Originally Posted by csport

Hi
I am converting a Hardrock Sport (1999 or 2000) to drop bars since I am using it mostly for commuting/touring. I am thinking of swapping the stock Suntour SR-6200 fork with 80mm travel for some rigid fork like this one:
Nashbar Rigid 26" Mountain Bike Fork
It actually resembles Surly 1x1 fork, only it costs half as much. These forks are ``suspension corrected'' for 100mm travel. Will it make a big difference given that mine is 80mm travel? Assuming 1cm change in the fork length and a wheelbase of 1m, this would amount to roughly 0.5 degree angle, probably not a big deal. My concern is that the default (unsuspended) fork length has changed somewhat in the last 15 years. Thanks for any advice.
I understand that for this conversion I would need to convert to threadless and swap the headset/stem, no problem.

Edit: have done some homework, measured the Suntour fork axle to crown length as specified on Sheldon Brown's site: Fork Lengths by Damon Rinard
It is about 450mm. Does it mean I am looking for an unsuspended fork with 410-420 mm lengh?

Edit 2: Looking at the Surly fork specs here: http://surlybikes.com/uploads/downlo..._Fork_Info.pdf
Indeed, 1x1 80mm suspension corrected is 413 mm axle to crown. Other ones are much longer, and LHT fork is too short (376mm). The difference between 80mm and 100mm suspension corrected forks is 40mm, not 10mm as I expected (413 vs 453).