Pantour suspension hubs

pollyplum

I suffer with rheumatoid arthritis and have noticed if I ride for more than half an hour I get problems with my wrists and shoulders. I have switched my bikes grips to ERGO's with bar ends and they have improved things a lot. I am now considering changing the front hubs to Pantour Suspension hubs :-
http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/pantour_hubs.shtml

Are there any problems with these and are they any good?

I would appreciate any advice.
Cheers

____________________________________________________________________
Cyclists of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our chains!

Cunobelin

I have no experience myself, mainly because I cannot understand how these work!

Lookingat the videos I would have thought that the wheel movement would cause problem with brake alignment.

However Ben has his head screwed on with bike parts and they sell enough hubs to have been around for some years, so it must work.

There does seem to be a love them or loathe them split on opinions.

I have linked two discussions from a Recumbent website:

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageb ... ht=pantour

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageb ... ht=pantour

Thers is also discussion on the "BromptonTalk" Yahoo Group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BromptonT ... ISO-8859-1

You will have to sign up for Yahoo Groups to read this though.

Hope this is of help.

One quick query hough - what are you riding?

It would be cheaper to buy a low - mid range suspension fork such as the Rockshox or Marzocchi at about œ150 than the pantour hubs. Don't forget you are also going to add wheel build costs to your hub.




<b><i>He that buys land buys many stones.
He that buys flesh buys many bones.
He that buys eggs buys many shells,
But he that buys good beer buys nothing else.</b></i>
(Unattributed Trad.)

pollyplum

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Cunobelin</i>

I have no experience myself, mainly because I cannot understand how these work!

Lookingat the videos I would have thought that the wheel movement would cause problem with brake alignment.

However Ben has his head screwed on with bike parts and they sell enough hubs to have been around for some years, so it must work.

There does seem to be a love them or loathe them split on opinions.

I have linked two discussions from a Recumbent website:

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageb ... ht=pantour

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageb ... ht=pantour

Thers is also discussion on the "BromptonTalk" Yahoo Group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BromptonT ... ISO-8859-1

You will have to sign up for Yahoo Groups to read this though.

Hope this is of help.

One quick query hough - what are you riding?

It would be cheaper to buy a low - mid range suspension fork such as the Rockshox or Marzocchi at about œ150 than the pantour hubs. Don't forget you are also going to add wheel build costs to your hub.




<b><i>He that buys land buys many stones.
He that buys flesh buys many bones.
He that buys eggs buys many shells,
But he that buys good beer buys nothing else.</b></i>
(Unattributed Trad.)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

____________________________________________________________________
Cyclists of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our chains!

pollyplum

Cunobelin thanks for the info, I have several bikes :-
Kona Phd (favourite am considering this for front suspension hub), Giant SCR1w (fitted by bike shop but still not comfortable so may sell),
TREK 7700 hybrid with several upgrades but the suspension forks make this a bit heavy for on road use,
Dahon Impulse 24 great gear range but no suspension may fit hubs to this and will probably use it to commute as it can be folded up to get home if I have any arthritis flare ups,
Moulton Bridgestone the gearing on this is too high and suspension doesn't reduce buzz.
The gears must be low also as I need to keep up a high cadence and not struggle up hills as this causes my knees to flare up.
The hubs look like a good option to reduce the road buzz without adding too much extra weight on my Kona.
(sorry you can probably tell I'm inexperienced when replying on topics)

____________________________________________________________________
Cyclists of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our chains!

Cunobelin

Don't worry - I still haven't got the knack of checking my spelling before posting!

You are right, suspension forks do add weight,and some people like these hubs. There were good reviews on the Folding Sosiety website:
http://www.foldsoc.co.uk/pantour.html

I also believe that at one point Dahon specced the PAntour on at least one model (?Jetstream)

As I said, I am sorry I can't give you an answer, but I hope I can offer the information that allows you to make an informed choice.




<b><i>He that buys land buys many stones.
He that buys flesh buys many bones.
He that buys eggs buys many shells,
But he that buys good beer buys nothing else.</b></i>
(Unattributed Trad.)

Steve928

We have a Pantour sus hubs on the front of our Dahon Speedpros. I can't say that I'm impressed:
- the '8mm of buttery-smooth travel(?)' is taken up by the preload when you sit on the bike. I guess that you could change the elastomers to match your body weight but I'm not sure that it would be worth it.
- it suffers from bad friction because the sealed bearings are so big: give it a hard spin and you might get 3 or 4 turns before the wheel stops.
- the suspension moves around a cro-mo axle running dry, without either bushes bearings or shims controlling end float, in the alloy hub milling. It doesn't take long to get a substantial amount of lateral play at the wheel rim. Mine is currently running with shim washers cut from a plastic phone card in a Sydney hotel room to reduce this play, but it will probably return soon.

Personally I wouldn't bother.

pollyplum

Thanks for your help guys. My hubby has offered to buy me a front wheel for the Dahon for my birthday so I'll give it a go.
I tend to use the rear brake most of the time and the front in emergencies or under load so hopefully the braking effect will be minor.
Cheers
Josie

____________________________________________________________________
Cyclists of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our chains!

pollyplum

I'm not looking to remove all the bumps, just to reduce the buzz from the front wheel, hopefully enabling me to cycle more often and for longer distances.
Buying the complete wheel costs œ100 and I can revert to the old one if it doesn't work out. Thanks again for the information.

____________________________________________________________________
Cyclists of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our chains!

Unknown

my Dahon (speedpro) has a pantour hub and I quite like it, I think it does help with the buzz through the bars.

you could get a similar effect on your big-wheel bikes by fitting bigger tyres though - panaracer 32s or similar are lovely and smooth.