new front shocks for electric

[karma]

my suntour m3010 shocks are starting to show signs of ware, and im looking to upgrade to maybe a triple crown oil filled shock. anyone have a good brandname that not to expensive?

this will be my second set, im finding the extra weigh from batterys and motor warez em out faster.

thanks

[Abneycat]

That depends on what you classify as good. Before I can really help, whats the travel on your current fork? Is it the 50mm version of the m3010 or the 75mm version?

You'll be in better shape if its the 75mm, as thats a lot closer to the sort of travel you can typically find in a decent fork. Finding an 80mm fork wouldn't be terribly hard, and wouldn't change your steering characteristics much at all. If you have 50mm of travel, it becomes more difficult as you'll be restricted primarily to "urban comfort" forks, which usually have low travel - there aren't many good ones to pick from. You basically want to keep the length of the fork roughly the same to keep your bike geometry the same.

Whats your budget like? Do you want rebound/lockout controls?

Well, i'll presume you're talking about a sub-entry level fork, since you wouldn't need anything bigger for an e-bike. My personal experience is as such: Marzocchi, Rock Shox and Fox all make great forks, but Fox doesn't sell budget products and Marzocchi doesn't start to get good until the Dirt Jumper/MX price range: Avoid the Marzocchi MZ stuff.

This is the most utterly basic offering around that price/travel geometry range thats worth the cost:
http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/FK405A00-Rock+Shox+Dart+2+Fork+07.aspx
Its not a performance fork by any means, and has no options other than preload. However, it'll work. Personally, I would go for something a little better, this fork is pretty much back of the pack.

You could find an 80mm Dart 3, which has rebound and lockout. That would give you a good amount of control over your fork, and perform quite well in the city - without killing your bank account.
That would probably be my personal suggestion if you're budgeting <$200.

If, on the chance you have the 50mm version, you may still be able to increase the travel on your fork, but it'll make your head tube angle noticeably more slack, which you might get away with just fine depending on what angle its at right now - but it also might make it *too* slack. So far as i'm aware, there aren't any "mainstream brands" who do a 50mm fork for a 26" wheel, just brands like RST/Suntour.

[karma]

i think its the 75mm version, i cleaned some of the dirt out of the seals and a drop of oil seems to have worked
there smooth again for now anyway. im looking at spending up to $400.00 the 80mm Dart 3 sounds good to me
there cheaper, there no way my old lady will let me spend $1000 for triple crown forks :( thay ask way to much for forks.

http://www.cyclepath.ca/products/item2851.htm

may as well add this to :) http://www.cyclepath.ca/products/item2545.htm i only have a working front brake lol

[Abneycat]

A Dart would do quite well :) you won't need anything more for city riding, unless you're into using your e-bike as an Urban Assault or Trials machine. A cross country fork is a good match. If you were wanting something more substantial, I would seriously suggest the Tora 318 U-turn, its an exceptional fork for the money: but the travel and length might be too long, you would have to reference that to your LBS to figure it out.

On the Dart (and the rest of them)
if you find that the extra weight still seems to sag the fork, Rock Shox has them available with firm and extra firm spring kits, so you have quite a bit of flexibility there.

And on brakes,
Personally, I don't know how good the BB5s are, but BB7s are legendarily good mechanical disk brakes. They might be okay though, because Avid typically makes good brakes in general, but i'm just stating what I know about the BB7s: awesome stuff. Spending the extra $15 might be worth it, IMO. Do you have a disk hub for your wheel? It becomes a lot more expensive to change over if you don't.

[Lowell_]

My Tora lasted a very short time before blowing all it's oil out the top. It also had a very flexible crown which allowed large amounts of fore/aft wheel movement, and under hard braking the left tube would flex backwards and change the steering angle. I now run a dual crown Boxxer and am very happy with it... I just wish I didn't cheap out the first time.

I bought my Boxxer off nsmb.com, but Craigslist is a great place to find deals. eg. http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/bik/564995794.html

[Abneycat]

Lowell, which Tora did you have?

[karma]

A Dart would do quite well :) you won't need anything more for city riding, unless you're into using your e-bike as an Urban Assault or Trials machine. A cross country fork is a good match. If you were wanting something more substantial, I would seriously suggest the Tora 318 U-turn, its an exceptional fork for the money: but the travel and length might be too long, you would have to reference that to your LBS to figure it out.

On the Dart (and the rest of them)
if you find that the extra weight still seems to sag the fork, Rock Shox has them available with firm and extra firm spring kits, so you have quite a bit of flexibility there.

And on brakes,
Personally, I don't know how good the BB5s are, but BB7s are legendarily good mechanical disk brakes. They might be okay though, because Avid typically makes good brakes in general, but i'm just stating what I know about the BB7s: awesome stuff. Spending the extra $15 might be worth it, IMO. Do you have a disk hub for your wheel? It becomes a lot more expensive to change over if you don't.


i was thinking on adding a disk brake to my rear hubmotor, i saw on another forum where a member moded
out his front wheel to work with a disk brake, should work for the rear if not i could allways go for the rim brakes. im just wondering if the extra weigh on the back could effect the hubmotor if i drill and tap holes for the plate and disk?

[Abneycat]

Well, if you have a Crystalyte (I can't remember which one you have, honestly), then you can simply buy a new side plate with the IS 6-bolt done on for you.

Otherwise, you'll probably spend a fair amount of time spacing and aligning, and making sure you get it on securely. Disk brake modding could go either way, it could be easy easy as changing out a plate, you might have to make your own (but it might be very conveniently spaced, simply requiring pretty much welding on the 6 bolt mount), or a very complex and difficult process involving making your very own custom spaced mounting plate.

I can't really say which direction yours could go in :)

[Lowell_]

Lowell, which Tora did you have?

Coil U-turn, and it used to have oil in it :( As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

[Abneycat]

289 or 302, maybe. But the 318 is a good fork from my experience. Then again, i've seen better broken as well. What are you using now?