Tuesday, October 06, 2009

What's Old Is New?

The SIMON...a direct link to U.S.E.'s early 90's offering showcased at Anaheim Interbike?

In cycling, as in fashion, what's old is often new again...given enough time for people to forget about the original designers and designs. VPP rear ends? Most think of Santa Cruz now, but it started at Outland. Single Pivot rear ends have also had a HUGE comeback thanks to stable-platform rear shocks. Don't even get me started on fixies..
As I walked the show this year in Vegas, I saw much to-do about the new front fork from Cannondale, the "Simon." My mind immediately raced to where I had seen that thing before (albeit with one more leg). At one of the old Interbike shows in Anaheim, U.S.E. had a very modest booth showcasing a triple-clamp DH fork. It was crazy. I always remembered this thing, thinking it would revolutionize suspension forks. I never saw it again after the show, and figured they had just run into some design flaw they could not get over at that time. Walking by the Cannondale booth sparked that memory like wildfire. The U.S.E. shock looked EXACTLY the same (control button on the bars, wires leading into the top of the fork, etc.) with two legs. The dampening leg that the wires fed into had a gas-filled chamber. When the button was depressed, it took about a millisecond and the gas was fed a positive charge, binding the molecules together and making the fork rigid. Simon is clearly technologically superior since aboutalmost twenty years have passed..but it IS interesting to see what looks like another sweet old design coming back again...you know..like when Bert lines up to race xc! ooooohhh...burrrrrnnn....

Anyhow..if anyone has any photos or info on that old fork, PLEASE send them to me, I'd love to see how similar they actually are!

1 Comments:

At 1:46 PM, Blogger Vegas said...

I know K2 had a rear shock with a microchip a few years back. Did Can-O-Ale think none of us are old enough to remember that stuff? Or did they think their Monster energy drink green theme would temporarily induce memory loss?

 

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