Suspension forks

[Tom]

Anyone here got a set of forks to sell? Mine are shot, too expensive to repair them myself and I doubt I'd get the parts anyway.

When I apply the front brake, the forks vibrate back and forth against their direction of travel. The front wheel judders around while braking

I need a steerer tube of around 195mm upwards, standard 1&1/8th inch diameter. Not bothered about V-brake bosses, disc is fine.

 

[Will]

How much travel are you after?

 

[Tom]

Not a great deal really, its all flat around here, dirt tracks, muddy fields. Most of my riding is on country lanes - tarmac.

Just enough to soak up the potholes I guess Whats on now are some OEM Manitous, which are cheapo, I reckon they can do around 100mm travel I'm after something 2nd hand around the £150 - £200 mark. Just as long as they don't soak up too much energy from my pedalling.

 

[Will]

Ah, I've got forks at the two extremes. An old pair of Marzocchi Z2 BAMs circa 98 with 63mm of travel. Might make your bike a bit twitchy. And a pair of Rockshox Pikes, adjustable 90-140mm, with a 20mm bolt-thro axle. Again, a bit hardcore for your needs.

If I were you, I'd slap a decent pair of rigid forks in there. Some Kona Project 2s (£40) or Pace RC31s (mmnn, carbon fibre, £150). Then make it singlespeed.

If you want suspension, some Marzocchi MX Comps would be 105mm travel for £150-£190 new, or I could point you in the direction of some forums that might be able to sell you a fork or two.

 

[Doomy]

Sorted.

Without being silly, Id suggest something with lockout, I've had a pair of Fox RLC's which were lovely, maybe a bit out of price range but really lush smooth forks and with 100mm travel adjustable to 60mm. Pick up some second hand ones at singletrackworld.co.uk, takes a day to get registered but you can get some bargains on it.

 

[Tom]

Oooo no no no, can't have rigid forks on this bike. I'd be having my wheels trued every week!

I've got the road bike for racing around at silly speeds, I can easily cruise at 20mph+ on that. The mountain bike is for arseing around, and I need a bit of play at the front otherwise I'd be spending money at the dentist

I'm looking at the Bikemagic forums, theres a few for sale on there. I don't want to use Ebay as I'd probably receive a right pikey set of shitty old forks with bits missing

 

[GDW]

What the fork is this all about ehh?

*closes door behind me*

 

[Will]

Try putting up a WTD : Forks thread in the Singletrack forums Tom. You'll be bound to get a few offers if you give your budget and the travel you want.

Nothing wrong with rigid singlespeeds...thats what I'm mostly playing with offroad at the moment. Come up to Edinburgh for the Barrybeer, bring the bike, and we can hit Glentress. I'm making TdC bring his bike too.

 

[Tom]

Incidentally, has anyone ever visited the Cycling+ forums? I've been banned from there. Apparently its a crime to eat meat, like cars, and wear leather. Quite possibly the worst place in the world for improving driver-cyclist relations, such a bunch of idiotic bigots.

 

[Will]

Give me a link to the thread that got you banned. I could do with a laugh.

 

[Tom]

heh, they delete them

http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=21

There used to be an utter loony on there who would get banned every couple of weeks and return under a new guise. Hes an absolute nutcase who has been banned from just about every cycling forum going (and a few motoring forums as well).

Sidewalls, tabernacle, spindrift, trekstar,etc. You can often find him in a fight on some other forum by googling his alias

I called him a drug pusher because he wants to legalise Heroin 'a benign drug', which I didn't like. Thats why I got banned The daft thing is, he did it in retaliation because he posted violent threats against the chap who runs www.safespeed.org.uk and I complained about it. He even managed to get the entire C+ site shut down over a weekend, because he posted some libellous comments about a serving police officer, and that officer threatened the owners with legal action

 

[Draylor]

Ah, sounds like a job for theseel to me

 

[Will]

Ah, I did wonder why they had to take the site offline a while ago.

