I thought it was a one-off when i saw some berk riding his bike with the forks mounted backwards….but it appears he isnt alone. Have i missed a new niche?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Giant-Rincon-Aluxx-6000-2010-series-mens-bike-ex-cond-/170622215343?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item27b9e064af

shortens the wheelbase slightly – giving faster turning – also feeds the braking forces into the forks for better modulation.

maybe.

My Manitous look backwards. Does that count?

Tesco bike by Pablo’s Feet, on Flickr

Such good practice that even the Mighty Tesco do it.

Lots. My roadie mate rode his new mtb home from Evans and they’d built it with the fork on backwards – he said it felt a bit funny…

George Hincapie for one.

http://twitpic.com/rqptw

Dont knock it. Its the new niche thing.

Cotic Roadrat users?!? And also soon people with the new On One carbon 29er fork that appears to go the wrong way! 😉

Anyone with DT Swiss forks 😉

Maguras are best as even if they are on the wrong way you can’t tell.

OP is well beind the times

Increases the trail via negative rake for a more slack angled gnarr feeling…

My nephew had one of those, was £45 IIRC. If it fell on a small child it would kill them. £10’s worth of new cables had it running 100% better than it came away from the shop.

i see loads of people riding round like that.

Its 2nd only to the other common error of riding round with a buckled rear wheel “fixed” by undoing the v-brake. Two wrongs can make a right!

A guy at work turned up at the gate to sign a visitor in with rigid forks on back to front ………. a week later he turned up again on one with all the packing cardboard still attached!

There was a bloke outside halfords in tamworth with his forks on backwards trying to decide if he should turn them around so they were correct. The bloke in halfords had given him the correct info but then he went outside and saw a pic of a bike in the window with manitous on it so didn’t believe them. I thought it was best to stop and help him and explain why he was doing it wrong. He was surprisingly grateful.

My nephew had one of those, was £45 IIRC. If it fell on a small child it would kill them. £10’s worth of new cables had it running 100% better than it came away from the shop

You spent 22% of the bike’s value on cables? Are you mad??

Didn’t Skoda used to sponsor one of the XC teams? I remember getting my car serviced, and in the window of the Skoda dealership they had some uber-bling carbon fibre race bike with its forks proudly on back to front. It didn’t inspire confidence in the ability of the mechanics

What vaporises my urine is where inexperienced riders take delivery of fairly expensive bikes, £600 plus, and the pdi is a joke. A freind recently bought an XS Kona from Evans’ and none of the cables or hoses had been shortened to allow for the very small frame, the front end looked like an explosion of spaghetti. It took 20 mins and £5 for olives and inserts for me to sort it.

I once saw a guy at CyB disappear over the bars. I stopped and helped him up, dusted him off and realised his forks were on backwards. His reply? “You sure, mate? I picked it up from Halfords yesterday after it’s service.” He didn’t have water,any tools, puncture patches, nothing… I sorted it for him and not even a thank you. He even seems pi55ed at me for noticing.
Although, about 3 years ago, Tesco Direct catalogue had a kid on a bike on the front and, again, forks the wrong way round. I e-mailed Tesco to inform them of the error and a week later, a new catalogue had been released.

Saddle the wrong way would be a good spot.

We saw a chap last night and a few days ago in Edinburgh coming down Rodney Street on a white hybrid with black carbon forks back to front
The wheelbase was alarmingly short looking!

If anyone gets a chance to call him to a stop please do and tell him the error – it looks like it would be the weirdest/scariest thing to ride.

I saw this on the front cover of a centre parcs brochure. Inside the brochure they told you about the excellency maintained bike fleet. Ffs
Also had father + son bring a bike into the shop for something else. I asked how had built the bike with the forks the wrong way round. The dad said “Santa built it”

Not the actual bike… but we get a few people in with back to front helmets on too. I tried a few to see what they felt like in this ‘mode’. Uncomfy.

Although to be fair, that’s my head. Some people may find some helmets more comfy the wrong way i suppose.

I’ve given up spotting forks now. Backward helmets is where it’s at!

DrP

spot the mistakes by rOcKeTdOgUk, on Flickr

That’s the best so far although I think the front brake might feel a little wooden (when you hit a tree)

this was in sportsworld/soccerworld, can’t remember, you’d stop easy enough when the forks compress and the brake cable gets jammed between the tyre and the crown

There is a guy who leaves his bike at the train station, I always presumed he was using the fork to alter the geom to get the perfect handling characteristics…

Odd thing Is, the bike next to It has got It right!

I’ve seen both a typical vented helmet back to front and some one with a pi55pot reversed. A bike locked to a lamppost on my old road had an open rear V and a wrong fork. Every day I thought “maybe I should just fix it” I even considered leaving a note to offer to sort it out. Then I realised that they they probably didn’t give a sh*t.

It scored deep into my soul every time I saw it and it’s probably still there 😐

rocketdog – at least they got the wheel on the right way round. Shame the caliper is now on the wrong side…

had an open rear V

Mine used to have 2 open V brakes when cabled to a lamppost. If a scrote snips the cable, hopefully it’s a bus he rides under when he tries to ride off.

I see a couple a month in London. Usually try to get their attention to point it out but have a pretty low success rate so far..

saw someone doing the oxford to cambridge last year on a supermarket special with wrong way round forks. didnt have the heart to tell them, by the time I came across them theyd done 60 miles and had probably got used to the handling.

scariest thing I saw was a guy commuting in oxford, riding with his bars at about 45 degrees (as if he’d fallen off, twisted them around the fork and not realised they could be straightened). the look of concentration on his face made me want to be there when he had to suddenly react to something.

ive given up pointing out wrong way helmets, its usually on kids with their parents (and occasionally their parents) and they look at you like your a paedo for taking an interest in their child’s welfare.

I have seen a few “family cycling routes” freebies in the Sunday papers, and some of the pictures of bikes being ridden have the V-brakes disconnected, there also appears to be a lot of left hand drivetrain bikes, now that is proper niche!

Bloke with Fox 36 forks* at CLIC 05 – he told me ‘thats whats the Canadians do’

yes, of course 😉

*something bolt through and single crown anyway

I am guessing the back to front helmets are not full face ones?

My 2 year old daughter insisted on putting her new helmet on the wrong way, with the rocloc type bit looking like the chin strap on one of those bearskin hats that the Buckingham Palace guards wear. I tried to explain but I fear I may have put her off cylcing for a while now by trying to intervene.

DrP – Member
Backward helmets is where it’s at!

Aftermath of a rotational injury ????