Chris Nelson wrote:
I have a Giant hardtail with an 80mm travel fork that I'm looking to
upgrade. In shopping around I've noticed that a lot of the newer forks
sport 100+ mm of travel, although there are still some nice 80mm forks
still available. I do mostly XC riding and realize that with increased
travel, I will be raising the front of the bike to a more chopper like
position, which would effect handling.

Question: If I bought a longer travel fork(100+), can I adjust the
preload so that my ride height would be the similar to 80mm? Is there
any drawback to doing this? Or should I just limit my shopping to 80mm
forks?

It would depend on the specific fork, but to use that much sag would
require a very soft spring setting that would likely cause you to blow
through the rest of the travel pretty quickly, perhaps bottoming the
fork frequently (a serious no-no). On the plus side, the fork would be
really plush.

Perhaps if you can find a fork with a progressive rate (an air fork may
be best) that allows for adjustment of its compression damping, you
could prevent that problem. You'd need pretty high compression damping
and low rebound damping to prevent bottoming and "packing" during
repeated hits. Even still, the fork would tend to compress a lot when
cornering, which could compromise control.

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