I'm 6'-3" with very long legs (38.5" inseam) for my height. I'm riding a Blur now, but feel that my extreme high seat position puts me too far back over the rear wheel, making steep climbs difficult. The short wheelbase relative to my high cg is probably also not ideal for steep descents. No stock 26" fs bikes have significantly longer chainstays, which I think would help. So, I'm considering a 29er.

My Blur has 4.5" of rear travel, but I've been considering a Heckler, which is around 5.5", or a 5 Spot, which I liked the stability of over the Blur. Are there any 29er frames that I should consider in this range of travel and with comparable performance? Would I likely be happy with less travel with the bigger wheels? I'm an aggressive trail rider, some low stunts and drops. Mostly I like descending fast singletrack but the bike must also climb and handle technical terrain well. My LBS is a Gary Fisher dealer, but doesn't stock many of the 29ers, especially in the larger sizes. I don't need a particularly long top tube, since my torso is short.

I just bought a Maverick DUC32 for my Blur, which is awesome. Anyone looked into the possibility of modifying this fork for a 29er? It seems like it could be done with either longer dropouts, extending the fork legs (less overlap inside the uppers), limiting the travel, and/or modifying the lower crown.

-David

Long travel is THE hot issue on here recently, due to it not existing.
Well, a 4.5" Astrix Monk will soon be released, and the XL is supposed to have lots of toptube to further get centre of gravity away from the front axle.

I'm in the same boat as you, 6'4"/39.2" inseam. My 29" XL Fisher hardtail just won't pop a rear wheel on descends, while my 26" VooDoo's were very much bear-on-tricycle.
The same for climbing. The Fisher's chainstays are even quite short, but the higher placement of the axle makes pivoting over them take up more energy, this adding stability. I'll crawled up some wicked steep gravel roads, seated, that bystanders just couldn't believe with their noses right on it. 26" bikes with shorter rider never even reached the steeper part if the climbed, popping front wheels like wedding bouquets.

With the bigger wheels, consensus is that you need less suspension travel to get the same control and comfort as on a 26" bike. Which is good, as you can make a plush yet light bike. The Lenz Leviathan is all over this forum, and really seems to hit a sweetspot with suspension design, handling, weight, and grin factor.

Ask a real fork guru about the fork. Limiting travel seems most logical, and has been done before with a Marz Shiver. You add a bit of stiffness, and keep the plush by adding some wheel radius. How much is the fork now, axle-bottom of crown? A 29x2.2" tire needs about 370mm, so you can try to figure out the travel that leaves you.

I went into the maverick hq and asked about modifying their fork for a 29er. They said it is very easily done, and they were actually looking at putting out some m-bits spacers that would do it. I don't have one of their forks yet, so i haven't tried it, but the guy i talked to knew all about it, so maybe check with the shop you bought it from or email mav.

and i went from a klein palomino to a fully rigid 29er and only notice the lack of travel on really rocky descents...leading me to believe that a 2-3inch travel 29er is probably = 4or 5inch 26er in feeling.
just a guess though.

Coupla threads you may be interested in, Go to them for some good info:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=54099&highlight=maverick

Well crap. My connection here is bad. I'll look up the pic of Cameron Chambers and his DUC-32 equiped 29" racer at home tonight.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If Maverick puts out a 29" version of thier diesgns, I'll be in line to save my nickels and quarters to get one. LOTS of nickles and quarters....

Here's the other link:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?postid=491865#poststop
From Cameron Chambers hisself!
And the pic. DUC-32 mounted up to his 292. It all looks pretty freakin' sweet to me. The 292 doesn't even look raked out at all. All of a sudden, that Fisher 292 as a 4x4 looks pretty cool....

