Mountain Bike Fork Angle

Increasing the suspension travel increases the fork angle and moves your seating position back. Primary among these are wheelbase steering axis angle fork offset and trail these parameters have a major influence on how a bike handles. Since your bike is designed for a specific type of riding changing its geometry won t adapt to another category but in most cases it will simply destroy the bike s capabilities.

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Tech Talk How Frame Geometry Affects A Bike S Handling Mtbr Com

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To The Point Wheel Diameter Vs Fork Offset Wheel Fork Diameter

Fork offset determines trail when considered with head angle and the diameter of the wheel.

Mountain bike fork angle. Reducing the offset which is what many bike designers are doing today pulls the axle closer. You can also play with your suspension setup to change your bike s dynamic geometry running more sag in your rear shock and or less sag in your fork will result in a bike that rides slacker. Fork offset combined with head angle affects something called trail and ultimately whether it s a dog or a whippet on cdertain descents thus explains bike fettler extraordinaire chris porter from mojo. Trail is best thought of as the tire patch trailing behind the steering axis.

Fork offset also known as rake is the distance between the axle and a straight line through the head head tube. Fork offset is the measurement of how far the front hub axle sits in front of the bike s steering axis. 57mm of trail is considered by many to be an ideal combination of stability and agility. A bike feels great when descending if it has steering that is stable at high speeds and when in the turns.

Try upping your fork pressure by 10 and dropping your rear shock pressure by 10. Moving away from the textbook 25 30 sag window is best done if your suspension units have some degree of compression. Unlike the longer fork where you are increasing the height of the front end with a longer axle to crown measurement you are now just bring the front end farther out from the bike in relation to the frame which slightly lowers that bb measurement. Offsetting the fork more increasing offset pushes the axle further in front of the head angle.

The difference between this and a traditional symmetrical headset is that the holes where the bearings seat are offset and tilted to give the fork steerer a clean new angle while maintaining proper interaction with the bearings. This makes the bike not only more stable from the slacker ht angle but also more stable in the turns. Bicycle and motorcycle geometry is the collection of key measurements lengths and angles that define a particular bike configuration. Fork offset for road bikes usually ranges from 40 to 55 mm generating trail figures from 50 to 63 mm.

All modern mountain bike forks have a positive offset. This has two effects.