Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Yes, and using similar reasoning, it's easy to prove that it's impossible for bees to fly.
The slogan for Softride stems, back in the mid-'90's: "
Suspend the Rider, Not the Bike!"
The argument:
Unlike the situation with cars and motorcycles, bike riders greatly outweigh the vehicle. In the absence of any other benefit to fork suspension (which, among other downsides, requires a heavy arched bridge to keep the fork legs moving in sync, more or less), it makes sense to use a simple lightweight suspension stem.
Evidence:
Thomas Frischknecht won the Cross-Country Mountain Bike World Championship in 1996 riding a Ritchey bike with rigid fork and Softride stem. Henrik Djernis and Ruthie Matthes also won World Championships using them.
All of their competitors rode bikes with suspension forks (RockShox, Marzocchi, etc.).
Let that sink in. Hundreds of racers on suspension fork-equipped bikes versus one small team on bikes with suspension stems.
The phrase "proof of concept" comes to mind.
Those three riders were soon poached by big-bucks teams sponsored by fork suspension manufacturers.
Makes sense. If I were a fork manufacturer back then, I'd have been happy to spend whatever it took to get those riders off their Softride-equipped bikes, too.
Softride was always a tiny player in that game. I was a big fan of their suspension stems and talked them up to whoever would listen, but it was an uphill battle trying to sell people on the stems in the shop where I worked at the time.
One of the guys in the shop insisted that suspension forks had to work better, using your car suspension-based argument.
I challenged him to explain away the fact that riders with stem suspension had dominated MTB racing at the world level that year. He got frustrated and refused to talk about it.
On the other hand:
There's no denying that suspension forks make a bike look like a motorcycle, which is obviously cool
That factor alone probably explains why the suspension stem never caught on, even though the race results showed that it worked at least as well as fork suspension (at least back in the days of severely limited fork travel).
And even though suspension stems weighed quite a bit less and required almost no maintenance.
Of course, once suspension forks began to be designed with massive amounts of travel, suspension stems were bound to disappear.
Still, a number of companies have recently brought out their own versions of the four-pivot Softride stem (far superior to single-pivot suspension stems, by the way), whose patent expired a few years ago.
It's a long time since I did much off-road riding, but if I ever started again, it would be on fire roads and gravel rather than rocky single-track trails, and I'd for sure be on a gravel bike equipped with one of those four-pivot stems.
Plus one of those new four-pivot suspension seatposts, too, come to think of it.
Suspend the Rider!
Originally Posted by
Trakhak
No, they didn't win simply because of their use of suspension stems. Obviously.
But the central question is this:
Were suspension stems inferior to suspension forks in ways that prevented riders using the stems from competing successfully?
Sorry, but the answer is no. Obviously.
One point we agree on:
Much of the advantage provided by both types of front suspension on off-road bikes is that the suspension helps to keep the front wheel planted, substantially improving control of the bike on rough trails at speed.
...
...
Having ridden both types extensively back in the day, I have an unfair advantage here.
I'll agree with all of this..., from personal experience as well.
I had the good fortune to be involved in the same industry as Mike & Jim Allsop... And for the longest time, at our annual trade show in Vegas, there was always an early morning 'ride' (5:30 am) for the cyclists ...
Rode with them and also learned about the softride concept {and was able to ride a so equipped bike...) in the very early 90's.
Not a short year or so after, Alex Stieda came to SB again, and was a spokesman for 'Softride', I again was able ride (road) the full system with him for a number of days. A full system Beam and Frankenstem...
I fell in love with the Softride, especially the beam. The stem was nice also, to ride, but quite massive and obviously quite appropriate for mtb, but a bit much for 'road'.
I had Al Wanta build me a road frame specifically for the Beam, and rode/raced it from '93 until '98, when the UCI ruled that anything other than a diamond frame was no longer 'legal'...
It was an awesome race machine for really rough road races - Full Power over any road surface, especially where washboard and broken surface were a concern.
The Beam was heavy though, and added a good 1.5 lbs over a similar equipped Diamond frame machine... But the handling was supreme!
It eventually found it's way into the attic, which now also houses an '03 Spec Epic mtb with the 'Brain' rear sus...
Trakhak posts has again prompted the recurring idea I need to 'update' the Wanta Softride and get it rolling again... We'll see if that somehow can fit into the overbooked schedule...
I've fooled and continue to fool with a wide variety of setups, often some version of suspension... Rockshox seatposts (which, BTW, are the Schizz ! and I still use them on my HT gravels).
Suspension has come a long way in the past 35ish years...
And Stem and seatpost suspension included...
I currently have some real saddletime with Spec Future shock (Diverge STR and latest is a '25 Roubaix) and it is GOOD ! A few brief rides on a Domane, which also seems very well designed.
Also plan to be riding the 'split-seatpost' on the rigid frame bikes, soon.
Have and use the Redshift SHockstop and also the Cane Creek eeSilk stem. Both work well - in their intended way - the cane creek being a bit more 'weighty;, but effective.
Have some considerable time on an equipped Rockshoc Rudy stem, and it is a great adaption from the much longer travel mtb forks...
I've found them all very appropriate for their intended uses...
The Futureshock Stem ( in addition to the slightly larger road tire size) has really changed my thinking on 'road' front suspension... As did the Redshift Stem...
All in consideration that I am relatively light now (67 kg 146 lbs.) and quite weak...
This change is almost (but not quite) as appropos as the massive change in skis from long and skinny to wider and shorter radius sidecuts...especially for us aging has-beens...
The world of cycling has always been wonderful ! and as relates to equipment, never with as many great options to suit one's self.
Ride On
Yuri