New full suspension for road bikes.

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Specialized has patented a new full suspension for road bikes. Wonder if it will catch on?
1613920367170.png


https://road.cc/content/tech-news/specialized-patents-full-suspension-system-road-bikes-281057
 

Oldhippy

Cynical idealist
Is it one of those things best left uninvented I wonder.
 

Archie_tect

De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
Location
Northumberland
Over engineering introducing a joint which will cause excessive wear and ultimately fail.

Why not just use a suspension seat post like stokers use on tandems if you want a 'softer' ride? Problem solved without massive retooling costs.
 

Kajjal

Guru
Location
Wheely World
My diverge has 20mm front suspension which really smooths things out even just on road. I didn’t know how much difference it would make and was pleasantly surprised. Having been beaten up in the early 1990’s on a rigid mountain bike for hours on rough trails some form of suspension is welcome. Off road full suspension means I now no longer take a pounding on rough trails for longer rides.
 
My Genesis gravel bike has 700 x 32 tyres. That seems like suspension compared to my road bikes.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
All these decades of development making road bikes stiffer and lighter.

And now they're looking at making them less stiff and heavier. One can't help thinking that a well developed suspension seat post would be equally effective and less expensive.

Still, I guess theyre running out of wheel and tyre sizes to bicker over.
 
The problem with suspension seat posts is that the sag (inherent in all suspension systems) affects the saddle to pedal dimension. Set it so that the saddle height is correct without a rider and it'll be too low when they sit in the saddle and settle in to the sag. Set the saddle with the riders weight on the saddle and it'll be higher (at rest) than normal, making it harder to get a leg over and to get your arse in the saddle. You have to account for the increased saddle height every time you settle back into the saddle from a standing/honking position. This system, with its pivot close to the bottom bracket maintains saddle to pedal dimension through its travel. Also, crucially, it allows an (effective/virtual) axle path (if that's what we're going to call the movement of the saddle around the pivot in relation to rear wheel bump forces) to be more congruent with rear wheel bump forces. When compared to a suspension seat post. I'm guessing.
 
Last edited:
If you carry a heavy touring load, it has to go up and down over every bump. Even on a full suspension bike the rear luggage is often fitted to the rear wheel ie unsuspended bit the goes up and down.
A rear luggage rack suspension system would be of some use letting the wheel bounce up and down whilst the luggage glides. Of course such a useful suspension system is not the focus of bike companies efforts.
 
It's seven weeks yet to April Fool's day, which is where any suggestion of road bike suspension belongs. it's bad enough even having it on MTB's that don't do any extreme stuff, just more marketing gimmick nonsense.
I agree with much of your stuff but my peanut doesnt agree with this after 5 hours in lake district tracks and off road (not extreme either) hardtail MTB. My wrists thank the front suspension though
 
Top Bottom