You probably don't need suspension. Here's why.

hey everyone Micah here with ebikeschool.com and today I want to talk to you about suspension on e-bikes and why you may not actually need it or why most of you probably don't need it and of course we'll make some exceptions but first we want to talk about what are the advantages and disadvantages of suspension so first of all suspension has two main advantages that is handling and comfort now for the handling aspect the whole idea of suspension is that it allows the wheel of the bicycle to move up and down sort of matching the terrain without the bike moving so much and this is a lot more important for someone who's doing like off-road type riding or perhaps you know single track trail riding that type of more extreme riding where handling is really going to be more important if you're talking about our typical you know commuter use where a lot of us are riding to school work grocery store that kind of thing and we're taking paved streets bike lanes that sort of riding the handling advantages of suspension just aren't going to be that important to us compared to that more extreme off-road type riding when you're riding off-road that's where the biggest handling advantages happen and for most of us that are doing commuter type riding we're just not pushing our bikes to the extreme where it's going to make that much of a difference now you might be saying yeah but suspension is a lot more comfortable on road and that's exactly right that's the second main advantage of suspension so when you put the handling aspect aside something that most of us don't really push our bikes to the point of needing let's talk about Comfort because Comfort is obviously very important to us if we're spending a lot of time on our e-bikes especially since people generally ride e-bikes further than pedal bikes Comfort is critical yes and suspension does make a huge difference there when you have front suspension on a hardtail bike or you know in bike jargon hardtail as a bike that doesn't have suspension in the back only in the front or a full suspension bike when you go over potholes or just Road irregularities bricks and pavers the suspension is going to absorb a lot of those bumps and is going to make the ride a lot more comfortable so for most of us that's going to be the bigger advantage of suspension is that Comfort side not as much the handling side because we're just we're not pushing our bikes to that extreme like someone who's doing you know off-road racing that sort of thing that being said there are a lot of disadvantages to suspension as well and it's important to cover these first of all there's a lot of weight associated with suspension a typical suspension Fork can weigh between two to six pounds more than a rigid fork and you know if you're paying a lot of money if you're spending a thousand dollars on a fork you might be able to get that weight down to something comparable with a rigid Fork but look most of us aren't spending that much on a fork a lot of people want to spend less than a thousand dollars on an entire e-bike not just a suspension Fork so generally speaking you're going to be having a lot more weight associated with that suspension fork and it's not just the fork either there's more weight in the rear with rear suspension it's not just the added shock absorber which can weigh a pound or two you've also got pivot Points you've got extra bearings the frame and the swing arm have to be reinforced to support the extra forces associated with that rear suspension so you could be talking an extra five ten pounds of weight just in suspension on a bike versus a rigid bike then of course there's the added cost of suspension you know a full suspension bike is significantly more expensive than a rigid bike we're talking about electric bicycles often that can be a thousand dollars or more difference between full suspension and non-suspension now just front suspension doesn't add as much lots of times we can see that ad somewhere between two three four hundred dollars to the price of an e-bike but the cost is certainly there and it's another disadvantage of having suspension on a bike next there are the maintenance concerns if you think about it a rigid Fork could last 10 20 years easy right like there's just there's not much to fail there but on any suspension Fort requires maintenance you got to check those dust seals you got to keep that fork in good condition otherwise it's just going to break down over time and you're going to end up with a fork that's probably worse as a suspension Fork than if you had just gone with a rigid Fork because you've got a sticking spring or you've just got so much dust and dirt and grime under those seals that the Fork is sticking so there's all this added maintenance that you really have to be concerned with if you want your suspension Fork to last same thing with rear suspension you know you got to keep that in good condition you can't just set it and forget it you got to actually pay attention to these things which you just don't have to worry about with a rigid bike and the last big disadvantage and something that a lot of people don't think about is that it's just harder to Pedal a suspension bike you might not realize it but when you're pedaling a suspension bike a good percentage of the energy of each pedal stroke actually goes into the suspension when you're compressing those Springs or you're compressing the hydraulic suspension you're wasting a lot of your energy and in fact that's why most good suspensions have lockouts on them so why would someone want to lock out a perfectly good suspension bike it's because when you're pedaling on an area that you just don't need suspension it's a waste to have it all that energy that could be going into actually moving you forwards is now going into compressing that suspension and it's just making for a very inefficient experience if you're pedaling uphill on a suspension bike I mean the the added resistance distance is like taking a bike wheel tying a rope to it tying the other end to the seat post to your bike and tossing it behind you you're dragging all that extra weight along with you and it doesn't make any sense when you're compressing that suspension it's the same thing it's like dragging an anchor behind you and it just makes you do more work it