Small 955 - now what fork?

[DugB]

Hello all,

I had to pull the trigger on that nice, small 955 frame that was going on US eBay...will swap out the medium 856 frame for this one on my wife's bike. I have a question, though:

Her 856 frame has a taller headtube than this 955...and if I tried to fit her fork the steerer would be way too long. Anyone have a pic of a small 955, 756 or 856 that I can use to guide me? Any one know how long of a steerer this bike would have used? the fork legs weren't different than they would have been on a medium or large (bolt spacing-wise), were they?

Many thanks in advance!
- Doug

[Colin]

Assuming that you're fitting Vectors or Crosslinks then you need to maintain the "critical Measurement" i.e. the distance between the ULM and the lower pivot point.
see this:


Not sure of the Critical measurement" on a Vector, so best to measure what it surrently is and maintain that. if need be I can measure the CM on my Vectors.

Which probably means that you will need to fit spacers onto the small 955 to keep the measurement the same.

Here's a piccie of a small 856


Col.

[DugB]

Hello all,

OK, here's some information...this is the frame that I won:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290363173920&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

The headtube is 100mm tall, whereas the headtube on my wife's medium 856 is 120mm. The "critical measurement" on my wife's 856 fork steerer is 150mm...but I think I'm already using spacers above the ULM on it because the steerer was a bit long. I'd rather not have to use another 20mm of spacers, or cut the steerer. Were there other length steerers used for these bikes? Shown below is a pic I found of another small 856 (note the higher rear shock mount point...that's what I have). But the steerer is clearly 120mm and not 100mm even on the small 856.

I do have another fork I can play around with, so I don't need to disassemble her bike right off the bat. Just wondering if anyone knew what these earlier small bikes looked like with the fork.

Thanks!
- Doug

[shovelon]

Here ya go.

You bought this frame from this guy. You got a deal by the way.

[DugB]

Wow, thanks for that, Terry! So it looks like he used a big spacer stack under the stem as I'd have to...using the friction damper doesn't decrease the "cxritical measurement", does it? My wife's 856 is a later model with sprung Noleens, and ideally we could use 'em. I'm a little worried about the rear noleen working with the recessed upper shock mount...we'll see.

Thanks again!

- Doug :-)

[DugB]

So I got the stem all figured out last night, trimmed a bit from the top of an older steerer that I had (not one machined from a single piece, but one of the ones where the bottom part is glued/pinned to the tube itself) only to have the installed starnut fail (the center part started spinning). I pushed that way down and installed a new starnut and now all appears to be in order. I'll be using the separate ULM with a short/high rise stem to get the bars a little higher for my wife. Getting it all to fit did require some spacers, but by trimming off some of the excess from the steerer top at least it doesn't look goofy.

Terry, that red headset you sent with the 956 parts worked out well on this frame...thanks again!
I'll post a pic when I have the fork all back together.

Thanks for all the info & pics!

- Doug :-)