BottleRocket Fork upgrade

[Bikes Bats New Tatts]

Hi guys,

I am thinking of a fork upgrade on my bottle rocket from my 2010 Talas 160s to the new 2011 Talas 180s. Just wanted to see what you thought in terms of the change in balance and head angle. The BR is 5.5 inches of travel in the rear and is balanced pretty well at the moment with 6 up front. Is pushing up to 7 going to cause me any drama?

Also as you can see in the photo I am currently running spacers under my stem that are about 20-30mm. If I installed the longer fork and ditched all my spacers would that go some way to offset or is it really the angle at the bottom of the head tube and not the bar position I need to worry about?

Any views on whether this upgrade is worth it at all? Would the difference in performance be so noticeable as to make it worth the money? Or am I just replacing like with like?

Any thoughts or comments would be great. Thanks. Oh – My riding is usually of the descending variety, gaps, jumps, drops etc.

 

[Downhill Domination]

First of all, I'll take the time out to say the look of your frame is very nice (paint job).
I love my bottle rocket and can't see any faults in it yet, but I wouldn't swap out for bigger forks.
I think the 180 mm Talas would look a little too steep, as opposed to the 160mm Fox Van I am running at the moment.
Just keep that in mind.

 

[bikesarefun]

Plenty of people rock the rocket with totems. This will be way sweeter. Planning on doing the same with mine at some point - 180mm for freeride, 140mm for dirt jumps, smiles all day.