Suspension forks

[Tim Hall]

On holiday I got entangled in the general light maintenance of the
various bikes the others we went with had brought with them. One of
them was a Saracen something or other fitted with RST (I think) forks,
which had siezed up.

Being a traditional type bloke, I'm not au fait with this new fangled
suspension lark, so the work was mostly of the guess type.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is the forks are shagged. They
are coil spring with elastomer. Much water had got in, causing
pitting of the fork stanchions and the end of one of the springs to
rust through, so it was in three pieces.

The bike isn't used much at present, is about 8 years old andhasbeen
fitted with some nice road slicks. The owner is waiting for a new knee
joint and will hopefully do more cycling when he's mended.

So my thoughts are cheapish rigid forks - I really don't think the
owner needs suspension, and I don't think the value of the bike
justifies it. But what options are there for replacement boingy forks,
just in case he wants to go down that road.

Are spring/elastomer forks the bottom of the technology heap?

what cheap rigid forks does (do?) the panel recommend?



Tim

 

[Brownz \(Mobile\)]

Tim Hall wrote:
> On holiday I got entangled in the general light maintenance of the
> various bikes the others we went with had brought with them. One of
> them was a Saracen something or other fitted with RST (I think) forks,
> which had siezed up.
>
> Being a traditional type bloke, I'm not au fait with this new fangled
> suspension lark, so the work was mostly of the guess type.
>
> Anyway, the long and the short of it is the forks are shagged. They
> are coil spring with elastomer. Much water had got in, causing
> pitting of the fork stanchions and the end of one of the springs to
> rust through, so it was in three pieces.
>
> The bike isn't used much at present, is about 8 years old andhasbeen
> fitted with some nice road slicks. The owner is waiting for a new knee
> joint and will hopefully do more cycling when he's mended.
>
> So my thoughts are cheapish rigid forks - I really don't think the
> owner needs suspension, and I don't think the value of the bike
> justifies it. But what options are there for replacement boingy forks,
> just in case he wants to go down that road.
>
> Are spring/elastomer forks the bottom of the technology heap?
>

Always been happy with Marazochi / RST & Rock Shox, one thing I do look out
for though is lock outs for road use - allowing them to act as ridgid when
required.


> what cheap rigid forks does (do?) the panel recommend?
>
> Tim

All much of a muchness these days looking at your targetted application. I
would just look to match the current geometry as close as possible, and
avoid the £10 chinese rice metal forks cast from old cooking pots.
--
Cheerz - Brownz
http://www.brownz.org/

 

[Paul Boyd]

Tim Hall said the following on 23/08/2007 22:59:

> Are spring/elastomer forks the bottom of the technology heap?

Yes

> what cheap rigid forks does (do?) the panel recommend?

I can't give you a specific answer, but make sure that the axle to crown
race dimension is the same as the current forks otherwise you'll have
some odd geometry problems.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

 

[Peter Clinch]

Tim Hall wrote:

> Are spring/elastomer forks the bottom of the technology heap?

No. Bottom of the heap are pure grot elastomer or pure undamped spring.
A combination /can/, if engineered properly (that's a remarkably big
"if", mind you) give a good product. But the good ones won't be cheap
(for example, the Meks forks used on HP Velotechnik recumbents). It's
particularly the case that "elastomer" covers a wide variety of
materials, from cheep 'n cheesy, to expensive and highly capable and fit
for purpose.

I think you'll generally find you'll get what you pay for.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Rob Morley]

In article <[email protected]>, Tim Hall
[email protected] says...
>
> So my thoughts are cheapish rigid forks - I really don't think the
> owner needs suspension, and I don't think the value of the bike
> justifies it. But what options are there for replacement boingy forks,
> just in case he wants to go down that road.

All cheap boingy forks are evil.
>
> Are spring/elastomer forks the bottom of the technology heap?

They are if they're made by RST. ;-) Although in fairness those are
probably better than anything on a BSO.
>
> what cheap rigid forks does (do?) the panel recommend?
>
I think the choice is pretty much limited to Tange cr-mo from around £30
or Kona Project 2 from around £60 - otherwise it's going to be a generic
cr-mo fork or cheap'n'nasty hi-ten steel. Check that the axle-to-crown
distance is similar to the existing forks (under load) to avoid possible
steering geometry problems - it doesn't have to be exactly the same, but
more than an inch of difference is probably going to make itself obvious
in the handling.