how does it feel for freeride and dh
7 inch forks on a hardtail?
- Thread starter metallica1049
- Start date
It feels.... uhh... different...
I've done it before with a Kona Scab, and plan on doing it again, maybe this time with a Banshee Scratch (still deciding on a good DH hardtail frame). You have to be a bit messed in the head to enjoy it, but if you want to add a challenge to your riding, it's great.
Be prepared for a very imbalanced bike, one that you'll have to re-teach yourself how to ride just to be able to control it, but if your idea of fun includes wrestling with the bike alot, combined with a bit of masochism, go for it.
I've done it before with a Kona Scab, and plan on doing it again, maybe this time with a Banshee Scratch (still deciding on a good DH hardtail frame). You have to be a bit messed in the head to enjoy it, but if you want to add a challenge to your riding, it's great.
Be prepared for a very imbalanced bike, one that you'll have to re-teach yourself how to ride just to be able to control it, but if your idea of fun includes wrestling with the bike alot, combined with a bit of masochism, go for it.
well some bikes are made to take longer forks...it really depends on the frame...my 2MX has a 65 degree headangle so a 7" fork is fine....but the most I ever ran was 6"...I did run a Shiver on my Arrow DSS it was fun for a bit...but not very practical....D
Hrm... depends, if it was a 65 degree angle with a 5" fork, you're in for a slack front end... same went with my Scab, 71degree HA with a 400mm rigid fork, combined with a 24" rear wheel, made for a low-60's headangle with a 7" fork. I've found that a bike with a fairly steep HA whilst running a 5" fork is something you want, then it doesn't chopper out too much with a bigger fork. And yeh, big burly headtube gussets are in order, you'll be doing things to the frame that duallies wouldn't experience.BMXman said:
i have a 7" on my pitbull and it feels great. it definitely depends on the frame though...i belive my frame has a 70 or so headangle with a 5" fork so its not west coast choppers style with the 7". honestly i think it made the bike feel better at speed and doing skinnies and such. the only thing is the front end is about 1lb heavier than when i had the 5" on it so it took a lil getting used to the heavy nose. all in all makes for a very fun time though!
7 inch forks on a hardtail?....
are stupid.
IMO putting a 7 inch fork on a hardtail is taking two useful half-bikes and making one complete useless bike. Even with proper geometry it's still a highly unbalanced bike that doesnt really work well in any situation, just mediocre in a few different situations. My advice, if you want a hardtail, do it with a burly ajustable travel single crown like a pike or sherman. You'll have bike that you can trail ride and jump and you wont even have to bang your knees on the top crown. If you want a big bike, do it right and get a DH bike for god's sake.
are stupid.
IMO putting a 7 inch fork on a hardtail is taking two useful half-bikes and making one complete useless bike. Even with proper geometry it's still a highly unbalanced bike that doesnt really work well in any situation, just mediocre in a few different situations. My advice, if you want a hardtail, do it with a burly ajustable travel single crown like a pike or sherman. You'll have bike that you can trail ride and jump and you wont even have to bang your knees on the top crown. If you want a big bike, do it right and get a DH bike for god's sake.
TheInedibleHulk said:
I gotta disagree. I rode with a Boxxer Race on my P.2 for a while and it was great fun. Wasn't that awful for jumping or street, just hadda use a little more muscle, and it was alot of fun on the trails, if things didn't get overly rough or superly technical. With long travel and a low BB I could really rail turns and the bike was so much more flickable and easy to change lines with than a fully. Certainly, I would have rather had an adjustable travel fork or someting of the kind, but I didn't mind the DC at all.
TheInedibleHulk said:
Hahahhaaah........so very very true.
Anyone that disagrees can :redX:
i disagree on that one. my draco is plenty strong with a dc on it(shiver) and it doesnt use gussets. some frame dont need them. sometimes all a gusset does is add a weak spot from the weldingRik said:
Im not necessarily against long travel hardtails, its the dual crowns that drive me nuts. I also dont like any fork that is longer than it needs to be. I have the 5 inch fox on my hardtail, and it certainly wouldn't ride too bad with another inch. When you start getting into dual crowns though it gets real stupid real fast.
A friend of mine is riding a GT Ruckus with a 888r in front...it actually feels ok, - but he is also the hucker type....and not so much the "bar-spin-type....
