Covet

[vvill]

@notlost 119066 wrote:

Lauf fork on a single speed 29er looks nice…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8980[/ATTACH]

Is that a SS? Looks geared.

Laufs do look goofy but I would try one if I was into MTBing more – both for the weight savings and the reduced maintenance requirements.

[hozn]

@vvill 119184 wrote:

Is that a SS? Looks geared.

Laufs do look goofy but I would try one if I was into MTBing more – both for the weight savings and the reduced maintenance requirements.

I haven’t kept up with reviews since I assumed the product would fail immediately (obviously was wrong, since you still see them for sale), but the one early review I read said they sucked for lateral rigidity / cornering, which sounds kinda important.

But I do agree that the maintenance on suspension forks sucks. My solution is rigid fork! After riding for a couple hours in the Davis(WV)-area rock gardens, I’ve decided that my rigid steel fork really isn’t limiting my options. Heck, people ride the S&M100 on rigid single-speeds. I might get a carbon rigid at some point to lighten up the front end, but bigger (2.3″) tires work great to add comfort and enduro XC races aren’t going to feature prominently on my race calendar in the next few years, so simplicity wins. I could also add larger tires up front if I wanted to add more squish; I could see doing that for a 12-hour race. My hands were definitely starting to get tired after 6 hours — of Rosaryville! — when I did that a few years back.

[vvill]

@hozn 119186 wrote:

I haven’t kept up with reviews since I assumed the product would fail immediately (obviously was wrong, since you still see them for sale), but the one early review I read said they sucked for lateral rigidity / cornering, which sounds kinda important.

But I do agree that the maintenance on suspension forks sucks. My solution is rigid fork! After riding for a couple hours in the Davis(WV)-area rock gardens, I’ve decided that my rigid steel fork really isn’t limiting my options. Heck, people ride the S&M100 on rigid single-speeds. I might get a carbon rigid at some point to lighten up the front end, but bigger (2.3″) tires work great to add comfort and enduro XC races aren’t going to feature prominently on my race calendar in the next few years, so simplicity wins. I could also add larger tires up front if I wanted to add more squish; I could see doing that for a 12-hour race. My hands were definitely starting to get tired after 6 hours — of Rosaryville! — when I did that a few years back.

I’ve certainly seen a movement for a fat(ter) front tire with a rigid fork, and it makes sense to me. I think Ti looks the nicest though

The Lauf I think fits a certain niche where you’re not doing fast hard aggressive cornering (which I haven’t learned to do anyway) and nothing too crazy technical or varied since it’s not adjustable. I first heard of the trailing link suspension design for folding bikes (where I think it would make perfect sense).

[notlost]

@vvill 119184 wrote:

Is that a SS? Looks geared.

It is geared…my preference would be for a single speed!

I’m pretty happy with a rigid SS & carbon fork…I don’t think the lateral rigidity would be that killer, unless you were hitting big stuff with it. But then again, that kind of stuff would suck to hit with a SID too.

[jabberwocky]

Suspension forks aren’t that much of a maintenance issue. On my trail forks I generally send them off every few years for an overhaul. The lyrik on my trail bike is a few years old and has a thousand or so miles and has never had a thing done to it and it works awesome. My old Fox TALAS (2004 vintage) went a few thousand miles over several years with a single overhaul (its on my backup and could use one now, but still works fine). The only fork I’ve ever had to mess with was the Totem on the DH bike, and it really wasn’t hard to work on.

I honestly don’t get the fat tire trend. I think its driven by ideological rigid people who are realizing just how much rigid sucks off road, but don’t want to just get a suspension fork. Its a crapload of rotational weight to get a few inches of crappy damping.

As for fork rigidity, its a huge issue when you’re riding more technical terrain. Get into a rock garden at speed and a fork that actually tracks where you point it is great. Same for hard cornering. I have zero tolerance for noodly forks. With the proliferation of thru-axles and large stanchion forks, its a solved issue.

[mstone]

@vvill 119187 wrote:

The Lauf I think fits a certain niche where you’re not doing fast hard aggressive cornering (which I haven’t learned to do anyway) and nothing too crazy technical or varied since it’s not adjustable.

Yes, it’s ideal for that niche where you want to use relatively skinny tires on a mostly-smooth surface, but still need some suspension, are on a straight flat road so you don’t need to worry about the lateral stability when standing and climbing or turning, and need to worry about weight, but not enough that the weight of this thing matters. If they could figure out where the heck that niche is, they’ll make bank.

Quote:

I first heard of the trailing link suspension design for folding bikes (where I think it would make perfect sense).

I feel like the lack of dampening would either pitch me off a foldy or cause the handlebars to punch me in the face.

[hozn]

@jabberwocky 119198 wrote:

Suspension forks aren’t that much of a maintenance issue. On my trail forks I generally send them off every few years for an overhaul. The lyrik on my trail bike is a few years old and has a thousand or so miles and has never had a thing done to it and it works awesome. My old Fox TALAS (2004 vintage) went a few thousand miles over several years with a single overhaul (its on my backup and could use one now, but still works fine). The only fork I’ve ever had to mess with was the Totem on the DH bike, and it really wasn’t hard to work on.

I think we just have different definitions of “high maintenance”. This sounds like a lot of (expensive) work for something that starts so damn expensive in the first place. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have a problem with suspension forks, I’d just rather do *nothing* every few years than spend a couple hundred bucks and be out of a bike for a couple weeks while the fork gets rebuilt. I ride my mountain bike so rarely these days, that it’s something I want to “just work” without any fuss. And it does. I’m happy to tweak my commuter or road bike constantly.

