Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.BruceMetras
10-08-07, 02:30 PM
Just got back from a week in the mountains with my gf ... I brought her hub-geared DT Mini along with my FS... I rode her bike a few times and it reminded me of how much I like the Mini... the only thing that I was never too keen on was the coil spring rear suspension.. seemed to bounce around more than I liked and made some suspension related noises while underway... never bothered her, but she also weighs considerably less than I... since I like elastomer rear suspension blocks with it's inherent dampning qualities, when I got back I decided to see if a Birdy elastomer would fit in place of the coil spring... it does! .. you need to fill about a 12mm gap somehow to take up some freespace ( I whittled up some delrin rod on a little hobby lathe for the spacer), but I probably could have come up with something walking the aisles of a Home Depot or the like (but without the satisfaction of cobbing something up from scratch). Anyway, I like the improvement. It's totally quiet and doesn't bob .. this setup can also be adjusted to practically 'lockup' any rear suspension movement... I used the softest Birdy elastomer (yellow). Pictured is the stock spring, the delrin rod that I made a spacer from and an assortment of elastomers ..
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/1516983495_ef4618f063.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/1516983495_ef4618f063.jpg