Vale Mike Barry.
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It really is a terrific bike. Even though it’s absolutely minuscule on me, I rode it around the parking lot a bit and it is quick lively.
These guys are legit. Put all their shit in a shipping container and hit the road. I suspect they may picked up some minor sponsors on route. He has always been a photographer and I think she was a designer for an outdoors company. Really nice people. https://www.highlux.co.nz/alaska-to-argentina/
From the moment that stupid reverse Headshock was introduced, my thought that “Oh, that’ll be a fun recall.”
wonder if they did the math when they launched it and decided that NEW_SHINY_DOLLARS >> COST_OF_RECALLS
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At least it isn’t a whole frame or fork, just the collar. I’ll stick with my bloated tires.
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I’m not interested in being a lab rat for this experiment, but I wonder if there is an awesome road bike to be had by:
-installing 15-30mm of f/r shock absorbtion in the headtube and seatstays
-using very lightweight 23mm tubeless tires with high pressure sealant
you’d get the snappy acceleration feel of the light tires, but also the more surefooted feel of a steady contact patch if the suspension was tuned well. Also no wallowing when cornering hard, like you get with wider lower pressure tires on the road. The tubeless part would take care of the pinchflats that would otherwise plague the setup.
Talk to dear susan, something like that would be right up their alley.
seems too potentially practical for them.
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Hasn’t that been tried a billion times though?
Specialized, Moots, Pinarello, a few others. I’m thinking that a key element is high quality tubeless tires, so you can fuck with the pressure a little more without destroying your tires.
what I’m not sure about is how much … lateral? movement you want your tire to be capable of. I’m assuming that good tire feel is more than just a contact patch squishing in towards the rim.
When I was at the shop buying my Seqouia the sales guy was really pushing a Diverge instead. I told him i wasn’t really interested in the Diverge, especially with the dumb suspension that will eventually break. “Oh, these don’t break” was the response.
I kinda want to go in there and ask how the recalls are going, but I’m not a douche.
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So in my understanding of vehicle dynamics, this is moving more total weight unsprung vs a boinger. Kind of like putting too-oversized wheel/tire setup on a car where you end up with a harsh ride. There’s a lot of comfort and damping effects from a fatter tire that occurs right at the rolling interface. Part of the answer could be going to a smaller overall diameter to reduce angular inertia while keeping the wider tire cross section intact (e.g. supple 559s).
This is the entire point of the Trek Domane with pinned seat cluster and upper headset cup
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interesting, I’d not realized that the front had that much movement
15mm is also really not that much if you see a bike in a test fixture
especially carbon
I used to have a trek 2100c with an elastomer in the seatstay wishbone. It kinda worked? Weird bike with caliper brakes and clearance for 40mm tires, so it’s hard to nail down one variable. Good watermelon hauler. Smooth ride.
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A+ bar tape / cargo color coordination