NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Bicycle suspension

Bicycle suspension refers to the system or systems used to suspend the rider and all or part of the bicycle in order to protect them from the roughness of the terrain over which they travel. Bicycle suspension are used primarily on mountain bicycles, but are also common on hybrid bicycles, and can even be found on some road bicycles. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1017x869, 261 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1017x869, 261 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A mountain bike in the forest Freeriding on a Hardtail freeride bicycle A full suspension Mountain Bike A rider during a Cross Country race A mountain bike, mountain bicycle or ATB (All Terrain Bicycle) is a bicycle designed for riding off-road, either on dirt trails or other unpaved environments... A hybrid bicycle is a compromise between a road bicycle and a mountain bicycle. ... A road bicycle is a bicycle designed for use on roads, as opposed to rough terrain. ...

Bicycle suspension can be implemented in a variety of ways:

Suspension front fork
Suspension stem (although these have fallen out of favor)
Suspension seat post
Rear suspension

or any combination of the above. Bicycles with suspension front forks and rear suspensions are referred to as full suspension bikes.

Besides providing obvious rider comfort, suspensions and improve both safety and efficiency by keeping one or both wheels in contact with the ground and allowing the rider's mass to move over the ground in a flatter trajectory.

Mountain bikes

Many newer mountain bikes have a full suspension design. In the past, mountain bikes had a rigid frame and a rigid fork. In the early 1990s, mountain bikes started to have front suspension forks. This made riding on rough terrain easier on a rider's arms. The first suspension forks had about 1½ to 2 inches (38 to 50 mm) of suspension travel. Soon after, some frame designers came out with a full suspension frame which gave riders a smoother ride throughout the ride.

Newer suspension frame and fork designs have reduced weight, increased amount of suspension travel, and improved feel. Many lock out the rear suspension while the rider is pedaling hard or climbing, in order to improve pedaling efficiency. Most suspension frames and forks have about 4 inches (100 mm) of suspension travel. More aggressive suspension frames and forks made for downhill racing and freeriding have as much as 8 or 9 inches (200 or 230 mm) of suspension travel.

Many riders still prefer to ride a hardtail frame, and almost all mountain bicycle riders use a suspension fork. Well-known suspension fork manufacturers include Magura, Manitou, Marzocchi, Fox, Rock Shox, and (to a lesser extent) White Brothers and Maverick. Some Cycle manufacturers also make their own suspension systems to fully complement the bike set-up.

Full suspension

Full suspension mountain bike technology has made great advances since first appearing in the early 1990s. Early full suspension frames were heavy and tended to bounce up and down while a rider pedaled. This movement was called pedal bob, kickback, or monkey motion and took power out of a rider's pedal stoke — especially during climbs up steep hills. Input from hard braking efforts (known as brake jack) also negatively affected early full suspension designs. When a rider hit the brakes, these early designs lost some of their ability to absorb bumps — and this happened in situations where the rear suspension was needed most.

The problems of pedal bob and brake jack began to be solved in the early 1990s. One of the first successful full suspension bikes was designed by Mert Lawwill, a former motorcycle champion. His bike, the Gary Fisher RS-1, was released in 1990. It adapted the A-arm suspension design from sports car racing, and was the first four bar linkage in mountain biking. This design solved the twin problems of unwanted braking and pedaling input to the rear wheel, but the design wasn't flawless. Lawwill's design was hindered because it couldn't use traditional cantilever brakes and had to use disc brakes. A lightweight, powerful disc brake wasn't developed until the mid 1990s, and the disc brake used on the RS-1 was its downfall. A four bar linkage or simply a 4-bar or four-bar is the simplest movable linkage. ...

In 1991, while working for AMP Research, (owned and run by another motorcycle racer named Horst Leitner) Karl Nicolai designed a bike that utilized the four bar linkage design and accepted a normal cantilever brake. This bike was initially marketed under the AMP brand and a version came to the mass market as the Specialized FSR. It became the standard by which all other full suspension designs were judged for the next decade. Specialized bought several of Leitner's patents in May 1998 and other manufacturers (ironically now including Nicolai himself) must now pay licence fees to Specialized for the use of the 'Horst Link' suspension design.

The amount of travel on full suspension bikes has steadily increased with 100mm now acceptable for XC race designs and up to 150mm on trail or enduro bikes. For freeride and downhill even more suspension travel is the norm. Technological advances have enabled these machines to be of similar weight and cost as high end hardtails of the mid 1990s.

Several different full suspension designs are now well established in the marketplace.

The simplest — the Single Pivot — which bcd, Morewood, Orange, Cannondale, Santa Cruz, Mountain Cycle, and even cheap department store bikes still use. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Four Bar

The Four Bar (and its variant the Faux bar) use several linkage points to activate the shock. A 'true' Four Bar will have a pivot behind the bottom bracket, one in front of the rear wheel drop out (this pivot being the venerated "Horst Link"), and one at the top of the Seatstays. A Faux Bar will be similar but will have a pivot above the drop out instead of in front of the drop out (ie no Horst Link and no patent problem). The importance of this one pivot is heavily debated with supporters on both sides of the debate. Four Bar designs include Norco "VPS" bikes, almost all Specialized bikes, Ellsworth, KHS, Turner (although their new 06 Flux has lost the Horst link), and Ventana. A manufacturer that makes use of the 'Faux Bar' is Kona, who use it on their entire line-up.

