Thoughts on this Micro Suspension Effect from LightCarbon? They say it offers 20mm of travel from natural carbon flex in the frame. Only 100g heavier than their frame without it. Similarity to Trek IsoFlex?
by OysterWallace
Thoughts on this Micro Suspension Effect from LightCarbon? They say it offers 20mm of travel from natural carbon flex in the frame. Only 100g heavier than their frame without it. Similarity to Trek IsoFlex?
by OysterWallace
6 Comments
Looks more dramatic than isoflex more similar to the canondale system
Yeah it’s odd (or at least frustrating) that they don’t show the chainstay at all but at least without seeing that this looks very very similar to cannondale kingpin
I got it with a regular seat post instead of the 2 piece flex post. Feels good so far, but I’m only 500 km in. Can’t say anything about reliability or comparing it to regular one.
Looks like it provides similar deflection as an Ergon VCLS seatpost. I use the latter on my road and gravel bikes, and do feel a difference in smoothness. It’s nowhere as plush and useful for hard hits a my full sus mtb, but it’s works for semi smooth terrains.
I’ve done a lot of stress analysis (FEA) on a frame I’m designing, so have a bit of insight. With a typical truss like frame, nearly all (like, 99%) of the vertical compliance comes from tyres and seatpost. The problem I have with this kind of intentional flexibility, is that it will be there all the time. If its going to help with comfort on bigger hits, then it will bob a bit while pedalling on the flat. You can’t adjust it, like you can with a more/less flexible carbon seat post, or by changing tyre pressure. I would go for a system like this if you could get more damped flex and be able to lock it out. I’m not clever enough to figure out how to do that!
That seems to be very little deflection for the downside of having the extra complexity of a pivot.