 

[Tom]

Yeah, the site is really badly moderated.

'tis a shame because there are some intelligent people on there, its just overridden with loonies who knit yoghurt sweaters all day and think that cars are evil, and that anybody earning more than £30k a year is a filthy capitalist.

They never could get their head around the fact that I love driving cars, and love cycling, and think that speed cameras are dangerous.

 

[Will]

You sound like you are describing me, and I seem to moderate here alright.

 

[Tom]

Ah but nobody here takes themselves seriously Thats why I like it so much

 

[TdC]

Come up to Edinburgh for the Barrybeer, bring the bike, and we can hit Glentress. I'm making TdC bring his bike too.

ah, er, ahem, I'm not too sure on the biking for me: my leg hurts like hell after I do it and freaks me out.

 

[Will]

I know someone who does sports massage.

 

[.Wilier.]

Come up to Edinburgh for the Barrybeer, bring the bike, and we can hit Glentress. I'm making TdC bring his bike too.

Sounds like a great idea

 

[TdC]

I dunno. My leg's still wonky (after 8 months ). I'll have to leave it til the last minute :/

 

[Tom]

Bought some RockShox SID XL 2nd-hand off someone on the Bikemagic forums. They should arrive later this week, haven't decided yet if I'll service them before fitting. £60 can't go wrong tbh.

I think I'll just bung them on, and while they're on the bike I'll dismantle my old ones and give them a good going over, see what can be done.

 

[Will]

Older SIDs have interesting damping, but they are very light. And kinda flexy.

 

[Tom]

They'll do for a bit, until I pay off the stupid amounts of money I've spent on cars over the last 18 months

I plan to double my mortgage payments from next year, and hopefully I'll also be able to afford a stupendously light and responsive bike of death that will draw gasps from everyone I zoom past. Until I buckle the downtube that is.....

 

[Will]

I have some recommendations, depending on what you want from your bike, and what kind of riding you do. I've got about three different bikes I want to buy at the moment...a fixed track/commuter bike, a 29er singlespeed hardtail, and a fixed/singlespeed CX bike.

But the budget says I can have one of those, or i can have a holiday. Hopefully I'll get a nice redundancy and a new job at the same time.

 

[Tom]

When I was at college I ploughed (relatively) massive amounts of cash into my racing bike. Of course I didn't have two pennies to rub together so its all relative, but I had Shimano Ultegra gearset, Ultegra seat post, Ultegra headset, everything else was 105. I always wanted Dura-Ace, but couldn't afford it

Now I'm doing ok-ish and not spending a fortune on cars for a bit, I really am attracted to the idea of having a fucking ace bike. I mean a really, really nice bike that would be under-utilised by me but would still be bloody nice. It would only be for lumpy dirt tracks and cruddy tarmac country roads, but still I had a TVR and I never took that on a track did I

I also fancy the idea of buying another racing/touring bike, I imagine that gearsets have moved on since I last bought any gear, and I wouldn't mind a proper expensive frame with no flex when pedalling, god that would be nice

 

[Will]

Why not combine the two ideas, and get a titanium cyclocross bike?

 

[Tom]

Gonna ride it tomorrow, but they feel a damn site better than my old ones, much lighter too. Headset was a right bastard to get sorted, god why don't they screw down on the top any more? Stupid.

 

[Will]

What the hell? I've never seen dual crown SIDs before...

 

[Tom]

A chap on another forum is telling me that I could break my frame/forks by having these on.

Thing is, I've already dropped them to less than 100mm travel. They're sat at the same height as the old ones, slightly lower in fact. Can't see how that would cause problems, the leverage on the headtube is now the same as before?

Considering I ride on tarmac and farm tracks, I don't see how I could damage the frame....

 

[TdC]

indeed Tom, it's the leverage that counts. I'd not try jumping off things with those forks fully extended for long periods though: I once saw a pic of a folded frame and tbh I'd be surprised if the bloke still had his jewels o0