How Much Suspension Travel Does My Mountain Bike Need?

There’s no such thing as a typical mountain bike, mountain bikes can be broken down into any number of specific categories and product groups. There are so many different types of mountain bikes, because there are so many different mountain bike disciplines, meaning different bikes are required to ride across different terrains - all fulfilling a specific purpose.

This means that you can very much choose the wrong mountain bike for your requirements, the biggest example would be jumping on a low travel hardtail mountain bike, to take on gravity focused trails, complete with obstacles and jumps. Likewise, you would not make great progress on a long travel downhill mountain bike, if you are looking to cross country in the quickest possible timeframe.

One of the biggest performance indicators and biggest variables of any mountain bike, is the amount of suspension travel the bike’s suspension provides. On a hardtail mountain bike, it’s the suspension forks which provide the only travel, whereas on a full suspension mountain bike, it’s both the suspension forks as well as the rear shock on the bike.

Typically, the mountain bikes that we supply have a minimum travel of around 100mm. 100mm travel mountain bikes are almost exclusively hardtail mountain bikes, these bikes are designed for off road and cross country use - but the amount of suspension travel is a limiting factor for those wanting to tackle serious off road terrain, the absence of a rear shock also is a limiting factor - which is why many customers looking to head into gnarlier off road terrain, will choose a full suspension mountain bike.

Suspension travel on full suspension mountain bikes usually starts at around 120mm of travel - which gives the bike enough ‘cushion’ to tackle most off road terrain encountered. The amount of suspension travel varies depending on the style of mountain bike you ride, and the longest travel full suspension mountain bikes have up to 210mm of suspension travel.

Whilst many riders will want to get the bike with the biggest travel - it’s important that you match your riding style to the suspension travel and bike that you need, otherwise you may end up with a bike which does not provide the performance requirements that you need, for example - a long travel suspension mountain bike will always struggle on climbs and cross country performance, much in the same way a short travel mountain bike will struggle with the hardest obstacles.

Below, we look at the different types of mountain bikes, and how much travel they typically have, as well as looking at the some of the performance benefits and riding styles of each mountain bike type.

Cross Country Mountain Bikes (XC MTB)

Cross Country Mountain Bikes are designed to get their rider across varied off road terrain, in the quickest possible timeframe. These bikes are designed to provide an efficient performance - cross country mountain bikes traditionally had between 80-100mm of fork travel, which was plenty to get the bike round a cross country course. However, with everything in the world of mountain biking being made more extreme, many cross country riders now turn to cross country bikes with 120mm of travel, and this suspension travel is the basis for the incredibly popular Scott Spark RC range which we will look at in greater detail.

Regardless of the amount of suspension travel, whether it’s 100mm or 120mm - a cross country bike with less suspension travel than other types of mountain bikes, provides a clear benefit - the frames on cross country bikes can be lighter, because they need less resilience as there is less frame movement and articulation - good news for long periods of flat terrain and most importantly, ascents.

Short Travel forks are also lighter than longer travel suspension forks, as they also require less strengthening - this means they can have narrower stanchions and a lighter chassis. The downside of course, is that shorter travel suspension forks can run out of travel, however on classic cross country territory, this will rarely happen.

Cross Country Mountain Bikes encompass both full suspension mountain bikes and also hardtail mountain bikes. The choice is ultimately up to the rider, however many riders choose to use a full suspension mountain bike, allowing them greater comfort and capability on the rough stuff.

As we mentioned earlier, the Scott Spark RC XC Mountain Bike, is one of the best examples of a cross country mountain bike on the market. With 120mm of travel, the Spark is designed to be fast - both uphill and downhill. Featuring a full suspension frame, the Spark has a single Pivot suspension layout - and the bike has a flex pivot in it’s seat stay, in order for it to maximise both weight savings, and suspension peformance.

There are a number of variations available, with more expensive models in the lineup featuring carbon fibre frames and high level components.

Trail Bikes

Towards the mid-range of suspension travel, sit Trail Mountain Bikes. Trail Bikes are some of the most popular mountain bikes that we supply. These bikes fit the middle ground between enduro bikes and cross country bikes. These Trail Bikes are designed for downhill performance, so they feel great on descents and technical trails, they run a fine balance though - aiming to provide a strong performance cross country, so these bikes are still confident and efficient when riding uphill, most Trail Bikes have a variety of suspension setups, which allow travel to be shortened when riding on uphill sections.

These Trail Bikes have suspension travel anywhere between 120mm and 160mm. This variation in the amount of travel, sees different frame designs and suspension designs in play - with bikes featuring 160mm of travel, requiring more robust construction to handle the rigours of 160mm of travel performance.

In our experience, a trail bike with 140mm of travel is plenty - this amount of suspension travel, allows for cross country performance, with the ability to tackle technical trails and obstacles, however 160mm trail bikes are always a popular choice.

One example of an excellent 160mm trail bike is the Orbea Occam LT H30 Full Suspension Mountain Bike. This bike features an adjustable geometry, which allows you to tailor this trail bike to the exact conditions that you are riding in. This bike is an aggressive trail bike, and Orbea encourage you to buy this style of bike over a cross country bike for a couple of reasons, the biggest one being the most simple - it’s fun. This bike needs and wants to be thrown about, and really encourages you to make the most of every ride.

