Two Things

 In today's "Two Things" post, I am going to discuss an idea for gravel bikes which came out of the Checkout discussion and another idea based on a bicycle I posted an image of recently which readers professed admiration for as well. 

My old 2006 Salsa Cycles Dos Niner. 

Dual Suspension Gravel Or Soft-tail?

One of the ideas which came up during the recent discussion about the Trek Checkout was an old MTB design which has not really been thoroughly explored for gravel. This idea is the soft-tail design. I wrote about this idea in detail back in 2022 HERE. 

I tried a soft-tail at the 2010 DK200, and there is merit to this idea. The thing is, no one has yet figured out how to best execute this soft-tail idea for gravel, especially from a vibration reduction standpoint. Unless you want to include Salsa's passive, in-frame designed Class V VRS. Which does do what we are talking about here effectively. (There are some other examples as well)

First of all, suspension for gravel, especially for racing on gravel, is pretty much a no-go. Any kind of interruption of power transfer from human to tire contact patch is a real negative for a racer. So, most anything you try to design for a suspension based vibration reduction system is going to be met with disdain from an efficiency and feel standpoint with a racer's perspective. 

Soft-tail design might actually work if the resources were poured into the damper to give it resistance to movement when power is applied and allow the damper to work below certain power thresholds to help riders be less fatigued over a longer distance. This would probably mean a sophisticated electronic sensor and valve control set up. I think it is 100% possible, but who is going to go "all F1" on this idea? It would cost a LOT of money! 

And then, like I said in the linked article, why not just use a suspension seat post? Less complexity, similar results. It wouldn't be for the Pro and semi-Pro riders, but for everyone else? 

Maybe. 

Does The Past Have Any Answers For Vibration Reduction?

One of my recent images garnered a lot of praise in the comments section. It was of my Honeman Flyer, a custom made frame by King Fabrications, with geometry taken right off a 1936 era track bike combined in a stunning bit of paint work and was the muse of those folks. 

While I could go on about the bike, the paint job, and how much I like this bicycle, I wanted to focus in on a thing I feel many companies miss out on and what was important in the past which maybe should be thought more about now. 

That 'thing'? Ride quality. Maybe you'd call it "ride feel". Which ever way you want to describe this, I think we've lost our way by focusing on gear, electronics, and racing. Maybe we are relying too much on tires and vibration-reducing stems and seat posts. I think the original intentions for the geometry the Honeman Flyer is based upon might be something to consider when it comes to 'ride quality'. 

This type of bicycle was made in the early to late 1930's, a time when extravagance was in short supply. Riders of custom-made bicycles had to pay a dear amount to get their hands on one bicycle. Maybe they threw in together with other riders in a club which afforded these members access to pure-bred racing bikes with stems and seat posts made to adjust to riders of different measurements. This was done as a way to get a racing bike for all club members and share the cost. This was fairly common in these times. 

The predominate form of bicycle racing was still on tracks, but these were few and far between and riders from areas outside of tracks had to make do with training over rough back roads, on gravel, and where possible, on pavement. This meant that for many cyclists of the day who were competitive, their bicycle had to deal with rough roads, gravel, dirt, and be comfortable, handle well, and still perform as a track bike. 

Tall order! But frame builders arrived at certain ways to accommodate this all, and in doing so, created a ride quality which was at once forgiving on rough stuff, a bike which handled well, and still rode fast, and produced good results at track racing events. One such design being produced by John "Pop" Brennan was ridden to national championships on the track by Willie Honeman. This is the design I copied and had Li King execute for me in steel tubing at his shop. 

It is a very unconventional design from our 2025 perspectives, but it rides like a dream. Could it be that a litigious society, testing protocols, designs stemming from one-use mindsets, and fashion has clouded our ability to make a simple bike which rides nicely for the masses? 

Again - Maybe so....