Interesting read, Andrew. I had my fork warranty serviced by Fox a number of years back when they changed a creaky CSU and didn't notice until James at Suspensionwerx pointed out that the fork came back 10mm longer. I had been changing around the cockpit and noticed that my bike descended much better, but the front wheel got really floppy on climbs... something I decided to live with. Once I realised the change was fork related, I found the MTB Geo calculator to see what had changed, and have now discovered that I can restore the stock geometry (reach, BB height, top tube, etc.) with a -2 degree headset. The HTA will drop almost 2.5 degrees from stock while maintaining the STA. The wheelbase will grow 25mm, all front centre. My only hesitation is what new problems may emerge in handling moving the wheel that much forward. Any thoughts? I reduced the stock stem from 80 to 55, would going back up somewhat help, or should it be okay. The geo of my bike after the headset change will look pretty similar to an Altitude or a Sight... both bikes I like.
July 23, 2019, 12:29 p.m. - Wile_E.
Interesting read, Andrew. I had my fork warranty serviced by Fox a number of years back when they changed a creaky CSU and didn't notice until James at Suspensionwerx pointed out that the fork came back 10mm longer. I had been changing around the cockpit and noticed that my bike descended much better, but the front wheel got really floppy on climbs... something I decided to live with. Once I realised the change was fork related, I found the MTB Geo calculator to see what had changed, and have now discovered that I can restore the stock geometry (reach, BB height, top tube, etc.) with a -2 degree headset. The HTA will drop almost 2.5 degrees from stock while maintaining the STA. The wheelbase will grow 25mm, all front centre. My only hesitation is what new problems may emerge in handling moving the wheel that much forward. Any thoughts? I reduced the stock stem from 80 to 55, would going back up somewhat help, or should it be okay. The geo of my bike after the headset change will look pretty similar to an Altitude or a Sight... both bikes I like.