Monday, December 12, 2005

USE suspension fork


It is quite incredible to see how many rear suspension design are there. It is even more surprising to see that telescopic forks are on about every bikes. Surprising too that so few design competes with it. It still amazes me to see that frame manufacturer competes heavily on rear suspension design and that they left the front end market to fork makers. The telescopic design as so many flaws. Brake dive, pogo-action, sloppy bushings (especialy on Manitou and Fox). Prone to desintegration (Rock Shox). There is the Cannondale Lefty, but it is about it. There were a few linkage forks (AMP, Girvin) but they are now out of the market. Both were prone to sloppy bearings and an heavy maintenance routine. The post is about the USE anti-dive fork. This design is said to resist brake-dive, which is a very annoying problem with telescopics. The pivot is located so the brake torque extend the suspension instead of compressing it, leaving more travel to absorb bumps. The design is quite impressive, with a massive linkage and a Lefty-like monoleg. The wheel is held by a special hub and axel combinaison. The price also is impressive: 1400$, which is about 200$ more than a top-of-the line Fox. The fork is air and coil sprung and air damped. I wish it had a platform damper and maybe a lock-out, but these things are maybe less needed than a on conventional style fork. It is great to see that people are still thinking out of the box about suspension forks. Some reviewers said that it rides like a 4 inches fork, since more travel if left after braking. Why not paying 200$ more if you were ready to buy a 500$ premium on a hyper-efficient frame?
manufacturer web-site: www.use1.com/
See http://www.justridingalong.com/biking/review_sub.php for a review.

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