I went into the maverick hq and asked about modifying their fork for a 29er. They said it is very easily done, and they were actually looking at putting out some m-bits spacers that would do it. I don't have one of their forks yet, so i haven't tried it, but the guy i talked to knew all about it, so maybe check with the shop you bought it from or email mav.

and i went from a klein palomino to a fully rigid 29er and only notice the lack of travel on really rocky descents...leading me to believe that a 2-3inch travel 29er is probably = 4or 5inch 26er in feeling.
just a guess though.

Sweet, will look into it. I love the DUC32, and I've got a fair amount of money into it. If it only needs minor mods, I could see selling my Blur frame and lacing up a couple of new rims to try a Leviathan or something. If only I could find one to test ride (Hood River, OR).

-David

All I can say is wow! It's amazing! It's completely transformed my sugar 292! I'll try to post some pictures and more details as soon as I get chance!
Following on form the earlier posts on here I made some enquires into buying and modifying one, and it turned out to be a rather simple and quick process!
The fork simply needs to have its travel restricted by 30mm to 120mm, apparently this is done with spacers!
Tim from TFtuned (www.tftuned.com) did an amazing job on this for me last week - Cheers Tim!
After recieving/fitting it last week, I got to take it out for it's first 'proper' ride yesterday, for the UK guys on here who know it I rode the Contenintal trail at Nant Yr Arian, which basically has all kinds of terrain to ride there in a just short of 40K loop and the fork performed flawlessly!
Anyway, sorry to go on, but I am incredibly impressed with the fork and the way it's transformed my bike and will attempt to post more details, pics and a proper review etc. as soon as I get chance.

Laters

Mat

Long travel is THE hot issue on here recently, due to it not existing.
Well, a 4.5" Astrix Monk will soon be released, and the XL is supposed to have lots of toptube to further get centre of gravity away from the front axle.

I'm in the same boat as you, 6'4"/39.2" inseam. My 29" XL Fisher hardtail just won't pop a rear wheel on descends, while my 26" VooDoo's were very much bear-on-tricycle.
The same for climbing. The Fisher's chainstays are even quite short, but the higher placement of the axle makes pivoting over them take up more energy, this adding stability. I'll crawled up some wicked steep gravel roads, seated, that bystanders just couldn't believe with their noses right on it. 26" bikes with shorter rider never even reached the steeper part if the climbed, popping front wheels like wedding bouquets.

With the bigger wheels, consensus is that you need less suspension travel to get the same control and comfort as on a 26" bike. Which is good, as you can make a plush yet light bike. The Lenz Leviathan is all over this forum, and really seems to hit a sweetspot with suspension design, handling, weight, and grin factor.

Ask a real fork guru about the fork. Limiting travel seems most logical, and has been done before with a Marz Shiver. You add a bit of stiffness, and keep the plush by adding some wheel radius. How much is the fork now, axle-bottom of crown? A 29x2.2" tire needs about 370mm, so you can try to figure out the travel that leaves you.



Hey Cloxxki, so you have any info, or know where I can find info on the Shiver Travel reduction? I assume it's for the Single crown, Thanks!!!
:D

Hey Cloxxki, so you have any info, or know where I can find info on the Shiver Travel reduction? I assume it's for the Single crown, Thanks!!!
:D
So it's Chris from Speedgoat that did it, but has anyone rode it? I'm a former shop manager with plenty of Mechanical/Shiver SC experience, shouldn't be too hard...
anyother info out there would be awesome!!

I recall reading the shiver procedure was less straightforward than one might expect, and involved some Fox parts. It was at least hard enough to not want to offer converted shivers to customers.

Matinns, are you actually getting 120mm from the fork now?? What's the actual travel and crown-axle length?
And do you happen to have an actual weight for your fork, or similar ones?

Enjoy your "new" fork!

J

I recall reading the shiver procedure was less straightforward than one might expect, and involved some Fox parts. It was at least hard enough to not want to offer converted shivers to customers.

Matinns, are you actually getting 120mm from the fork now?? What's the actual travel and crown-axle length?
And do you happen to have an actual weight for your fork, or similar ones?

