The first bike I over-forked was a ’00 Kona Roast. My local shop tracked down a frame from Kona’s scratch & dent pile. I spent the better part of a day hand-filing an IS-to-PM adapter to fit the oddly sideways welded disc brake tab, which was well worth the cost savings, and then plugged a Marzocchi Jr.T onto the front. To this day I have a strange affection for hardtails with dual-crown forks.
Over-forking became part of my Tao when suddenly every second person I was regularly riding with owned a Knolly. Then I worked in a shop that sold Knolly bikes; a lot of Knolly bikes. And from there I started riding with even more folks who were full-on Knomers.* Just about every single one of these riders bumped up the front ends on their bikes. There were 150mm or 160mm Fox 36 forks on Endorphins, 170mm or 180mm Marzocchi 66’s on Deliriums, and 200mm DH forks on V-Tachs.
*special Knolly fans
There’s an argument to be made that Noel was too accurate about how much travel his frames were delivering, (or from his point of view how inaccurate some other companies were being) but I do note that in addition to plenty of riders I know, subsequent ‘BC Editions’ from other brands have bumped fork travel right from the factory.
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