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I would love to ride this. You could make your fork soooo sensitive to small bumps and not have to worry about diving deep in stroke on steep loamy downhills when dragging front brake. The negative would be, how stiff does it resist when on the brakes, would it turn into a rigid fork? Always pros and cons...
F1 (and other highly aero dependent motorsports cars) are not a great example of suspension kinematics that will directly apply. This is especially true in the current ground effect aero era of F1 as a lot of the performance aspects of the car are in order to maintain a floor/diffusor distance to the pavement. That is so incredibly impactful of the performance of the current cars within the rule set, that it becomes the primary thing you optimize for, over and above mechanical grip. You'd see slightly more similarities with motorsports engineering with lower power cars without significant aero that are laterally traction limited (not being aero dependent makes this last qualification redundant).
In addition to that, the biggest differentiator between cars and motorcycles is really the tire contact patch surface area. This is obviously impactful under mechanical grip cornering from a design/technical data perspective. From the driver's perspective, the most impactful thing is the amount of braking grip that can be generated. If you've ever been on a street motorcycle and tried to stop as fast as the car in front of you, this may resonate.
Mountain bikes are a strange dynamic. With shifts/limits in traction and mechanical grip, and the fact that the payload out weighs the vehicle by so much and is incredibly dynamic, it is it's own beast of an engineering challenge.
I would say that is pretty consistent with how I felt riding the Trust fork - I felt much more disconnected from the front wheel so it was hard to tell where in the travel I was (without looking at the data) but it always seemed to have much more consistent grip, especially pushing in to turns. Unfortunately there was less warning when that grip ran out, so it was a strange catch 22 that encouraged you to push harder but took that away without much notice!
Since someone else brought up f1 - I was going to say (mostly joking) someone should do a Williams FW14b style (actual) active suspension that raises and lowers the suspension at each end - not altering with the spring or damper, just increasing and decreasing the length with a moog valve or some other actuator to maintain a more level chassis under braking, relative to the amount of deceleration. Only about and inch up or down each way, but considering raising the bars 10mm makes quite big difference it wouldn't need much
*edit - kind of like the bionicon or maybe Kona magic link
Interesting motor and battery placement on this ebike frame
That seems to be the Lapierre GLP4
In my opinion it's just a regular Lapierre GLP3 without the plastic cover (probably for better cooling/heat dissipation) ?
Vincent Ledieu is working for Michelin, I don't think he is involved in Lapierre bikes development.
That, is something Entirely different to a brake torque arm.
The Ribi Quadrilateral.
Designed by Valentino Ribi in the 70s. So much more than a 'traditional' Leading Link front end!
Tested - in part, - by Roger Decoster - He even did a few GPs on VRs original steel , twin shocked prototypes.
RD, persuaded Honda to buy the design / hire VR.
And, they went hog wild on it - getting to the Single Shocked version in around 1982 :
They never went much past that.
Just another design bought by a massive company, and , ultimately shelved. Though, quite a few other (small) companies, such as Cheney, made their versions of them:
And, many other enthusiasts have made their own,
Don't get me wrong, I'm quite the fan of the Ribi Quadrilateral - and, 'Funny Front Ends' in general. Made a few myself, liked them, but, still use those "Engineering Abominations" = Telescopic Forks. Though, I will be putting on my version of a leading link / Ribi front end on a 2t /4t hybrid I intend to use in Vintage and Veteran racing.
But, there's an enormous amount of pivots / bearings, even with the single shock Works Honda version pictured above - I think at the very least, with that Single Shocked version, 18. That's a Lot of wear points, and 'slop' issues to deal with. Hey, go into a MC store, and check the rear end on a linkaged MXer / Offroader - well, any type of bike . You'll probably find a bit of linkage slop, on a fair few of the brand new bikes in the store.
Heck, even a brand new PDS system can have it - even with the very best bearings available. I changed my linkaged 500 to PDS (because I love the PDS system with an Ohlins TTX shock, in my riding environment, and, I Can, being a 'maker' of 'things') and even that has a bit of 'slop'.
Something of note : a steering head mounted Linkage system, also has a hell of a lot of 'stuff', out from the pivot point, far more so than Triple Clamps and Telescopic forks. And that, brings it's own problems.
It's been an oft said thing, by Engineers when it comes to the non acceptance of their 'Funny Front Ends ' - they need the people that have been riding on Telescopic Front Ends, to die off, so their 'solutions' will become the norm ............
They're not doing a 4 unfortunately. The glp3 is a real hidden gem, best riding e bike ever made but I think they're only going forward with regular overvolts now the E-EDR is gone.
