bgnukem wrote:Also interested in how harsh the ride is compared to a rim-braked bike. I recently fitted Surly disc forks to my 26"-wheeled commuter after getting fed up of wearing out today's chocolate rims, but the stiffer fork made for a very unyielding ride quality noticeably harsher than before (and the previous steel fork was no lightweight, being built by Mercian with a solid crown).
Is there any way to design a disc-braked frameset to give ride comfort (particularly at the fork end) while maintaining enough stiffness to cope with the braking torques?
Suspension fork will do that.
bgnukem wrote:Does using a 1" steerer make any difference in this respect as my most comfortable bike is my old Dawes with a 1" steerer, 531ST forks and it's possible to see noticeable fore-aft movement of the front wheel axle over rougher road surfaces which I don't see on my other bikes (using steel or carbon forks with 1 1/8" steerers).
1" steerer is noticeably more flexible than inch and eighth. But then a frame with inch top tube and inch and eighth down tube is noticeably more flexible than a frame with oversized tubing.
Some of those old UK made Dawes 531 frames were dreadfully floppy. As they all used the same tubes and lugsets, the differences can only be due to how accurately the tubes were mitred, and how well the joints were filled with spelter.