... but for the same amount of travel, a dual crown will be shorter than a single crown of comparable travel. Besides, some people are so behemoth/clyde/dreadnaught that they need the stiffness and confidence inspiring aura a DC imparts.TheInedibleHulk said:
Originally Posted by TheInedibleHulk
Im not necessarily against long travel hardtails, its the dual crowns that drive me nuts. I also dont like any fork that is longer than it needs to be. I have the 5 inch fox on my hardtail, and it certainly wouldn't ride too bad with another inch. When you start getting into dual crowns though it gets real stupid real fast.
That must be depending on what you do with your ht....if you are a big time hucker boy I think the DC will be justified...
Im not necessarily against long travel hardtails, its the dual crowns that drive me nuts. I also dont like any fork that is longer than it needs to be. I have the 5 inch fox on my hardtail, and it certainly wouldn't ride too bad with another inch. When you start getting into dual crowns though it gets real stupid real fast.
That must be depending on what you do with your ht....if you are a big time hucker boy I think the DC will be justified...
If you're a big time hucker you're not a real bike rider and I dont want to talk to you anyway 
when did I become such a jackass??
when did I become such a jackass??
TheInedibleHulk said:If you're a big time hucker you're not a real bike rider and I dont want to talk to you anyway
when did I become such a jackass??
Arrrghh, Hulk mad and right. Yo' Hulk this vwmtnbkr with a 7" fork on a Pitbull couldn't ride his way out of a paperbag (and you could fit him in one too). I agree and said the same but this hobbit thinks he knows everything. Check out this picture of him hitting 7 steps at the National Archives in Washington, DC. He hits the 3rd step gets 6 inches of air. All this with a single crown (lighter) fork. What improvements does he expect with a dual crown? Yet he posts his useless opinions every chance he gets. Damn posers.TheInedibleHulk said:
Now for my question, what is the best fork to use on an Evil Imperial, I have yet to make up my mind as to what to put on and am interested in what others think. I want to be able to go bigger and harder than I can on my existing hardtail street rig with a DJ2 fork. Thanks man.
Hope you got a laugh at the picture.
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That can not be defined as a good picture !
ezyryder said:
Nobody can answer your question, because nobody knows what you can or what you want to do with your bike......no details = no answers
There is one company making 7 inch production hardtails: Norco. They have one with the 66 and another with a Drop-Off DC.
I have an older Norco Torrent with a 5 inch Z1 FR. It is pedalable in the 5 inch mode, but would probably suck with a 7 inch. But the ECC makes it very useful as a trail bike.
The only two forks I know of with some kind of travel adjustment is the Sherman Breakout (only for 1.5 headtubes) and the Boxxer Ride (they threw on a U-Turn).
I have an older Norco Torrent with a 5 inch Z1 FR. It is pedalable in the 5 inch mode, but would probably suck with a 7 inch. But the ECC makes it very useful as a trail bike.
The only two forks I know of with some kind of travel adjustment is the Sherman Breakout (only for 1.5 headtubes) and the Boxxer Ride (they threw on a U-Turn).
Ignore the h8ers - try it out and see if it feels right for you!
It's a personal choice thing - I rode all summer on my HT with a Boxxer. I did DH, trial riding, even some mini-N.Shore stuff. It felt great to me and I never had a problem with it.
In the end I didn't like the DC because it killed the turning radius (especially with the Boxxer drop crown that came with the fork). I now have a 6" SC and it feels good... but I still would not shy away from putting the Boxxer back on in the future.
It's a personal choice thing - I rode all summer on my HT with a Boxxer. I did DH, trial riding, even some mini-N.Shore stuff. It felt great to me and I never had a problem with it.
In the end I didn't like the DC because it killed the turning radius (especially with the Boxxer drop crown that came with the fork). I now have a 6" SC and it feels good... but I still would not shy away from putting the Boxxer back on in the future.