I know and wrote why F1 cars have antidive and antisquat, I fully understand it. The point I was trying to make is how it affects the driver and the confidence he (she) has, not the effects on driving/riding dynamics.
As the last few pages have shown, there have been A LOT of anti-dive front end solutions in MTB alone, let alone motor bikes. If it actually gave a meaningful advantage without any or at least without big drawbacks, they would for sure be the norm at least in high end racing if not general riding too. But they haven't. There has to be a reason for that and that reason can not be only the 'looks'. Even more so, looks can quickly be turned around if the guy on a weird thing starts winning everything - everybody will want that.
@TheSuspensionLabNZ touched on the issues with the Trust, @bearorso gives some good points with pivot slop (could be solved woth some preload, but that will add friction and thus harshness), etc. Sure, MTBs are not the same as MX bikes, bikes in general are not the same as cars, but all these tries at basically the same thing and all of them failing have to have a reason behind them? THAT's the thing I was trying to point out.
That's a GLP3 with the AVS motor protection: https://www.avs-racing.com/components/com_jshopping/files/img_products/Lapierre-GLP3-Sabot-aluminium-3.jpg
Have a few friends that own that bike and love it, frame is quite fragile though, a crash can easily lead to frame damage. No Bosch gen 5 version so far.
What about that post makes you think it's an e-bike?
Atherton will release an eBike, according to the ride companion podcast with Gee Atherton.
Yup... spring 2026... aluminum, full power.
The up, down, repeat message I'm getting from emoji part kinda makes me think ebike..
Priority just released the Vanth—165mm rear/170mm fork enduro gearbox bike. $5,999 starting price, three sizes, alloy front, carbon rear, Pinion Smart.Shift.
We just got one in for testing. The bike will begin shipping January 16th, so look for a complete review around that time.
- Aluminum front triangle with a carbon rear end
- 165mm rear wheel travel // 170mm fork
- Stillpoint High Pivot suspension
- 9-speed Pinion Smart.Shift electronic gearbox
- Gates CDX carbon belt
- 64° head tube angle
- Three sizes: S1 (440mm reach), S2 (475mm reach), S3 (510mm reach)
- Weight (size S3): 39.2 lb (17.78 kg)
- Build kits: Performance Elite - $5,999 | Factory - $6,799 | Podium - $7,999
- Available beginning January 16th, 2025
- prioritybicycles.com
Not quite a rumor or innovation but someone is having fun with the YT website (scroll down and look at the images).... https://www.yt-industries.com/en-us/Demo-a-YT-Bike/YT-MILL-Showroom/
Finally a good use of ai in marketing.
Can you satisfy my curiosity before the full review by telling me how floppy the rear wheel feels?
It looks like it will corkscrew itself if you even suggest a corner to it.
If you wanna send that my way, it ticks a lot of boxes on the things I want to try list...
Haven't heard a peep in here about a new Evil e-bike, but we have spy shots and even geo of the new Offering. I would bet a lot of money on that being the bike they're teasing.
Thanks for the comprehensive history lesson. Didn't know DeCoster raced one!
As someone who's apparently ridden a lot of different "funny front ends," can you speak to what they felt like as a rider on the track or trail? Specifically, I'm curious about three performance traits across the various iterations you've ridden- the feel of anti-dive braking, the effect of non-telescopic axle path on steering and bump absorption when you're not braking, and the feelings resulting from packaging/execution (i.e. bearing slop, excess front end weight, weird spring or damper curves, etc).
I've heard a lot of rider impressions from the recent Trust MTB fork and from the early MTB linkage forks from the 90's (which were universally awful, like all forks from the 90's), but it seems like the moto side of things has a lot more experience with "funny front ends" over the span of decades, and probably has honed in one some of the better traits while working out the kinks on the worst traits. I'm beyond curious what that has translated to in terms of rider feel on a moto.
can you send me a dm with the geo?
I have no connections or inside info, just what I read on page 983. Go check it out, the travel and geo are discussed in a couple posts.
There is a short review on YouTube by QuarterHP with Remi Gauvin riding it. It’s heavy. It’s not fast on the pedals.
https://youtu.be/UJkPzhZouNs
Linkage forks will never work. They look stupid and can’t be made cheap or light.
I’ve been drinking come at me haha
I've just cracked open my first of the evening and I'm finding it hard to fault the logic..
I kind of like the idea of a dual swingarm xc machine. I admit it’s probably a bad idea on the other hand.
Given that most XC riders are concerned about weight, it would have to offer a very significant advantage...
I’ve been reading about the death of the telescopic fork for nearly five decades. Got to put a few miles on a GTS1000. It was cool, but not worth the complexity.