Yeah, cuz shitty damper performance is what we are looking for.
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Fork add ons
- Thread starter jonKranked
- Start date
This is the problem, because unfortunately every linkage fork has to get over that initial "looks funny, don't like it" reaction and if you pair that with even one thing that it doesn't do at least as well as a telescopic fork you are going to struggle to get enough market share in this industry to justify the cost of R&D. The number of people you are actually going to sell one of these to may only be in the thousands worldwide in a best case scenario.
That is what everybody said about 29ers too, but now most of you fuckers are riding one.
Just sponsor a pro other than Jeff Kendall-Weed to ride it and bam, fanboys buy it like it is a cure for Covid.
Performance and looks are not everything or else you would not see so many of those Lauf forks.
I quite like the look of those things, I like it when ze Germans make things that aren't over complicated, when they keep it simple they make fantastic stuff.That is what everybody said about 29ers too, but now most of you fuckers are riding one.
Just sponsor a pro other than Jeff Kendall-Weed to ride it and bam, fanboys buy it like it is a cure for Covid.
Performance and looks are not everything or else you would not see so many of those Lauf forks.
A while ago I was riding with a guy on a Lauf suspended fat bike, his bike was 10kg, my hardtail was 15kg hahaha!
Not quite sure why you bring Germans in here, but Lauf is an islandic company.
Not in 2020
If Fox, or a top-level racing brand like Comm, SC or Spec, did a linkage fork, that could crack open the market for praying mantis vibes.
The holy grail of a fork is one that has ideal suppleness, support and bottom out. Trust seemed to put all their eggs in the constant trail basket which compromized that by being harsh. They really solved a problem no one knew they had and created a problem most people will dislike. Also, to obtain that rearward path, the pivot point needed to be farther forward which contributed to the ugly mantis like appearance.
IMO the biggest potential of a linkage fork is anti-dive during braking, which makes that supple/support/bottom problem simpler.
Done in the form of a bike: Structure SCW1.
That F4 was really nice. But I guess you are limited to XC-style travel with that design.
What you're describing is pretty close to what Daambuilt is doing:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAc_rT-lyBy/
As weird as that bike looks, it has gotten good reviews from some of the people I follow/watch.
I just put weird and carbon together and assumed Germany, thanks for clearing that up.
*EDIT- And leaf in german is Blatt.
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interesting - looks like daambuilt is building the uppers for the latest iteration from rocksled (now dual sided). still freaky AF aesthetically, but the thought of a simple layout like this - with anti dive and without the inherent bushing bind / friction of telescopics, in addition to significantly improved long term durability / reduced maintenance - is certainly enticing.
also a bit curious if something like this would have an effect on the fundamentals of bike handling; those long established circuits may be hard to over-ride (anti-dive alone, and the difference of chassis pitch dynamics, not to mention a very different axle path).
cool to see development like this, regardless.
https://www.instagram.com/rocksled_suspension/
They do look similar don't they... based on what I'd seen from daambuilt, I got the impression it wasn't a collab, but a bit of tinkering alongside his regular stuff.
looks like he's experimenting w/ ~50/50 weight distribution & the associated suuuuper long rear center. also an interesting field of experimentation. whatshisface pro with the home built steel dh sled seems to be able to make it work. the fc/rc ratio of my old lahar was radical compared to anything (ie, an 18.5" chainstay paired with a short by modern day reach), and ripped in the corners (tho was a beast to manual). just fun to see people aggressively messing about with numbers. there's no reason we couldn't have been riding modern geometry 15 years ago rather than janky short/steep/tall; even with the relatively crap suspension at the time, we would have been miles ahead.Boy the rear end of that bike sure looks well structurally supported and stiff!
not to suggest there's radical improvements yet to made; entirely possible we're nearing a plateau of (somewhat) optimal design (like mx chassis).
Mostly I meant the completely unsupported single beam.
And no 18.5 chainstays suck in corners. You were just all over the front wheel and steering with your headset on your lahar.
Modern geo is what it is for a reason
And no 18.5 chainstays suck in corners. You were just all over the front wheel and steering with your headset on your lahar.
Modern geo is what it is for a reason
And that reason is to lift the rider from those squatty rear ends.
I ride in shit dirt so I turn on the rear wheel all the time.
Plus they jump/skip better.
Foes dhs monos sucked for the same reason in anything other than a straight line.
Plus they jump/skip better.
Foes dhs monos sucked for the same reason in anything other than a straight line.
1) there's not a single suspension maker out there that would sell you their damper in bulk, at least not any company who's damper people would want to run
2) if single pivot is fine, name me more than 5 companies currently selling single pivot bikes. and i mean TRUE single pivots, not linkage driven single pivots.
2a) most people can barely set the compression and rebound on their suspension correctly, you're really gonna let them choose their own leverage curve?
3) in general i agree with this, but sometimes limiting yourself to off the shelf components would prevent you from achieving design goals. or even differentiating your product from a competitors.
4) USD forks don't have cast uppers.
5) simplicity doesn't inherently mean durable. sometimes reducing the number of parts in a system increases the probability that one of them will fail.
Stirling were getting some pretty good reviews with their true single pivot, there will easily be five manufacturers doing them.
- Orange
- Production Priveé
- Marino
- ????
Well that's fucking badass. Seems like a promising start, hopefully it makes it to market.
great bike. though tbh, would rather a linkage iteration with the same numbers / steel construction. like the swarf:
I'm pretty sure someone has already commented the same, or similar.
But but what if one would try to squeeze all the extra features into the stanchion tubes, via making them longer upwards and maybe adding another crown on the top? Would that not be a solution?
Curtis XR650, Morewood but they are a bit old hat, DMR if concentric counts, I'd like to say Deubel but they only made a 26" frame then went away.
Santa Cruz still got one?
morewood is long out of business (and even then they were moving into linkage driven configurations before they folded), orange.......
, every other company is a small boutique operation. santa cruzs last single pivot bike worth noting was the 2016 heckler.
The "you can get a better-than-average suspension platform with a sigle pivot" crew is right when it comes to XC bikes. Longer travel configurations need some sort of demultiplication/leverage tuning to achieve decent compression rates without depending exclusively on the shock tune.
before any of you accuse me of having it out for single pivot bikes, i don't. my DH bike is a true single pivot, and both my trail bikes are linkage driven single pivots.
You had one of those French Canadian single pivot things didn't you?
Short travel SP is so effective you don't even need a damper, hahaha!
Oooh that isn't how it looked on the site.
EDIT- It's a four bar of sorts.
Short travel SP is so effective you don't even need a damper, hahaha!
Oooh that isn't how it looked on the site.
EDIT- It's a four bar of sorts.