I bought a full xtr 26" Cannondale scalpel for £500.
The magazines kept saying a 29" was like having an extra bit of suspension so I bought a bike with 80mm suspension.
It was awesome zipping round the woods.
The forks were weeping
The brace at the back was snapped/ snapped, I was not sure if it was me or the previous owner
The raw finish was full factory. On closer inspection having bought it, it wasn't.
I priced up a service at 1/4 price of the bike and sold it
The next owner found two holes drilled under the bottle cage (I'd never taken the bottle cage off).
I'd have a lefty again if I could service it myself.
It was about half the price of the bike to buy the tools to service it 😱😢
Lefty came out in ‘99, SUB in ‘02
Mike Burrows put a single sided fork on Boardman's Lotus bike in 92?
Those USE forks were terrible.
Worst performing fork I ever had.
I almost bought a USE (sounds like a lucky escape). Of Structure.bike have an anti-dive 'fork' - would be interesting to see how they compared in terms of the amount of anti-dive in use etc.
A lefty is still on my list of 'wish I'd bought that bike' regrets
A double sided lefty would be a waste of time. All the required stiffness is inherent in the excellent design...adding an extra leg would fo nothing more than double the weight, cost and stiction.
I'm pretty sure the Lefty evolved from the Cannondale Moto DH forks - which look like a double sided Lefty
I wish I'd bought a Beast of the East Cannondale's the made a few years back.
Ive had a few dales n lefties. Great forks. The biggest drawback was having to tolerate all the tedious and unoriginal "looks wrong" comments from other riders when out and about.
Lovely forks. I had one on my Gravel bike
https://www.lavelocita.cc/la-velocita-reviews/cannondale-slate-105
Always wondered what a needle bearing “regular” fork would be like – I guess patents and the service hassle has stopped it happening.
It is not only about patents, neglected Headshocks can get rusty on the bearings and/or races and fixing requires parts available only from Cannondale. Not sure about Lefty, their bearings might be more easily lubricated.
I assumed its more to do with the shape of the bearings and the required direction of motion.
IIRC The lefty is triangular inside so needle bearings allowing the flat surfaces to slide past each other are a easy. A standard fork has round stanchions so needle bearings wouldn't work - travel would be perpendicular to the direction of the bearing.
As is fox, rs et al could vastly improve stiffness by going to square or triangular stanchions without resorting to the ever increasing diameter which would remove the associated issues with ever more bushing bind and so on and it would also allow bearings not bushings which again would improve suppleness. Probably cost a few quid to change the production over though.
See also the Cannondale Headshok which ran on needle bearings
All the required stiffness is inherent in the excellent design…adding an extra leg would fo nothing more than double the weight, cost and stiction.
Whilst the stiffness is possible with a single leg, you could easily reduce the weight per leg of a twin leg design as it's not needed to the same extent, also you'd move the damper and spring into different legs, which accounts for some of the weight and so on. It would also make service and manufacturing that much more standard which means reducing the costs.
Oh, and you'd solve the biggest problem with the lefty - people wouldn't look at them and think "no" - so a double leg fork would significantly increase sales.
On my second bike with them. First was an off the peg Cannondale 29er, the current is my custom Saffron designed around them. Takes about three rides to stop looking down and worrying then you just get used to it.
I remember going to sign on for Charity ride a few years ago, one of my roadie mates saw a lefty on someone else's bike for the first time and just could not bend his mind around the concept he stood there and stared like a weirdo...
TBH it is mostly just weird for the sake of it now even with the advantages a lefty brings.
But at the same time I think Cannondale are pretty unique in continuing to design, develop and sell an expensive, non-standard fork, it's not something that any other manufacturer would consider sustainable enough to keep doing...
Part of me wants to get hold of a rigid single crown Lefty from a Bad boy and fit it on a Gravel bike just because, but then you see what people are asking for them and it gets a quick 'Nah' as an idea...
disc brakes go on the left. I reckon even Cannondale drew the line at creating their own disc brake standard just to get their weird fork to work.
