Suspension fork on a road bike

machinegodzilla

Hi there,


Today I will become a proud owner of my first road bike. Having spent all my life with MTB, mostly on a rough track, I am pretty sure I will be missing the suspension. I've ridden some rigid bikes occasionally before and wasn't very happy with the experience and the roads over here vary in quality quite significantly.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback from riders who used suspension forks on their road bikes. I'd also like to know if there are any technical issues I should be aware of when choosing them. Since I haven't really seen any suspension forks dedicated to road bikes the first technical question would be will MTB forks fit?

pbt150

Short answer is MTB forks probably won't fit. Most MTB's use 26" wheels, which is smaller than 700c road wheels, and the holes for brakes will be different. Having said that, some hybrids have front shocks, so it wouldn't be impossible to sort.

Have you ridden a road bike any distance? You might find it's something you get used to, and can work around with padded bar tape and bigger tyres. The reason road bikes have rigid front ends is to go fast and save weight.

Wheelspinner

I doubt you'll have any joy whatsoever trying to fit an MTB fork into a proper road frame, even if you are serious. The rake and trail numbers will be all wrong, the weight will turn it into a steering pig, braking setup will be a nuisance to put it mildly, and it will look just plain ugly.

Try a Cannondale BadBoy instead if you want a "road" bike with front suspension, although these are still a long way from typical road geometry.

Or you can get headstems with a spring and pivot points in it to give you some damping of road shocks, but it's not a solution I'd recommend really...

Just MTFU and ride.

andrewjoseph

If you want suspension on your road bike, put slicks on the mtb.

Once you get used to the feel of the road bike, you learn to appreciate it for the difference to the mtb. They do two different jobs so there is no point trying to make one like the other.

secretsqizz

I put road forks on a mtb a while back... people in silly baggy shorts and pipe cleaner legs took the pee out of me.... the cheek of it

CakeLovinBeast

Whaddya mean it can't be done? It already has...

Secteur

Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Just stop this nonsense immediately!

m00nd0g

You really dont need them

ColinJ

Secteur wrote:

Noooooooo...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just stop this nonsense immediately!

You too please - I prefer a normal forum width!

Down the Road

Harden up. Google the Paris - Roubaix race and see what can be done on a road bike with normal forks.

Why are mountain bikers such pussies when it comes to a little bit of vibration from the road?

Monty Dog

This concept a number of times previously, particularly by Pro Teams in the Paris-Roubaix race. Back in the early 90s, teams experiemented with suspension forks and even full-suspension frames to varying degrees of success. Gilbert Duclos-Lasalle won P-Rx twice using RockShox and Dario Pieri came second one year riding a Cannondale Headshock. However, it highlighted reliability problems - the bikes were simply too heavy and unreliable - the high speeds and pave surfaces are very difficult for suspension systems to cope. What 'killed' the use of suspension was the succession of Mapei clean-sweeps riding carbon-fibre Colnagos with rigid forks. I have ridden the P-Rx Sportive a few times and there is an VTT(MTB) version on the same day - the courses cross at Arenberg and it is quite comical to see riders on full-sus MTBs not being able to cope with the pave and riding on the gravel track and getting totally blasted by riders on road bikes riding down the crown of the pave.
What you might find of benefit is some gel bar tape and running the fattest tyres you can fit - I race cyclocross too - they can be as fast as a road bike on the road and can keep up with MTBs on all but the most technical of terrain. I was doing some CX offroad riding last night and the irony was that all the MTB riders we saw were on the fireroads whilst we were riding the technical singletrack between the trees!

thegreatdivide

Down the Road wrote:

Why are mountain bikers such pussies when it comes to a little bit of vibration from the road?

Next week 'I only know how to go down hills - any tips on how to get up them?'

andrewjoseph

Down the Road wrote:

...

Why are mountain bikers such pussies when it comes to a little bit of vibration from the road?

We're not all pussies.

