Mountain Biking - Does anybody still mt bike with no suspension bikes?

I borrowed my boss's bike, an old Schwinn, aluminium frame with STX components but no suspension or front shock. So today I took it to a trail along a lake with ups and downs and the bike really impressed me! Of course it will be great if I had front suspension cus while I was decending a really rocky slope, the vibration was unimaginable, but to my surprise the chain stayed unlike many others that I have riden.

I just got to be more bold to over come those bigger logs.

Arhh.... wasn't paying attention while typing the topic... should be "anyone".

I asked the same question a while back in this forum. I also visited and called a bunch of bike shops in my area asking the question and the answer was no.

So I bought a frame and rigid fork from Soma ( www.somafab.com ) and had it outfitted with XT components and now I have a pretty nice ride, and the best looking bike around.

i dont, though i WOULD..

in fact, if it were very feasible mechanically and financially, i would turn my bike into a single-speed rigid bike

my friend has an old rigid specialized, and he rides and keeps up with me on the local trails easily. this is no fireroads either... its a very very rocky and hilly trail with TONS of babyhead rocks

get a nice rigid with good tire clearance..stick some fatties in the front and run the pressure low..thats all the suspension you need

http://www.bianchiusa.com/sass.html

Arhh.... wasn't paying attention while typing the topic... should be "anyone".

Fixed it for you!

L8R

I don't need all those bells and whistles to enjoy Mtb'ing.....

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=42592&highlight=kona

I've never seen any handle bar like it before... Can't imagine how it will feel like.

I still ride a "rigid" (it was just called a mountain bike when I bought it). 1987 Stumpjumper Comp. Can keep up with the suspension crowd too.

Ya..wanna make something of it?

Hehe, I was advised NOT to run suspension on my bike, absolute WASTE of the steel frame\ fork engineering. Ummm, we're talking lbs telling me no, don't get the work done.
Scary, never before had somebody turn down work. I told him the price I paid for the bike, he pointed out that this brand fork new, was worth as much as I paid for the entire bike $150.

Man, I'm SOOOOOOOO glad I listened. They were right.

Unrelated- You have to try $1000 steel frameworks. You thought Alu Schwinn was nice?

You'ld LOVE an HQ steel mtb. Mine, throw a rider on his @$$ it's so responsive. :D
YeeHAA!

Nice bike Fixer.

I occasionally ride an old haro rigid. It's fun, much lighter and more responsive than my dualie cdale.

I miss my old rigid (and yeah... it was simply a MTB when I bought it too). Steel frame with nice steel fork... tracked like it was on rails. My worst cycling mistake ever was to have gotten rid of it. Actually, I gave it to my brother thinking he could use a bike. He left it out on his front porch unlocked where it got stolen. I am still bitter about this and it's been nearly five years. I'll probably build up another rigid one of these days. I'm lusting over the Pace frames with a Pace CF rigid fork however I also have a soft spot for the old-school MTBs. I still keep an eye out for a good deal on a 1993 Bridgestone MB-1 with the really cool Ritchey-designed fork.

I wanna build up a rigid singlespeed for some xc racing. The whole build process for a light bike is expensive, though. Checked out the Kona model, but they've sold out of 16" rides.

i'm all for the retro thing.

i'm all for the retro thing.

Not retro, accurate. Old bikes are total scores compared to lots new. HQ is HQ in steelwork\ human ergo\ physics. A real fork is serious money.

I still ride an early 90's iron horse MT-400 with an 80mm over fat city big 1" straight blade fork. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I have an older Marin Eldridge Grade that I built in to a SS that is rigid. I ride it all the time. I enjoy it more than my suspension bikes actually.

It is hard to bomb down the hills and ruts with a rigid though.

isnt Bruce Gordons Bruce Gordon Rock N' Road Tour-Ex
http://www.bgcycles.com/rnr.html
considered a rigid mountain bike, but with all the braze ons needed for touring?

It is hard to bomb down the hills and ruts with a rigid though.

And that's a good thing, IMHO. It forces the rider to pick cleaner lines. I ride full-suspension now but I'm thinking that my rigid experience over the years still makes me want to pick the cleanest lines so I'm probably not taking full advantage of suspension.

I'm going back to riding rigid. I never really got into the whole FS thing. IMO people rely more on the suspension rather than thir own skills. I can't wait to see the look on people's faces at the next race season when they just got beat by a complete rigid. HEHE

I'm going back to riding rigid. I never really got into the whole FS thing. IMO people rely more on the suspension rather than thir own skills. I can't wait to see the look on people's faces at the next race season when they just got beat by a complete rigid. HEHE

My mechanic rode singlespeed rigids in XC races. He said that he could burn most of the pack going up the hills but they would usually catch him coming down because he had to navigate cleaner lines while they just bombed on down. He always seemed to end up in a respectable middle of the pack finish however.