The VPP (or Virtual Pivot Point) is a linkage designed bike that is built to activate the suspension differently depending on what inputs the suspension has received. The VPP design is currently owned by Santa Cruz who also licenses the design to Intense. Yeti Cycles have created a unique rail system to eliminate pedal jacking The DW-Link is another design licensed to Iron Horse and Independent Fabrications. Giant's Maestro is yet another design. Patents have drawn definite lines among the manufacturers.

Soft tail

The Soft Tail, which relies on the flexing of the rear triangle and a rear shock placed in line with the seat stays, is one of the simplest designs introduced. Soft tail designs are a variation of the original Amp Research Mac-Strut design (technically a 3 bar suspension design). The design is currently falling out of favor because its main benefits — simplicity and firm pedaling — can both be achieved with other designs with more, and possibly, better suspension. It does not do well over small ripples or any kind of large bumps.

A full-suspension mountain bike with a single-pivot suspension.

Almost all of the full suspension designs have been able to benefit from advances in new suspension technology. A stable platform shock is the latest design to hit the market and reduces unwanted bob. There are several different designs that have come to market with Fox, Manitou, Rock Shox, and several smaller companies now in the fray. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1632x1232, 755 KB) A picture, of a Mountain bike Shock absorber. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1632x1232, 755 KB) A picture, of a Mountain bike Shock absorber. ...

Specialized, long an innovator in the bicycle industry, introduced the Specialized Epic, featuring the Brain^(TM) shock. This makes the frame a hardtail until a bump comes from below. This turns the bike into a fully active full-suspension bike until the lack of additional bumps resets the frame to rigid mode. The Brain shock, produced by Fox Racing Shocks, has an inertial valve that makes this possible. It was this technology that enabled the Specialized Epic to become the very first full-suspension bike to ever win the World Cup.

Virtual pivot point

The VPP (Virtual Pivot Point) system used by Santa Cruz and Intense, also claims to have reduced the problem of pedal bob. Soon after the VPP was introduced, the creation of the Progressive Suspension 5th Element rear shock (based on Currnut's platform damper) near the beginning of the Millennium allowed riders to adjust almost any frame, regardless of design, to be pedaled without the pedal bob that plagued earlier designs. Other companies have followed Progressive's lead (mainly Manitou with its SPV system based on the 5th Element and Fox's ProPedal which uses a shim stack rather than an air pressurized valve) and a revolution in suspension design is underway. However, these 'intelligent' shocks always have to compromise between their resistance to bob and performance with small bumps.

Many think the tried and trusted technology of the four bar linkage with a comparatively simple shock still offers the best performance. Ironically, as shock manufacturers compete to have the latest 'pedal platform' technology four bar riders are pushed to the most expensive dampers on which it is possible to switch off the pedal platform. With the rise of more complicated shocks and a larger market share of full suspension bikes mountain bike suspension tuners have now arrived. It is now possible to have shocks tuned to individual rider's desires.

Road bikes

Various manufactures have tried adding suspensions to one or more of their road bicycles. These are often much simpler and have a lot less travel than their mountain bike counterparts. One current example is Trek Bicycle Corporation's s.p.a (Suspension Performance Advantage) rear suspension available on some of their Pilot models. It consists only of a sliding linkage in the mono seat stay encased in an elastomer. All of the rear travel comes from flexing of the chain stays.^[1] This is refered to as soft tail above in the mountain bike section. A road bicycle is a bicycle designed for use on roads, as opposed to rough terrain. ... A cross country mountain bike race A hardtail mountain bike A mountain bike, mountain bicycle (a. ... The Trek Bicycle Corporation is a major American bicycle and component manufacturer. ... The term elastomer is often used interchangeably with the term rubber, and is preferred when referring to vulcanisates. ...

The Optima Stinger recumbent with rear suspension

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1114x798, 478 KB) Summary Optima Stinger short wheelbase recumbent bicycle Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1114x798, 478 KB) Summary Optima Stinger short wheelbase recumbent bicycle Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Recumbent bikes

Many recumbent bicycles have at least a rear suspension because the rider is usually unable to lift themselves off of the seat while riding. Tandem recumbent bicycle manufactured by BikeE // A recumbent bicycle is a variety of bicycle which places the rider in a seated or supine position (rarely, in a prone position). ...

Softride

The Softride Suspension System was launched at the Interbike 1989 bike show. The original SRS systems consisted of two foam filled fiberglass boxes bonded together with a viscoelastic layer. Originally intended for the use in mountain bikes, Softride produced its first full-fledged mountain bike, the PowerCurve, in 1991. During 1996 Softride released its first aluminum frame road bike, the Classic TT. The Softride Suspension System is used almost exclusively for triathloning.^[2] A cross country mountain bike race A hardtail mountain bike A mountain bike, mountain bicycle (a. ... A road bicycle is a bicycle designed for use on roads, as opposed to rough terrain. ... A triathlon is a Greek word that refers to an athletic event made up of three contests. ...

References

^ "Pavé pounding made easier. Inside George Hincapie's Roubaix runner-up Trek SPA proto", Cycling News, April 13, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
^ ABOUT SOFTRIDE. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.

Category: Cycling equipment 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD (or CE) era. ... January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD (or CE) era. ... January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

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