By Richard J. Cunningham
A group of industry thinkers led by Manitou believe that they have invented the uniform standard which will define freeriding for the remainder of the millennium. Its trademarked name is ?OnePointFive? and it is an oversized steerer tube. What? How can an oversized pipe sticking out of a fork be the definer of freeriding? Huh?
Well, OnePointFive isn?t just a steerer tube, it?s a standard for an oversized steerer tube, a correspondingly huge head tube, and one heck of a headset. If adopted, the bigger-than-life dimensions of the OnePointFive standard will be a face lift for freeride bicycles. The frame's top and downtubes will swell to meet a head tube that rivals a Fosters Lager beer can. Jutting from the top of the 1.5-inch steerer tube is a clamp-on stem, the likes of which, no mountain biker has ever seen. Show casing a handlebar of most manly proportions. But wait, the best is yet to come! Bristling below all of this bulging new bigness, is the seminal seed that impulsed the OnePointFive standard into existence: A monstrous, six-inch-stroke single-crown Manitou fork.
There is no doubt that the OnePointFive standard will be embraced by freeriders. The fresh new look of a larger-than-life single-crown fork with a ?for freeriders only? logo is, as its makers claim: ?exactly what the mountain bike industry needs right now.? Free ride is the sport?s most visible and active segment of the sport, but it lacks a defined look. It is interesting, that OnePointFive was initiated by a fork company, and pitched to various headset and frame makers as a stronger, safer, and lighter alternative to dual-crown forks. A clever spin, but not really the truth.
Dual-crown forks and the freeriding frames that they are designed to be installed on have no durability issues. Conventional single-crown forks, however, do have a spotty reputation among hard core huckers, especially on the fabled North Shore. The real story is that Manitou wants to make a revolutionary single-crown fork with downhill travel-and the only way that can happen is if their customers accept a stronger, larger-diameter steerer tube format. Enter the OnePointFive standard: born form a single-crown fork that needed a stronger steerer, which in turn, requires a larger head set, and thus dictates a huge head tube-which will eventually spawn a crop of giant-sized frames, handlebars and stems. Does that remind you of a popular nursery rhyme?
So, the question that OnePointFive asks us has nothing to do with building the ultimate big-jump, drop-in fork, because that position has already been filled by dual-crown forks. OnePointFive is all about whether or not we want a longer and stronger SINGLE CROWN forks. There are no scientific reasons to replace a long-travel dual-crown fork with a single-crown version. The dual-crown design better distributes the bending loads along the fork legs. There is very little stress on the crowns and it virtually eliminates the need for a steerer tube at all. This is why the tiny one-inch aluminum steerer of a Honda CR 250 can handle repeated 90-foot jumps. Take off the upper crown of a long-stroke fork and the equation shifts from green to red.
Most of the bending moment of a single crown fork is concentrated near the lower headset race. Here, the steerer and the fork crown must handle all of the bending loads. The longer the fork, the greater the bending moments will be. Fork makers have been receiving a steady trickle of bent 1 1/8-inch steerers from their single-crown freeriding customers. If in fact, there are a significant number of hard core freeriding types who, for whatever reason, insist upon riding single-crown forks, then the OnePointFive standard makes engineering sense. A stronger head tube interface could stem the trickle before it becomes a flood.
So who needs a big frame with a huge head tube and a bulbous single crown fork sticking out from it? Craig Pollack, the guy who runs Race Face and one of my most trustworthy advisors, was the only proponent of the standard who could provide me with an unbiased answer. He first lauded the effort because, like the Isis splined bottom bracket format, the OnePointFive is available free to anyone who signs an agreement to adhere to the standard. Craig lives and rides in the Pacific Northwest where freeriding first became an established mountain bike lifestyle. He remarked that he, like many weekend warriors, felt intimidated by dual-crown forks.
?When I show up on the North Shore with my dual-crown bike, I feel like I have to do all of the stunts--like more is expected from me. When I bring my single-crown bike, I don?t sense that pressure.? To tell the truth, I don?t like dual crown forks for that reason, and I believe that there are many others out there that feel the same way that I do. The new standard will address this market, which could turn out to be very lucrative for the industry in general.?
Although the creators of the OnePointFive standard claim that the single-crown, big tube format will eventuate in a lighter overall system when compared to an equivalent travel dual-crown bike, you or I will never experience that possibility when the concept hits our dealer?s showrooms. Barring Gary Klein?s progeny, no innovation that was touted to be bigger, and stronger has ever proved to be lighter than its predecessor. Not splined bottom brackets, not the 1 1/8 steerer format, not seatposts, that is just a short list of the recent bigger-is-lighter movement. Prototypes may make the weight cutoff, but once production begins, the stringent weight saving steps that blessed the protos will be abandoned in favor of heavier, more reliable manufactured parts.
What Do I think? Different is never better in my mind, especially if it costs a lot of money for everyone involved to tool up for production. By far, it?s the image of OnePointFive that is most attractive. I believe the OnePointFive standard will be successful, primarily because bicycles using the technology will look strikingly different than downhill racers or cross country machines. The folks behind the concept are banking on the possibility that there is a busload of aggressive riding mountain bikers out there who would never be seen on a wimpy trailbike, and who would never ride a dual-crown downhill sled because they don?t like bicycles with too many muscles. If this is true, the OnePointFive standard will be just right.
To find out more about OnePointFive, who?s supporting it and to get a look at some prototype items, log on to:Onepointfivestandard and see for yourself. There, you can download the specifications or post questions to participating vendors.
|