And that's a good thing, IMHO. It forces the rider to pick cleaner lines. I ride full-suspension now but I'm thinking that my rigid experience over the years still makes me want to pick the cleanest lines so I'm probably not taking full advantage of suspension.

You just have to redefine clean lines. Clean for a ht is 100% perfect...clean for a xc dually is 80% perfect. On my dh bike clean is 40% perfect. I can plow through a lot of stuff. This would make my times faster though. But I am not racing :)

I realize thats a simple way to look at it but imo its pretty close :)

I'm going back to riding rigid. I never really got into the whole FS thing. IMO people rely more on the suspension rather than thir own skills. I can't wait to see the look on people's faces at the next race season when they just got beat by a complete rigid. HEHE

Whats the point of suspension if you don't use it? If the skills you are talking about are picking good lines, read above. Its all about sarcrifice. Duallies have their place, just depends on what you ride and what your goals are. :)

I don't know if you guys remember that once there were those headsets that has a bit of suspension thingy which reduces the impact to your wrists. I never got to try one, wonder why it failed.

I don't know if you guys remember that once there were those headsets that has a bit of suspension thingy which reduces the impact to your wrists. I never got to try one, wonder why it failed.

In the headset? I've seen the suspension mounted just below as in the Cannondale HeadShok and in the stem as with the old Girvin Flexstem but I don't ever recall there being any suspension in the headset itself.

In the headset? I've seen the suspension mounted just below as in the Cannondale HeadShok and in the stem as with the old Girvin Flexstem but I don't ever recall there being any suspension in the headset itself.

he's probably talking about those forks with the suspension just above where the fork forks.

Haven't seen one in awhile but on a conventional stem they used to spring it where the stem met the post that goes into the head tube with a pivot at the 90 or whatever angle you ended up with. Never saw one for a threadless though.Given the stress that a stem takes, I can see why a spring at that location would not last long and hence the lack of longevity of such a system. It's bad enough pulling a hill with a front shock, can't imagine what a spring loaded handlebar would cause in the way of energy loss.

Haven't seen one in awhile but on a conventional stem they used to spring it where the stem met the post that goes into the head tube with a pivot at the 90 or whatever angle you ended up with. Never saw one for a threadless though.Given the stress that a stem takes, I can see why a spring at that location would not last long and hence the lack of longevity of such a system. It's bad enough pulling a hill with a front shock, can't imagine what a spring loaded handlebar would cause in the way of energy loss.


Yeah that was what I was talking about. I thought it will help when decending a rocky slope.

Haven't seen one in awhile but on a conventional stem they used to spring it where the stem met the post that goes into the head tube with a pivot at the 90 or whatever angle you ended up with. Never saw one for a threadless though.Given the stress that a stem takes, I can see why a spring at that location would not last long and hence the lack of longevity of such a system. It's bad enough pulling a hill with a front shock, can't imagine what a spring loaded handlebar would cause in the way of energy loss.

There were two basic designs of suspension stems. Both were cheap (relatively) ways of adding a bit of front end suspension to an otherwise rigid bike without affecting geometry.

The first, introduced in the late 1980s under the Offroad moniker (later became Girvin), was the Flexstem which basically was a monopivot design with an elastomer bumper. This provided a very minimal bit of shock absorbtion. They offered no real adjustments other than the ability to change out the hardness of the elastomer bumpers. They were made in both aluminum and cro-moly versions. They also came in both threaded quill and threadless versions. Many touring cyclists like the Flexstems because they can soak up a bit of road shock and are simple to maintain and repair.

http://www.bikeman.com/images/bikeman/bathroom/catalogs/offroad89pg2.jpg

The second type of system was the Softride PowerStem which was also known as the Allsop Suspension Stem. This was a parallel linkage mechanism and used a spring with adjustable preload and damper. You could also change out the spring to adjust the springrate. There were both quill and threadless version available. they came in cro-moly and aluminum versions. The Pro version had titanium hardware and offerred around 2" of travel. They were used on both road and mountain bikes. The MTB applications were not so successful because they tended to bob a lot and in certain situation cause rider-throw. Additionally, they were quite heavy and real suspension corrected frames were starting to become abundant at the time. The road bikers found the bobbing really annoying in sprints and while pushing up hills.

http://www.mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/SoftRide_Aluminum_Pro_PowerStem.jpg

The major problem with suspension stems in general is that in order for them to work, the rider's weight must be applied to them. If they get unweighted or lightly weighted such as when the rider encounters a steep descent and shifts his/her weight to the rear, the suspension in the stem starts to lose effectiveness. While a suspension fork is also effected by this to some degree, it's not as pronounced because some amount of load is still being transferred into the fork through the frame.

I had the Softride Softstem on my bike for years and years, until it broke while touring over in thailand. Going up hills it did not flex back at all, it was just like a regular stem, but going down hill there was plenty of flex. look at some pics of it www.thailand.crazyguyonablike.com

I ride an old triple butted lugged Miyata that I picked up for $12.00 I don't MTB much but it gets the job done when I hit the trails. It could probably use some new chainrings but other than than it's great.

