Lowrider and Suspension Forks

[Shoogle]

I thought it was inadvisable to use a lowrider with suspension forks but this bike on the loaded touring bikes website seems to have both. http://www.pbase.com/canyonlands/image/130685856

[mercalia]

some suspension forks can have the suspension locked out so they become non sus? could be whats here?

[DaveP]

AFAIK it's not the suspension action hat is a problem so much as the general lack of good mounting points. However there are some racks that offer decent looking mounting kits. We used an Old Man Mountain rack last year. Worked well, never looked like being a problem. I felt the bridge over the wheel contributed a lot to my peace of mind and the resistance to twisting of the whole installation. (It was set so that the wheel couldn't touch it!)
Wouldn't recommend looking for big air while so equipped though

[andrew_s]

Front suspension doesn't work properly if you use low rider luggage. The springs and damping are tuned to deal with a wheel & sliders weighing maybe 3 lbs, and don't work well if you change that to 15 lbs with your luggage.

For example, if you hit a rock, the wheel and luggage are forced upwards, but as you clear the rock, the momentum of the luggage keeps the wheel moving upwards, with the spring not being strong enough to push it back down fast enough to keep the tyre on the ground.

Google "unsprung mass"

[DaveP]

No need to
Everything you have said is correct - but sometimes people do need to carry luggage on a bike with suspension forks, and it is possible to do so. Locking out the suspension is a good idea, if possible - we did - and even if you cannot I would expect to get away with it as long as you use some common sense.
I wouldn't expect unsprung mass to be too much of a problem when on road or gravel paths - at appropriate and modest speeds. If you start to "give it some welly" on the rough then bad things are likely to happen, starting, perhaps, with the panniers coming loose...
I'd prefer to pull a trailer, but that's a different story!

[hamster]

As the suspension forks don't really work when panniers are added, why not simply fit rigid forks and get the bonus of strength and less to go wrong?

[andrew_s]

Because you also ride the bike without panniers?

[hamster]

Because you also ride the bike without panniers?

Wow, never thought of that...

Seeming as a swap requires only 5 bolts to be undone (2 brake, 2 stem plus headset top cap) why not simply swap the forks for touring? It's a half hour job and saves messy compromise and the risk that the lowriders fail form a bodged solution.

[andrew_s]

I've got a 26" touring bike with rigid and suspension forks available for it.
My experience is that the change over ends up not happening, like taking off a dynohub for the summer doesn't happen either.

[DaveP]

I tried a fork swap myself. On paper it should have been fine, as far as I could tell. Son didn't like the handling, said he felt insecure. Swapped back.
Who got what wrong doesn't really matter. There wasn't enough time to try again. Fitted the OMM rack and went. Worked fine. Biggest downside IMO was the weight of the bike. Still, young legs...

[iviehoff]

Ideally if you have any kind of suspension on your bike, you try to stow the luggage above the suspension. However achieving rigidity and strength in this situation can be heavy.

I once saw someone with a full suspension bike and luggage carrying arrangements front and rear designed for it, all above the suspension. There was in effect a very heavy rigid long beam above the suspension that rider and his luggage were fixed to, while the wheels were below the suspension. The bike was just so heavy he was making slow progress in comparison to our rigid bikes. In fact, he was deterred from riding on roads as tough as we were riding. I expect his ride was more comfortable though, and his luggage did not suffer a lot of throwing around either.