Cannondale claim the Lefty is lighter and stiffer with less sticktion than a conventional two leg fork.
They’ve used both Fox & Rock Shox internals.
USE used to make their own version of a Lefty.

So, why did USE stop ?
Why don’t Fox or Rock Shox make a complete Lefty ?
Why haven’t Marzocchi or DT Swiss created a bandwagon ?

1.5″ headsets are common now, so there’s no need to introduce a new standard there.
We’ve already seen 15mm and 20mm front axles introduced recently, so I can’t see the industry being reluctant to adopt another front hub standard.

The Cannondale Lefty is pretty much restricted to a frame with the correct head tube diameter and length.
Surely there’s an opening in the market for a more universally suitable Lefty ?

i dont see the point in going to all that effort when a regular headset/fork works fine. Have you see nthe price of a lefty btw? Its insane.

Wonder if they’ve got a patent on some important component. The USE ones were different in that they used normal bushings rather than roller bearings.

I think they used to make a two-legged DH fork with the same technology, called the Moto or something like that.

I don’t see the point of a lefty, what are the advantages?

Is it easier to get the front wheel out?
Easier to service?
Better in any way?

shortcut – Member

I don’t see the point of a lefty, what are the advantages?

Is it easier to get the front wheel out?
Easier to service?
Better in any way?

Virtually no friction and it doesn’t bind under load.

They’ve used both Fox & Rock Shox internals.

They’ve used magura (DLO), maitou (SPV, TPC, FFD) and Fox, but I’ve never seen an RS internaled one?

I think the fact cannondale sell very few aftermarket explains why no one else makes them, there’s no market for them

The Cannondale Lefty is pretty much restricted to a frame with the correct head tube diameter and length.

not really, 1 1/8 steerers are available form both Cannodnale and 3rd parties. length can be adjusted with different drop crowns just like any other twin crown fork.

The only reason the Cannondale lefty works so well is the needle bearing system, which I would imagine is heavily patented.

I don’t see the point of a lefty, what are the advantages?

there is a lot of literature about them which will give you more info than you will get on here, but generally the gist of it is that they are very stiff, can be made very light for longer travel, do not suffer from static friction (ie are very smooth and more responsive) and an often overlooked aspect is that they are *completely* rebuild able, so even if you do damage bearing races or wear them out they can be replaced, so things like stanchion/bushing wear are a non-issue and short of snapping one there are very few ways you can actually kill one.

having said all that they do have drawbacks as well, price being one, but that is surely a matter of economics…
Bearing resetting is easy and quick, but a pain and normally needs doing regularly. Damper service is no more difficult than a normal fork but bearings are fiddly (having said that i doubt many people replace their fork bushings themselves).

Oh and according to some people ‘they look funny’ and that is a good enough reason not to use them to some people.

i dont see the point in going to all that effort when a regular headset/fork works fine. Have you see nthe price of a lefty btw? Its insane.

have you seen the price of top end fox forks? they’re insane!

(and not made out of carbon, and heavier…)

The lock out button on mine has got Rock Shox written on it. I assumed they made the internals as well.

Is it any better than the other forks I have? Never weighed it or done any comparative testing.So could not say. It often attract questions and comments especially from none biking people. If that is your thing and this being STW it is a good chance of this being the case.

Then a Lefty could be worth its weight in gold.

Graham

I think it is probably all down to aesthetics. For some reason the asymetric design doesn’t appeal, which is slightly odd as we all run asymetric drivetrains and asymetric disc brakes (not including the retro-bikers with their symetrical rim brakes) and don’t feel any need to counterbalance the other side of the bike.

Yes, the latest PBRs have Rock Shox internals.

Playing devils advocate, why not a headshock then? Even stiffer and lighter, takes whatever front wheel you want, and no steering lock issues?

Law of diminishing returns probably. You could make a good argument that the lefty is the best shortish travel xc fork out there [for reasons that amedias outlined], but when a reba’s costing £300 you’re going to struggle to shift something that’s just a little bit better (in a few different ways) at £1000 or whatever they go for new.
Secondhand market is a big deal for leftys – as mentioned they really do last, I’ve sold dlr2s in good nick for around 2-300 on the bay.

