E160 front fork travel upgrade / slacken

[Duggan]

Tempted to change the cartridge in my fox 36 Grip 2 forks upping the travel to 170mm, looks like this will slacken the front from 66.5 to about 66 which is a little more in line with the hard hitting enduro bikes.
Also this should allow changing to a smaller volume set of tyres preventing the bb highly changing.
Any thoughts? Or has anyone done this and how did it work out?
Cheers

 

[PeterM]

I went from 160mm to 180mm on my e160. Rockshox yari tho. Made a nice difference, not huge but i like it more now.

 

[Dan63]

I've taken my Lyrik out to 180mm and have been happy with the result

 

[RoJo]

Same here, went to 180mm, no regrets. Added a charger rc2 damper at the same time. Unbelievably plush.
I think the head angle change for 170mm would be around 0.4deg as you aren't adding 10mm, you're adding 8.5mm if you run at 15% sag. BB height would increase by 8.5 x 1/3 = +2.8mm because the BB sits about 1/3 of the way between the rear and front wheel.
In short, I wouldn't worry about the BB height change, however if you want easy ways to get it back: run a bit more sag on the fork to make it more plush, which you should be able to with more travel or pop some more volume spacers in the shock and drop the pressure.
As an aside, I didn't feel my BB to be too high after going 180mm, however I changed to 165mm XT cranks and now my feet feel miles from the ground to the point where I'm looking to drop BB height for some more performance. I got an offset bushing, but since shock is trunnion mount you can only fit it to one end and drop shock by 1mm =2.4mm at rear wheel. I might look into anglesets for a further drop.

 

[brash]

If your 36 is the ebike version unfortunately 160mm is as much travel you can go.

Reason is, it uses the Fox 34 airshaft which are capped at 160mm.

If it's the normal 36, 27.5+/29 can go to 170mm, the 27.5 can go 180mm.

The e160 works fantastic with a bit more rake, consider running a 29 inch wheel up front and a typical 2.4 or 2.5 inch tyre up back, that is the best combo I have run so far.

 

[LawmanMtb]

180 Lyrik here too, all good

 

[Dan63]

I have fine tuned my fork to the point i am happy with the setting in the last few rides as it wasn't quite right and i am 5kg lighter than earlier in the year. I must say the 180mm air shaft makes the Lyrik fork perform at it's optimum. I guess it's designed to this length and to make it shorter is probably going to be a compromise.

Lyrik comes from factory with 2 bottomless tokens fitted @ 160mm and i was running 95-100psi at this length. RS recommend zero tokens @ 180mm however i retained 1 when i put it back together. I am now running 80psi @180mm with 1 token and it feels nicer. Softer and more supple over chatter yet i still have plenty of support for bigger hits.

I've also replaced the 2 tokens in the Super Deluxe shock with a "gnar dog" token and managed to drop 10-15psi for again a softer feel and more slightly more sag without blowing through the travel.

 

[drjarvis2003]

Fitted a 2019 boxxer onto my e 160 after running a 180mm lyrik and it sits at 570mm axle to crown height the same as th lyrik, so will not affect the head angle at all. Best move i have made, steering precision noticeably improved and tracks the ground more efficiently too.

 

[CjP]

My brothers E160 with 180m boxxers.
He loves it, said he’ll never go back!

 

[Gregbase]

I went with 170 mm FOX 36 factory kashima. WOW, it's a hole new world. The thing is even it's 170 mm, to axle to crown not that much bigger so the head angle I don't think it's noticable but it works much better, smoother. Maybe the BB is a little higer too, but to avoid the pedal strike, I went a 165 mm crank instead of 175 (original). Mutch better too.

 

[brash]

I cant help playing with things. I swapped the fork from my other bike to the merida,

so now there is a fox36 29er with Vorsprung Coil conversion at 170mm on the front.

29'er front wheel on 2.5 inch assegai
27.5 wheel in back on 2.4 inch dissector

best setup yet, grip is incredible, bottom bracket is still low enough to rail corners. Just the speedo is way out with the smaller 2.4 up back.

 

[RoJo]

My brothers E160 with 180m boxxers.
He loves it, said he’ll never go back!

View attachment 20124

That is badass. Does the extra stiffness from the dual crown add a lot? Was it hard to fit?

 

[CjP]

That is badass. Does the extra stiffness from the dual crown add a lot? Was it hard to fit?

Not sure on the weight but I picked it up and didn’t notice any difference, might be a few grams but not noticeable.
What he did notice was the precise tracking and improved small bump sensitivity. Basically everything improved! Definitely worth the upgrade.