Lefty Recall PSA

[MisterClaw]

Just read this on the 'trib.

Hazard: The forks can break during use causing the rider to lose control of the bicycle, fall and suffer serious injuries.

Incidents/Injuries: Cannondale has received 15 reports of the bicycle forks separating, including five reports of injuries including a broken collarbone, a concussion, broken ribs and bruises.


http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1243500.html


http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml07/07211.html

[manual63]

I personally have never liked the Lefty fork. But 15 people have been hurt because the forks broke? What were they doing? That is what I want to know. I am sure they were not JRA (Just Riding Along). I sure wish people would get more details, so then they can decide if their fork is for them or not. Obviously if you are freeriding and/or doing any freeride type stuff, you should not have a Lefty. But for XC riding and racing......I guess we won't know because we don't have DETAILS!!

[MisterClaw]

I personally have never liked the Lefty fork. ... I guess we won't know because we don't have DETAILS!!


I've never been a fan of them either. Sometimes mechanical engineers look at a problem and try to figure out the craziest possible solution to it. The Lefty fits in that category.

The word on the street is it's improper assembly that's causing the failures.

Edit: Yup, looks like they forgot the loctite!

http://www.dirtragmag.com/web/news-article.php?ID=927

[Danimal]

Nothin in there about my Lefty. :)

[stoneage]

Nothin in there about my Lefty. :)
It hasn't been converted to Hydrogen (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070518/sc_nm/fuel_hydrogen_dc_2;_ylt=At0ksRapTD4V9ldfqsTXdiEE1v AI) yet?

[Danimal]

It hasn't been converted to Hydrogen (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070518/sc_nm/fuel_hydrogen_dc_2;_ylt=At0ksRapTD4V9ldfqsTXdiEE1v AI) yet?

Blaahhh Haaa Haaa. You a funny one Bill! How ya' been?

[nigel]

Either way I'm sure more than 15 of other brand forks "break" a year, kudos to C-Dale for putting something out so fast rather than letting more happen. Seems they have a low rate for acceptable loss, which is a good thing.

D

[RichZilla]

I personally have never liked the Lefty fork. Obviously if you are freeriding and/or doing any freeride type stuff, you should not have a Lefty.

Don't be so quick to judge. Especially if you haven't tried one for anything other than a demo ride. I have done plenty of freeriding with my 27lb XC race bike that has a 140mm carbon lefty on it. I've thrown it off the big drops to flat on the Red wing DH course several times. Lotsa big jumps too. Never even bottomed it out. I've done several side by side comparisons on identical terrain. There is some seriously smooth action in that sucker. Ya just can't look at it while you're riding, it messes with yer head...

:cool:LEFTY POWER!!!!:cool:

[jitterjepp]

It hasn't been converted to Hydrogen (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070518/sc_nm/fuel_hydrogen_dc_2;_ylt=At0ksRapTD4V9ldfqsTXdiEE1v AI) yet?Why is George Bush making declarations based on science?
Sorry for getting off topic.
I don't trust the lefty. Having had two broken crowns on forks I think its kind of a dumb idea. Its not like I'm out there free riding either.
Its just a stupid novelty. They had a motorcycle in the early 90 with a single sided front fork that never really caught on. From what I recall it had power steering as well. The $35,000 price tag might have been a factor as well as the fact that you have to be pretty weak to need power steering on a motorcycle.

[dave t]

I've never been a fan of them either. Sometimes mechanical engineers look at a problem and try to figure out the craziest possible solution to it. The Lefty fits in that category.

The word on the street is it's improper assembly that's causing the failures.

Edit: Yup, looks like they forgot the loctite!


You really can't blame this problem on the Lefty's single leg if it is from a missed step in assembly unless you would call a redundant second leg a solution.

Calling the Lefty a crazy idea doesn't show much imagination. If the design can solve all the unique problems of a single leg, still be lightweight and work properly for it's intended purpose, it is a great idea. From what I have heard, it does and it's biggest negative is like what RichZilla said, people can't seem to ride it without looking at it and getting creeped out.

