Fully suspended Spa Tourer

[UpWrong]

Well, not quite. With Suntour NCX parallelogram seatpost and Suntour hybrid CR-8 suspension fork

[531colin]

Calendar is slow. First of May to-day.

[JohnW]

Calendar is slow. First of May to-day.

[recordacefromnew]

Well, not quite. With Suntour NRX parallelogram seatpost and Suntour hybrid CR-8 suspension fork

I don't know if you have tried riding it, but those forks will change the handling of the bike as designed, quite significantly.

Suntour is not exactly renowned for offering detailed info on their products, but comparing with the original rigid forks, I suspect the CR8 to have an additional A2C of c60mm, and probably c10mm less offset.

Assuming yours is not a 48mm frame, and the geometry of your frame is the same as the current model's at http://www.spacycles.co.uk/smsimg/uploads/touringgeometry.jpg, an additional A2C of 60mm will give you a 3 degree reduction in head tube angle. Combine that with the difference in offset, the original trail of 62mm, which is normal, will become more like 92mm.

Steering will feel a lot more sluggish, amongst other more subtle changes in reaches/CG etc.

Also the CR8 forks, at c2.4kg, are nearly as heavy as the nice, light steel frame you have got, yet has only 40mm/50mm of max travel. Some might consider it preferable to adopt bigger tyres running at lower pressure instead, even if it meant acquiring a pair of suitable rigid forks and/or different mudguards for additional clearance. Bigger tyres might also let one do without a suspension seatpost, which are never light, and don't keep a constant "seat height" (saddle to bb distance).

[Brucey]

....Assuming yours is not a 48mm frame....

I think that is a pretty safe bet, isn't it...?

but joking aside, I agree the steering is likely to be a fair bit different.

cheers

[Gattonero]

Also, if that is the saddle height I would advise a completely different bike

[UpWrong]

It's the 51cm frame. Saddle is as low as it will go and yes it might still be a bit too high for me. Standover is on the margin too. Fork is taller than I anticipated. Will measure it. I wanted to give it a go. Only paid about £15 for the fork anyway.

[whoof]

I like your cat tea cosy. I have a couple of owl ones.

[531colin]

By all means "give it a go".....but I don't think I would like the way it will steer.
As "record ace" says, you have increased the trail 2 ways....longer fork for shallower head angle, and less offset.
I think you will get "wheel flop" where the steering turns in sharply because the front of the bike drops as soon as the steering isn't "straight ahead".
With the front of the bike jacked up like that and the handlebars high and close, I don't think you will have enough weight on the front of the bike to get any movement out of the forks, and the bottom bracket is pretty high.

[Gattonero]

It's the 51cm frame. Saddle is as low as it will go and yes it might still be a bit too high for me. Standover is on the margin too. Fork is taller than I anticipated. Will measure it. I wanted to give it a go. Only paid about £15 for the fork anyway.

Not a lot of money, but those forks aren't right so is not a useful purchase.
That bike was never meant to have the forks so tall, the headtube angle slackened, and the bars so high.

My advice is to look for a bike that will keep you more upright to begin with, so to not need those extreme alterations.

[Si]

I wonder also that should your head tube snap off, the fitting of an overly long fork might invalidate any warrantee that you have left on the frame?

Although getting the wrong length fork isn't always bad - I had an MTB that was corrected for 100mm forks, I put on a standard rigid fork with no correction and the ride on the road was much better when used as a fast, light, nippy cafe racer - lost its MTB neutrality and became much more flickable....of course, part of this may just have been down to the weight moving forward as the bars were lower. But I fear that going in the opposite direction will not be beneficial.

[Bmblbzzz]

There's a decent tradition of attaching a rack and, where possible, mudguards to a MTB and using it as a tourer. You seem to be going in the opposite direction. And why not? There's also an even longer tradition of riding tourers off road. I'm not sure that what you've made will handle like a mountain bike, but it certainly won't feel like a Spa Tourer.

[UpWrong]

I wonder also that should your head tube snap off, the fitting of an overly long fork might invalidate any warrantee that you have left on the frame?

That's a bit pessimistic. I would expect that the suspension would reduce impacts on the frame and lower the risk of damage.

[UpWrong]

I like your cat tea cosy. I have a couple of owl ones.

That tea cosy is one of the best purchases I've made .

[UpWrong]

Difference in A2C is approx 65 or 70mm. Hmmm, tempted to install the std fork afterall which would lower the seat height a little ensuring that I'm comfortable using the NCX seatpost. OTOH I've played around with trail on 'bents so why not give it a go on an upright?