I've never had a mountain bike with suspension of any kind (except big tyres!) Rode my first mountain bike in 1989 and my 'latest' bike is a 1995 Cannondale hardtail (M200 ?) Gets used daily to work, plus weekend forest trips when I can manage. Then again I don't do any serious downhill riding or jumping where suspension would be necessary. I'm more into long rides on forestry tracks / roads. I'll think about suspension if I get another bike but can't really see an advantage for the sort of riding I normally do. Maybe it would've saved me having a few OTB crashes in the past, that would've been handy...

I ride an older rigid Douglas (1989) I bought off the owner of my fav bike shop. The bike has mostly STX-RC components with a set of Sun Rhyno Lite rims. This monster weighs almost 30 lbs. I went out riding with a few guys on full suspension downhill bikes, one of them had a Rockshox Boxxer up front. Besides being able to make up all the hills, I also descended almost as fast as they did. Over all, in trail riding, I am certain I could outpace those guys over the entire course.

This makes me curious if I really need to get a new bike for XC racing next year.

I had a rigid and I totally sucked back then. And I still do. Point is, that rigid rocks, but for me, I can't take the pressure and vibration. And my rigid was a zellers bike. I want a good HT and also a rigid, considering rigids would most likely be quite cheap. Once I was watching DH on my tv (racing) and this guy on an orange and blue rigid just bombed down that hill. I was amazed because everyone else used fs and that guy caught 2nd or 3rd place. Just insane. Rigids are kool.

I still ride my 1988 Stumpjumper with mostly original parts still quite a bit. It really still is a nice bike. I ride it to hone my skill. I am glad it isn't the only one I have. I find riding a stiffy good for the soul.

I dont think needs explaining....

http://www.insanejustice.com/forum/photopost/data/500/203100_0274-med.JPG

http://www.insanejustice.com/forum/photopost/data/500/203100_0277-med.JPG

I dont think needs explaining....

Not having a helmet on might ;)

Dave

Once in a while I still take my '87 Rockhopper out. It was the first year with SIS (?) shifters. My thumbs get tired just thinking about it. Still has Biopace on it too.

Dave

theres a lot of us riding strictly rigid out there. check out these photos, a few people have shocks, and everyone is on a singlespeed.

http://63.77.160.144/static/OneGearGoodBeer/

So I finally got my own bike sent to me. It's a 01 GT avalanche 1.0 with Judy XC fork. Man, I think I miss riding that old ridgid bike. The GT just feels too soft, almost like I am riding on foam or something. I don't feel as safe or balanced. It also absorbs way too much power when I paddle hard.

One question, not too related. I want to adjust the pressure in the forks higher. Which way do I turn? Clockwise or anti?

I ride a 97 thin blue line duster. It came with front suspension, but I swapped it for a thick heavy trek rigid fork. That was 4 years ago. I recently switched that for a much lighter and thinner fork I found in the garbage (dropped almost a pound!). I like riding rigid because I can feel the ground a lot better, easier to read the trail. Top down hill speed is not the biggest priority to me. To me mtbing is all about the flow, and I like to gain speed by rolling all the little bumps and mini hill bits (rollers, etc). This is much easier with a rigid. You can't pump suspension the same way. It also makes a lighter bike, there's no side twisting on the fork, there's less maintenance, and it makes you pay more attention. I do get tired of sore rists though. I've put on some oury grips (thick!) and I hope these help. I'm tempted to get a suspension seat post for my back. One thing I miss from front suspension is being able to hop the front easier by compressing the fork. To make up for this I run a fatter tire, but I find that this makes corning more squirly. I just with ritchey still made their alphabite and omegabite tires. I loved those!

Rigid here, butted cromo with a fat city 80mm over big 1"

I borrowed my boss's bike, an old Schwinn, aluminium frame with STX components but no suspension or front shock. So today I took it to a trail along a lake with ups and downs and the bike really impressed me! Of course it will be great if I had front suspension cus while I was decending a really rocky slope, the vibration was unimaginable, but to my surprise the chain stayed unlike many others that I have riden.

I just got to be more bold to over come those bigger logs.

No suspension, and no gears here.

No suspension, and no gears here.

Unicycle? Big wheel? ;)

Well I ride with no seat...more core than ANYONE!!!! ;) (no post either so no sex jokes ;))

Unicycle? Big wheel? ;)

I miss big wheels...

I miss my big wheel too, I was using an oversize 2.10 rear tire up front on the rigid-ala BMX.
Swapped a guy from the U.S for a match for the rear, 1.95 IRC Notos.

Now i'm all wimpy xc.

. I find riding a stiffy good for the soul.

did anyone else read this, i nearly feel off my chair when i read it. its almost as funny as hooligans "tranny" comment

My Richey Everest has no suspention.
But its 21 lbs of spring steel baby.

Tranny.