Fully rigid MTB

rubez

Yeah, and go-karts are known to be the best handling vehicles on earth - fact. If a car "handles like a go kart" it is a huge compliment. All F1 drivers start on go karts (and not just for fun).

My bike is 100% more satisfying to ride with the suspension locked. It gives me more feedback and more control over the bike (repeating myself once again)

You are arguing against yourself here! I have no doubt suspension is more efficient over rough terrain - it just feels awful to ride - I am willing to make that concession to have a more satisfying bike to ride, and I never fall off anyway - so is the suspension really required?!

Angus Young

rubez wrote:

Yeah, and go-karts are known to be the best handling vehicles on earth - fact.

Nope, not "fact". Go-karts merely handle like go-karts. That's all.

rubez wrote:

If a car "handles like a go kart" it is a huge compliment.

Nothing more than lazy journalistic shorthand for quick steering and a generally 'darty' nature. It's not a given that these qualities will go hand in hand with 'good' handling (though they might).

rubez wrote:

All F1 drivers start on go karts (and not just for fun).

Because it's a cheap way to get into something that has a sort of feel of F1 and is part of an established path upwards. It's no comment on the merits of a go-kart's handling one way or another.

More pertinently than any of the above, try taking a go-kart off road and see how it handles.

rubes wrote:

... and I never fall off anyway - so is the suspension really required?!

The possibilities are, then...

• You don't ride very hard
• You don't ride anything demanding
• You're an extraordinary rider with skills far in excess of the guys who define the state of the art in mountain biking.

The Rookie

Perhaps you should understand how you adjust the handling on a go-kart,the analogy was that it didn't fall apart, however they do age quickly but that is because the front and rear roll resistance is adjusted by allowing more or less flex in the chassis, the rivets and bonding need continual maintenance due to that twist.

Back to your original questions, it's easy to convert your cube to rigid, £50-60 and 30 minutes, it's easy to fix the other issues your fantastically controlled riding has created like the snapped spokes as well....of course, rigid your even more likely to snap one. Disc brakes are massively superior to, and more reliable than, rim brakes, fix them properly once.

Giraffoto

There are, as plenty of people have said here, lots of options for rigid forks. On-One do them in steel or carbon and a variety of sizes. Fully rigid suits me, but it won't suit everyone - and there are one or two places I've been where suspension would have a distinct advantage.

rubez

Thanks, so steel or carbon... what is better to replace the suspension fork? Probably the one that is nearer to it in terms of weight?

Also, the spokes weren't wrecked by my riding - if they were, that wouldn't be a great testament to the efficiency of suspension forks now, would it?!

The Rookie

Steel carbon or aluminium, certainly don't want to ballast your rigids to the same weight as suspension ones, even the heaviest steel forks are lighter than the lightest suspension ones, I though Mr Control awesome would know that.

Money no object (£120 ish) carbon (on-one or exotic carbon), alluminium Mosso are very nice but a bit harsh riding, steel heaviest but cheapest.

Depends if it's front or rear spokes, also how it was done, suspension mean you are less likely to break spokes, not that you won't, which is why I said likely isn't it.

rubez

Don't claim to know any technical stuff, just how I like my bike :P

Don't need anything special, steel would do I suppose - as long as it matches fairly the paint scheme on the bike.

I am going to do the spokes first, does anyone know what size I need?

I checked my bike for specs, what I see on my tyre:
54-559 (26x2.1) HS 367

and on my wheel:
ALEXRIMS DISC AX 24 // 6061H - T6 // doublewall 559 x 19

Does this give me an idea of what type/size spokes I need?

Thanks.

Ouija

Easiest way is to simply measure the old spoke, from where it comes out of the hub hole to where it touches the rim (can add a millimetre or two, if you like).

rubez

Add a mm or two?!

Doesn't the spoke need to be exact size or it will be poking the tube?

Got the spoke out, both pieces. A bit hard measuring it since the are naturally best out of shape to fit into the wheel...

rubez

Oh well... scratch that, both wheels are majorly bucked and would need replaced...

What am I looking at price-wise?

These wheels seems very light, maybe that's why they buckled easily... what different materials are wheels made out of, what is the strongest?

