Hehe that is some mouthful… the short version is there’s a new fork on the front of the Mojo HD. The 2008/09 36 Float has been retired and replaced by a FOX 2013 34 Float 26 160 FIT CTD. Luckily the new fork is easier to setup than it is to say!
There was a lot to like about the old Float 36 on the Mojo HD. Simple, robust and so little flex it made less beefier forks on other bikes I’ve ridden feel like wet noodles, which is an unnerving thing out on the trail. A solid front end is a sweet thing, no point being under-forked!
Why the change? A combination of things I guess – the old Float was getting to the stage of being pretty well beat up, and after test riding a Mojo SL-R at Melrose the other week I started to wonder about ways to sharpen the HD up a little. As it happens 2013 will mark 25 years of mountain biking for me, so yeah gotta celebrate… early! OK that is a BS reason to get a new fork 🙂
Things that appealed to me about the 34 Float 26 160: The CTD stuff. I like maintaining my bike but I LOVE riding it way more, part of that is keeping things simple vs spending hours setting things up and fiddling around. The idea of being limited to Climb, Trail, Descend settings with three settings within Trail simplifies things. The Kashima coating… it’s mighty purdy, and supposedly improves performance. The drop in weight over the 36’er, I guess around a quarter of a pound. Not that the HD has been built to be as light as it can by any means… but there have been times when the 36 Float felt heavy, and TBH overkill for me. Why not get the Talas? Because I don’t have any interest in changing fork travel on the trail. I can’t imagine I’ll be changing the CTD settings on the Float out on the trail for that matter either, once I find the setting I like – probably wide open at Descend, much like the 36 Float was set up, or at the softest Trail setting, and just tune it with air pressure.
Got the 34 Float on the bike and set the sag to 25%. With the weather clearing I’m keen to see how it performs on the trails, which should be uber grippy. Will the drop to 34mm stanchions from 36mm combined with the drop from the 20mm axle with industrial clamps to 15mm feel different? Will soon see.
As always thanks to Peter, Gary and Michael at The Bike Vault in Castlemaine for keeping a hippie plied with MTB goodies!