|   New White Bros Ride Report | Bigwheel
Oct 11, 2002 7:32 PM | | Took a ride today on this bike,
which is a steel softail using an Australian elastomer shock, whereby the elastomer has properties that allow it to become more elastic under increasing pressure. It is quite light and very cool. The safety orange color is needed here right now too!
In conjunction with the wickedly bent chainstays it was very smooth and tractable through sections like this,
And when the trail was going up like this,
The new lockout feature on the White Bros was handy and the softail and Kenda Klaw provided good traction.
And when the trail turned down like this,
the White Bros, the Kenda tires and the Aussie shock worked well together and made me wish the bike had disc brakes!
So if you are in the market for a 29" shock I think that the White Bros deserves a look. They are not cheap but they do work. At least as well as any telescopic fork does anyway and the lockout feature is a good thing on climbs I guess. Also, unlike the Marzocchi there is plenty of clearance between the pipes for when a 2.4 tire hits the stands. I didn't fool around with the dampening today but will tomorrow just to see what happens with it.
This was my first ride on the Kenda tires and they worked well. I would prefer that the front had a flatter profile like the old P-racer Dart, but I don't run the zoo.
I gotta say I personally still prefer parallelogram style forks or rigid and my favorite tire is still the "tire", but I am whose I am---
One last shot of bike and trail, have a good weekend and ride hard!
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| Nice looking ride... | martini
Oct 13, 2002 12:12 PM | | I like the idea of the torsion suspension. Simple light and effective. Was the fork an air, or was it coil(are they coming out with coil here soon?)? Is Wes gonna do more of these type of frames? Seems like there'd be a market for it.
marty |
| ? | Bigwheel
Oct 13, 2002 5:12 PM | | That little shock is definately simple and light---I am sure that Wes will do more of the B-29's in the future as it is a nice way for him to offer a softtail that is not like any of the other ones available so he can keep his artistic license enstated.
Took a friend out on the bike yesterday that was about to buy a Tomac FS bike and if the bike had had a 1" lower standover clearance he would have bought it then and there. He liked the White Bros also and even though he stated how much he hated Grip Shift before we took off he didn't complain about it during or after the ride. I do admit that GS has come a long ways myself, though I doubt I will ever subscribe.
The shock is air. The way they work it is air in the left leg and the dampening system in the right which can be locked out totally so that you end up with a 3.5lb rigid fork---- They will be coming out with the coil unit here before too long I think and that should be cheaper and heavier and more reliable. |
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