Hi All,

A bit of curiosity gotten the better of me.

I’ve always thought the headshock was a good idea for short travel applications (I was wondering about putting one on my cross bike – no more than an “I wonder if…” idea)

I had a bit of a google and found this page, it seemed they stopped being made in 2007.

Does anyone have one? What are they like? Any problems? General comments……

Dom

Seems I was wrong and they are still making them.

You will need a Cannondale with a 1.5″ headtube. But they are really good. I loved the ones I owned.

They were good for the time – great design. I think the performance would feel fairly rudimentary these days compared to a modern fork. I had a higher end one on a scalpel a few years back and the damping felt pretty ropey – even to me as I don’t normally pay a great deal of attention to suspension performance. Probably not such a big deal on a race bike like the scalpel.

Like all CDale needle bearing set-ups, you can forget about taking it to the LBS for a service. You either need to send it away to a specialist or learn to do it yourself. Probably not too difficult in the grand scheme of things but miles more involved than a typical rock shox service or similar.

1.5″ head tube, bah, that’s put pay to that idea then!

Rubbish, I shall reconsider this if I ever feel the need for a short travel bike. Would have been ideal on the cx though.

Cannondale did make some CX bikes with the Headshok. Good luck finding one, though. (If you find a 60cm+ one, let me know ;))

“Cannondale did make some CX bikes with the Headshok”

Did they? I sure I remember a Cannondale ‘concept’ CX bike from the recent past, with a lefty too

Did they? I sure I remember a Cannondale ‘concept’ CX bike from the recent past, with a lefty too

Oh yes!

IMG_1018 by dickyelsdon, on Flickr

I run the Headshok on my only bike, and I love it. It is AFAIAA the lightest suspension fork available.

The Achilles’ heel is it needs the specific Cannondale 1.5″ head tube to fit on the bike, so is very frame specific. The lefty beats it in this regard, as that can be fitted to any bike.

Probably not too difficult in the grand scheme of things but miles more involved than a typical rock shox service or similar.

Apparently not – I know a bloke who has all the official Cannondale training to service them but can’t get the special tools required.

Andy

My 1FG has a Headshock and it performs superbly. Performance wise it feels very good considering the limited travel

MendonCycleSmith over at MTBR can supply all the tools and parts to service leftys / headshoks. Seems to come in about £100 for the tools and parts the first time, then maybe £40 for parts each time thereafter. You’ll also need a vernier to measure the thickness of the races so you get the right thickness, and as he is in the USA, you are looking at a reasonably protracted procedure to dismantle / measure / order parts / receive parts / reassemble. I am considering it, but may well decide that +88 is a better bet, as they don’t seem to need a full service more than once every couple of years.