That would explain the wheel rub I couldn't fix...

Looks like a new bike would be better at this point, WTF!

Does anyone actually sell decent full rigid MTBs anymore?

Ouija

I don't think so. The last decent rigid i saw was from Merida for £600...



I ride a lot of rigids myself (only one of my five bikes still has suspension).....

cooldad

rubez wrote:

Oh well... scratch that, both wheels are majorly bucked and would need replaced...

What am I looking at price-wise?

These wheels seems very light, maybe that's why they buckled easily... what different materials are wheels made out of, what is the strongest?

That would explain the wheel rub I couldn't fix...

Looks like a new bike would be better at this point, WTF!

Does anyone actually sell decent full rigid MTBs anymore?

How the hell do you wreck forks, buckle both wheels, and manage to lose brake fluid in 6 rides?

Maybe look at a jump bike, as you don't sound suited to an XC bike.

rockmonkeysc

What you need is a Transition Klunker. No suspension, no disc brakes, no gears, solid build and cheap.
http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product.do? ... wgoddDoA9A

Watch from about 3:20
http://vimeo.com/m/51119615

cooldad

Those are the days.

Angus Young

Looks like a modern take on a butcher's bike. All it needs is a basket on the front and you're away. That chain thing in the middle looks needlessly complicated, though. Imagine the maintenance. Like the green one.

cooldad

Angus Young wrote:

Looks like a modern take on a butcher's bike. All it needs is a basket on the front and you're away. That chain thing in the middle looks needlessly complicated, though. Imagine the maintenance. Like the green one.

As long as you don't need to stop quickly, great fun.

In case you haven't seen it
http://klunkerz.com/

Charlie Kelly pops into Retrobike now and again.

We did similar in 1976 with kids bikes.

Good times.

Angus Young

cooldad wrote:

In case you haven't seen it
http://klunkerz.com/

Billy Connolly on a bike!

cooldad

Except he rides a tricycle, which is a worry.

rockmonkeysc

cooldad wrote:

Except he rides a tricycle, which is a worry.

That man is a good reason for Scottish independence. Keep him out of England.

Angus Young

RockmonkeySC wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Except he rides a tricycle, which is a worry.

That man is a good reason for Scottish independence. Keep him out of England.

You don't like Billy Connolly? What are you, some kind of pervert?

cooldad

We've learnt to either ignore or humour him.

rubez

Big Yin is the man!

That Transition Klunker... looks interesting, but one gear?! How does that work once you hit an incline or hill or whatever?! It doesn't even have brakes!

I don't suppose I could (since I need new wheels) convert my existing bike to V-brakes?

Angus Young

Because V-brakes give you more control?

rubez

More control over repairing them with everyday tools, in under 5 minutes. That and they do exactly them same thing! I pull the lever, I stop. Good enough for me.

Found a nice looking simple bike, rigid, V-brakes. Much prefer a bike with a bike of weight anyway.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_1031938_langId_-1_categoryId_165499#tab1

Is it worth it trying to punt my frame, are they worth anything?

Angus Young

rubez wrote:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_1031938_langId_-1_categoryId_165499#tab1

You'd be better off riding an ox. It would be lighter.

rubez

I just said more weight was preferable...

How about this:
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/claud-butler-mercury-bike-silver-mens-id57099.html

Or this:
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/claud-butler-trailridge-12-mountain-bike-id83077.html

chrisw333

F***ing hell.

You HAVE to be a troll?

The Rookie

rubez wrote:

That and they do exactly them same thing! I pull the lever, I stop. Good enough for me.

In your six rides, you presumably found no mud, mud and rim brakes means you pull lever, travel about 30feet while the pads get through the mud to the rim, then stop while the pads use the mud as a grinding paste to chew your rims up.

As has been said ad nausea, modern discs should need no maintenance. I suspect you have managed to make a hash of them (like your wheels) rather than them having an issue.

chrisw333

And if you're not, just look for the shite-ist bike shape object you can find on ebay and have fun with all that control, braking power and weight.

Angus Young

rubez wrote:

I just said more weight was preferable...

The only pay-off I can think of for riding a rigid bike with inferior brakes would be that it was very much lighter. (Price aside, of course).