[SCARY]

Is it common knowledge to soften the fork a bit? It gets a little pushy in certain corners, so was wondering if this is pretty common to have to do?
I run the fork pretty stiff as it is. And , im somewhere between 62.5° and 63°.

 

[tabletop84]

MOAR SHIZMZ and you will be good

 

[4130biker]

Ive never heard that as common knowledge, but I bet that would help. I think it'd be a negative trade off in the rougher/ steeper sections, but why not give it a try?

 

[bizutch]

Is it common knowledge to soften the fork a bit? It gets a little pushy in certain corners, so was wondering if this is pretty common to have to do?
I run the fork pretty stiff as it is. And , im somewhere between 62.5° and 63°.

Why do you care? Didn't you just get a new ACL a few days ago?

 

[norbar]

Is it common knowledge to soften the fork a bit? It gets a little pushy in certain corners, so was wondering if this is pretty common to have to do?
I run the fork pretty stiff as it is. And , im somewhere between 62.5° and 63°.

Why would you soften your fork with a super slack head angle? To steepen the avg. dynamic head angle? If you want a bike that's more stable at high speeds (that's what a slacker head angle is for, isnt it?) I think you would want a stiffer front fork to make the bike harder to destabilize on high speed g-outs and big hits.

 

[Mo(n)arch]

Steepen your tracks!

 

[frorider]

It gets a little pushy in certain corners,.

getting the bars as low as possible, and moving my stem to the 55 mm setting, took care of that (rare) push issue on my DHR. the fork settings are the same as when I had a 64.5 HA frame i.e. a little on the stiff side.

 

[Kanye West]

Slack head angles like that desperately need an adjustment in the offset of the front end. It still baffles me why fork manufacturers haven't either changed that to keep up with the frame geometries, or built in some adjustment. But they'll do it for 650beeeeee.

 

[motomike]

Is it common knowledge to soften the fork a bit? It gets a little pushy in certain corners, so was wondering if this is pretty common to have to do?
I run the fork pretty stiff as it is. And , im somewhere between 62.5° and 63°.

Since your front wheel is so far out there with such a slack HA, are you compensating for traction by getting over the front more to get more weight on it when the trail isn't dick on tire (DOT) steep?

 

[SCARY]

Why do you care? Didn't you just get a new ACL a few days ago?

Yeah, so this I the right time to start annoying everyone on RM for the next 5months, right?

 

[SCARY]

getting the bars as low as possible, and moving my stem to the 55 mm setting, took care of that (rare) push issue on my DHR. the fork settings are the same as when I had a 64.5 HA frame i.e. a little on the stiff side.

I do also have the renthal 38mm bars.Maybe thats a bad combo with the head angle.ill try that..in a few months.

 

[OGRipper]

Since your front wheel is so far out there with such a slack HA, are you compensating for traction by getting over the front more to get more weight on it when the trail isn't dick on tire (DOT) steep?

This.

 

[Sandwich]

This.

I found that you had to be flat out ripping to take advantage of a sub 64* HA. Anything 63.5 or below gets really sketchy unless you're either going very fast, leaning very aggressively, or getting out over the front to compensate. That was my own experimentation though, going from a 65* sunday to a 63.5*. It was a bit too much for me to take advantage of, and the front end started wanting to wash...but I was slooow on that bike. The later bikes I had (a jacuzzi and izimu) were similarly slack but more manageable, but I was riding better on them.

 

[SCARY]

I found that you had to be flat out ripping to take advantage of a sub 64* HA. Anything 63.5 or below gets really sketchy unless you're either going very fast, leaning very aggressively, or getting out over the front to compensate. That was my own experimentation though, going from a 65* sunday to a 63.5*. It was a bit too much for me to take advantage of, and the front end started wanting to wash...but I was slooow on that bike. The later bikes I had (a jacuzzi and izimu) were similarly slack but more manageable, but I was riding better on them.

Yeah, thats my experience also.It forces me to stay aggressive, though and I like that.
It is absolutely a handful in tamer situations, but id rather just work that out.
Its hard to ride slow, so you kinda have to go faster.

 

[Uncle Cliffy]

What fork? What tire?

 

[SCARY]

Dorado , Hans damf. The tires going, I just wanted to try it.Back to a minion

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

I found that you had to be flat out ripping to take advantage of a sub 64* HA. Anything 63.5 or below gets really sketchy unless you're either going very fast, leaning very aggressively, or getting out over the front to compensate. T.

this.

you have to be hauling ass, and commit into turns to take advantage of this...

i was coming way too hot into a banked turn on a sub-64/flat-bar bike, pussy footed the turn-in... the front tire washed out and i ended up flying over the berm.

a broken collarbone later, i learn the lesson. at age 30, am far too old for that ****.
aggressive geometries are for far advanced (and risk-taking) riders. you have to commit and put your head way in front of the bars to weight the front tire.

most of us will get the most out of a 64-65 bike with a medium-height bottom bracket.