But everything about a lefty is unique ie the hub and fork, so why not do the same with the brake? Or is it that the brake calliper would need to be re designed?
They did try with their dh fork, but even Cannondale realised it was a bit pointless
https://images.app.goo.gl/q8DmwP9N3ehSXcQKA
It's just a bunch of problems that need solving for no reason. It looks wrong (which usually means it's sub-optimal). It looks different for the sake of looking different.
It’s just a bunch of problems that need solving for no reason
This is a popular thing to say about Leftys. I guess you didn't watch the video? The reality is that it solves a bunch of problems at the cost of introducing some new ones. And it looks cool, not wrong. How are your car's wheels attached?
I always think they look weird, but cool to see something different.
People often seem to forget car wheels are only support on one side....
Single sided motrorbike rear swing arms exist as well
I dislike the lack of service support, there are now plenty of aftermarket tools if you look around, but refusing to publish service manuals is just annoying.
caliper bolts are then in tension, rather than compression of the caliper into the mount.
Or for the nerds, tension + shear both in the bolt, rather than compression in mount + shear in bolt.Probably still wouldn’t fail but I can see a whole load more creaks and noises coming from that arrangement
Are IS caliper bolts not in shear?
bigyan
Free MemberPeople often seem to forget car wheels are only support on one side….
Yah, but my car's bearings weigh about as much as my bike, never mind the stub axle.
do the bearing races still migrate downwards like my old headshok forks?
every week i had to turn teh bike upside down stand ont eh handlebars and heave the forks to teh correct length travel. i kid you not.
bloody lovely to ride though when they had full travel. soooo smooth.
caliper bolts are then in tension, rather than compression of the caliper into the mount.
Or for the nerds, tension + shear both in the bolt, rather than compression in mount + shear in bolt.Probably still wouldn’t fail but I can see a whole load more creaks and noises coming from that arrangement
Bolts are always in tension, the bolts create friction between the mount and the fork and the caliper. It is this frictional force that resist the load not the bolts. Bolts only go into shear when the applied load exceeds the frictional force.
Bought after the great Cannondale overstock about 10 years ago when Pauls Cycles were knocking them out at (I think) below 50% RRP. Doubt we’ll see those times again any time soon!
Omg I remember that! Halcyon days lol
Bolts are always in tension, the bolts create friction between the mount and the fork and the caliper. It is this frictional force that resist the load not the bolts. Bolts only go into shear when the applied load exceeds the frictional force.
Is that true of a Post Mount caliper fitted on the "wrong" side?
I like mine when it's working well. Definitely razor sharp in the steering department and so stiff in the older double crown variety that with a carbon rim it feels necessary to lower PSI to silly low levels or it's too harsh on a vibration level. Servicing is the big issue, its costly - then every few thousand miles it needs a new lower leg due to the lower bushing eating the stanchion - am on my fourth. When it needs one it's a £400 service. Buyer beware...do the math, it's a high running cost just for the sake of being different when other forks are so good. Also the design on mine leaves the lower headset bearings completely exposed with no additional seals, and can go rusty after just a few wet rides, which is by far the most annoying thing as it's such a pain to assemble... especially with the hammer-fit OPI system. The older non bushing booted variety were technically better IMO...
Prior to a lefty, there was of course Headshok.
Imo, it would still be great for gravel bikes du jour.
Short travel, low maintenance, light, stiff.
I would like a remake of a Cannondale XS800 or Touring Ultra.
That yellow bike is lovely.
Half surprised to not see mention of Ali Clarkson's gravel build on the forum. Think it's at least partly relevant to some of the discussion on this thread so may as well post it here too:
Prior to a lefty, there was of course Headshok.
Imo, it would still be great for gravel bikes du jour.
Short travel, low maintenance, light, stiff.
Spesh do the Diverge with a Futureshock. Similar but only 20mm of travel.
Is that true of a Post Mount caliper fitted on the “wrong” side?
Yes it would not change how bolted joints work. The caliper is still trying to 'follow' the path of the rotor
The caliper is still trying to ‘follow’ the path of the rotor
That's my point.
The bolts are not 'taking' the load regardless of how the brake is located.
