The stupid questions thread.

Thanks for the ideas, As a point of clarification I am mainly interested in steel hardtail, rigid fork bikes and definitely musk be UK made.

Then I would go for one of the aforementioned custom builders with either one of their own forks or a set of paces rc30's. cheaper but iconic option would be an orange clockwork in orange white fade.

Logic.Al":19dyj8mm said:

Flex Stems IMO were scary. The bars are not supposed to move like that.

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Anyone know if any flex stems were made for aheadset?

Were / are suspension seat posts any good for XC / all mountain (whatever that means) riders?

I ask because these days the name of the game seems to be getting as much shock absorption (as well as rolling resistance) as possible if one wants to be as fast as possible. Since most retro bikes can't take modern long travel forks, I'm wondering whether adding a flex stem, sus seat post and phatt tires to my rigid steel bike could be a good start.

Finally, I one more stupid question about suspension forks. Travel matters to some extent, clearly, as does rebound damping. But does having 70 mm instead of 100 of travel make much difference? And does it matter if the rebound it like a pogo stick (undamped), if the hits are nonetheless being absorbed by the fork?

lewisfoto":3cl4rj66 said:

Thanks for the ideas, As a point of clarification I am mainly interested in steel hardtail, rigid fork bikes and definitely musk be UK made.

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Better yet get in touch and ask him very nicely to make you a new old one.

http://www.daveyatescycles.co.uk/

I'll gladly take a trip (relatively) down the road to view progress....

And

ultrazenith":2qtybchj said:

My next questions: were flex stems any good?

And the AMP front forks?

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BITD my cheap Chinese copy of a Girven wobbled side to side like mad when wrenching on the bar ends, had a
whopping 1½ inch of travel when the damper was replaced with a boiled rubber door stop. I thought it was ace.

Recently read an article - think it was Tom Ritchey talking about "over suspension" and the Softride with a parallelogram design was more than suitable for getting rid of road buzz on touring bikes.

why is this thread so short?

ultrazenith":1mclna7q said:

Were / are suspension seat posts any good for XC / all mountain (whatever that means) riders?

I ask because these days the name of the game seems to be getting as much shock absorption (as well as rolling resistance) as possible if one wants to be as fast as possible. Since most retro bikes can't take modern long travel forks, I'm wondering whether adding a flex stem, sus seat post and phatt tires to my rigid steel bike could be a good start.

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If you're going as fast as possible, you're stood up. If you're stood up, what good is a suspension seat post doing? It will help with comfort when sat pedalling though, I would imagine. Best bet would be a pair of decent high volume tyres (2.1/2.2 minimum), carbon bars and carbon seatpost to take the sting out of trail buzz. Beyond that, a lot of suspension forks can be spaced down to give reduced travel and a smaller A-C measurement, thus making them suitable for older bikes that can't take more than a 75mm travel fork. If you want suspension though, don't ride a rigid retro-bike, ride a suspended bike! I ride my FS for what it is, and my retro rigid for what it is, and wouldn't want to try to make either into the other.

ultrazenith":1mclna7q said:

Finally, I one more stupid question about suspension forks. Travel matters to some extent, clearly, as does rebound damping. But does having 70 mm instead of 100 of travel make much difference? And does it matter if the rebound it like a pogo stick (undamped), if the hits are nonetheless being absorbed by the fork?

Click to expand...

With forks, it's the quality of travel rather than quantity - that said, if you have the same fork with an inch of difference in travel, the rougher the track, the more you are likely to notice it. And yes, rebounding like a pogo stick is not good!

Interesting, I had no idea that carbon provides decent shock absorption, but it explains why I get on so well with my 1998 carbon riser bar.

I also recently discovered have a STEEL Dynatech seatpost on my 1993 M Trax 400. It's the first steel seat post I've heard of on a serious mountain bike, ever. In all my weight weenie years I never once thought to test it with a magnet. Perhaps it's fortunate I didn't because I'd have removed (and lost) it, to fit a cheapo kalloy anodised post in its place.

The most frequently asked stupid question is 'is this a zaskar?'

Why hasn't everyone stopped using cantilevers, V-brakes fit the same mounts and are better? Why doesn't everyone use Maguras they fit the same mounts and are better than either and cheaper than top of the line either?