@jabberwocky 119198 wrote:

I honestly don’t get the fat tire trend. I think its driven by ideological rigid people who are realizing just how much rigid sucks off road, but don’t want to just get a suspension fork. Its a crapload of rotational weight to get a few inches of crappy damping.

I probably should have qualified the idea of larger tire; I also don’t get the fat tire trend. My Renegade 2.3″ weighs 620g, so it’s a lot lighter than many much smaller tires. I wouldn’t want a heavier duty tire, so I suspect this is probably about as large as I’ll find before I enter downhill or fatbike territory. Running the Renegade 20-25psi is pretty comfortable for regional trails. Definitely haven’t missed having a fork riding things like Lake Fairfax — hell, the 2.3″ is dreamy soft compared to the 42mm @ 50psi (tubed) cx tires.

[jabberwocky]

@hozn 119228 wrote:

I think we just have different definitions of “high maintenance”. This sounds like a lot of (expensive) work for something that starts so damn expensive in the first place. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have a problem with suspension forks, I’d just rather do *nothing* every few years than spend a couple hundred bucks and be out of a bike for a couple weeks while the fork gets rebuilt. I ride my mountain bike so rarely these days, that it’s something I want to “just work” without any fuss. And it does. I’m happy to tweak my commuter or road bike constantly.

Its certainly less maintenance than drivetrains are. Suspension forks are complicated things, but modern ones use good seals and cartridge dampers and are pretty durable. I think its like hydraulic brakes, where people who are unfamiliar with them think they are scary hoodoo that mere mortals can’t hope to understand. I’ve overhauled a fork before and its really not that hard. Just changing the bath oil (which is probably the most the majority of people will ever need to do) is dead simple. I can do it on my rockshox forks in about 5 minutes.

Sure though, rigid forks are less maintenance. As long as you don’t consider arthritic joints maintenance.

@hozn 119228 wrote:

I probably should have qualified the idea of larger tire; I also don’t get the fat tire trend. My Renegade 2.3″ weighs 620g, so it’s a lot lighter than many much smaller tires. I wouldn’t want a heavier duty tire, so I suspect this is probably about as large as I’ll find before I enter downhill or fatbike territory. Running the Renegade 20-25psi is pretty comfortable for regional trails. Definitely haven’t missed having a fork riding things like Lake Fairfax — hell, the 2.3″ is dreamy soft compared to the 42mm @ 50psi (tubed) cx tires.

I know we’ve gone back and forth before, and its obvious that we fundamentally disagree on what is fun, because you enjoy Lake Fairfax on a cross bike whereas every time I’ve tried that I’ve gotten about 1/4 mile from the lot and started muttering that this is why I have a mountain bike.

Different strokes and all that! I should note that while my primary bike (Ibis Mojo HD) has a ton of suspension travel, I do also run a rigid SS sometimes as well. Its fun to switch it up. But I’d go nuts running rigid all the time, and I would never take the rigid bike to the more technical trails I love (FredShed, GW forest, etc).

[hozn]

@jabberwocky 119246 wrote:

I would never take the rigid bike to the more technical trails I love (FredShed, GW forest, etc).

I suspect that if I had time to get out to these trails, I would also exchange my rigid SS for a hardtail or better. Sure it could work — but why do that to oneself? — But I don’t expect to really be doing any lengthy “drive to ride” mountain biking until the kids are quite a bit older. The SS 29er should hold me over until then and the occasional ride on more serious terrain [hopefully] won’t kill me!

[jabberwocky]

Drop me a line when you’re ready and I’ll show you around the Shed. I even have a good intro loop that won’t have you hating the rigid bike too much!

[Sunyata]

@jabberwocky 119250 wrote:

Drop me a line when you’re ready and I’ll show you around the Shed. I even have a good intro loop that won’t have you hating the rigid bike too much!

I may take you up on this, too! (But it will have to be after SM100, since my weekends are now spent doing ridiculously long rides whilst thinking to myself that I am an idiot for signing up for this race…)

[jabberwocky]

@Sunyata 119317 wrote:

I may take you up on this, too! (But it will have to be after SM100, since my weekends are now spent doing ridiculously long rides whilst thinking to myself that I am an idiot for signing up for this race…)

Anytime, Casey. Shed is perfect SM100 training! Ride the trails and then grind around on the gravel roads, or swap the MTB for the road bike and climb some mountains!

[DaveK]

@Sunyata 119317 wrote:

I may take you up on this, too! (But it will have to be after SM100, since my weekends are now spent doing ridiculously long rides whilst thinking to myself that I am an idiot for signing up for this race…)

Do yourself a favor and do some training rides with hike-a-bike mixed in. You’ll be glad as you’re hiking up the Lynn trail for 45 minutes early in race.

[mstone]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9031[/ATTACH]

I’m not entirely sure whether to be intrigued or repulsed. I do know that if I decide to bike to the south pole, this is the one to use.

http://www.icetrikes.co/community/ice-news/ice-full-fat-26fs

[Sunyata]

@DaveK 119343 wrote:

Do yourself a favor and do some training rides with hike-a-bike mixed in. You’ll be glad as you’re hiking up the Lynn trail for 45 minutes early in race.

Yeah, I will go out and ride bits of the course several times over the next two months. Luckily, I am super familiar with all of the trails (I went to JMU, which is where I learned to ride a mountain bike and go back 4-5 times a year and ride). Lynn and I have a hate/hate relationship on the best day… But, I know it is coming and can plan accordingly – the soul crushing hike-a-bike is more of a mental drain than a physical one. Hopefully I will be with a group of good spirited folks that will appreciate my odd sense of humour on that section.

[Author]

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