18" GT, rigid fork query

[Joe_Rides]

Morning,

Due to some road riding/canal towpath rides planned, I'm considering shedding a bit of weight and stiffening my bike up by installing a set of rigid forks.

I run an 18" GT Backwoods (I think it's a 1998 model) with a set of 2000 Marzocchi Z2 X-fly forks (80mm travel).

Does anyone know what crown to axle length a standard 18" GT of this era/size should run?

There are GT forks on ebay which seem to all be around the 390 - 405mm mark. I'm tempted to go for the 405mm's but for all I know these could be for a 14" frame!!!

I *think* (haven't measured it myself yet) the marzocchi's will be around the 445mm mark, so 40mm more. My worry is that the bike will end up with a nose-down stance.

Any help much appreciated,

Joe

 

[Joe_Rides]

Photo of bike currently:



Like I say, my main fear is it ends up sitting nose down if I buy forks which are too short.

Looking at the 1998 GT catalogue it looks like this bike would have originally come with RockShox indy XC's, so it wasn't originally rigid. But surely there were other 18" GT's with rigid forks.

 

[mass199]

A 80mm suspension fork replacement would need to be 425mm so it will lower the front slightly.

 

[Joe_Rides]

A 80mm suspension fork replacement would need to be 425mm so it will lower the front slightly.

Thanks for that,

I've done a little more research this morning into the original spec.

The original forks would have been Indy C's, which had 63mm travel.

Based on another thread I found on here a 410mm rigid would suffice as a replacement for that. So I may well take the plunge with the 405mm forks I've seen ebay - 5mm shouldn't make too much difference?!

 

[mass199]

If you get a longer steerer you can always put some more shims under the stem.