puts you in more of a pain Point than if you had no suspension at all so for most people on fairly smooth streets on bike lanes that sort of thing you just you don't need that extra suspension because it's going to take up so much of your energy and your efficiency now if you want to go with a non-suspension bike but you still want some suspension benefits like we talked about especially that Comfort there are ways to do it now first of all all bikes have suspension in the form of their pneumatic tires as long as you haven't switched out to something weird like solid rubber tires then you've got some form of suspension built in and you can actually play with that you can adjust your air pressure now you don't want to go too low because you risk getting pinch Flats if you hit the edge of a bump or something and you come down and you pinch that tube between the rim and the tire so you know you can't drop too low but if you let out a little bit of air in your tires you can actually make the ride much nicer earlier this year I was in Estonia I was testing out some ampler bikes and these are like the epitome of commuter e-bikes no suspension purely rigid bikes and I was riding around on some pretty rough roads especially in The Old City there's a lot of those cobblestones bricks pavers that sort of thing and you know the bikes were pretty much fine now when it gets really bad with these serious cobblestones you get a lot of that vibration but by just stopping and letting some air out of the tires I was able to continue with a much more comfortable ride by making use of that air suspension that every bike has in the tires now there are also other things you can add sort of a low-tech solution is just put a gel padded seat on the saddle you can get some covers that are like gel covers and that can just absorb a little bit of the vibration that would otherwise be going into your tush and it can make for a nicer ride that way obviously it's only going to make a small difference because it's just not compressing that much but it's a step in the right direction and you you can get those for 15 20 bucks on Amazon next though if you really want to add suspension to a rigid bike consider a suspension seat post there are a few Styles out there the main types are the compression seat posts where there's actually a stroke that goes up and down in the seat post itself the other type are these sort of parallel linkage types that are similar to a thud Buster or something like that between the two the parallel linkage is just a much better not only is it going to give you better suspension but also it maintains the geometry of the bike so you're not getting a lot closer to the pedals and further away each time that suspension seat post sort of goes into the post and comes back out it's not changing your geometry now to be honest for most people it's really not going to make that much of a difference in terms of the pedal geometry when you get a couple inches closer to the pedals and you come back within a second or so it's just it's really not going to have that big of an impact on most of us that are just going out for casual rides but if that does concern you and you want to make sure you're maintaining good pedaling form then those parallel linkage types are going to be much better and in general they're just higher quality suspension posts now they do cost a lot more you know those can be three four five times the price of a sort of more conventional seat post suspension system but they're certainly worth it and having tested those myself I can tell you they add some really nice Comfort to the bike and that's really what this comes down to is deciding of those advantages of suspension you know the comfort and the handling which is more important to you if it really is the handling if you're really doing some you know tight switch back single track Downhill Racing Enduro that sort of thing then yeah you definitely need at least front suspension especially for downhill or if you're doing big drops that sort of thing then a full suspension bike is going to make a huge difference but listen for most of us we're just not doing that type of riding that often and if we are then we probably have a dedicated bike for that when you're talking about the type of riding that most people do on e-bikes that's you know Leisure cruising on a beach cruiser along the beach that's you know going to get groceries on a commuter your style e-bike that's going to work school coffee shop that sort of thing suspension really isn't as important as most people think now of course there are other cases out there I know people write into me and they say hey Mike you know I've got like three fused vertebrae in my back what type of suspension do you recommend for me or a bike that's going to fit so I totally get that there are medical cases where yeah you should probably go with the full suspension because it's just going to be a lot easier on your body and it's not going to cause you those kind of problems but for most able-bodied fit adults suspension is kind of overrated especially when you can get most of that comfort from other Alternatives like a suspension seat post or that sort of thing so there we go I hope that was helpful for you and that my views on suspension weren't too controversial last but not least let's announce the giveaway winner from the end of my last video who's going to win a free copy of one of my books in the randomly selected commenter is Hixson B so congratulations just let me know which one of my books you'd like you can choose from DIY lithium batteries DIY solar power the ultimate do-it-yourself e-bike guide and my latest book the electric bike Manifesto and anybody else who wants a chance to win one of my books for free all you have to do is put a comment down below this video you can say anything you'd like and hopefully you'll be the randomly selected commenter at the end of my next video if you don't want to wait that long to hopefully win a copy of one of my books you can always find them on Amazon alright thanks for watching Everybody I'll see you here next time foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: EbikeSchool.com

Views: 19,071

Keywords: electric bicycle, e-bike, ebikeschool.com, ebike school

Id: UEsHyWKopnM

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2022