suspension configuration?

[K2perv]

hi all.  i'm wondering what your views are on front and rear susp. travel.  i'm currently rebuilding my proflex 5000.  this frame has 4.7" of travel on the rear, correct?  the crosslink that came with it has what, 3"?  has anyone found that they prefer equal travel front and rear?  or more travel up front?  i have no complaints with the setup that came from K2, but since i'm rebuilding my baby i thought maybe there were some better configurations out there.  thanks!

[proflex252]

My 5000 should have 100mm (4 inches) of travel with the original smart shock. Bullshit. I meassured it and it had just 89mm (3 1/2 inches).
My disco monkey has meassured 100mm travel on the rear with the nr 2 damper.

And the girvin fork who should have had 3 inches travel (76mm) has only 67mm travel.

So I implanted a NR 2 fork shock with more travel into the frame. Now the 5000 has 115mm (a bit more than 4 1/2 inches) travel. And it works perfect with my 2002 psylo race (5 inches travel)

[bikendan]

yea, the 5000 and 4000 had, at best, 4" of travel with the nr-4 or nr-5 smart shock. the later evo frames used a different noleen that had the 4.7", such as the disco monkey.

[proflex252]

No!

I must insist that my disco monkey has only 100 mm (4 inches) travel with the original nr 2 shock and not more. That's the reason why I'm just implanting a 5th element shock which should provide 170mm (some 6,7 inches) travel.

It seems Proflex / K2 has allways exagerated when saying something anout the travel.

The same with my friends Rocky mountain, steppenwolf or rotwild.

The same with all my forks. They are all with a little less travel than they should have.
Judy SL 2000: 97 instead of 100mm
Girvin Elite 1997: 67 instead of 76mm
Psylo Race 2002: 122 instead of 125mm
Junior T 2003: 166 instead of 170mm

Not much difference (except the girvin) and they are all perfect forks (including the girvin) but it seems the manufacturers do not want to tell the truth in that case.

[K2perv]

so basically the 5000 has about the same suspension travel front and rear?  i've put an astro 5 on the rear and a genesis on front.  those shouldn't have altered the travel, right?  should still be about 3.5" rear and 3" front?

[proflex252]

No again.

With the original configuration my 5000 had 89mm (3 1/2inch) on the rear and 67mm (2 1/2 inch) on the front. This was with the nr 5 smart shock on the rear and the girvin elite fork with a nr 2 shock on the front.

So, while riding I had sufficient travel on the rear and not enough travel on the front. That's why I changed my configuration.

[rapiddescent]

it is indeed common for the bike industry to overstate travel in suspension forks and in frames.  bugs the hell out of me.  It is common for a marzocchi fork to only be able to acheive 90% of the stated travel.  K2 frames are the same

I think they must measure the total travel of the frame by taking the spring out of the Nollen shock and then measuring the travel - in practice however, the suspension rarely bottoms out.  Although, on the plus side you get at least 0.5" tyre deflection with good quality off road tyres....!!!

callum

[Matno]

Are you counting the rubber bumper? I'm pretty sure that the full travel calculation includes compressing the rubber bumper completely...  

Somebody (one of the engineering types on this forum) figured out that the easiest estimate of rear travel on the EVO frames is 2.7 x stroke travel. It's accurate within about 1/10" through a wide range of travel (from about 4 - 6.5", even though the travel is not completely linear).

Claimed rear travel of the 5000 was definitely 4". More is better. I've got about 5.5 now and it's awesome. Doesn't feel any more mushy than the SmartShock, and much better on big hits and rough terrain. Any less than 4" on the front is not enough for this frame, IMHO. I hated it when I had a 3" fork. ALWAYS felt like I was going to go over the bars on steep descents. Never have that problem with my 4" X-verts. Personally, I think 4" is great on the front. 5" is okay too, but some forks feel really too tall to me (e.g. the Psylo). Not sure why.

[Frankd3000]

hi all.  i'm wondering what your views are on front and rear susp. travel.  i'm currently rebuilding my proflex 5000.  this frame has 4.7" of travel on the rear, correct?  the crosslink that came with it has what, 3"?  has anyone found that they prefer equal travel front and rear?  or more travel up front?  i have no complaints with the setup that came from K2, but since i'm rebuilding my baby i thought maybe there were some better configurations out there.  thanks!

At this current point in time I can't answer your original question. I have 2" front, 4.5" rear and so far I CAN say that I haven't noticed that I NEED more travel. It's not something that is slapping me in the face with such an obvious glove.

I am working on getting an '05 Manitou Minute 1:00, 100 mm travel (as advertised anyways - we'll see what it really is) and i'll update when I get the new set-up going (2-3 weeks?). That will put me nearly even front and rear.

What am I expecting? Don't have a clue yet, really. I'm hoping that i'll have more control, as this seems to be the most common trait of having matched suspension travel.

[shovelon]

My 2 cents ,



3 inches is minimum for any hardtrail. 4 inches is minimum for any susser. And NEVER less in the front than the rear. But I have strong legs and wimpy arms, so there.





"Quality is job one." - FORD MOTOR CO.



"Quantity has a quality of it's own." - Joseph Stalin [smiley=dead.gif]



Terry

[jimbo]

See Evo travel calculator in the files section:

http://idriders.com/proflex/files/swingarm_travel.xls

[K2perv]

so there actually IS 4.7 inches of travel?  is the useful travel 3.5 or so, then?  
do any of you ride with the fournales crosslink style fork?  i seem to recall a picture of an oz with one in the myriad galleries.  what are your thoughts on the performance of that one?

[proflex252]

You can calculate what ever you want. There is always some source of error in a calculation program.

And all I can say is I have meassured the reartravel on my 98 5000 with the smart shock which should have had 4 inches and it only got 3.5 inches including the red rubber bumper. If you don't count the red rubber bumper it will be some 2.5 or 3.0 inches of travel.

You know what's the prob when calculating a s/a travel?
You don't calculate the angle of the shock in a correct way. And this angel changes while the shock contracts.

And so I doubt that your 5000 is able to have 4.7 inches with a noleen rear shock. I have not ever seen a noleen rear havin 2 inches of stroke. And this is necessary to achieve 4.7 inches of rear travel.

What is the stroke of your rear shock? Just say it.

A nr 2 fork shock normally has 2 inches of stroke. If you replace the oil by a SAE 20 fork oil and put in a rear shock spring you will have your loved 4.7

By the way. I'm just at implanting a 226mm i2i 5th element shock with 70 mm stroke into my disco monkey. I will tell you what's the travel with that shock after I meassured it. I think it will be some 145 to 170 mm. But I can't tell before I meassured it.

CU