Inverted Fork

[shirk]

Then what? Why has each attempt in single crown forks previously fallen flat? Lack of adequate salesmanship? Lack of buyer courage? Lack of bike journo stokage?

Wait what? You rant all the time about how we're all under mind control from the marketing departments. How can your answer to this be anything other than lack of salesmanship.

[stuckathuntermtn]

^^dude, don't even try.

My favorite thing about Lefties is the mud guard shit that hasn't been on other forks since about, what, the 90's? Bwahahah

[jamal]

All this lefty talk makes me want to try one now. Guy I've been riding with has one and we're about the same height, I should see if he wants to trade during a ride.

[Finstah]

This is far and away the best (and stiffest) "fork" I've ever ridden on a trailbike.http://fcdn.mtbr.com/attachments/can...55678316_n.jpg

Honestly, my only complaint with it is that it is so torsionally stiff that it exposes all but the stiffest carbon front wheels as flexy pieces of junk.

[Finstah]

Yeah, current gen - 2013 models I think.

But back when I worked on those things semi-frequently, we'd always have problems with the boots. The boots would tear or come unseated, and it didn't take much contamination at all to make them feel horrible. And they were a significant pain to rebuild (not sure if the newer ones are better on that front), so getting the contamination out was a bit of a chore.

Sorry Toast, Leftys are as easy to service as any fork on the market if you have the correct tools. I never saw too many torn boots either.

The only service they used to require more frequently than they should have was resetting migrated bearings, which has also been resolved in the newer models. The bearings now reset on bottom out, which in theory should be happening once or twice every ride.

[Hugh Conway]

well one thing's for certain...the tgr brain trust will determine the success or failure of this sram product. so we've got that going for us.

the lawyers pretending they know fuck all about anything more mechanical than the door knob to the glory hole bathroom?

Or the engineering dork side.

My moneys on the legal "brain trust" deciding whats the flavor of the day for the well groomed subaru driving "active lifestyler". Follow toasts lead blistered fanboys!

[XXX-er]

I got a lefty with TPC on a 2005 prophet, other than a couple of loose bolts holding the strut that needed to be torked correctly it has always worked flawelessly and I forget about the missing fork leg, I think some people can't get over it and look down at that missing leg claiming they can't ride it cuz of all the flex but if you looked down at any fork all the time you probably would have a problem riding the bike

that 1800$ price tag will come way down pretty quick if the product catches on

[creaky fossil]

Um, no. My rather lengthy post said this was a way to avoid that compromise and get an improvement in weight or stiffness or a little of both.

I did not address cost since I don't see any reason for it to be different apart from volume. Which would then bring on the questions you're raising now, the answer to which is I don't know and I don't see any correlation to this product. The bike industry is littered with good ideas that failed in the market before making it and your guess is as good as mine, but history seems to indicate that an approach that doesn't suck fundamentally may eventually win out.

jono, I didn't mean you said light-cheap-strong-pick-2 exactly, I just meant what you wrote reduced to that sort of general split. I'm just asking whether the upside-down design's chance for success is limited by how light people insist their bikes be in 2014 -- is it a design that can track true and be supple only when relatively overbuilt -- with "overbuilt" being "requires construction ending in weight unsuitable to 2014 (and later) buying public"?

Every semi-working design/proto can be endlessly "improved". That doesn't mean the asymptotic endpoint (always escaping) will take the theoretical user group anywhere they want to go/be with the item in question.

For example, remember the elastomer-spring Onza clipless pedals? We could revive the design with "updated, space-age polymer technology!" but would they ever work as well as Time ATACs?

Wait what? You rant all the time about how we're all under mind control from the marketing departments. How can your answer to this be anything other than lack of salesmanship.

Sweet. Defending "progress" as a virtue, yet again.

I never said "shirk is under mind control". I said forum e-bikers, virtual enthusiasts, hangers-on, lifestylers, and people who use bikes as status display and/or art gallery installation are prone to being manipulated by whatever is pumped by whomever is hyped. This is nothing new on the Earth, sad industry boosting bro. You act like it hurts you personally when I mention these pathetic human comic errors, as if my satires hurt you personally.

I'm trying to find out where jono goes with his take on things, if you don't mind. Or even if you do.

In other news, interesting thread on NSMB. How are you doing the miters? Hole saw & fixture? Tin snips and files? Abrader?

^^dude, don't even try.

Butthurt boy. Your technical ignorance and bike un-riding skills leave you no room to snark at anyone on this thread. Go swish your feather boa at the Amvets.

