Mozo front-suspension forks - any good for e-bike?

[El_Steak]

At 30mph, the ride is pretty harsh on my suspension-less hybrid bike. Would getting a front-suspension be a good idea? My bike is a Giant Cypress with V-brakes.

I know nothing about bike parts and find it really amazing that some forks will sell for over 2000$.

I've found the following cheap 700c forks. They have different components in steal/Cr-mo/alum. I know the drop-outs should not be aluminium. Are the drop-outs what they call the "stanchions" ?

Mozo C-71 (1.5" travel) - 30$ cdn
http://cyclepath.ca/shop/product_info.php?cPath=54_337&products_id=602

Mozo Status Q 700C (2") - 50$ cdn
http://cyclepath.ca/shop/product_info.php?cPath=54_337&products_id=608

Mozo Spree P 700C (2.5") - 85$ cdn
http://cyclepath.ca/shop/product_info.php?cPath=54_337&products_id=610

 

[dogman dan]

Front hub or rear for the motor? I won't run a motor on aluminum forks myself, but some do with torque arms. My commuter is a cheap bike, since they come with the cheap, all steel front suspension forks, allowing me to run a front hub and still have crappy, but at least some suspension. It's really that crappy, but I find it adequate for speeds around 25 mph, and cracked pavement. Not a curb hopper though. The rear suspension does me the most good, giving me a lot less back pain. When I ride my no suspension cruiser, I start to hurt after about 10 miles.

If you have a rear hub, then go for the best forks you can afford, but even fairly bargain forks that have 100 mm of travel are not bad compared to the 50 mmm cheapie ones. The scales fell from my eyes when I got my giant, with 5 inches of travel. That's real suspension. But for street riding, I think 100 mm cheap forks are plenty good enough.

Stanchions are the tube inside the lower part of the forks, and usually are steel. Aluminum crown is the part where the two stanchions connect to the usually steel steer tube that holds the handlebar mount. I've been warned about failures there, but most of the forks with steel dropouts are all steel, and weigh about 10 pounds. Sucky but sturdy, and short travel. But, hey, it still beats nothing and those kind of forks have the strongest dropouts I ever saw. For some motors, you have to pinch the bottom tubes a bit narrower to clear the motor case. Nothing important in the bottom 4 inches of cheap steel forks.

If your bike has 1 1/8 steer tube, you won't find steel dropout forks for it. They seem to be only made in 1 inch steer tube, to fit the cheap bikes with 1 inch frames at the headset.

 

[amberwolf]

I don't know much about different brands, but I do agree not to use aluminum forks for front motors, from pictures I've seen here and there on the web (aluminum breaks suddenly and without much if any warning, where steel bends and might give you a chance to notice a problem before it becomes a disaster).

As for whether suspension does any good, yeah front suspension probably does more for you than rear, based on my own bikes. I have the steel forks on both my DF upright bike (DayGlo Avenger) and on my semi-recumbent CrazyBike2; both are hardtails. On the DF it's got a shock-absorbing seatpost that takes the edge of the rear bumps, but doesn't really do much for really big ones, nor for vibration/gravel travel. On the SR it's just the suspended-mesh seat, laced over a tubing frame, which is actually a better shock absorber than that seatpost by far, since I'm not in direct contact with the bike frame at all.

On the SR, it took a hit hard enough to bend my rear rim to jolt my teeth, where plenty of hits on the exact same rear rim when it was on the DF that were nowhere near that bad nearly made me bite my cheeks and tongue, all of which were easily absorbed by the front shock. (No, the rim-bending shock would not have been absorbed, but I managed to miss the hole with the front wheel, and couldn't quite miss it with the rear one).


I tried a hardnose on the SR for a few days, and it sucked, after having had the suspension on it. Even the extra several pounds makes the suspension worth it.

That said, I"m going to be trying a headtube suspension, which you can find DIY instructions for over at WISIL.