Bike Forums - Downtube Mini Suspension Mod

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/...ef4618f063.jpg