Max travel on a bravado?

[fred1]

Hi all,

I have decided that I need suspension that works, and I have been quite inspired by the 'hodrods' thread on here. So, I know that this may be frowned upon, I want a modern suspension fork.
I reckon that a 80mm fork won't be a problem, am I pushing it going for a 100mm?
Also, want to get my frame resprayed, anyone know of someone in lancashire (near Preston) that can be recommended?

Cheers

Fred

 

[samjacksonphotography]

Hello Fred, I would say 80mm shouldn't be a problem, 100m could be pushing it too far as the distance from the wheel base to the steerer tube will be longer, decreasing the strength and you are prone to flexing. Unless you go for something like a triple clamp, but only normally you can get them for 120mm Forks!

In terms of 80mm forks, it depends on how much your iwlling to spend, for the cheaper end, maybe suggest a set of Dart 2's? or if your looking at the full jobbies, may i suggest a set of SID world cups?

Sam

 

[drystonepaul]

What year Bravado is it?
I swapped from rigid forks and ran Rock Shox Quadra 21R's on my 1992 Bravado back BITD. They had about 60mm of travel as I recall and had no effect on the geometry but the steering turned did to sh*t as they were so flexible.
The 1997 Bravado had a spec option for a Rock Shox Judy XC which had a listed travel of 63mm, so presumably it was suspension corrected for that amount of travel.
On my 97 Bravado I ran RST Mozo Pro's for several years. They had about 75mm of travel and did slacken the head angle slightly but with no great detriment to the handling. It's back on rigids now though.
I think that from experience running anything much more than 80mm would pretty much wreck the handling.

 

[SeeingisBelievingGTMuseum]

80mm with fork having no more than a 405mm axle to crown measurement.