Odd - but is it a good idea?

"Sparky" <[email hidden]>wrote:

Quoted message said:

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this

"Lefty

Quoted message said:

Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

It's the system with a single shock absorber on one side of the wheel,
right? Well, the sceptic in me says the fork will develop a certain amount
of play as it wears. How much is hard to say, it's probably a heavy-duty
design after all, but I think it's unavoidable to not at least get some, and
the whole thing looks rather gimmicky to me. I suppose it's meant to be
lighter than a bike with a standard dual shock fork. 🙂

"Lenny" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Sparky" <[email hidden]>wrote:

Quoted message said:

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this

"Lefty

Quoted message said:

Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

It's the system with a single shock absorber on one side of the wheel,
right? Well, the sceptic in me says the fork will develop a certain amount
of play as it wears. How much is hard to say, it's probably a heavy-duty
design after all, but I think it's unavoidable to not at least get some,

and

Quoted message said:

the whole thing looks rather gimmicky to me. I suppose it's meant to be
lighter than a bike with a standard dual shock fork. 🙂

Lenny:
Thanks for the input - I was kinda thinking the same as you - but the guys
in the bike shop pointed out that cars have "one sided" front suspension
system (no dual sided forks on the front tires of my truck) and they pointed
out that the front folding wheels of jets have the same unilateral
system.... - it's still odd to me... :-)

Sparky

Quoted message said:

Sparky said:

Lenny:
Thanks for the input - I was kinda thinking the same as you - but the guys
in the bike shop pointed out that cars have "one sided" front suspension
system (no dual sided forks on the front tires of my truck)

Not quite. The typical front suspension on cars has two arms that hold
the spindle.

Quoted message said:

and they pointed
out that the front folding wheels of jets have the same unilateral
system....

Again, not quite. Many planes use some sort of folding triangular
syspension, not a simple shock. They also don't use it to steer with.
And planes don't drive on the ground.... The standards for jet landing
surfaces are far more stringent than most mountain bike trails. :-)

My take on those is that I wouldn't own one. You're asking a shock to do
lots - it has to handle steering torque, shock absorbtion, flex,
off-center loads.... Just seems easier to use two arms. Any failure in
the shock is likely to be catastrophic.

--Kamus

--
o__ | May your trails be dim, lonesome, stony, narrow, winding and
,>/'_ | only slightly uphill. May the wind bring rain for the slickrock
(_)\(_) | potholes fourteen miles on the other side of yonder blue ridge.
| May God's dog serenade your campfire, may the rattlesnake and
o | the screech owl amuse your reveries, may the Great Sun dazzle

Quoted message said:

[] | your eyes by day and the Great Bear watch over you at night.

/\ |
\ \ | - Edward Abbey, Beyond the Wall

In article <rrYrc.567642$oR5.422622@pd7tw3no>,

Sparky said:

Hey there.

Out looking to buy my first mountain bike.

Been road cycling with the same bike for about 20 years - and bikes ain't
what they used to be. :-)

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this "Lefty
Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

Also - any other comments on this bike (again - good or bad) are
appreciated.

Looks weird, but Cannondale has been making Leftys for some time, and
the feedback is almost universally positive. The fork is a winner by the
accounts I have read, though I haven't looked up reliability reports.

--
Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden] http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

Lenny said:

"Sparky" <[email hidden]>wrote:

Quoted message said:

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this

"Lefty

Quoted message said:

Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

It's the system with a single shock absorber on one side of the wheel,
right? Well, the sceptic in me says the fork will develop a certain amount
of play as it wears. How much is hard to say, it's probably a heavy-duty
design after all, but I think it's unavoidable to not at least get some, and
the whole thing looks rather gimmicky to me. I suppose it's meant to be
lighter than a bike with a standard dual shock fork. 🙂

I ride a "normal" fork with 2 pistons but only in 1 is an air-spring the
other is just show. I had to replace the bearing in the fork about every
6 months.
Only more expensive forks have in both legs air- or steel-springs.
The damping is allways asymetrical. One leg damps the compression, the
other damps the expansion (optional)
Normally you would expect a symetrical design in a symetrical fork.

