changing to rigid forks on mtb

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i have a khs alite hardtail that im converting to a tourer.

my question is, at the moment it has suspension forks and im not sure if i want to retain these for a tour im doing mainly on the black stuff.

if i change to a rigid fork that would dramatically change the geometry, lowering the handle bars to the ground and reducing the angle of the top tube.

is this good or bad?? what else do i need to do?? eg different neck stem??

i was considering doing this to reduce weight, and also to stop unwanted bounce or flex(however minimal)

look forward to replies.

A lot of rigid MTB forks out there are designed to be interchangable with shocks, ie they shouldn't change the geometry too much. I swop out my rockshox with some old Gary Fisher rigid forks when I go touring, and the geometry change isn't major. Personally I wouldn't make any other changes to go touring...

I just asked this question to the guru at the local bike shop here. I was thinking about a rigid fork and some 1.25 tires for all the road riding I do. He told me with all the cyclocross bikes and what not there are forks out there long enough so the bike geometry will stay the same. I still am using the rockshock and 1.95's right now but next year I may try it but who knows. I will most likely need bigger chainrings tho because I crank out now never mind with skinny tires.