I am big on the urban riding thing, living just outside of D.C. I consider myself a skilled rider and like to go big. But, I am close to Asheville and Snowshoe and the Frederick Watershed. I want to enjoy all the area has to offer. My Evil bike will be the bike to do all that with, DH and North Shore as well as local urban drops / gaps too big for my existing urban rig.seismic said:Nobody can answer your question, because nobody knows what you can or what you want to do with your bike......no details = no answers
See some DC pics (captured from video) here
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107742
My existing urban rig:
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Not throughout all that useless travel you don't. It is either way slack, or way steep at one end.chicodude01 said:
can't comment, only have a 6" SC (breakout) on my HT, and it's absolutely perfect. Have ~67-67.5 head angle, and actually prefer to have a HT when dropping as you can land more rear-wheel first and not have to worry about slamming your fork into the ground at a 50 degree head angle... (when you land rear wheel first on a FS I've found that the rear compresses before the fork ever touches, so when your fork comes down you have an obscenely slack HA) Only down-side to going with a longer travel HT is that I was getting bucked on some landings/rollers. Swapped my flats for clipless and problem solved...Transcend said:
don't really understand the above statement, though, you're still sagging into travel when you ride, and you don't get to the other extreme unless you really land something hard... Most of the time you're still only a couple degrees one way or the other from your target HA.
Personally i would never run more than 5 inches of travel on a hardtail. For me the hardtail is way more versatile with a small fork. I run a 3 inch stance static on my imperial and ride it for everything, from street to freeriding to agressive trailriding. The only thing I notice is that it is a little harsher than my big bike. But for trailriding, I am probably faster on the hardtail cause I keep it so low and it rails corners like crazy. Who needs suspension, I've got huge ass lanky arms and legs to soak up bumps...woo suspension with brain controlled on the fly damping, now thats what I'm talking about!
The person who owned my Shiver before me actually ran it on his Imperial for awhile but then switched it back to his Big Hit.
Dual Crowns useless on hardtails since anything your doing to use all 7"+ of fork would most likely destroy a rear wheel. You can't land perfectly on your fork everytime. If you keep replacing destoryed rear wheels you might as well spend that money and buy a nice ds frame. I agree that sc forks 6" and less work great. I ran a sherman slider plus on a minuteman frame last season and I never used all of the fork. I'm getting a ds frame for 05.
My friend put a 7 inch Jr. T on a 13 inch P.1 frame. Hard to get used to, and I've never ridden a bike that was so prone to tipping forewords and backwards before. Also hit my knees on the upper crown a lot. Taking a headwalls with it are scary too. All that set aside, it has been the easiest bike to huck that I've ever ridden. I think a 5 inch Z1 would be a much better fork to have on a bike like that. The thing about a long travel fork on a hardtail is that they're not built for each other; a hardtail frame isn't as tall as a full suspension frame.
BUMP for a great thread, see pics of vwmtnbkr showing the benfits of a dc on a hardtail.
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=72080
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=72080
lol i just upgraded to a 110mm fork and it feels to big on my ruckus i donno how he can like that lol.seismic said:
HA, so yeah, there isnt even a DC on my bike then...and im not sure what your point is...i messed up the jump......so? im sure i'll see that pic posted all over here forever tho, so have a good laughezyryder said:BUMP for a great thread, see pics of vwmtnbkr showing the benfits of a dc on a hardtail.
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=72080
Exactly! A ht with big travel up front is just unbalanced-travel wise.dhmtbj said:
and etc...
Eh, you just compensate for it in your riding style, like you would change your riding to suit a big travel dually...
It's not that hard, keep loose over rough stuff, let your legs do all the work, and on drops you just have to weight yourself well.
Anything is doable, the main disadvantage with a big travel fork up front on a hardtail is it's impossible to pedal, but on courses where that isn't an issue, then all you have to worry about is the burning in your legs. But hey, that's where the masochistic part comes in to it.
It's not that hard, keep loose over rough stuff, let your legs do all the work, and on drops you just have to weight yourself well.
Anything is doable, the main disadvantage with a big travel fork up front on a hardtail is it's impossible to pedal, but on courses where that isn't an issue, then all you have to worry about is the burning in your legs. But hey, that's where the masochistic part comes in to it.
We all know that certain set-ups work for certain people. It's all individual. I personally like the feel of a long travel DC on the front of my hardtail. People offer negative comments about it all the time. But it works for me. I like the simplicity of a hardtail but still enjoy some shock absorption in the front. I LOVE it for DH. It's so fun! But whatever . . . I can't wait to hear the comments when I turn it into a SS, too.
i had a SS dual crown hardtail for a about a year. i loved it, but lately my knees have been hurting so i'm trying a dually agian.