Changing my bike for different terrain
 

I live and ride in Phoenix, AZ. Lots of mountains to ride, and some nice, rough terrain. I ride an Ellsworth Id which I absolutely love.

I'm moving to Chicago next year, and most of my riding will be in forest preserves and such.

The Id is too much bike for that kind of terrain. I don't want to get rid of it though ... So how can I make it adapt better to the terrain I'll be riding?

- Riser bars, get rid of them?
- Go for a shorter travel fork
- less beefy wheelset?

Any ideas, suggestions?

All that is going to mess up the geometry of the bike. It was built around a certain recommened travel fork, it probably came with riser bars, so I wouldn't change anything. Besides, you can always take it to Challenge Park.

well, first I would wait and ride the new terrain with the existing bike/parts. Then from there, determine what you want to modify.

...that is, if you haven't ridden it already.

You could put lighter wheels with less rubber on it to lighten it up some. As others have said, I would change the fork travel as that would change the geometry. You could try some flat bars and see if the change is liveable or not.