22
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Accepted
What are the pros and cons of front and rear suspension?
Specific answers to your questions:
Does suspension reduce acceleration?
Yes, for two reasons. Suspension causes bob, where some of your pedal power goes into flexing the suspension with each ...
- 121k
22
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Accepted
Why aren’t Cannondale head shocks used anymore?
Cannondale still makes them. Under the form you present, they are only found in urban E-bikes. On MTBs, they evolved into a different form.
One drawback of this design is that the travel needs to be ...
- 17.5k
21
votes
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Why do police bikes have suspension?
The main reason I've seen is that police bikes are generic mid-price mountain bikes, and those almost always come with suspension. Even when they're decorated and packaged as "police bikes", they ...
- 23.3k
20
votes
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Are air forks suitable for everyday use?
First of all, you don't need a suspension fork on a hybrid. Look for a hybrid with a high volume tyre instead. For your example of cobbles see this answer for some research performed by Schwalbe.
...
- 18.3k
17
votes
heavy and want to ride again
Personally I wouldn't replace the fork, but I'd make smaller changes and start riding.
The back wheel takes more impact than the front, because a greater proportion of your weight is over it. So far ...
- 57.1k
16
votes
Suspension compromise for urban use
Apart from going the high-tech route of a front suspension with lock-out, you can also try to get wider tires. The slow-down of wide tires is not that big, but they naturally even out high-frequency ...
15
votes
What are the pros and cons of front and rear suspension?
Even if you're regularly riding up and down kerbs you don't need rear suspension. If you did, people wouldn't ride hardtail mountain bikes on the trails, where drop-offs considerably higher than ...
- 57.1k
14
votes
Why do police bikes have suspension?
Suspension is a well-established concept nowdays, and is not bleeding edge. Police bikes will be serviced routinely, and all the preventative maintenance will keep them ready to ride and perform as ...
- 121k
14
votes
What are the differences between a horizontal suspension and vertical suspension MTB?
The position of shock mounts is only one variable of many of the rear linkage design. It does not play an isolated role but really is tied to everything else.
You might have missed that there are many ...
- 14.4k
14
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Are air forks suitable for everyday use?
Air forks have two kinds of service - a lower leg service and full service. For the purposes of this discussion, consider a full service is something done to fix problems like the fork not holding ...
- 49k
13
votes
Why aren’t Cannondale head shocks used anymore?
It is a little difficult to give an answer that distinguishes between the pros and cons of the concept and any untapped potential it might have versus Cannondale's implementation of it.
With its very ...
- 81.7k
12
votes
Upside-down Fork vs Traditional Fork
The unsprung weight thing is a myth for the most part. Cast aluminum and magnesium lowers are extremely light, for example, old marzocchi 66 ones were only 3/4 of a pound, total weight. It's not as ...
- 121
12
votes
What are the pros and cons of front and rear suspension?
You definitely don't need rear suspension: that's for serious off-road riding. For riding on the road and the very mild hardly-off-road-at-all riding you're proposing, rear suspension just adds a lot ...
- 17k
12
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What are the differences between a horizontal suspension and vertical suspension MTB?
Manufacturers design the bike suspension with specific characteristics in mind. For example, should the bike be more poppy or plusher and ground hugging to ride. One parameter in this process is the ...
- 2,340
11
votes
Why do police bikes have suspension?
There is one more reason to add.
They will be on the bike all day, every day, 4 days a week (or more). Around here, bike cops are used quite a bit "down town" and at almost all events in the area. ...
- 543
10
votes
Pros and cons of single-sided forks (Cannondale Lefty)?
My experience with Lefty goes back to 2000 when I purchased my Cannondale Super V. One thing I've liked about it how easy it is to 'turn off'. There's a small dial at the top that disengages the ...
- 201
10
votes
Is it possible to convert a suspension fork to rigid by drilling it?
DO NOT DRILL HOLES IN YOUR FORKS
That would weaken them substantially and run the risk of them breaking under stress (e.g., when you hit a pothole). A broken fork will probably put you in the ...
- 17k
10
votes
Can I put a suspension fork on a hybrid bike like the Kona Dew?
No. The Dew is not a mountain bike and its fork is not a rigid mountain bike fork.
The different between a fork like the Dew has and a rigid MTB fork is the axle-to-crown distance. Most rigid MTB ...
- 3,439
10
votes
Where is the Air Valve on a swiss made ark hollow reverse fork?
Remove the top panel on the left side of the fork to expose the valve.
- 81.7k
10
votes
Front Fork Or Seat Post Suspension
Maybe both.
If you're worried about rough roads causing numb hands or sore wrists, front suspension is what will give the greatest benefit. For smaller, higher frequency, vibrations, the biggest tyres ...
- 57.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Scratches on fork stanchions
It really depends how deep the scratch is. If it's deep enough, then a new CSU (crown-steerer unit) is the only sure-fire fix.
However, here are some steps I've taken in the past, which have given ...
- 3,971
9
votes
Why have suspension stems disappeared?
To make suspension effective, it must decouple light-weight moving parts from heavy stable parts. For this reason it is most effective to suspend the wheels - they will move fast up and down, while ...
- 1,929
9
votes
Accepted
How do I know if a given hardtail mtb frame is 'supposed' to have suspension forks?
Before suspension forks became commonplace, all mountain bikes were designed for a rigid fork. Fork length was sufficient to give good clearance between the crown and tire.
Suspension forks need to ...
- 75.5k
9
votes
How do I add pressure and adjust rebound on older mountain bike forks?
You can easilly find the manual just by googling the visible words from your photo "Marzocchi Bomber 2001", for example https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1728712/Marzocchi-Bomber-2001.html ...
- 16.1k
9
votes
heavy and want to ride again
Congrats on wanting to ride again.
If I were in your position, I'd inflate the 25mm tyres to around 80-90 PSI (or if you have the 32mm stock tyres go for perhaps 60 PSI) and then do a basic M check ...
- 121k
8
votes
Accepted
Is this suspension fork user-serviceable?
To expand on Batman's comment, its a BSO because its from walmart and built down to a price from low grade components.
So, the forks will not be user-serviceable. They won't be serviceable at all ...
- 121k
8
votes
How to assess quality of suspension
This is a hard question to answer without narrowing down the question. The question is very similar to "What's the best bike for me?" There are several different designs (frame) for doing suspension. ...
- 9,938
8
votes
Accepted
Extraterrestrial thing found in my suspension fork!
It's an elastomer damper, see figure 6 on the image below. Without a damper, the fork would bob uncontrollably like a pogo stick, which is not good at all when riding a bike. Elastomer dampers are a ...
- 5,699
8
votes
Install suspension forks on non-suspension bike
You might be able to fit a suspension fork on your bike, depending on frame geometry, but I think it’s likely you will not be able to.
Frames designed for suspension forks locate the head tube ...
- 75.5k
8
votes
Suspension compromise for urban use
Better suspension has a "lockout" which basically clamps them in one position, leaving you with a heavy rigid fork for the 80% of your ride.
Of those, some have a lever on top of the fork crown, and ...
- 121k
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