I'm a teddy bear, albeit a bald one.

sloppyschleckonds

thegreatdivide wrote:

Down the Road wrote:

Why are mountain bikers such pussies when it comes to a little bit of vibration from the road?

Next week 'I only know how to go down hills - any tips on how to get up them?'

briantrumpet

I remember when I bought my first (and only) bike with front suspension. At first I thought it was lovely, but I soon came to realise that it made the bike handling much harder on the road, and I was so much slower. I learnt my lesson, and now rely on tyres and (mostly) knees and arms to be my suspension - much more controllable, the bike handles better, and I can go much faster and still feel secure.

springtide9

Down the Road wrote:

Harden up. Google the Paris - Roubaix race and see what can be done on a road bike with normal forks.
Why are mountain bikers such pussies when it comes to a little bit of vibration from the road?

LOL, MTBers pussies - funny guy!

Never had any sign of a vibration injury from riding a road bike. Same cannot be said on an MTB mind you. Still recovering from vibration injury from an MTB event that was just over 2 months ago!

But I agree with the above comments... you don't need any suspension on a road bike... even cobble stones aren't that bad. All I can say is that if you think 'vibration' is worse on a road bike than on the MTB off-road - you are not riding hard enough off-road!

Mr Will

Not saying that you do, but an important tip here is don't hold your bike in a death grip. Let it move about a bit rather than bracing for each bump and your arms and legs will function like suspension.

machinegodzilla

Wow! Thanks to you all for the comments, very interesting.

No, I haven't had any experience with road bikes and the one I just bought suddenly became out of stock so I won't have a chance to see how it feels today, hopefully tomorrow.

Brake holes, this is something I didn't think about so I will look into the hybrids what forks can be found there. As for the tape and fatter tires that doesn't sound very convincing to me but if the rigid fork is here to stay then anything that helps will be worth trying.

Regarding the rake and trail isn't that the same with MTB bikes? The look of the bike is lower on my priority list than comfort so I'm not too worried how ugly it would become. The comment on Bad Boy reminded me about a fork that Cannondale was making with the suspension located on the steerer tube above the crown but it would probably not fit. However, suspension headsteams why wouldn't you recommend them, is that because of a bad personal experience? This one looks pretty mean but apparently this sort of product is hard to come by nowadays.

Yes, I already have semislicks on my MTB and the old set resting in the attic but the problem now is that the highest gear is not high enough even on a flat. I could add extra two teeth on the front chainring but I don't think this would help much. In the old days when I was racing there were sections down the dried up streams and on railway tracks and I loved that (that's why I chose MTB) but on the road I'd like to be a pussy and have a smooth ride

Bianchi story was great, thanks for the link, dual suspension on a road bike, fantastic! Paris-Roubaix, well as the story and later Monty Dog shows, not everyone liked that bumpy experience. Since the early 90s there have been almost 20 years, so I suppose that reliability would not be a problem nowadays.

Well, actually sometimes I do Mr Will so I will keep your advice in mind.

I'm quite surprised that no one really mentioned carbon forks, they were the first thing that people recommended to me at work (there are a few roadies there). Are they no good?

Thanks again for all your valuable and useful input!

lemoncurd

bill57

machinegodzilla wrote:

I'm quite surprised that no one really mentioned carbon forks, they were the first thing that people recommended to me at work (there are a few roadies there). Are they no good?

I've never really got this - people say you want a carbon frame because of it's stiffness, but a carbon fork smooths out the road buzz because it's compliant. Sounds like having your cake and eating it too?
If you want a smoother ride on a road bike, fit fatter tyres. Nothing else works like it.

redddraggon

machinegodzilla wrote:

I'm quite surprised that no one really mentioned carbon forks, they were the first thing that people recommended to me at work (there are a few roadies there). Are they no good?