Enjoy your "new" fork!

J

The converted Maverick is indeed capable of 120mm travel, coupled with the Sugars huge 4.6" travel at the rear makes for one very capable bike!
I was running slightly too much pressure in the fork this weekend, and 'only' managed to achieve 110ish mm travel! But the full 120mm is definately possible!
I know this because I wanted to check the clearance between the crown and the tyre at full compression with a Bontrager Jones ACX fitted, before I rode it! :)
So, with a zip tie on the lowere leg for measuring purposes I emptied all of the air and fully compressed the fork! This gave me around 10mm of clearance between fork and crown and the full 120mm of travel!
As the modification only restricts the travel with a spacer, by effectivly raising the bottom out stop (as I best understand it!) axle to crown length reamins unchanged! Quoted A-C length is 517.4mm!
Which suite me fine as I never enjoyed riding the Sugar in its 'longer' travel setting with either a Marzocchi Marathon SL or White Brothers BW .8, both of these forks felt too short!
Consequently I've managed to roughly keep the same feel by putting the linkage in the longer travel position at the same time as fitting the fork!
The only downside of the added height (for me at least - I'm only 5'10") is the bar height with risers is now slightly above my saddle height! Which I don't like, but I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem at all for you taller guys?!
But I don't want to go back to using a narrow flat bar (the FSA Carbon K-Force Downhill bar I was using was 710mm wide!)!
So know I'm waiting on a Seven custom Titanium flat bar that replicates the width and sweep of my old bars, but with no rise! This will than I think be absolutley perfect, not that I had any complaints about how my bike rode this weekend, even if it was a bit 'upright'!
As for the weight of the fork, I did indeed weigh it before I fitted it, but don't have that bit of paper here right now! - It's in the office, so if you won't to know the exact weight? I'll try to post that here tomorrow!
But I do remember these forks were impressively light to hold!
The scales backed this up and I seem to remember them being very close to the quoted weight of 3.5lbs/1.59Kg but I'd have to check to be sure!
They are slightly heavier than the stock fork due to the modification but in short, not enought to worry about!
These forks are unbelievably light, especially when you take into account how incredibly stiff they are!

I'm sure you've already gathered but I absolutely love them!
I haven't stopped smiling or talking about them since I got to ride them properly! Sorry for the long reply, I hope this is of some interest to you all though?!

Laters

Mat

I am thinking about a modified SC32 for the front of my 29er.

That will only give me a 95mm travel fork but it will still be lighter than the BW0.8

P::..

Thanks for the info Mat.
517.4mm for 120mm of travel would be very neat, a bit less height than most other forks at full compression, I'd say.

Try invert your riser bars, see what happens. Might not sukk.

1.6kg for 120mm of 29" joy, incredible. Imagine 150mm at that weight for the baby wheel folks...
Does anyone already make "smart" dampers for those babies? When designed properly, and lightweight like that, I firmly believe that more travel is only better.

Now we have to see what Lenz will come up with as a one-off 5" bike for MikeC. A tricked Leviathan, similar weight, more travel, would make me a 24-25lb 2x120mm marathon racer. Climb like a softtail, descend like an 2x8" DH bike. Oh momma.

I can tell by your punctuation that you really like the fork! Just messing with you!

Good to know that if/when I go to a 29er, I can keep the DUC32; it's awesome on my Blur. I'm tall enough that even with a 2" riser bar, my grips are still below the saddle saddle (barely) in "climbing" mode (with 26" wheels). I usually drop the saddle about 2" for descending, and the position is awesome. I bet a wide flat bar will work out great for you.

To answer another post, I don't believe anyone has any plans to do an aftermarket platform-type upgrade to the Maverick. Supposedly, it's a very simple damper design, but it seems to work well for most people. Mine is having trouble holding air pressure right out of the box (loses 20 psi on a ride), but between the LBS and Maverick, I'm confident that they'll take care of it for me.

-David