[Ish]

Help me understand what a lefty forks gives you that a "regular" fork doesn't? what's the upside? It may work, but why is it better than a normal fork?

The downside is non-standard hubs, headsets, stems, etc.

[stoneage]

Help me understand what a lefty forks gives you that a "regular" fork doesn't?
It supposedly has less 'slop' because there is no flex from leg to leg through the crown and stantions, making for a more stable compression and return, especially while cornering through rough terrain.

[RichZilla]

Help me understand what a lefty forks gives you that a "regular" fork doesn't? what's the upside? It may work, but why is it better than a normal fork?

The downside is non-standard hubs, headsets, stems, etc.

Agreed, there are extra costs involved with the non-standard items. Big downside, but you only have to spend that once. (unless you frequently change your hubs or something) The 'quick and dirty' reason for me was: For the same amount of travel, it's lighter than any other conventional fork. It's also much smoother with the zero 'slop' that Bill mentioned. Conventional forks use bushings, Lefty's use roller bearings. A good comparison would be; would you rather have bushings or bearings in your wheels? Uh huh.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that all other forks are crap and that everyone should be switching to a Lefty. It just so happened that the bike I decided to purchase, had a Lefty on it, and it worked better than any of the forks on the other bikes I was considering. I won't be converting my other three bikes over to accept a Lefty, but it works great on that bike.

I think it's funny that so many people are haters of those things when they haven't even got enough information to make an informed decision. I used to be one of them.:) I ripped on them pretty hard when I first saw them...then I rode one. The old "Don't judge a book by it's cover" saying may apply here.

[Stonehenge]

I dont own one but I have ridden a few....Man is it smooth...one big stantion seems better than 2 little ones. And they were smooth through out the cycle. I had no problem with looking at it while ridding... If you look at trail ( where you are suppose to look ) you wont notice a difference.
Next time the demo truck is around try it for yourself.

Main stream isnt always where its at!

[gopherhockey]

I think it's funny that so many people are haters of those things when they haven't even got enough information to make an informed decision. I used to be one of them.:) I ripped on them pretty hard when I first saw them...then I rode one. The old "Don't judge a book by it's cover" saying may apply here.

I rode a lefty back in the day for no other reason than I thought it looked cool, it did the job, and I had a lot of fun with the bikes I owned that had lefty's. One of the things that got me into mountain biking was looking at the strange looking BBQ black Super-V with a lefty fork sitting there calling out my name. Man that thing looked different than most other bikes I saw.

More power to those willing to come up with these concepts. It feels like a really long time since I had my lefty... they are still around, so one might say they have evolved past mere novelty. I'm glad the idea didn't die, and better yet it seems like they are improving upon the concept all the time.

[dave t]

Help me understand what a lefty forks gives you that a "regular" fork doesn't? what's the upside? It may work, but why is it better than a normal fork?
I haven't ridden one but would expect the advantages the other guys talked about. No binding between two tubes, bearings and weight.

Another reason for the design only applies if you are Cannondale. I think that it was what they needed to do to extend the travel of their headshock design. They had already solved the problem of how to make a single leg fork capable of steering but couldn't get anymore travel from the headtube configuration.
Advantage or not this (and patents?) probably made Cannondale the only ones who could justify the Lefty

[Ish]

Conventional forks use bushings, Lefty's use roller bearings. A good comparison would be; would you rather have bushings or bearings in your wheels? Uh huh.

Comparing forks and hubs is apples and oranges. Turner uses bushings in the pivots and you would be hard pressed to find a better pivot out there. I'm not sugesting suspension pivots and forks are a fair comparison either....

I demo'd a lefty a few years back on a Rush. From what I remember, it didn't seem to have very good small bump compliance but it blew through its travel way to quickly. Maybe it just wasn't set up right.