Also agree that the aesthetics are a drawback. I think they look the business on top end carbon racing bikes that CDale do, because the whole bike looks a bit other-worldly. On a reg trail bike etc the lefty does detract from the look IMHO (and I’ve owned a few).

Aside from patents the big issues for manufactures are the complexity / cost of manufacturing and servicing these sorts of things. When you see how little goes into a set of air forks why would you want to change that design. In addition it is a well established accepted design, your average punter wouldn’t need a lot of convincing that a brand new set of fox air forks will perform very well and you would expect sales to continue to remain strong. A radical design like a Lefty would need quite a marketing push (pricing and promoting) to become widely accepted / commonly used.

The Lefty might be a superior performing fork on the Bike but from a business profit perspective I would imagine it performs less well.

I was a big fan of headshoks but I’m not sure you could make a headshock long enough for the sort of travel that is wanted/expected today without creating an inordinately high front end. Unless, of course you went for a smaller front wheel and that’s not on the cards in this era of 29er/650b hype.

Playing devils advocate, why not a headshock then? Even stiffer and lighter, takes whatever front wheel you want, and no steering lock issues?

I think this comes down to the travel being limited to head tube diameter/length (and therefore how mush stress the ‘telescopic’ part of the fork steerer can take), and the physical length of the headtube, minus whatever bearing length is required.

Physical geometry also limits how much travel you have with something like a PRST-1 front end etc – whereas telescopic forks almost naturaly overcome this as the travel increases.

thisisnotaspoon –
Member
Playing devils advocate, why not a headshock then? Even stiffer and lighter, takes whatever front wheel you want, and no steering lock issues?

Iirc Left was born out out the need for a longer travel headshock

Playing devils advocate, why not a headshock then

Some of us still do use them…

best 80mm fork for stiffness and weight I have ever used, and very very supple, but would be nice if there was a better range of replacement dampers though as the old ones are a little limited by today’s standards (although i have not used a fatty built in the last 5 years), but still a superb fork, I’d take one over my reba/sid/fox any day for short travel XC duties if it would fit non-cannondales.

As mentioned above though, you can’t really go above 80mm with them without starting to invoke other problems.

I like these: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16933657@N08/6925216606/in/set-72157629801518851/

As you have a mechanism you can do clever things like increase the wheelbase as you compress the suspension to make the bike more stable.

I have always been against the lefty style wheel attachment but at the end of the day every wheel on my car is held on asymmetrically.

<thread hijack>
Graham, can I ask you about your belt-drive Rohloff?
Can you drop me an email please: ir_bandito [at] yahoo [ dot] co [dot] uk
Thanks
</hijack>

As you were….

I am about to sell my 2011/12 Lefty Carbon Ultra 120mm (26″ or 90mm (100mm if you use low tread tyres 29er) fork with xlr lockout and Carbon 1.1\8 Hellore steerer. will also have an Extralight front hub for sale with it.
Can also provide Acros AH-01 headset at 22.7mm the lowest stack out there. So basically it fits on the front of any 115mm HT or lower bike 26 or 29. A2C is 500.
I even have access to an angleset with that stack if anyone wanted to slacken off their front end by up to 1.5deg.

The whole lot weighs 1430g, that includes the hub should anyone be interested, mail in profile.

Great fork, so supple and stiff, sensitivity is amazing. Baering reset is beyond easy on the new ones and compression damping is now spot on too. RS Solo air internals.

I have just taken delivery of a new frame which is going to be my only bike and its longer travel so the lefty is surplus to requirements.

A nice Ti 29er pegasus or something it’s be spot on…

As you have a mechanism you can do clever things like increase the wheelbase as you compress the suspension to make the bike more stable.

You can, but if you think about the axle path then rearwards is definately better. If you have a fork that moves the wheel verticaly then when it hits a bump the wheel is being pushed into the rock, telescopic forks move back as well so the weight of the bike/rider keeps moving foreward as the suspensiom compresses. Idealy you’d want a rear suspension design with a lot of chain growth to match the rearwards path of the front wheel not the other way arround.