The bolts just create a clamping force between the caliper and the mount or the caliper and the fork. effectivley the caliper and the mount/fork now behave as one piece of material. The clamping force between them is greater than the load applied by the caliper regardless of the direction of action.
With a convential setup (fork trailing) the compression element of the load is not sufficent to compress the bolts so much that the caliper slips everytime the brake is applied. The same would be true if the caliper was mounted fork leading. the tension element would not be enough to stretch the bolts and lift the caliper away from the fork.
With a conventional setup the caliper can't slip because it is being pressed against the post mount even more so when braking. It has nowhere to go other than "through" the fork.
If what you're saying for a front-mounted calipers is that the braking force isn't enough to reduce the tension of the bolt due to stretching, that makes sense (as long as the bolt isn't made of cheese I suppose).
Confession time I’m a little bit of a Leftie fan. I have two Dales with lefties. Always wanted one and I wasn’t disappointed when I finally got one.
Cannondale Jekyll team edition carbon, lightest FS I’ve ever owned, the carbon Leftie up front is my fave front fork setup. Not only looks as cool as fek, but is damn good (caveat I’m no rad Mtber or racer and I’m sure 10000 STW experts will be along in a second to tell me why I’m wrong)
But I love this bike, despite at every turn finding there is something else Cannondale decided to just go their own with way with. And servicing costs of the fork & in this case shock as well is enough to make me cry. That’s when you can find somewhere that still does it ! Because of that it’s slightly expensive to maintain, the bike OEM is dripping in carbon things, SRAM XXO etc and is super lovely because of it (It’s what it came with.) but the leftie makes it.
Only reason I’d part with it, is if Cannondale did an good looking eBike mtb with a Leftie.
Also have a dale gravel bike, the Slate in green. Another cool looking bike. Which I should sell, but can’t quite bring myself to.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the you’re missing a fork joke when out riding.
Owned a lot of cannondales over the years and a few lefties. Not the recent ones however.
Old ti axle ones, carbon ones, the elo, and lefty max.
The xc ones have all been brilliant. Moving from telescopic xc forks the left took a little getting used to, just because steering accuracy was so much better. I loved the elo. That was a very nice fork.
Didn't get on with the lefty max though. The constant resetting if the bearings did my head in.
I did own a USE SUB too, that was great, but not great. If it didn't have the englund air cartridge and had some proper damping it would have been really good. But alas, it was rubbish to ride.
The anti dive worked great though.
Othe half loves the headshok,even had a custom Van Nic Zion made with rohloff . Prefers this bike for touring over a modern bikepacking bike.
The only problem with the lefty is only one fork leg,less carrying capacity. Headshok solves the problem. The headshok bikes are light and are good for traveling abroad.
[url= https://i.ibb.co/qx7d10T/9-FECB28-B-E775-45-B7-BB3-C-3-AD00-A721-A42.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.ibb.co/qx7d10T/9-FECB28-B-E775-45-B7-BB3-C-3-AD00-A721-A42.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
That’s my slate which is a bit unusual.
I’ve converted it to flat bar at the Moment for commuting but it’s also odd in that it’s the higher level 1x sram spec with the purple cannondale cranks but with a rigid lefty instead of the suspension one. Never seen another one with this spec.
Personally I think this lefty feels odd to ride, like it turns well going left but is rubbish going right. Might be the tyre though.
I do like the ability to change tubes without having to remove the wheel, you really want a swing arm on the back matching it 🙂
Bicyclists seem to be very conservative which seems to stifle anything not similar to what is already around.
dudeofdoom
Full MemberI do like the ability to change tubes without having to remove the wheel, you really want a swing arm on the back matching it 🙂
Is that actually at all useful though? I've done it once and tbh it was a gigantic faff, with the extra bulk of the bike still attached. Considering all the seconds it takes to remove a wheel and do it normally...
like it turns well going left but is rubbish going right.
No use to Derek Zoolander then
On a related note - where can I get Lefty's serviced in the UK? I've got a Lefty Max and Lefty DLR ti to sort out at some point.
