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The national average length...

Marcus Farley Wednesday, Aug 5, 2009 10.00am

For me, it’s generally always been a 100mm travel bike for most of my riding, and a 140mm travel bike for the scarier stuff.

But my new  stead, and the other capable longer travel trail bikes, is efficient enough that I’m now looking at 140mm as my less, and 160mm as my more…

Something that I wish all fork manufacturers would get: I don’t want 140, 150 or 160mm, nor incremental variations between. And, Fox please take note, I don’t want 160-130-110mm. I want a simple lever that turns the front suspension between 140mm and 160mm to match my confidence and fear levels, as well as my latest stead’s capabilities at the rear. But, that’s me…

Because, as Lance so famously once said, “it’s not about the bike.”

My colleagues at What MTB have voted a short travel full suspension bike (the Giant Anthem) as their bike of the year. My riding buddy Simon wasn’t surprised.   He is the barometer for me and our riding mates.  He goes down stuff on his short travel Yeti ASR-SL that I bottled out on mine, and that I still bottle out on the Intense Traver VP. For, you see, it’s not always about the length, it’s also about what you do with it.

Over to you to give your views on what length is best for the UK. Leave your comments below.

Previous: « The national average length...

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  • have to agree here that for the UK 120mm is more than enough . I've ridden a Margam NPS race many years ago on a ridged single speed. I've done a few dragon races on a hardtail and came up with better times than chaps on long travel Dh bikes.

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