Cycling UK Forum

The roads round here are awful, especially when you get off the main roads. So I was wondering have any road based suspension forks been produced that are particularly good for a 700c wheel? Moulton is supposed to be very good, but alas not for a 700c wheel. I suppose about 40mm or so of travel would sort out the worst of it, which can still give you a good jolt with 38mm tyres run at low pressure.

Rockshox used to do a road fork called 'ruby' but it was really meant for skinny 700C tyres. In reality a 26" wheel MTB fork would (if you sort the brakes out) work almost as well, vertical clearance is similar.

There are lots of suspension forks that are fitted to various hybrids but most of them are 'unsophisticated' i.e. a bit rubbish really. Some of the MTB forks have proper damping and work reasonably well but they are mostly big, heavy and very long travel; again not ideal for road use.

I have used a hardtail MTB with road tyres and an older (lightweight, short travel) suspension fork and it was OK, but the frame was very stiff and kind of uninvolving to ride.

I regard suspension on a touring bike as something of an unresolved issue.

cheers

Cannondale are bringing out the slate, which has a 35mm travel lefty fork on it. Comes equipped with 650b wheels but I would assume the outer diameter of the tyre is going to be pretty similar to skinny 700c ones.

In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/12/05/tranzx-revives-the-suspension-stem-with-new-antishock-technology/

you wouldn't think so, judging by the way many touring bikes these days have oversized tubes, 1-1/8" steerers, forks that are kind of stiff, etc etc etc, but believe or not the standard tube sizes and 1" steerer, quill stem etc we used to use were the way they were for a reason....

cheers

Brucey wrote:

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/12/05/tranzx-revives-the-suspension-stem-with-new-antishock-technology/

you wouldn't think so, judging by the way many touring bikes these days have oversized tubes, 1-1/8" steerers, forks that are kind of stiff, etc etc etc, but believe or not the standard tube sizes and 1" steerer, quill stem etc we used to use were the way they were for a reason....

cheers

Don't suppose you have fashionable "oversize" handlebars, Pete?

Brucey wrote:

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/12/05/tranzx-revives-the-suspension-stem-with-new-antishock-technology/

you wouldn't think so, judging by the way many touring bikes these days have oversized tubes, 1-1/8" steerers, forks that are kind of stiff, etc etc etc, but believe or not the standard tube sizes and 1" steerer, quill stem etc we used to use were the way they were for a reason....

cheers

May be a solution but hellishly expensive for what it is. Think I'll try some strips of mouse mat under the bar tape first.....

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

I think the bars are more likely to offer flex than the stem. Those Cinelli 1A stems, for instance, were solid items. No amount of hand pressure would flex one of those. I have tried bars with a flattened profile along the top section, and they do seem to flex up and down a little more than plain round bars. Flexy forks are another option. SJS market some, for example.

There's these.

http://www.rosebikes.com/products/bike- ... ike-forks/

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

What pressures are the tyres inflated to?

Personally I've never found suspension forks that good at removing "chatter" as it were (this is with forks like rockshox Tora air forks, I'm a big guy and do have 'em pumped up). Soaking up bigger hits, yes, more minor things, not convinced it's anymore use than a bend in your elbow. Amazing how many people I see on club rides have their elbows locked. I guess the problem with very short travel forks is making them soft enough in the first few mm of travel to soak up small stuff yet not bottom out on a bigger hit. Getting all this right with good damping etc. sounds expensive.....

531colin wrote:

Brucey wrote:

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/12/05/tranzx-revives-the-suspension-stem-with-new-antishock-technology/

you wouldn't think so, judging by the way many touring bikes these days have oversized tubes, 1-1/8" steerers, forks that are kind of stiff, etc etc etc, but believe or not the standard tube sizes and 1" steerer, quill stem etc we used to use were the way they were for a reason....

cheers

Don't suppose you have fashionable "oversize" handlebars, Pete?

Gadzooks Sir - pistols for two and breakfast for one methinks....

Am using the same ITM Europa bars I had on the 531 bike.

iandriver wrote:Personally I've never found suspension forks that good at removing "chatter" as it were (this is with forks like rockshox Tora air forks, I'm a big guy and do have 'em pumped up). Soaking up bigger hits, yes, more minor things, not convinced it's anymore use than a bend in your elbow. Amazing how many people I see on club rides have their elbows locked. I guess the problem with very short travel forks is making them soft enough in the first few mm of travel to soak up small stuff yet not bottom out on a bigger hit. Getting all this right with good damping etc. sounds expensive.....

expensive? Yes, it could be, but it needn't be.

I built my own dampers for a few sets of forks and I came up with a scheme that worked really well and would cost pennies to mass-produce. It produced the required (for control over the full range of conditions) so called 'digressive' damping characteristic, had true rising rate springs, exhibited no bottoming and had a smooth hydraulically damped top-out.

If you get the valving right you can soak up chatter and still control the movement properly on the bigger hits. When I take apart standard forks I mostly find stuff that has been designed by those devoid of imagination, and then 'value engineered' until it doesn't really work right any more.

cheers

Brucey wrote:.......... but believe or not the standard tube sizes and 1" steerer, quill stem etc we used to use were the way they were for a reason....

............ that I still have!

pete75 wrote:In the last year I've changed from a 531St frame and forked tourer with a quill stem and running om 700 x 32 mil tyres to a more modern Surly Long Haul with a on 700 x 37 tyres with a threadless headset and stem. Despite the bigger tyres jolts on the bars are far greater on the new bike. I'm thinking this is due to the greater rigidity of the stem. Does anyone make a threadless stem that isn't needlessly rigid?

I suspect it's the forks. It's amazing how far back mine deflect on bumps - 5-10mm I reckon.