modernjess

that's just me too.

fearfeasog

he said it has the lock out. i assume that means the rear suspension can be "turned off"...

BarracksSi

Yup (and I might have the same fork and rear shock, too). It should also have a damping adjustment, which may or may not help with the bobbing. I still have to try mine in the cold.

ghettocruiser

Nope, the damping oil thickens in the cold and the fork basically locks itself out... unless you adjust it accordingly.

It should be way LESS bouncy in the cold.... to the point of no suspension, which defeats the purpose. I've had four or five front and rear shocks from different manufacturers and they have all done this.

I guess in theory the air pressure drop from cold air in the main chamber could cause the fork to sag a bit in it's travel, but I've never noticed this in Toronto... in Alberta, maybe.

Odd.

Lebowski

from my experiences

tire pressure decreases with the cold. the same thing goes for air coil suspension. the cold air makes the air molecules move slower and thus its volume decreases.

i've over inflated tires in the winter, the tires seemed to be fine outside untill i put the bike in the warm garage and the tubes blew out from the expanding gas.

i'd be terrified to mess around with the shocks on my fs bike this winter. i took my fs bike for a spin once with out messing with the psi, it was like riding a wet noodle, but in the house it was firm. i suspect if i did the same thing i did with my tires the seals might blow out on the fork or w/e when i put it back inside

PaulRivers

Rusting chains is one of these reasons companies have started selling commute specific bikes, like this one:
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/...le/2345/32164/

Internal hub, "KMC rustproof chain", fully enclosed cable housing...

If you wanted something nicer, this one is about $2k:
https://www.civiacycles.com/civiacompletebike.php

I don't need suspension because all the paths I would ride are plowed. Suspension sounds nice if you're riding on paths that are covered in rutted, thawed and refrozen snow. But of the several people I know who winter commute, none of them ride suspension bikes, and I figure there's got to be some reason why...

BarracksSi

That Civia is hot...

Probably because they -- and rightly so -- don't want to deal with salt and corrosion on their shocks. It might also be better to have better road feel with the rigid bike, although I don't feel that isolated on my FS bike (and haven't ridden it on packed snow & ice, either).

ghettocruiser

A temperature increase from -20C to +20C would increase the shock pressure less than 15%. If that blows the seals something else is wrong.

Torrilin

The key for me is weight goes on the pedals, and on the handlebars. Then my knees and elbows act as suspension. If I'm sitting solidly in the saddle, bumps are rough. On heavy ridges, potholes or railroad tracks, particularly going downhill, I'll get out of the saddle by a half inch or so. If I'm headed downhill, I work on putting my butt back further than the saddle would put it for extra stability. (that last is a new trick, and where it's useful, it's hella useful)

I also use my brain and eyeballs... on a bad road, there are paths where you take the full brunt of every bump and crack, and paths that are loads smoother. I try to pick the smoothest path. Often just an inch or two of wiggling around will take things from horribly jolting to pretty comfy.

If there are *very* large cracks, or substantial ridges in the pavement, there's a real risk of diversion falls. Railroad tracks cause this too, and I've had issues with ice sheets as well. It's important to take obstacles like these at as close to a 90 degree angle as possible. I've been stuck off the bike since around Nov 11 thanks to being careless on some railroad tracks. Wider tires help minimize this, and good riding technique helps... but even with those, you can still go down hard. Ice sheets and cracks are very disagreeable and will have curves every which way, so there's no ideal angle. And you can't always take railroad tracks at 90 degrees, since they can cross the roadway at very sharp angles.

All of this stuff takes practice, and you *will* have some falls as you learn. But it does pay off when I hit unpaved trails or take offroad shortcuts... on a slick tired girly step through hybrid. With a bell and a basket! (gotta have that step through for my arthritic joints... so I may as well have one I enjoy riding)

Ice takes things to a whole new level, and I can only handle tiny bits of it yet. Need more practice... and some studs.

miket.

i have a front suspension and thats exactly the problem i have with it, climbing hills. although theres not alot around here, but it sucks trying to pump hard up an overpass. but it does come in handy around the immediate area where i live cause theres alot of old brick roads. my plan is to find a road frame that i can fit somewhat fatter tires on.

ghettocruiser

Last summer I did some trials where I rode all the way to work with the suspension locked out, and all the way with the suspension fully active. This is all road riding, skipping the off-road sections.

And after repeated trials I found that the locked-out suspension saved me.... zero minutes.

I still hit the lock-out to climb hills out of habit, but I'm now convinced that it's all in my head.

PaulRivers

Yeah, well...I actually bought one. But I got the lime green version, which is...not as hot...
https://www.civiacycles.com/images/ga...ry/civdisp.jpg

It was the only one they had left in stock. They told me next years model is like $2500. I got the green one at a discount - $1700 instead of $1985. And I hoped that a less flashy bike would be less likely to be a target for bike thieves, although maybe I was just trying to talk myself into it...

On the other topic, I've heard people mention the salt and corrosion on the shocks thing, but everyone I've talked to who's either actually ridden a bike with shocks in the winter or worked on them seemed to feel that the salt and grit don't actually get to the shocks - there's a point at about the center of the wheel where the amount of salt and grit splashed up on the bike starts decreasing, and by the time you get to above the top of the tire (where the front shocks are) very little, if any road salt and grit make their way up there. Obviously, if you're riding through mud and slush on offroad trails it might be different, but that's what I've heard about street/city trail riding.

BarracksSi

I dunno, I dig that green one. And disc brakes will attract all kinds of attention no matter what.

Maybe I should put street tires on my Rush and ride it around more (further justifying its place in my quiver).

Mr. Underbridge

The car also weighs a few thousand pounds, so the air-in-tires suspension isn't going to work. Bike's another matter.

I suppose it depends how bumpy your pavement is - on my commute, which is probably decent but not glass-smooth pavement, I find that 100psi skinnies are a bit harsh on bumps, but my bike with 37mm tires at, say, 50psi feels very comfortable with no suspension. So the only time I'd want a suspension on road is when riding the kind of bike that can't take one.

PaulRivers

Glad to hear you like it - if I'm not fond of the color, but other people think it's fine, that's good enough for me! :-)

It's true about disc brakes attracting attention no matter what. Like I said (haha) - maybe I was just trying to talk myself into it...I thought about the disc brake thing, but I also really wanted disc brakes for winter riding, and I'm already going to own 3 bikes (and living in an apartment, there's only so much room). What I need is a transformer bike - you press a button, it make cool noises, and goes from a disc brake equipped sweet looking winter bike to a crappy <$25 looking summer bike. Of course if it could do that, maybe it could also just transform from a high end carbon road bike to a suitcase bike...