 

[wiscodh]

a broken collarbone later, i learn the lesson. at age 30, am far too old for that ****.
aggressive geometries are for far advanced (and risk-taking) riders. you have to commit and put your head way in front of the bars to weight the front tire.

most of us will get the most out of a 64-65 bike with a medium-height bottom bracket.

disagree 100%. My whip is at 62ish and i suck. I am a slow ass cat1 rider, and i am cautious as all hell. Rode a 65 degree bike and wanted to just stop riding. it wasn't fun, i used to love the bike 4ish years ago. I also ride in the pnw where 90% of the trails are not steep.

 

[Sandwich]

gotta agree with the flat bar drop stem craze...much nicer having a higher stack height, saving my back, and being more comfortable. I felt faster with a taller front end than zero/zero/zero.

 

[bizutch]

I understand what Scary is saying. I put the fork from my 64 degree HA previous rig on my 63 degree HA current rig and it felt harsher over smaller hits. You can tell in that situation (same fork, different HA) that you feel like you need to soften up the damping to keep it from chattering.

But if you back off the damper and get into to the steep stuff with soft settings, then you blow through the travel on g-outs, hucks, abrupt hits, etc. It's just a matter of leverage on the front. I've gotten used to it and don't notice anymore.

It's funny everyone says to get on the front more. With a slacker head angle, I find myself riding straight up dead center weighted over the pedals and turning the bike through the middle at all times, rather than weighting the front or the rear wheel to move the bike.

 

[kidwoo]

I also ride in the pnw where 90% of the trails are not steep.

hehe

It's funny everyone says to get on the front more. With a slacker head angle, I find myself riding straight up dead center weighted over the pedals and turning the bike through the middle at all times, rather than weighting the front or the rear wheel to move the bike.

Just like I always say: Butch is right!

Seriously....if a slacker headangle makes you feel like you need to get over the front, then your bike/wheelbase is too big.

The benefit of a slack angle is that you can ride it centered all the time.

 

[wiscodh]

hehe



Just like I always say: Butch is right!

Seriously....if a slacker headangle makes you feel like you need to get over the front, then your bike/wheelbase is too big.

The benefit of a slack angle is that you can ride it centered all the time.

Oregon steep is pretty mellow. **** gets real when you get out of OR.


as someone once told me i am able to sit in the "throne" position at all times on the bike. Makes for a very predictable ride. I do not ride over the front or over the back. Nice and centered.

 

[captainspauldin]

gotta agree with the flat bar drop stem craze...much nicer having a higher stack height, saving my back, and being more comfortable. I felt faster with a taller front end than zero/zero/zero.

I tried it once(just moved some spacers and lowered my crown) and it was almost instantly uncomfortable / very "divey" feeling, prob had to re-tune suspenion and whatnot, but quickly realized it wasn't for me(maybe being 6' 4" has something to do w/it?)..

 

[Sandwich]

hehe



Just like I always say: Butch is right!

Seriously....if a slacker headangle makes you feel like you need to get over the front, then your bike/wheelbase is too big.

The benefit of a slack angle is that you can ride it centered all the time.

you need to get over the front if you're not going fast enough. Once speeds get up, you stay centered, but if you're weeble wobbling around at 5 mph with a slack HT, you're gonna have a bad time.

For a useless anecdote, when I switched from a shorter wheelbased bike to a longer one, I felt more comfortable on the longer one, which I attribute to simply being more comfortable (and therefore faster) on the bike.

 

[kidwoo]

For a useless anecdote, when I switched from a shorter wheelbased bike to a longer one, I felt more comfortable on the longer one, which I attribute to simply being more comfortable (and therefore faster) on the bike.

Without discussions of the headangles between the switch, there's only so much you can take from that.

Back when bikes were steeper, I used to ride ones with longer top tubes. Now my bikes have similar wheelbases, shorter top tubes and slacker headangles and amount to a more stable implementation of the same wheelbase. That's what I was getting at. It's all the sum total, not one measurement.

 

[jonKranked]

Without discussions of the headangles between the switch, there's only so much you can take from that.

Back when bikes were steeper, I used to ride ones with longer top tubes. Now my bikes have similar wheelbases, shorter top tubes and slacker headangles and amount to a more stable implementation of the same wheelbase. That's what I was getting at. It's all the sum total, not one measurement.

no, we talk about things in a bubble here on the internet

 

[AEvans]

Super slack at 62/63? Naaah.

58, cheers then.