May 25, 2020, 5:15 p.m. -  John Delacruz

I think overforking works better for the longer reach new school bikes. For the older bikes with a shorter reach, the bike may end up too short. In my case I had a small 2011 Haro shift overforked to 140 mm (20mm above stock). Since the frame was already short, the saddle could not be mounted forward to compensate for the slacker SA.  Since the stock SA was already slack as is, climbing seated became harder. I replaced the frame with another Haro Shift a 2009, but in size medium. This is the bike that I later overforked to 160mm (40mm above stock). With the medium frame roughly 25mm longer in reach, I had enough room to slam the saddle forward. I feared the saddle would break by being clamped to the very rear of the rail, so I then replaced the saddle with the shortest I could find. This would lessen the leverage if I sit at the nose of the saddle. With the saddle mounted forward, climbing seated was tolerable and tucking behind the saddle became easier. So my formula for overforking are: 1\. longer frame to account for shortening reach caused by longer fork 2\. slam saddle forward to compensate for slacker SA (and longer frame) 3\. shorter saddle to lessen the leverage caused by being slammed forward