PVD 5.5" Fork Hardtail
Riding mountain bikes in Marin is awsome. The climbs are big enough to be real and the trails are very challenging (especially at speed). Hardtails make everything really fun. A long travel suspension bike is pretty much wasted on the riding here and almost makes the trails boring. About 3-4" of rear travel would be perfect but this is commercially unavailable and I'm not ready to do suspension bikes yet. My aluminum welding needs to get a bit better.
A long travel fork is always a charm, but you can't just slap one on these into any hardtail frame. This frame is going to be designed around the longer 130mm and 140mm forks with traditional quick release dropouts.
The Print
26" Wheels, Fork Sagged 30%.
The Fork
This bike is being designed for use with a Fox Float 140 (140mm) or a Rock Shox Revelation 426 Dual-Air (130mm)
Both forks have a 39mm offset and relatively the same axle to crown dimention (fully extended) of 510.9mm for the Float 140 and 508mm for the Revelation. Either fork should produce the same feel with the 71 degree head angle, 70mm of mechanical trail.
The Tubes
I'm keeping this bike cheap in case the geometry doesn't work out quite right.
- Down Tube - Nova 29er DT 35 x 8/5/8 $16.20
- Seat Tube - Columbus ZONA 28.6 X 8/6 X 635 $22.51
- Top Tube - Columbus NEURON 28.6 X 7/5/7 TT $20.00
- Chain Stays - NOVA CRMO 22MM OVAL 425 - 12 DEGREE BEND $18.50
- Seat Stays - DEDACCIAI 12.5 16mm X 0.6 SINGLE TAPER 560 $18.71
- Independent Fabrications Dropouts (PVD Designed)
- Paragon 1.5" BB Shell
- Pacenti SS StampedHydo Stops:Bikelugs.com
- PVD Integrated IS Head Tube
- 27.0 Seat post
Fork Clearance
This bike was designed to give full clearance for a spinning fork.
Paint
Again with cheap powdercoating. RAL 3005 Wine Red or RAL 5002 Ultramarine Blue.
The bike will be painted after test riding.
Testing
The bike is rattlecanned and preped for test riding.
IS Headtube is sick!
Sano disco drops.
Seat cluster, clean.
Clearance for a 2.4 maybe even 2.5" tires.
On the scale at Fairfax Cyclery.
26.5 lbs without trying.
The Ride
The ride is comfortable. Very comfortable.
Handling is amazing while traversing and climbing. The front wheel is solidly planted when climbing.
The 71 degree head angle may have to come down to 69 or 70. The front end is too twitchy when decending and needs more trail.
The bottom bracket may be a little low. Having problems with the pedals and the ground. 12.25" may be in order.
The top of the head tube is a little high. The stem is at the lowest position to get proper body position. Lowering the top would give me more adjustment range. This assumes the use of high rise stem and high rise bars like I like. 5" would be better.
The RS Revelation is awsome. Light, stiff and plush. RS is killing it lately. The fork needs a little more tuning. 130/130 psi so far.
