Using a 650b fork to mod 26" geometry?

[radam]

A couple months back I built up a Trance X frame for my wife using a mish mash of parts. The overall build is pretty decent, especially for the amount that she rides and for her less-than-discerning bike tastes. The biggest compromise I made was using the Rockshox Reba that had been the stock fork on my 2005 Trance. I overhauled it and removed the travel spacer to set it at 115mm of travel, but the Trance X is a 5" travel frame and stock bikes comes spec'd with fork ranging from 120mm to 140mm of travel. I don't think having "only" 115mm of travel is necessarily a problem, but I do think that the resulting steeper head angle is less than optimal.

The ideal replacement would be an air-sprung RS Sektor or Revelation, to keep the fork weight under ~4 lbs. But the budget is also decidedly under $200 so I'm trying to find more options for my search. One thought that came to mind is the "650b-compatible" forks that X-Fusion offers. I was thinking I could pick up a 120mm Enix or Velvet and install the 650b spacer to alter the geometry and then I'd be all set. Right line of thinking or wrong line of thinking?

[marshalolson]

650b forks are 5mm longer. that will do nothing meaningful to the geo.

the trance x wants a 140-150mm fork on it.

[radam]

Gotcha, thanks. I was thinking it was more like 10mm and that if I went to a 120 or 130mm travel Xfusion with the spacer it'd all be nice and tidy.

[mntlion]

a shock, with a shorter eye to eye can balance it out too? (same stroke, just less E2E)

[scrublover]

650b forks are 5mm longer. that will do nothing meaningful to the geo.

the trance x wants a 140-150mm fork on it.

This. Spent a good year on my TX, and it really works well with forks in the 140-150mm range. Just keep your eyes peeled for some deals.

[radam]

Yeah, I'm not opposed to a 140mm fork, but I figured it'd be good to have some other shopping options. I should be able to score something over the winter.

[FlimFlamvanHam]

If it's the head angle that is the issue, then get a Works Components Headset about ~$110 shipped out of UK.

They have 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 degree headsets. They are not like Cane Creek Anglesets! these ones work and are a set amount of offset (not adjustable). They are a pain to install (not really but you have to align the cups where as on a standard headset you just bang them in).

I'm running a -1.5 right now on my bike. It's a great product.

ch ch ch ch ch check it out: http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/

[marshalolson]

also, your reba is potentially internally convertible to 130mm. might be worth looking at..

[radam]

If it's the head angle that is the issue, then get a Works Components Headset about ~$110 shipped out of UK.

I thought about an angleset a bit, but I just figured if I was spending money I might as well at least get the bike up to or beyond the amount of travel it should be spec'd at.

also, your reba is potentially internally convertible to 130mm. might be worth looking at..

The Reba is from 2005, so unless there's something I'm missing, 115mm is unfortunately the max travel. Plus since it's an old Dual Air, it's tough to get it to get it to sit at any more than 110 even with new o-rings in there to try to seal things up. I read something about a quad-ring mod to really minimize air migration between the pos and neg chambers, but I couldn't figure out what size I needed and I just wanted to go forward with the overhaul.


AND if I buy a new fork for her Trance then the Reba can get moved to my almost-finished urban/park bike build. Maybe not the preferred fork for that, but something tells me it's better than the Dart 1 I had lying around.