I would prefer rather a one legged fork where everything is in it
instead of a fork which pretends to have everything which it doesn't.

Greetings, Urs

--
+-------------------------
| Urs Weder
| N 47°23'23" E 9°39'47"
+-------------------------
( modify address for return email )

Kamus of Kadizhar said:

Again, not quite. Many planes use some sort of folding triangular
syspension, not a simple shock.

True.

Quoted message said:

They also don't use it to steer with.

So what, planes only go in staright lines when taxi-ing into the hanger,
or taxi-ing onto the runway?

Quoted message said:

And planes don't drive on the ground....

Again, do they float or something?

Quoted message said:

My take on those is that I wouldn't own one. You're asking a shock to
do lots - it has to handle steering torque, shock absorbtion, flex,
off-center loads.... Just seems easier to use two arms. Any failure in
the shock is likely to be catastrophic.

Well the Lefty has been around for a good 4 years or so now. Lopes used
it, Gracia uses it, Anno-caro used it. Havent heard of any failures. Seems
like its holding up OK.

--
Matt

Fear of a flat planet

Sparky said:

Hey there.

Out looking to buy my first mountain bike.

Been road cycling with the same bike for about 20 years - and bikes
ain't what they used to be. :-)

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this
"Lefty Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out
for a spin - didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

Also - any other comments on this bike (again - good or bad) are
appreciated.

I'll be using the bike for some city commuting as well as some trail
riding.

Thanks,

Sparky

--
In the end it is all ok. If it is not ok, then it is not the end.

I never like proprietary nature of the C'dales. I just like to be
able to buy stock parts for a bike anywhere.

--
- Zilla
Cary, NC
(Remove XSPAM)

On 2004-05-23, Sparky penned:

Quoted message said:

Hey there.

Out looking to buy my first mountain bike.

Been road cycling with the same bike for about 20 years - and bikes
ain't what they used to be. :-)

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this
"Lefty Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for
a spin - didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

I went to a mtb clinic taught by a pro racer who's sponsored by
Cannondale. She rides a Scalpel, which also has a lefty fork.

I asked her what she thought about it, and she said she had no problems
with it. I also asked her wrench/husband about it, and he said he likes
it -- fewer parts to fail.

Now, they're on the C'dale dole, so would they say anything even if they
didn't like it? Probably not. Still, they seemed like pretty
straightforward people.

--
monique

On 2004-05-23, Zilla penned:

Quoted message said:

I never like proprietary nature of the C'dales. I just like to be able
to buy stock parts for a bike anywhere.

I'd never heard this before. Other than the lefty, which seems to be a
unique cannondale thing, what does c'dale do that's different from other
manufacturers? Do they purposely use different sizings and such?

--
monique

The only thing I don't like about the lefty fork is that front wheel
removal is a pain, you need to remove (or at least loosen) the disk
brake caliper. If you take the wheel of a lot it could be an annoyance.

Steve.

Sparky said:

Hey there.

Out looking to buy my first mountain bike.

Been road cycling with the same bike for about 20 years - and bikes ain't
what they used to be. :-)

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this "Lefty
Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

Also - any other comments on this bike (again - good or bad) are
appreciated.

I'll be using the bike for some city commuting as well as some trail riding.

Thanks,

Sparky

RE/

Quoted message said:

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

Also - any other comments on this bike (again - good or bad) are
appreciated.

I had a Jekyll (also w/Lefty) for a few months.

One advantage of the Lefty is that you can fix a flat without removing the
wheel.

It also satisfied some sort of exhibitionistic tendency within me.

Downsides to me included:

- Needing a torque wrench to remove/replace the wheel,

- Difficulty mounting a standard speedo (can't recall exactly what the problem
was, but it was a hassle)

- Something about having to remove the brake caliper before removing the wheel
(since fixed, I think...).

- An intimidating maintainence regimen - although the manual was so difficult to
comprehend (mixing different fork types and more lawyer-speak than usual) that I
can't really say what the regimen was...

