Comments on: An Experiment In Front End Geometry

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:02:06 +0000

Steve: I think you might find my first report interesting.

Lee T: I have to say that you may need to go into a different mode of thinking on your Ferrous. Stay tuned and see what happens with my rig through the various permutations and I think you will have a clearer idea of where to go on your rig.

Tbone: Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.

alistair: Excellent notion. I may include a box that ticks off a few ride characteristics of each fork. Why not? I’ll be riding them and writing about them anyway, right?

Cloxxki: I’ll be interested to read your reactions to some of these forks. Thanks for checking in, as always.

By: Cloxxki

Cloxxki — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:34:48 +0000

@Lee T,
I think you are trying to do the impossible.
To slacken the headtube angle to the G2 spec requires a looooong, yet rightfully inexistent fork. Or (the horror!) a 26″ rear wheel, and then some. But that would lower the BB.
And then it will have to have the G2-spec 51mm or so offset. In the process, the top tube on your Ferrous will be effectively an inch or more shorter.
Ferous can be a great bike in its own way. If you really prefer the G2 approach for handling, rid yourself of the frame and fork, and find a replacement that closer matches it. Like the Redline Flight. It a bit like the middle way between mainstream and G2, in a good way if I do say so myself (I was allowed to help design it, using my same philosophy which Fisher later tested extensively to come to in some ways even more extreme set of numbers.

@Steve,
if your Soma was built to have 72degree head tube ange around a ~468-470mm long fork, it’s indeed the KM copy I remember it to be be. KM has the same figures as an On-One (same comment applies as on the Redline, just not the philosophy, I had my diry hands in it), just the On-One got a modest 4mm more offset to spice things up, so newbies and journalists would be amazed about its big wheeled quickness, and that worked.

By: alistair

alistair — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:54:38 +0000

I realise this is a geometry test, not a ‘how much trail bumps does it smooth’ test … however I am interested to know the difference in ride characteristics between my standard avanti kiss/raleigh XXIX non suspension corrected fork and something like an on-one carbon fork.

I really love riding the rigid front on my kiss but sometime it all gets a bit out of hand, I am hoping longer suspension corrected forks would absorb more of the harshness?

Of course a new longer fork would mean a new frame, I guess I can handle that

By: Tbone

Tbone — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:31:30 +0000

EXCELLENT idea.

By: Lee T

Lee T — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:14:19 +0000

As Fisher fan, I am looking to get close to the handling of my HIFi 29er and Superfly (both G2s) with a Ferrous 1×9 rigid - anything in your test to point the way on that?

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:09:02 +0000

I have an On One carbon fork matched up to a Soma Juice, which I believe is very similar in numbers to the KM. Even though you’re using a different bike I’ll be very interested to see how this pans out!

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:01:45 +0000

XchokeX: You will get to see that early on in this series. Stay tuned!

By: XchokeX

XchokeX — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:45:38 +0000

I’d like to see the difference between running a stock suspension-corrected fork, such as on a Karate Monkey, with a non-corrected fork. If any of those exist outside of the XXIX fork.

By: James Slemboksi

James Slemboksi — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:05:23 +0000

I’m excited to see what you come back with.