Bicycle suspension is evil

That is the title of the latest column from Bikesnob in Outside magazine, to which I couldn't agree more.

He points out the first component to get obsolete in a bike is the suspension, and that's why all my retrobikes are fully rigid (the modern ones too!).

Best quote: "a great rigid bike (...) will also cost you less money, less maintenance downtime, and less angst in the future because frames that don't move never become obsolete.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2248191/s ... ling-bliss

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Tend to agree. A decent hardtail with fat tyres and front sus is enough for most purposes unless you are doing a Trail Park Black run balls out.

A marvelous piece! Thanks for sharing :mrgreen:

rigid wins for me. Always has and always will. Low maintenance. Set up and forget. Plus when on the rough i can feel what the bike is doing and so ride accordingly. A rigid bike is lighter so disc brakes are't needed. V brakes once set up will stop a light bike on a dime.

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Just switched from a Santa Cruz Blur to an Yeti ARC - the first thing I noticed which I wasn't expecting and is not often mentioned is the lower centre of gravity - makes a huge difference IMO.

I'll probably switch back to full sus when I move to the Peak District next year but here in the South East I don't think I'd ever bother with a full sus again - it just takes the fun out of the comparatively smoother terrain.

Interesting point about obsolete suspension parts... To there credit, Santa Cruz are very good at supplying spares all the way back to their first models. On the other hand, I've been toying with getting a Maverick / Palomino / Seven Duo as I really fancy checking out that system but looking at it in more detail I'd probably steer clear since it looks very hard / impossible to source spares, particularly as the Kleins apparently need servicing every few months!

Some good article. We have a friend who boasts that putting the water bottles on his bike doubles the weight. Forgets to mention that him mounting it increases the weight by a factor of 20! He and his Lycra clad roady group do a similar ride to us, except we cycle the 12k to the start point, whereas he puts the lightweight on the roof of the car and drives it there! I guess your strava times suffer from the extra distance.

Some folks !

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"Riding a bike with too many moving parts can be like caressing your lover with oven mitts". Really enjoyed reading through all the other posts aside of the 'Suspension is Evil' bit, too. It contained too many observations and gems that I agreed with: so, I'm not only the one who finds "On Your Left!" or "On Your Right!" (The Politics of Passing) annoying.
I liked "only ride with one bottle in order to encourage café stops and that you should only carry two bottles when you're actually racing". Recently did a 35 mile charity ride zig-zagging the Thames with some mixed mates from work. At mid point, we stopped in the City for coffee and croissants (oh, the shame) and watched as the Strava facists zipped past us in a disapproving manner

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Nausea Got all of my Maverick parts from Ethan Franklyn at "The Flow Zone". He used to be their Tech Support Manager and now sells NOS and remanufactured parts for these bikes.

Utter cobblers. Haven’t read it.

When my back is doing it’s thing, my full sus gets me out otherwise I couldn’t. Heavier, slower up, faster down, complicated, expensive, occasionally necessary. Obsolete.

Comfortable.

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I think every bike type has its place. I love my old and obsolete RTS Team and the various other designs of both frame and fork that are not generic like most of today's offerings. Without them, we would not have the advances the kids of today benefit from. Don't get me wrong, I like modern forks, never tried anything modern with rear bounce unless you count an STS, but older suspension has character, soul and quirky obsolescence It's up to us folk on here to keep the old rolling, even if it is hard work sourcing old bits.


Oh, and +1 for comfort. And I like my 29er, which has suspension up front.