View Single Post
Old 10-22-15, 06:27 PM
  #29  
corwin1968
Senior Member
 
corwin1968's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,411
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 55 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 32 Times in 18 Posts
I'm not clear on what aspect of the bike's handling you are unhappy with. Usually people are referring to front-end geometry when talking about a bike's "handling" but a lot of other factors influence it as well.

Your bike's shorter wheelbase might be contributing to an overall twitchy feeling or it might be the lower trail number (or both). If you want to make the front-end handling less responsive, a fork with more offset would take you in the opposite direction and make your front-end even twitchier. A new fork with less offset would take you in the right direction but it would also shorten the wheelbase (subtracting from stability) and increase the chance of toe overlap.

My preference is for a bike with wider tires, a 71.5 degree head angle and a fork with rake in the low 40mm range. This gives over 70mm of trail and feels very stable when riding. I was riding a bike with 60mm of trail and did not like it at all. Very twitchy feeling.

Here is the calculator I use to figure out the impact of head angle, fork offset/rake, wheel size and tire size. My experience is that a few mm of trail doesn't make a difference.

Bicycle Trail Calculator | yojimg.net
corwin1968 is offline