suspension forks on road bikes

[Ken Robb]

Yesterday I rode along Pacific Coast Highway to Broadway and out to 20th Ave. The "pavement" is horrible and even 700x25mm tires at 95psi and a Terraplane rear end the pounding on my surgically repaired shoulder was bad.

My Hampsten with YBB rear end is cushier by far but even with its carbon fork I wouldn't have been comfy.

Rock Shox used to make a Ruby model fork with about 1" of travel. Do any of you have any info/experience with such a thing?

Next I'll be trading the BMWs for a Buick. :)

[shaq-d]

how about the softride stem? u may be able to buy that from ebay or softride itself...

of course for a full system u'd also need a springy brooks saddle or softride beam. heh.

sd

[PacNW2Ford]

Hi Ken, good luck with your recovery. I had wrist surgery in December and can definitely relate. I don't have any great ideas right now that wouldn't kluge your beautiful Hampsten. Maybe get a 29er MTB, maybe a Moots Mooto-X and run road tires and a WTB drop bar?

[Marburg]

Painting with a broad, broad brush, they were alright for their generation but suspension forks have come a long way (baby) since anyone made a decent "road" sus fork. Well, ok, I suppose you could put one of the newer generation of 29er suspension fork on there, but I don't want guess what that would do to your geometry.

Maybe a non-mechanical solution. Larger tires? More compliant fork. 650B wheels and even larger tires. Gel bar wrap? Yeah, none of them are cheap.

[Kevan]

is drinking wine through a straw.

Hey, my friend... I wish the healing process was faster for you. Good for you though for trying to get on with your riding. With much work you might even get better.

Cheers!

[Elefantino]

Gilbert Duclos-Lasalle won PR on one in the 90s, and as late as 2003 (below) the Rubys were still being used on the cobbles.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2003/tech/features/PRGW/bike_chdelatour.jpg

[rwsaunders]

Cannondale used to make a road bike called the Silk Road, of which I owned one. It was kind of funky looking, but the shock/fork did work as it was "on the fly", for pulling hills and such.

The rear triangle was still AL, which beat the living daylights out of you on rough pavement. They might actually still market them in Europe. I'll post a picture later if I can find one.

[benb]

Why not just ride a mountain bike if you've got one?

I'd much rather throw money at a MTB then modifying a road bike or building up a specialist road bike just for the worst of roads.

Heck you can get a pretty decent hardtail MTB these days for about the price of an F3 fork.

[xlbs]

Pro-flex used to make a stem with elastomer inserts that provided for a modicum of comfort under situations such as those you describe. It was designed for mountain bikes, but you might find one of these relics out there in some obsolete parts bin at the back of a shop...There were ugly, but they really did reduce the shock to one's shoulders and wrists...

[Ken Robb]

I have bikes with up to 700x35 tires, 26x1.5" cross tires, full suspension mtn. bike w/26x2" tires so there are options. I was riding 700x25 Sunday.

I think 700x35 would have helped on PCH coarse rough pavement but Broadway has BUMPS and HOLES probably due to the heavy bus traffic.

The fs mtn. bike has a riding position that is a bit too aggressive for absolute road-riding comfort even though I have switched to riser bars. OTOH, it should be fine for the 10-15 mile rides that I should be doing until I get farther along in re-hab.

I can also be careful to avoid bumpy roads when I'm in charge of choosing routes. This was a group ride and I was not in charge. Thanks for your thoughts and collective wisdom.

[pdonk]

You could try a short travel fork for a 29er. A few issues though - rake and axle to crown height may mess up your bike's handling. You may also have to use either disks or vbrakes

[William]

http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/00/images/large/sr2000_00.jpg


Maybe you can drop a C-Dale Headshok fork into your existing frame?




William

[benb]

Yes it's pretty ridiculous that many "sane" X/C and trail off the rack mountain bikes are as aggressive as road bikes.

I just went through a big exercise to get my Giant NRS as close as possible to my Serotta fit. The original fit had the seat about an inch too low, which I've always known. Reach was like 2" too far, saddle to bar drop was at least 3", etc.. with 3cm of spacers, a 25 degree & shorter stem, and a riser bar, I've almost got it right now.. which finally seems to be making it comfy enough for long rides. The problem there of course is the Giant has no headtube just like a Trek.

[marle]

What about a cross bike with 700x38?

[rwsaunders]

That's the bike William. I had a Silk Road 1000 in pearl white with the same gold "bling" rims and Ultegra build. I sold it a couple of years ago to a bike messenger and his (I'm not kidding) Roller Derby girlfriend.

[RPS]

Ken, a few years back I met Seana Hogan, a RAAM racer, who rode a Bianchi with a SUS21 road suspension fork. I don't know much about them, but Seana seemed to like hers a lot for the long rides she was doing.

As I recall, the amount of give was quite limited -- pushing down on it made little difference, yet she said it helped a lot on rough roads. Movement was at the bottom of the fork near the dropouts.

Newer versions of the SUS21 may have been made since hers. Attached is her Furnace Creek 508 ride report where she mentions the fork.

http://www.actc.org/stories/1990s/fc508.htm