- The steering tube was cut at the factory. i.e. they didn't leave the user
any room at all to move the stem up or down.

Finally, something to be on the lookout for with C-Dale in general is
proprietary parts. From reading other posts, it sounds like maybe they're
getting the message; but the 1.5" stem drove me nuts and the 4-hole disc mounts
seemed gratituitous. Neither one is probably proprietary in the strictest sense
of the word - but with the stem, availability was limited to the point where I
couldn't find the size I wanted.

--
PeteCresswell

RE/

Quoted message said:

Other than the lefty, which seems to be a
unique cannondale thing, what does c'dale do that's different from other
manufacturers? Do they purposely use different sizings and such?

1.5" stems, 4-bolt brake discs on a Jekyll I owned couple years ago.
--
PeteCresswell

Sparky said:

Hey there.

Out looking to buy my first mountain bike.

Been road cycling with the same bike for about 20 years - and bikes
ain't what they used to be. :-)

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this
"Lefty Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out
for a spin - didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

Also - any other comments on this bike (again - good or bad) are
appreciated.

I'll be using the bike for some city commuting as well as some trail
riding.

This last sentence has me wondering -- why a 100-mm fork for the type of
riding you're anticipating?

I would think you could find a terrific hardtail (or even fully rigid) for a
lot less money, that would also suit your intended purposes better.

Bill "not for a first mtb IMO" S.

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-05-23, Zilla penned:

Quoted message said:

I never like proprietary nature of the C'dales. I just like to be
able to buy stock parts for a bike anywhere.

I'd never heard this before. Other than the lefty, which seems to be
a unique cannondale thing, what does c'dale do that's different from
other manufacturers? Do they purposely use different sizings and
such?

--
monique

That would be enough for me. Who else makes Lefty
forks? Pete C pointed other parts....

--
- Zilla
Cary, NC
(Remove XSPAM)

Zilla said:

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-05-23, Zilla penned:

Quoted message said:

I never like proprietary nature of the C'dales. I just like to be
able to buy stock parts for a bike anywhere.

I'd never heard this before. Other than the lefty, which seems to be
a unique cannondale thing, what does c'dale do that's different from
other manufacturers? Do they purposely use different sizings and
such?

--
monique

That would be enough for me. Who else makes Lefty
forks? Pete C pointed other parts....

the headshok is another unique thing they do.

Quoted message said:

1.5" stems

That was just ahead of it's time, as other fork / frame manu are going
that way now

--
===========================================================
http://www.mtb-bikes.com

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes
They got them hoppy legs and twitchey little noses
And what's with all the carrots
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway
Bunnies,bunnies
It must be bunnies

"Sparky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:rrYrc.567642

Quoted message said:

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this

"Lefty

Quoted message said:

Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

My understanding is that this shock is more desgned for DH (with mullets and
bandanas)

Lots of travel - use FS only. On a HT the rebound might wanna pitch ya

I don't how much the bike cost I'll still smoke them on
any of my bikes.

I MTB 2004

"Ozman Trad" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Sparky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:rrYrc.567642

Quoted message said:

Anyway - looking at picking up a Cannondale F800 - but it's got this

"Lefty

Quoted message said:

Jake" front fork system. Looks odd - but when I took it out for a spin -
didn't notice the design difference.

What do you people think about this fork idea - good? bad?

My understanding is that this shock is more desgned for DH (with mullets

and

Quoted message said:

bandanas)

Lots of travel - use FS only. On a HT the rebound might wanna pitch ya

My Lefty has a rebound adjustment, I don't see how the rear suspension would
make any difference.

I've watched most of this discussion, I've had bikes with the Lefty,
Headshok, Rockshok, and others, I think the Lefty is by far the best fork,
it's stiffer than most, mine has been trouble free, it's quite and smooth.
As someone mentioned earlier, it's biggest drawback is with removing the
wheel for transporting, a real pain to haul around.

As far as Cannondale's having priority components, aren't all shocks
priority? I don't know of many parts that would interchangeable between any
shocks, even same brand ones.

Odd, "maybe regarding looks",
Good idea, in my opinion definitely "yes"