info wanted on very strange Rodem upside down fork

bartsince1975

bartsince1975

Retro Guru
let's start this with a picture:



Found this fork on the local Marketplace, owner had it for two years and knew not more then that is was NOS, elastomer and 26". Well I could have told him that myself, so does anybody on this marvelous site know anything about this very early suspension thing or the brand Rodem? Somehow my memory links it to the other Dutch brands Rond and WP am I right? The elastomers are sshot of course, but it does look like it is build with decent materials and has a very nice colour (opinion I know). Oh and yess, anything bigger then 1.9 won't fit :xmas-wink:
 
Does the whole brake-arch-canti-studs assembly slide up and down with the lowers? (like a Halson inversion fork?) Can't really make out how this whole contraption would work otherwise.(with cantis at least). Very bizarre! Nice find.
 
I took it apart, which was realy easy. Elastomers are hard but salvageable by boiling I think. Yes the whole bridge slides, although not much more than an inch.

 
You won't get much more than an inch of travel out of it anyways... elastomers should be fairly easy to come by. As far as the tire clearance goes: WTF were they smoking? It's nor for a road-bike right?
 
1750 gr. Very heavy for a one inch elastomer fork.
I'm trying to figure out if by building it up slightly different it can take 28" wheels, seems to be a better fit for cx kind of use.
 
Re:

Cool find! Was Rodem not a contraption from Rond and another company who started working together? The normal Rodem fork looks exactly like the Rond fork. I have never seen this one unfortunately...
 
I showed it to a collaegue today. He claims to have seen one on an old colnago prototype bike from the 90's. The left and right dropouts are slightly different and smal bolts have been cut to the required length. Could be a proto??
 
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