[raisingarizona13]

I don't have the technical knowledge like some of you but all I'm seeing is an unnecessary marketing gimmick with this inverted fork. As someone else mentioned I don't like the idea of putting the sanctions closer to the ground and debris getting tossed up off the trail.

If it's not broke don't try to fix it.

[east or bust]

If it's not broke don't try to fix it.

I do agree with that train of thought in regards to many aspects of life, but not with technology.

[shirk]

Sweet. Defending "progress" as a virtue, yet again.

I wasn't defending progress or the industry. You're opinion on the herd being led by the marketers is well displayed, my comment was an attempt at a sarcastic whip on how you could ask why the previous wonder forks failed. If the RAC sold well it would likely still be in use today in it's nth generation update where the marketers could tell us how it's 37.874562% better, moar shimz, stiffer, and lighter because they didn't actually put any oil in it.

Files, hack saw, and a bevel protractor. I've been studying for a couple years online. There is some great info out there. The master builders all started with nothing more and they say it's the right way to start, it's also much much cheaper this way. Learn the basic skill of a tight hand file mitre and you'll get a straight frame they say.

[jono]

So Creaky, in those terms I am only talking about the asymptote; we really can't see everything about the details here. I'm sure someone will lay his hands on one and jump to all those conclusions, but without knowing what RS knows (and more) we don't know how close this one comes to final refinement. What I'm saying is that as refinement is approached this layout is superior to the refined version of a unit lower. I've said before that this one may or may not be close; it's the fact that the asymptote you refer to is better with this design that leads me to say that this might be refined enough to be better than a unit lower fork.

We've skipped over the obvious reason to start this with XC: the 29" wheel size exacerbates the disadvantage of the unit lower design. Unlike toast, I see no reason why this basic approach will suffer with more travel, but a unit lower does get heavier and sloppier with bigger wheel sizes.

[jono]

My favorite thing about Lefties is the mud guard shit that hasn't been on other forks since about, what, the 90's? Bwahahah

This cracked a smile: other people are arguing about who will lead the herd over what cliff and right in the middle of it all stuck's blissfully centering himself in the herd and eschewing function for fashion. Bravo sir; a fine example serves to make the point so much quicker than all that bickering.

[creaky fossil]

I wasn't defending progress or the industry. You're opinion on the herd being led by the marketers is well displayed, my comment was an attempt at a sarcastic whip on how you could ask why the previous wonder forks failed. If the RAC sold well it would likely still be in use today in it's nth generation update where the marketers could tell us how it's 37.874562% better, moar shimz, stiffer, and lighter because they didn't actually put any oil in it.

Sort of what I'm saying. Fred Forumhero says he needs inverted, uber-supple, no mid-stroke wallow, no top stroke freezout, and no pants-pissing torsion or tuck, and Fred wants it at 2.8 lbs, which can't be that tough can it, I mean Fred's Niner rigid fork is 2.4 lbs right?

It's a bad cocktail, shadetree engineers with a serious gear fetish feeling their marketing pressure oats with the ability to e-spew all kinds of demands. Sorta like people pestering David Turner to make the RFX now, because they need the extra 0.68" of rear travel to do what (in their minds) the Burner prohibits them from doing.

Files, hack saw, and a bevel protractor. I've been studying for a couple years online. There is some great info out there. The master builders all started with nothing more and they say it's the right way to start, it's also much much cheaper this way. Learn the basic skill of a tight hand file mitre and you'll get a straight frame they say.

Yep, tight miters and true miters. Angle creep is a concern when rough cut-then-file is used, as is asymmetry. Good miters = straighter frame, sturdier fillets. It's fun, isn't it?

[shirk]

Yep, tight miters and true miters. Angle creep is a concern when rough cut-then-file is used, as is asymmetry. Good miters = straighter frame, sturdier fillets. It's fun, isn't it?

Yep tight and true on plane.

I just posted up a bunch more images, I'll post up a thread here.

[stuckathuntermtn]

This cracked a smile: other people are arguing about who will lead the herd over what cliff and right in the middle of it all stuck's blissfully centering himself in the herd and eschewing function for fashion. Bravo sir; a fine example serves to make the point so much quicker than all that bickering.

I'm glad you cracked a smile. I'm mostly just a goofball who goofs around all goofy and shit. I feel proudest when someone needs a new keyboard.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Discuss.

[grskier]

Is this the $1800 thing?

[stuckathuntermtn]

Whatever the new one is.