Carbon Forks are pretty much and most people assume that's what you have when you think about rigid forks, so that's probably why no one mentioned them.

merak

bill57 wrote:

I've never really got this - people say you want a carbon frame because of it's stiffness, but a carbon fork smooths out the road buzz because it's compliant. Sounds like having your cake and eating it too?
.

CFRP is a clever material. Not only does it have an amazing strength to weight ratio, but depending on how you lay it up the fibres it can have a different stiffness in different directions - just what you need for a bike. So a well designed and made carbon frame can be laterally stiff to resist pedalling forces and vertically compliant for comfort. Similarly a well-designed and built carbon fork will be strong enough not to break on pave but will give a reasonably compliant ride. There is also the question of damping - CFRP is a lossier material than aluminium alloy and so will damp out more road buzz. With carbon, the idea is that you can have your cake and eat it.

g00se

Bear in mind that the head tube angles of road bikes are such that they expect to work with forks with x amount of rake to get the correct trail. I don't think you'll get the same angles with a sus-fork. Also, the extra height of the suspension fork is going to throw the geometry out.

All the odd suspended road bikes mentioned are going to have specific geometries to cater for the forks. Put a sus-fork on a standard road frame, and - I think - the front trail will be so large that it'll be a pain to handle going slow - and feel like steering a barge when you get a move on.

Also note, suspension forks will have V brakes - you'll have a hell of a time finding integrated gear and brake levers that fit drop bars (regular drop levers will not pull enough cable for v brakes). It'll be made worse in that the rear will be a calliper brake (so will need a different amount of cable pull to the front).

If you want a front suspension bike to ride on the road, get a 700c hybrid - the geometry will be sorted out. You wont get drop bars but you could stick these on: http://www.bikecommuterstore.co.uk/origin-8-bicycle-drop-bar-ends-black/


If you do want a road bike with softer forks - look at a Specialized bike with Zert gel inserts in the carbon fork. But honestly, I think you shouldn't worry about suspension on the road.

mouth

kinda reminds me of the pedalo-ist who wanted to be a pro cyclist the other day...

My friend, I would like to direct you to rule #5

http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/

unixnerd

What you want is a Specialized Roubaix. The forks, seatpost and seatstays have rubber Zertz inserts to absorb vibration. It was designed for Paris-Roubaix racing on the cobbles, I think it won with Tom Boonen riding?

MountainMonster

If you want a road bike but with suspension forks and a all the jazz, why not just buy a full carbon hardtail and ride that with slicks? Won't be 100% as fast, but better than any road bike with suspension forks fitted.

machinegodzilla

Thank you for your advice.

So yes, in the end of a day, after sorting out some annoyances, oiling the parts that the shop forgot to oil, reassembling the parts that were badly put together (Halfords quality), getting more advice on how to use it from my landlord who is a veteran biker, getting used to the new position, loosening my grip and going on numerous trips I finally found pleasure in riding my bike.

I was hoping that this would happen one day and that's why I kept quiet for some time. Admittedly there was a moment when I thought I was going to get rid of it, it was just so unpleasant and bumpy as hell. But I persevered and now it feels just great, especially when you get a stretch of flat where you can go blazingly fast.

There are still occasional 'ouch' moments when I hit a hole in the road but they don't have such a profound impact on the comfort of the ride (and my psyche) now as they had at the beginning. I will probably invest in a better fork in a future, maybe carbon, maybe some Zertz marvel, but I do not feel a need of buying a suspension fork any more. I have even gone for some trips in a forest on a gravel and it was still bearable.

On top of that I also managed to get 6 extra teeth for the largest chainwheel in my mountain bike so I not only get that sofa feel while riding it but it also goes faster.

Summarizing the future is looking bright now Thanks again for your input!

MattC59

My advice would be to get some of these, they should iron out any vibrations you might encounter. Handling may suffer slightly, but not so that you'd notice, and you might have to be creative to mount the brake.



Seriously, you don't need them, you'll be fine with out and won't notice any vibrations. If you do, just get some thicker bar tape or some gel pads for underneath them.