Newer mountain bikes with suspension on the forks normally have adjustable suspension. Some also have a "lock out" feature that allows you to lock the suspension and not have any travel in the forks.
Why do you want that?
Well...when climbing road hills locking out your suspension means you waste less effort as none of the downward energy from a pedal stroke is going into the forks. It's all transferred to the pedals instead.
On road - you would normally want to lock out your suspension as it helps achieve a slightly easier ride in terms of pedalling. It does however make things a whole lot more difficult when it comes to keeping your balance. Now before you start on at me - I know by the time you can ride a bike you should be able to balance the bike pretty easily, and yeah you can. BUT and this is a big issue when you are used to riding down hill and off road.
When you lock out your suspension, you lose the smoothness of the ride that you have been used to. The bike starts to bounce around on the road a bit more, bumps are transferred to your wrists and your shoulders a lot more too, all this means your body has to work harder to maintain the stability of you and your bike.
The same goes when you pump the tyres up to handle the road. The wheels start to skip about over bumps and rocks a bit more than is ideal. Normally I'd just put up with it. On a 40-50 mile cycle when you have been sitting at a desk most of the week every bit of energy counts so for now, I am bucking the trend entirely and going to ride my bike unlocked - its easier to manage the bike that way.
I'll deal with the hill climbs in my own way - i.e. being stubborn and cycling up them regardless. Unless I am so tired my legs wont move - in which case I will walk my sorry excuse of a body and my bike up the hill. Eventually though I hope that the training we are doing will mean that I can lock out my suspension and I can cycle up any hill we encounter.
No comments:
Post a Comment