Fork travel and riding style

[razer17]

I currently have a cheapo hard tail that appears to be dying at the moment. It was never brilliant at the best of times, but it's on its last legs with odd squeaks etc. Rather than spending money to have it fixed, and still be left with a crappy bike, I should get a new and decent hardtail.

As I was looking, pretty much all the bikes in my price range have 100mm travel forks. I've seen one or two people suggesting that 100mm is not enough for anything more than a bit of XC, whereas I'm looking to start some trail riding. Nothing too adventurous, no 60 foot drop offs or anything like that, just some roots and singletrack, possibly small jumps when I've acclimatised.

Am I being steered wrong in people saying that a 100mm fork wouldn't suffice?

 

[Hacienda71]

My Stumpjumper fsr front fork has 100mm of travel and it is fine doing black runs at trail centres and rocky technical stuff up in the Pennines.

 

[razer17]

My Stumpjumper fsr front fork has 100mm of travel and it is fine doing black runs at trail centres and rocky technical stuff up in the Pennines.

Well, I guess that's a pretty obvious tick in the "That guy was talking BS" column, then. I believe one of the people I saw saying that was in a product Q&A on a retailers site, so presumably they said that to cover themselves in case it broke on technical stuff?

 

[Hacienda71]

If you are heavy or a taking big hits on serious downhills regularly then more travel is going to help but Rock Shox and Fox etc wouldn't make 100 mm travel forks if they were going to break on most man made trails.

 

[Levo-Lon]

If you get a rockshox fork you can usually have what you want "frame permitting"
My sektor forks are adjustable from 100mm to 150mm.
my old rebas were 100mm to 120mm.
its just a case of adding or removing internal shims.
another option on more expensive forks is you have a external adjustment for terain so you can have 110mm for tarmac and 150mm for rough stuff etc..

 

[Cubist]

Most of the bikes you have seen in that category are likely to be 29ers, and a 100mm 29er should do you for anything you have described so far. Most riders will tell you it's not about the bike when you're starting out. What have you been looking at?

 

[KneesUp]

. I've seen one or two people suggesting that 100mm is not enough for anything more than a bit of XC, whereas I'm looking to start some trail riding. ... just some roots and singletrack, possibly small jumps when I've acclimatised.

I'm pretty sure bumps were bumpy before there were suspension forks

 

[razer17]

Most of the bikes you have seen in that category are likely to be 29ers, and a 100mm 29er should do you for anything you have described so far. Most riders will tell you it's not about the bike when you're starting out. What have you been looking at?

Started off looking at the Cube Acid or Cube Ltd Pro. My roadie is a Cube so I trust them.

Think I've decided to go with On-One now, though. Either lurcher or parkwood I reckon.

I'm pretty sure bumps were bumpy before there were suspension forks

That's true. I think I just let a couple comments spook me. I currently run my crappy mountain bike with the forks locked out, since they do nothing more than sap my energy. So a decent 100mm must be better.

 

[Motozulu]

I had a Cube reaction pro - 100mm forks. went everywhere on it - Coed-Y-Brenin, Llandegla, Cannock reds - it did them all. Not as well as a FS or a longer travel HT but it did them all, all the same.