dankup

I'm looking towards buying a bicycle before school starts. I'm looking for the ones WITH suspension forks (the one in the front of the bike). My dad says they don't give a smoother landing after jumping over a sidewalk which I do constantly. I say they do and it feels different for me when I'm on a bike the DOES have suspension forks, and one that doesn't. Help me out guys, how do these things work and do they actually give a smoother bounce?

kaoskingnd

Yes a front shock will be a better landing and ride period for that type of thrashing.

wmodavis

Suspension forks act like an automobile shock absorber. The spring in the suspension, which may be a mechanical spring, a compressible air chamber etc, compresses upon impact thereby absorbing energy from the impact having the effect of lessening the impact on your body which is loosly attached to the bike. You can achieve some of the same effect by standing on the pedals of your bike and having your knees slightly bent. Your flexible knee joints then acts to absorb the impact rather than your whole body. Whether that meets the definition of a smoother landing I'm not sure but this I do know, after riding a bike with suspension (front rear or both) and going back to a non-suspension bike is notably harder on my body. My 65 year old bones couldn't take much of the roughness of the trails I ride without suspension. On the down side a suspension bike is usually more expensive and requires a bit more maintenance. So whoever is doing the paying and maintaining of the bike should have some say in the matter. Some bike shocks have multiple adjustments to give different action in different situations and if buying a fork separate from the bike can cost you from a couple of hundred dollars to over $1000. Assuming your dad is paying for the bike you could offer to accept a bike with a non-suspension fork initially and you could save your allowance money and small job earnings and upgrade to a suspension fork later as you can afford it. Just make sure the bike you buy is upgradable to a fork with suspension. That will give you the time to read up on and better understand suspension systems and decide what you really want yet have a bike in the meantime to ride.

wmodavis

Check out this link on bike suspensions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_suspension

dabac

A sus fork will smooth out a landing a little, but a cheap one will be heavy, failure-prone and not much practical use for commuting/utility riding.
Unless it's got a lockout(which cheap ones rarely have) it'll steal some energy from you every time you get out of the saddle to pedal.
If you're looking for a bike to take you to school and back I'd definitely advise against a sus fork, even if you plan to play around a little on your way home.
Learn to "go light" instead, out of the saddle, arms and knees bent a little. Anticipate the landing, and your body will be more than enough to deal with that size of jumps.

z415

I would say it is not worth it to buy a bike equipped with a suspension fork for commuting unless you are doubling up the bike as a trail bike with perhaps a different wheel set (as I do) or you are getting a Wal-Mart bike.

Unless you are really fragile or you plan on going up and down around 100 curbs every ride - I would guess that would be the number of rocks and roots I bounce over on the occasional ride - get a rigid bike. It'll be lighter, faster, quicker, and a lot cheaper, among some other things.

ac220v

Well, while I agree that cheap forks may be more trouble than worth, and that it may be not all that useful jumping off curbs, I do feel the difference when I jump _on_ them. Its definitely easier with sus fork. (ok, I still prefer not to do it if it's much higher than 5 cm or so. )