Enduro Mountain Bikes

The theme developing here, is a range of mountain bikes that are designed to provide jack of all trade performance - nailing downhill descents on technical trails, whilst also doing a good job of riding cross country and ascending off road terrain.

Enduro Mountain Bikes are designed for the rigours of enduro mountain bike courses. These courses consist of multiple downhill trails and sections, which riders have to meet within a certain time frame. As enduro courses have also become more extreme, you guessed it - enduro mountain bike suspension travel has also increased, and you can now expect enduro mountain bikes to have suspension travel starting at 150mm running up to 180mm. There is a 190mm suspension fork which is designed for enduro bikes, but this offers excessive amounts of travel for most riders, the fork is the RockShox ZEB Fork.

One of the first things you notice when looking at an Enduro MTB is the bigger and burlier frame than you find on cross country bikes and bikes with less suspenison travel. This is for a couple of reasons, as we discussed above - greater suspension travel, means a stronger frame is required to cope with the extra demand of more challenging terrain. Head tubes for example, have to be stronger to deal with the force coming from the long travel front fork, and the rear linkage also has to be stronger, to cope with the extra articulation and flex from the rear shock.

All of this extra strengthening undoubtedly makes enduro mountain bikes heavier, which makes them harder to ride across terrain and uphill- but this extra weight and design more than makes up for it, when riding back downhill.

The Scott Ransom is one of the best looking and best performance Enduro Bikes on the market. Available in a range of specifications, the Ransom range has 170mm of travel which we personally feel is perfectly suited to enduro bikes. It’s a bike which is designed to be forgiving, so is great for riders who enjoy the odd ‘close call!’

Downhill Mountain Bikes

Downhill Mountain Bikes are designed almost exclusively for riding downhill, they aren’t much fun on the flats, and they definitely are not much fun on the ascents. Although geometry and lockout means these bikes are more capable than ever at getting you to the top of the trail, we much prefer to see these bikes in their natural environment when travelling uphill, on a ski lift. The actual sport and cycling discipline of downhill mountain biking, does not require any riding at all, other than riding downhill - which in a world of bikes which have been designed to do the very best of all riding, downhill bike designers only have to worry about one thing and one thing only - going down extreme downhill trails, quickly.

This sector of bikes has the most travel out of all mountain bikes - for repeated, large impacts and obstacles which are found on the trail. If you’ve got this far in the article, you will be aware that the longer travel suspension a bike, has, the greater the strength of the frame that’s required. Weight is not a huge issue for downhill bikes, in the same way that it is for cross country bikes, so chunky bikes are commonplace.

Downhill mountain bike forks and shocks provide up to 200mm of suspension travel, with 180mm downhill mountain bikes being the sweet sport for many riders. The forks on downhill mountain bikes also have a dual crown design, meaning that the fork mounts above and below the head tube adding stiffness to the fork - allowing for maximum performance across difficult conditions.

The GT Fury Elite Downhill Mountain bike is one of the most exciting and best value downhill mountain bikes available on the market. This bike is designed to be durable, and this bike features a monstrous 200mm of travel on both the shock and fork of the bike.

MTB Suspension Manufacturers

Suspension is really cool and that’s just a fact. As such, mountain bike suspension manufacturers also have a really cool image, with some expertly designed products and branding to accompany these high performance suspension products.

Some of the brands of mountain bike suspension we supply include Fox, RockShox, Cane Creek, Marzocchi, DVO as well as suspension components which have been designed by brands themselves, of which there are plenty.

These suspension manufacturers, design and manufacture both shocks and suspension forks - and prices vary from a couple of hundred pound, right up to suspension components and forks in excess of £2,000.

Amongst this collection is world cup winning suspension, such as the Fox 40 Float Factory Grip X2 suspension fork. This 200mm suspension fork is designed for factory level riders, and these forks are raced in the world championships - providing maximum performance across a range of downhill conditions, with not only maximum performance, but also maximum adjustability.

At the entry level of the range, is the 100mm RockShox Judy Silver TK Solo Air Suspension Fork, which provides the perfect suspension fork for hardtail mountain bikes, wrapped up in a package with really cool graphics.

It’s much the same story and much the same players when it comes to rear mountain bike shocks. One of our personal favourites is the RockShox Vivid Coil Ultimate RC2T Standard Mount Rear Shock, this shock is one of the ultimate downhill mountain bike shocks - there’s more compression and adjustability than we can describe - and it’s been designed to provide the very best of rear coil suspension, which is able to land even the harshest of drops and obstacles. There’s also a huge array of length and stroke options, allowing you to choose the perfect shock for your requirements.

Suspension And Mountain Bikes Online

At Westbrook Cycles, we stock and supply a fantastic range of mountain bikes - covering all disciplines and riding requirements. Alongside our range of mountain bikes, we also supply a range of suspension components, including shocks and forks - alongside all of the spares to keep these components running in top condition.