take-off"My brother has a Fox shock on his anthem and speaks very highly of it. My first stop was going to be to the lbs to see if he had anything I might be able to pick up.
Let me know if there’s any other information I can provide.
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Are you sure about the year and model?
According to Giant, there was no Talon in 2009.
http://www2.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bi … tions_id=4Also, is this a 29er?
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2011 model was the first ‘Talon’ and it was released in 2010, as a 29er, with a crappy Suntour 100mm fork.
You say yours is a 2009, with a quite high end RS Reba fork.
I am utterly confused at what your bike might actually be…
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I’m very sorry madd. Sales slip that previous owner gave me says 2009, but calling the bike shop, it is a 2010 Talon 2 (29 inch).
Sorry for the confusion.
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I think the first Talon 29er 2 was a 2011. It is mostly black and red. It has a SR XTC 29" (Custom for Giant) w/ Lockout, 100mm Travel fork. I love the bike but the fork has something to be desired.
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Tons of mention on the web of 2010 talon, the back of my bike manual has 2010 talon written into the bike details and the shop owner says it’s a 2010 talon. That’s the basis of my statement.
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"schwim" wrote
Tons of mention on the web of 2010 talon, the back of my bike manual has 2010 talon written into the bike details and the shop owner says it’s a 2010 talon. That’s the basis of my statement.
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bik … chive=true
That’s the 2010 Giant bike list. the 2011 model was released in 2010. They do that from time to time, it’s confusing and annoying. (They did it with the Trance in 2006)
Anyway, it only ever shipped with a 100mm fork. The Reba is definitely not OEM.
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"schwim" wrote
I’m very sorry madd. Sales slip that previous owner gave me says 2009, but calling the bike shop, it is a 2010 Talon 2 (29 inch).
Sorry for the confusion.
So it’s the 2011 early release model:
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bik … 966/43134/So, it would have come with the 100mm Suntour POS fork, but it appears someone ‘upgraded’ yours to an 80mm Reba.
1) Since the original fork was 100mm, you can go to 120mm with no issues, other than possibly standover height.
2) The 80mm on there now is definitely not helping your neck/back issues. -
If you want to see how to adjust the travel in your existing fork…
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Since the fork is not OEM and we don’t have good info on it, it could be one of the early 80mm 29er models and I’m not sure if those had the travel adjustment.
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Is there any way to tell that you know of without disassembly whether the fork is capable of being extended or not?
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See if you can locate the serial number and run that by Sram/Rockshox support. They will be able to tell you exactly what year/model it is and direct you to the owner’s manual.
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That’s what I did with me Recon. It’s easy to do
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Thanks very much guys. SRAM support wouldn’t help me because I was an end user and told me to contact an lbs. I’ve sent an email out to a suspension shop a couple hours away and will let you know if I find anything out about the fork. Looking at pictures in the various manuals, it looks like a 2010 and if I read it right, would not be capable of altering the travel.
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Hi there again guys,
No response from any of the guys I poked to get info on my fork, but I’m moving forward and looking for a120mm fork as a replacement. Looking at CL, ebay and amazon, I’m seeing a lot of aspects of forks that I’m not sure about.
I see things like "qr15" tapered steerer, non-tapered, 1 1/8 steerer, etc.
I’m wondering if you might be able to tell me the constraints I need to mind when looking for a fork for a 2011 talon 29er? I’d be bummed if I ended up buying something that I couldn’t use.
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From what I see on the Giant site, you can’t use a tapered steerer. You need a straight 1 1/8" steerer
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ollysj is correct, your bike has a standard 1 1/8th inch head tube. (Not tapered) You also have a standard 9mm QR front axle. (Not 15mm, not 20mm, not thru-axle)
Here, just read this:
http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-ge … sion-fork/ -
"maddslacker" wrote
Here, just read this:
http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-ge … sion-fork/Great read!
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Thanks!
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Thanks very much for all the help guys. I’ll begin my search for some more travel 😀
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