I thought I saw something once in the FAQ section, but don't see anything now. I recently acquired a pretty well set up bike, but with a blown fork and cracked frame. I've decided to buy a new frame and fork and transfer all the parts onto it.

I know I want a hard-tail frame, and a fork with ~80-100mm of travel. I plan to do single-track and some drops, but probably nothing more than ~5'. I'm not sure if that falls into XC stuff, trail bike, or AM? Feel free to give suggestions/examples of specific frames/forks - Looking to spend $3-400 for frame+fork. I'm ~5'7", have a 31" inseam, and weigh ~150lbs if it makes any difference.

EDIT: Or if you could even suggest a good place to start reading up more on the differences in things. I'm having trouble even knowing where to begin looking with this stuff.

Jamis Komodo, jensonusa for $120

Best I could find on Jension that would fall under your requirements, but would stand to drops is a Marzocchi DJ2, which would have easily have been under $400. For the fork, you could always look for a used one in great condition.

Thanks! I've read good comments on the Komodo. Looking into the fork more now.

Buy a pricepoint or nashbar house brand frame.

The Komodo for $120 is a deal and a half.

My Komodo frame came speced with a 130mm fork. Its an '03, Bikepedia what the '09 came with. I doubt its an 80-100mm.

The 09 komodo 2 came with an 100mm fork
https://bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeS...o+II&Type=bike

Then by all means, I agree with the Komodo

The Komodo II comes with a DJ1, which is a 100mm fork. But Dan is referring to buying just the frame and then picking up a DJ2 separately.

I have to say, the fork was a challenge while trying to keep it below, if it was ~$500, it would have been easier.

Actually, I checked today and I think my old "80mm" fork is only getting ~60mm of travel. If this isn't typical, I think I'd like to keep it to 80mm max if possible. Do they even make those these days that are suitable for drops and not just light XC duty? I don't really want a fork that's going to be squishing all over the place. I grew up riding ridged of course when I was young, then BMX dirt jumping as a teenager, and don't really like the idea of a big squishy fork. I just want something to smooth out the bumpy single-track. Otherwise, the set-up Dannihilator suggested does sound pretty sweet. The only thing I noticed being that the Komodo says it's 1 1/2" head-tube, and the DJ2 is 1 1/8" steerer. Some sort of adapter available I'm guessing, or is that the space that the headset takes up or something? Still really new to this MTB stuff...

And sorry Dan, $400 is even pushing my budget unfortunately, so $500 is definitely out. I wish I could.

You can get reducer cups to make that 1.5 a 1_1/8 and that should still fall in your budget.

I think you'd be better off with 100mm of travel. 80mm is getting really tough to find anything decent anymore. I'd search for used.

OK. Thanks again. I guess I'll just go with 100mm and I'm sure I'll probably get used to it. I actually went out today and had an awesome ride and felt like I dominated the single-track compared to what I've done before, but felt like more travel and plush-ness would just make it a "no skill required" kind of situation. Again, I'm sure I'll get used to it, though. Maybe I'll just have to find some more difficult trails. Heck, maybe I'll put the ridged fork back on my current bike and just have a nice Komodo with a sweet fork for fun on drops and tough trails and a ridged for the trail near me. It would probably make me a better/smoother rider anyway to get back to the ridged once in a while, right?

Komodo has a reducer headset. So it can fit a 1.5" if you find a great deal on a fork, but you'd also need a headset and stem.

^ I don't quite understand what you're saying since I don't know much about MTBs yet. Are you saying it will fit 1.5" steer-tube in stock form, or that you need a reducer to fit the 1.5"? The DJ2 that Dannihilator suggested is 1 1/8" steer-tube. From what I understood from his previous post, it's 1.5" and a reducer would let me run the DJ2. Are you pointing out that if I do find a good deal on a 1.5" fork, I'll have the advantage of being able to run that too?

Oh right, forgot you're looking at just the frame. You can get a 1.5" headset and fit a fork with a 1.5" steerer tube, or you can get a reducer headset and fit a fork with a 1-1/8" steerer tube. When you buy the complete, there's a reducer headset in there already, because the stock fork is a 1-1/8".

Ok. Got ya. Yeah, I thought I'd have to get some sort of adapter, or reducer I guess it's called. Is that a matter of getting a special headset, or is the reducer something that fits a standard 1 1/8 headset to the 1.5" head-tube? I noticed the DJ2 comes with a free headset on Jenson. Is that going to be useless to me?