TECHICAL! Mountain Bike Suspension Is Going Electronic

[Sir Ridesalot]

"The days of manually changing modes on your fork and shock might be numbered. Here's why the new Magura eLECT and Lapierre E:I Shock Auto systems charged our curiosity.

1 Accelerometer

2 Lock/Unlock Valve

3 Preferences

4 Batteries

5 Remote (not shown)

Price: $1,200 complete; $650 aftermarket upgrade to newer Magura forks
Weight: 1,732g (120mm travel, 29er)

Article here:

http://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/mountain-bike-suspension-going-electronic

Cheers

[Andre Jute]

I had active electronic suspension c2002 on my Trek Smover. It's no big deal any more.
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGsmover.html

Andre Jute
Trendsetter

[avag...@gmail.com]

whazzit cost ?

[Andre Jute]

The whole Trek Smover, including fall auto Di2 gearbox and active electronic suspension, was originally sold in Europe for a recommended retail price of 1460 euro, if memory serves, anyhow under 1500 (that was then pretty pricey for a commuter bike in Europe). My bike, from a dealer in Belgium, cost me pretty much the same landed here as an upmarket Gazelle (bought in Germany, not in The Netherlands), about 820 Euro, say about 1200 USD. I imagine Magura will be charging that much for their fork alone.

The trick about buying high-class bikes sight unseen from several countries and oceans away is first to find a dealer or manufacturer who wants to make your problem his problem. Once you've done that, you'd be amazed how smoothly everything goes. Of course, it helps if you can afford to write off a mistake to experience, but it has never happened to me. However, when I wanted a custom small pipe triangulated stainless frame I designed, and for which I had tubes CNC laser cut and angle-contoured, brazed up, I couldn't find anybody except fine art sculptors willing to undertake the job, and I wasn't going to trust my limbs and life to a fine art sculptor... the bike just didn't happen, and I was out of considerable development expense plus the opportunity cost of what I could have earned in the time I spent on the project. Can't win 'em all. Mind you, my pedalpals, who buy off the rack lowest common denominator bikes, suspect that I have more than my fair share of luck, even though I assure them it is down to constant hard work.

Andre Jute
Tomorrow's bike, today

[avag...@gmail.com]

1500 Euro equals

1699.81 US Dollar

RATE WAS 1.4 NO DOWN NEAR 1.1 TO 1...

hmmm confusing. I dunno what you bought as Shimano's dirt bike electric system was up around 3000 ...has the market absorbed costs ? The Shimano system was for the bike or for the system ?

eeek https://www.google.com/#q=shimano+electronic+mountain+bike+shifting

[Andre Jute]

The Trek Smover wasn't a dirt bike. It was a Dutch stadssportief, a commuter with sporting pretentious, what the British used to call a sports tourer. The price was for the complete bike with everything fitted. What you see in the photos at
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGsmover.html
is what came on the bike ex-factory except for the saddle, the bag and the water bottle. European bikes come fully trimmed with mudguards, racks, lamps, etc. The Trek Smover was basically a Trek L700 commuter hub gearbox frame fitted with the highest level of fittings they sold, plus the Smover system of full-auto box and electronic active suspension.

You're confusing the issue with talk about dirt bikes. Why would anyone need or want an automatic gearbox on a dirt bike? A closer relation to what is on my Trek is the cut-down Di2 electronically assisted manual shifting Shimano now sells as DuraAce Di2 for road bikes for an inflated price --because it is "sporting", see? -- a rip I find most amusing).

The last time I looked, Gazelle was still offering the Shimano 8-speed full auto-hox as on my Trek (but without the adaptive suspension) on one prestige model for about 1200 euro, but everyone else except a couple of German makers of upmarket shopping bikes had already dropped it, including Koga Miyata, whose boss had once announced that the Smover system was the future of bicycles and would drive derailleurs off the market...

It seems to me that if even Shimano can't make a go of a full-auto hub gearbox for commuter bikes, the biggest market, then nobody can. Conclusion: the demand isn't there; people find hub gearboxes easy enough to shift.

Ironically, the full-auto hub gearbox, by being in exactly the right gear all the time with unmatchable speed and precision of switching, made me faster (than an almost exactly similar but manually changed bike) over a circle I rode daily back then. So it turned out to be a first class sporting gearbox as well. But all these semi-autoboxes, whose publicity flatters morons into believing they can make a faster change than a computer, won't have that advantage.

Andre Jute
Experienced

[avag...@gmail.com]

https://goo.gl/SJeEeQ

[Joerg]

Quote "If the system senses that you're sprinting, it will lock out in
two-tenths of a second and remain locked for six seconds." Then after a
few seconds comes that small rock garden like we had several yesterday
after short sprints and ... KABLAM ... CRUNCH.

First they should develop electrical systems for bikes instead of myriad
little batteries. Also shocks that won't start leaking after a few
thousand hard miles or need excessive service.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

[avag...@gmail.com]

AJ's electrobike cost is not at Paris-Rubax levels. More Slick Rod ..

I asked Bilstein abt shock wear at 150000.

BILLS SHOUTED

DO THEY LEAK ?

well no leaks...no loose bushings either ...n no Pro Rally ...

THEN DOAHN ASK STUPID QUESTIONS

[Andre Jute]

On Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 7:52:16 AM UTC+1, avag...@gmail.com wrote:
> AJ's electrobike cost is not at Paris-Rubax levels. More Slick Rod ..

Exactly. My entire automatic hub gearbox bike with electronically controlled active suspension cost about as much as a Magura fork. Which would you rather have?

> I asked Bilstein abt shock wear at 150000.

Is that 150,000 a typo or are you real gullible?

> BILLS SHOUTED
>
> DO THEY LEAK ?
>
> well no leaks...no loose bushings either ...n no Pro Rally ...
>
> THEN DOAHN ASK STUPID QUESTIONS

I dunno. I used to race and rally on Bilsteins, and I certainly don't believe there are any stupid questions, only stupid people who think they know eveything.

Andre Jute
Smile, you're on camera

[avag...@gmail.com]

I'll have a mango mamba ...

say SR, smell smoke ?


https://goo.gl/8iOjlN

[avag...@gmail.com]

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/air-quality-advisories-issued-for-edmonton-area-due-to-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-smoke-1.2909858

I'll have a mango mamba ...

say SR, smell smoke ?


https://goo.gl/8iOjlN

looks good....how long does it last ? see an SM lately ?