Thursday, July 30, 2009

No rake is not straight fork!

No rake fork means 0 mm offset!
The wheel axle is in the same straight line as the head tube.

It is a straight fork, yes! but with no offset!

The steering feeling is different than traditional bicycle forks with offset (tradiotional forks: "straight" or curved forks, they have offset)

No offset fork with adapted frame geometry offer a more accurate steering.
Why?
Because the Zero Rake fork wheel axle is not offset, when steering, the wheel stay on the same axle. There is no lateral forces.
A simple way to understand this explanation: Take your bicycle, steer to the left (or the right) and you will see the bike geometry changing as the wheel axis is "offset", the natural thing happening is the bike has to lean toward the opposite side of the wheel direction.

The offset style fork is the current "norm" for two wheelers, but a no rake (no offset) fork with adapted geometry is much more eficient on a bicycle.

The rider has less needs to counter balance his bike when steering it.
Anybody who have climbed a hill road on his bike will know this:

While standing on the pedals, at each stroke of the pedals, the bike is leaned to the left and to the right, the steering mouvement is a suit of zigzags to keep the bike balanced (read: standing)

The Zero Rake concept eliminate the "zigzagging" of the front wheel, which translate as less meters or kilometers depending of the ride! (the shortest road is always straight, right?)
Less distance = more energy saved for faster riding!

Yes!

I really needs to find a name for this new bike, ZR ti is not that much hugly though I would like something a little bit more poetic

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