Bike Suspension

[TomTom]

Hi All,

I would appreciate some advice. I have a fairly cheap mountain bike
that I want to use travelling about nine miles to work. My front
suspension is far too soft and I would like to stiffen it some how (If
possible). I cant afford to replace the forks although that would be
my preferred option.

Also there is a tricky part of my commute. is there anywhere online
that I can search for a bike friendly route? Tried google but adds a
few extra miles to the journey.

Thanks for any advice.

[Tony Raven[_3_]]

TomTom wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I would appreciate some advice. I have a fairly cheap mountain bike
> that I want to use travelling about nine miles to work. My front
> suspension is far too soft and I would like to stiffen it some how (If
> possible). I cant afford to replace the forks although that would be
> my preferred option.

Little you can do with cheap suspension to change its characteristics.
You might be able to get some replacement forks of an old bike at the
local tip. A pair of rigid forks shouldn't be difficult to find and
unless they are obviously bent from an crash, should be fine.

>
> Also there is a tricky part of my commute. is there anywhere online
> that I can search for a bike friendly route? Tried google but adds a
> few extra miles to the journey.
>

Try posting the Google Maps location here and you may well find someone
that knows it and what the best option is. You may be better off
posting in uk.rec.cycling.moderated in that there is more cyclists and
signal and less noise than here.

You might also try http://www.cyclestreets.net/ and
http://www.opencyclemap.org/ rather than Google for your route planning.

Tony

[Justin[_3_]]

On 21 okt, 13:30, Tony Raven > wrote:
> TomTom wrote:
> > Hi All,
>
> > I would appreciate some advice. I have a fairly cheap mountain bike
> > that I want to use travelling about nine miles to work. My front
> > suspension is far too soft and I would like to stiffen it some how (If
> > possible). I cant afford to replace the forks although that would be
> > my preferred option.
>
> Little you can do with cheap suspension to change its characteristics.
> You might be able to get some replacement forks of an old bike at the
> local tip. *A pair of rigid forks shouldn't be difficult to find and
> unless they are obviously bent from an crash, should be fine.
>
>
>
> > Also there is a tricky part of my commute. is there anywhere online
> > that I can search for a bike friendly route? Tried google but adds a
> > few extra miles to the journey.
>
> Try posting the Google Maps location here and you may well find someone
> that knows it and what the best option is. *You may be better off
> posting in uk.rec.cycling.moderated in that there is more cyclists and
> signal and less noise than here.
>
> You might also tryhttp://www.cyclestreets.net/andhttp://www.opencyclemap.org/rather than Google for your route planning.
>
> Tony

It may well be worth coverting to rigid forks: cheap suspended forks
very often end up with leakages and expensive maintenance.

[Paul - xxx[_2_]]

TomTom wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I would appreciate some advice. I have a fairly cheap mountain bike
> that I want to use travelling about nine miles to work. My front
> suspension is far too soft and I would like to stiffen it some how (If
> possible). I cant afford to replace the forks although that would be
> my preferred option.

As others have said, a pair of rigid forks from another cheap bike
might work .. ;)

If you have any mechanical aptitude it's possible that you can strip
the forks and stiffen the suspension mechanism .. in cheap MTB's this
is often just a spring or a piece of foam (elastomer). Swap them for
stiffer stuff if available or just look for some way to mechanically
lock out the mechanism. I know someone who just added a long boltdown
the centre of the spring so it couldn't spring .. ;)

if it's any consolation then they're likely to rust quickly anyway and
get a bit stiffer or even stop working at all!!

--
Paul - xxx

mobile ...

[Rob Morley]

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:51:51 -0700 (PDT)
TomTom > wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I would appreciate some advice. I have a fairly cheap mountain bike
> that I want to use travelling about nine miles to work. My front
> suspension is far too soft and I would like to stiffen it some how (If
> possible). I cant afford to replace the forks although that would be
> my preferred option.
>
On-One CroMo rigid forks currently £40 inc. P&P on eBay, if you can
stand the colours. I got some reasonable quality new-old-stock,
shop-soiled/removed-from-new bike for less than that, but I had to
watch eBay for a while to get them. Worth it though - they can totally
transform the handling of a bike that's been cursed with cheap bouncy
forks.
As for stiffening up your current fork, you may be able to dismantle it
and increase the pre-load by packing it out, you may also be able to
reduce slack by shimming the bushes, but you'll probably have to pull
them apart to figure out how/if it can be done. They'll either be held
together by a bolt through the end (hidden by a dust cap, sometimes
recessed quite deeply and usually socket-headed) or a circlip on top of
the slider, under the dust seal/gaiter.
I think lack of torsional stiffness can cause as much of a handling
problem as slack and bounce (at least that's the thing that most
worried me about the bouncy fork on my ATB - major lack of feedback
when cornering hard on a firm surface) but you'll not be able to do
much about that without switching to a rigid fork or a through-axle
suspension fork.

[TomTom]

On 21 Oct, 13:53, Rob Morley > wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:51:51 -0700 (PDT)
>
> TomTom > wrote:
> > Hi All,
>
> > I would appreciate some advice. I have a fairly cheap mountain bike
> > that I want to use travelling about nine miles to work. My front
> > suspension is far too soft and I would like to stiffen it some how (If
> > possible). I cant afford to replace the forks although that would be
> > my preferred option.
>
> On-One CroMo rigid forks currently £40 inc. P&P on eBay, if you can
> stand the colours. *I got some reasonable quality new-old-stock,
> shop-soiled/removed-from-new bike for less than that, but I had to
> watch eBay for a while to get them. *Worth it though - they can totally
> transform the handling of a bike that's been cursed with cheap bouncy
> forks.
> As for stiffening up your current fork, you may be able to dismantle it
> and increase the pre-load by packing it out, you may also be able to
> reduce slack by shimming the bushes, but you'll probably have to pull
> them apart to figure out how/if it can be done. They'll either be held
> together by a bolt through the end (hidden by a dust cap, sometimes
> recessed quite deeply and usually socket-headed) or a circlip on top of
> the slider, under the dust seal/gaiter.
> *I think lack of torsional stiffness can cause as much of a handling
> *problem as slack and bounce (at least that's the thing that most
> *worried me about the bouncy fork on my ATB - major lack of feedback
> *when cornering hard on a firm surface) but you'll not be able to do
> *much about that without switching to a rigid fork or a through-axle
> *suspension fork.

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.

I'm not the best mechanically so I’ll just make do for now and
hopefully buy rigid forks after Christmas.

Many thanks,