Suspension fork help?

sparrowcar

Hi all,

I have a cube attention that came with a Rock Shox Dart 3 fork with 100mm of travel. I keep bottoming/flattening out on it and have out grown it already.

I asked for a voucher from family/Mrs S for my birthday from Chain reaction and can throw a few notes towards it but I would think my max budget would be €400 but ideally €300-350.

Can anyone recommend a good fork at that price range in CRC, do I need 120mm or will a good 100mm fork do a better job than my dart 3 100mm?

Thanks for help in advance.

Sparrowcar

Sagi

Well I think that there are many forks out there that will perform better than your Dart, and as the cube atention comes with a 100mm fork I would not really recommend to go bigger. for 350€ from CRC I would buy

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=88944

I have a durin Marathon and it works really fine and the price is very good

maybe also

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=92191
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=57827

or
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=82530

C3PO

While I know a couple of people who like their Magura forks there is nobody in Ireland (as far as I know?) who will service them - the same applies to Manitou! For ease of regular maintenance I would be inclined to stick with either Fox or RockShox. I would also go with 100mm travel as the bike was designed with that. I assume you've set the sag on your existing forks correctly? Does your existing fork have a straight or tapered steerer and do you have a QR or 15mm/20mm axle on the front wheel?
If you are actually bottoming out a properly set-up 100mm fork on a regular basis then you might be better saving your money until you can afford to change your bike for something with 120/140mm travel (and maybe full suspension!). While a new fork will undoubtedly be better it will still only have 100mm of travel!

Sagi

C3PO wrote: »

Does your existing fork have a straight or tapered steerer and do you have a QR or 15mm/20mm axle on the front wheel?

good questions...

The dart has a coil spring as far as i klnow, so maybe you could also get a diffrent coil spring suitable for your weight and riding style.

Still the dart is an entry leven fork, so looking for an upgrade might be a good idea anyhow

sparrowcar

C3PO wrote: »

While I know a couple of people who like their Magura forks there is nobody in Ireland (as far as I know?) who will service them - the same applies to Manitou! For ease of regular maintenance I would be inclined to stick with either Fox or RockShox. I would also go with 100mm travel as the bike was designed with that. I assume you've set the sag on your existing forks correctly? Does your existing fork have a straight or tapered steerer and do you have a QR or 15mm/20mm axle on the front wheel?
If you are actually bottoming out a properly set-up 100mm fork on a regular basis then you might be better saving your money until you can afford to change your bike for something with 120/140mm travel (and maybe full suspension!). While a new fork will undoubtedly be better it will still only have 100mm of travel!

Yes I set the sag to the fastest response but still flat packs after a couple of mins on downhill sections.
My fork has a straight 1 1/8 steerer and a QR hub.

I can't justify spending €1500+ on a new full sus so this will have to do as an alternative for the moment. Is a 120mm just out of the question?

Sagi

well I also ride a bike that was designed fo a 100mm with a 120mm fork, I don't know the attention frame but it does look like it has a rather neutral geometry, so adding 20mm on the front will not make a completly different bike out of it. Might go a bit better on the downhill, on the downside the front wheel might loose contact sooner on the uphills. Also there might be warranty issues when you mount a bigger fork.

C3PO

sparrowcar wrote: »

Yes I set the sag to the fastest response but still flat packs after a couple of mins on downhill sections.

I think you may be confusing "sag" and "rebound"? Sag should be set at about 25% of travel and rebound adjusted after that. Sag is normally set by adding air to a fork but if the Dart is a coil fork then the spring may need to be changed to a stronger one. I'm sure there is information available online for this?

studiorat

I'd look out for either Fox or Rock Shocks Reba.
There's some good deals on Chainreaction right now but be careful you get the right size head tube and axel size.

sparrowcar

C3PO wrote: »

I think you may be confusing "sag" and "rebound"? Sag should be set at about 25% of travel and rebound adjusted after that. Sag is normally set by adding air to a fork but if the Dart is a coil fork then the spring may need to be changed to a stronger one. I'm sure there is information available online for this?

Yes I think I am too. I'll google this this eve and see if I can find something on it. Thanks.