alienbogey

Last August I bought a Specialized Crosstrail Sport Disc to use for exercise. I hadn't had a bike in years and paid attention as the LBS explained features of the bike and how to use them.

The bike has a selectable front suspension, meaning that you can set the suspension to function or remain locked out. The salesman told me to use the suspension when on trails, but lock it out when on roads because it wasn't necessary and the energy used flexing the suspension would be energy wasted. Check.

What with winter and mud and all I haven't ridden it on trails, then the other day my destination had a potholed gravel parking lot and, just for the heck of it, I enabled the front suspension. Works great. Then I forgot to lock it out for the 5 mile ride home on roads and road shoulders.

What a huge improvement in ride comfort!! Cracks, expansion joints, chip seal roads, shoulder gravel, sidewalk lips - everything smoothed out. Little or no hand buzz at high speeds, no jolts being transmitted from the handlebars to the shoulders via hands and arms, etc.

I don't care about the theoretical loss of efficiency, I doubt I'll lock out the front suspension ever again.

FWIW.

qmsdc15

Right on! I never lock out my suspension.

AdelaaR

I lock it out when on roads and unlock it on trails or any other rougher tracks.
Even when locked a suspension fork has a bit of stiff damping that I find very nice for absorbing the hardest cracks in the road.
If you pedal correctly the fork shouldn't go up and down while doing roads even when unlocked but it does sometimes on steep ascents when getting out of the saddle.

LongIslandTom

I used to have a front-suspension Trek 7100 hybrid.. I got rid of it because the front suspension really kills me trying to climb up the hilly roads here on northern Long Island. These days I depend on a carbon fiber fork to do the dampening, but admittedly I'd like something just a touch better at absorbing bumps and vibrations.

What I want to know is, why must all these front-suspension hybrids have forks with that much travel? Even my Trek 7100 had something like 65mm of travel, and that sucker is real mushy. If someone makes a hybrid with front suspension fork that is juuuuuust enough to damp out all the street cracks, expansion joints, etc. (maybe just 25mm travel and make it more firm as it is depressed), I'd be willing to give that a try. Does something like that exist?

I've seen the Headshok-equipped Cannondales but there is no way anyone will convince me to ride a bike that uses a single-armed "fork."

AdelaaR

Longislandtom, check this out: https://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/dst...SW+S+700C.html
It is what you describe and lighter and more aero than conventional double stanchion tube suspension forks

LongIslandTom

Cool-looking piece of gear! Googled to see if any U.S. retailers sell it... No hits.

I'd be tempted to swap out a mushy stock suspension fork on a current 700C hybrid and replace it with that Suntour and see how it does. A very promising future project, looks like. (Funds currently depleted due to my newly-completed titanium conversion)

SeaDawg

Cool! Thanks for the FYI. For now, I've been sticking largely with MUPs that are much nicer to ride than our roads so have left the fork locked out, but I'll have to try out using the suspension when I do more road riding.