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I don't think many people would fork out (lol) for a higher end fork even if they were available. This market is so driven by price that a bike having a nicer fork and costing £500 more will not sell.
I've gone through similar discussions with New Motion Labs about their drive train. It is so much better than a standard chain or belt for heavy cargo bikes, and probably not more expensive in the long run, but getting OEM spec is really difficult except for commercial customers.
chiroshi-
seems like the solution is we just stop trying to put suspension on cargo bikes. Let the children toughen up.
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New motion labs is v overhyped though imho. They were trying to push it hard when I was working in a cargo bike workshop looking after a fleet. We begrudgingly tested a few.
I was generally against it because the ‘benefits’ were not reflective to cost difference (can’t remember the exact numbers but many times more expensive for a full drive train), and fairly certain their supposed benefits inflated by their marketing team. They didn’t have rohloff approval to make sprockets, and you couldn’t buy spare parts in any bike shops in London at the time. It’s just another metal chain and good chains do a fine job already you don’t need a niche one.
I think a better comparison would be gates drives over chains. I don’t really want gates. But some people do and they will spend considerably more on it.
For very long cargo bikes like the UA XL front sus smooths the ride out considerably. It also improves front wheel braking.
I can also imagine them being used on Carla style trailers, instead of a regular fork.
Super wide tyre clearance (3” plus) could also be a possible alternative to sus, but would be accompanied by its own set of hurdles to overcome and there is limited availability of tyres in that size I think.
I just thought it was quite an interesting, supposedly low maintenance solution. I imagine the cost could be reduced significantly in future
young_gun
MCamb
yes I think the current sus forks that are widely in use are laughably cheap (like £30 from factory, 90+ on trade and 180 to consumer roughly in my experience). And they become useless junk after 6 months to a year of heavy use.