Dengfu MTB Frame FM238 - not suitable for front suspension!!!

[Alexoalexei]

Happy New Year....

This is my story.

I bought last August via Dengfu a mtb carbon frame FM238 with individual painting. After a couple of weeks the frame arrived without any damages, painting met my expectations.
So, what Is my problem. I am still building up my "dream bike". Brakes and Fork are the only missing parts. Maybe this sounds stupid, but I must have the Rockshox RS-1 - I love the design.
I prefer 120mm travel, but the frame geometry (70.5 head angel / 73 seat tube angel) is telling me 100mm might fits better. I do uphill racing, no bike parks or serious downhills.

I decided to ask Dengfu, what the recommended travel is and asked:
"...can you please tell me the recommended travel suspension for the Frame FM238?
There is no information on your website and this is an elementary information."

Answer: For FM238, it is not a suspension frame. Do you want to order 27.5er suspension frame?

Wow, shit happens. There was no information regarding suspension on the webside as well on all other pages, selling the FM238.

Is the frame now for the dustbin? Is anybody else riding this frame with front suspension? If yes - how long are you riding this frame? Any bad or good experiences?

Thanks for your support.

Cheers, Alex from Munich, Germany

[carbonazza]

It may be a misunderstanding, and they thought you were asking for a rear suspension.
You didn't ask explicitly for the word "fork".

[bxcc]

I would have to agree with Carbonazza. It's most likely a misunderstanding. As a rule, try to remember that they are most likely using a translator program. So you need to be very specific and use proper english or it may come out completely different on their end.

That being said, it's a mountain bike frame. You will be fine if you put a suspension fork on it. If you go on their website and look at the geometry, it should give a measurement for the A to C length of the fork. That is the length of fork they used for calculating the geometry. You can then compare that number to the A to C length of the actual fork you want to use. 20mm in difference generally equals about 1 degree of head angle. So if their geo says 71 degrees at 485mm fork length, and you run a fork with a length of 505mm, you will be around 70 degrees. That isn't always 100% true but it will get you close enough.