Would you ride a Lefty fork?

Would you ride a Lefty fork?

  • Yes, they are absolutely amazing! Dependable and awesome!

    Votes: 27 39.7%
  • Yes, I would but they have a habit of being unreliable.

    Votes: 4 5.9%
  • Yes, but get used to servicing it every month.

    Votes: 2 2.9%
  • Yes, if it was free and I had a personal mechanic to fix it.

    Votes: 14 20.6%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 6 8.8%
  • No, it's not worth the headache.

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • No, Fox's forks are better

    Votes: 7 10.3%
  • No, I've had too many issues with them

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • No, the missing leg scares me.

    Votes: 8 11.8%
  • No, I'd rather ride a rigid.

    Votes: 7 10.3%

  • Total voters
    68
For the smaller guys (me) it can be an issue with getting the bars low enough on a 29er. I'm happy with my bars where they are running a 6 degree stem reversed with a flat bar and no spacers. Not a lot of room to play with there... But I do have a long inseam so that helps make it work.

The comparison to a car suspension doesn't work. Cars CAN'T use a strut like a lefty as:

1) They require the suspension to move through a curve gaining negative camber during roll. Using a lower control arm achieves this. (Unless you own an 80's Mustang...) Plus why would you have such a long arm extended if you didn't have to? You have chassis at the bottom so naturally a control arm makes sense for support.

2) Nobody in their right mind wants to do bearing resets on their cars. No way to get around that through design. Cars have struts on bushings like normal forks or shocks.

The right comparison is airplane landing gear. 🙂

Not so sure about Jim's pictures. I think they're exaggerated based on him having the 140 based Lefty not the 120 based lefty. Doesn't change the fact that it would never work for him or overall the effect is the same.

They do make a size large fork, I'm wondering if they'll make a size small at some point. Some guy in Europe moved his lower clamp to do just that and it seemed to work well.

-Steve
 
Neither of you guys haven't explained why no full on DH lefty...

The fork may just be too tall once you get that amount of travel out of it. Think about how much overlap you would need in the upper casing to keep the same stiffness. The fork would be 4 feet tall if the technology remains the same. I do like that Cannondale understands it's limits and is now spec'ing Fox forks on their aggressive bikes instead of making us all live through another Moto fork 😀

-Jim
 
Not so sure about Jim's pictures. I think they're exaggerated based on him having the 140 based Lefty not the 120 based lefty. Doesn't change the fact that it would never work for him or overall the effect is the same.

That's the way the Flash comes out of the box.
 
That's the way the Flash comes out of the box.

But is the Flash designed for the same travel and axle to crown as the GF?

If I recall correctly the Cannondale 29ers from the last few years use the 140mm based fork (reduced to 90mm travel) which has a long a2c and previously they used the 120mm based fork (reduced to 80mm travel)

I think the 140mm fork has a 500 or 510mm a2c which is long.

I always thought the GF had 80mm forks, I could be wrong.

-Steve
 
Frankly on a 26 the difference is less apparent. On a 29er with longer stanchions it makes a real difference.

.

I agree. I rode the RZ120 at blue once. Fork was ok, but didn't overly impress me like the 29er versions have.

I always thought the GF had 80mm forks, I could be wrong.

Thats correct, on the SF, paragon, etc
 
Matt, I did. My original post says in the xc category. And then I said that nobody races dh on 140mm travel forks.
 
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