BOS failed at this stage and a lot of YT Capra's now have Fox or Rockshox kit now to replace them as not being able to service your expensive suspension for nearly 18 months was a deathknell as far as reputation was concerned. Do this worldwide and you get yourself in the market. Here in the UK there are loads of specialist suspension tuners and servicers that will take pretty much any fork and tune it to you, if Giant can get these service houses a ready supply of spare parts and technical manuals they will have that backup covered. Giant have the skill, might and brand penetration to make this work on the shop floor, especially at the budget and mid-level markets but if they don't follow through with servicing and parts backup they will fail. "Arguably, follow-through and customer support makes or breaks suspension companies, and this will be Giant's greatest challenge." It still seems like a middle ground transitional product between the common telescopic forks (which have the advantage of being compact and of being easily interchangeable by a competitors product) and having the front suspension linkage actually integrated in the frame where you still have the option to replace the standard shock without messing with the intended dynamic geometry.īut yeah, I guess we had some misunderstanding where I interpreted "free from industry standards" as interface standards and you took it as a departure from the most common bicycle front suspension. Still to me the Trust fork isn't revolutionary either. I know lots of people here on PB bitch about the looks of the Trust fork but I don't mind that at all. The German A Kilo has been around for so long! As far as thinking outside the box, German A also has a dual arch Magura like XC fork (36mm stanchions for 100mm of travel) and a lightweight USD fork (with air damping). And then of course, the linkage fork by itself isn't new either. It is much wiser to then take it all in their own hands and make something like that Structure bike where the front suspension linkage is integrated in the frame and they are free to pick any rearshock from different manufacturers. Which is a bit of a risk because it would make them hugely dependent on a single fork supplier. Call it brave or stupid, at the end of the day to take full advantage of this nonlinear axle path the frame designers will have to design their frames around this concept. Unless of course you take into account that bike designers design their geometries around a certain wheel axle path and a fixed axle offset. Everything in between is not bound by standards. Which in the case of a bicycle fork are the headtube, axle and brake (and maybe tire clearance/size and aftermarket fenders). If I were Fox, SRAM or SR Suntour, I'd be concerned about There may be some misunderstanding but what I took from the original post is that it was about "industry standards" and we only need standards in component interfaces. Arguably, follow-through and customer support makes or breaks suspension companies, and this will be Giant's greatest challenge.key player - especially in the emerging e-market, where customers are less brand motivated when it comes to key components like wheels, drivetrains, and, um, suspension. The reason that Fox and RockShox are still around is that everyone from the top down lives and breathes suspension, and that creates the environment of constant improvement and the stream of micro-innovations that make their products both durable and trustworthy. If you are a suspension maker, that's what you live or die for. The exception here is Cannondale, who established a separate suspension division for their Lefty and made a valiant, long-term commitment. Bikes are your bread and butter, not suspension - if you're a bike brand, you always have a fall-back position. At that moment, the fork is usually out of date anyway, so it's easier and more economical to drop the program entirely rather than to start over. They work with a reputable manufacturer and eventually, one appears and it's probably good, but then the team goes back to work on bikes.įorks arrive and get sold and that continues until a problem arises. Five engineers whose main duties are designing and trouble-shooting bikes are tasked with coming up with a suspension fork.
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