Puts on flame retardant suit.
So after all of the URT bashing in the Giant Warp thread, I was wondering
what everyone's beef is with URT anyway. It is a design with advantages and
disadvantages, just like any other suspension design. It seemed to be a fad
a few years ago to build URT designs (Trek Y-bikes, Klein Mantra, etc) and
that it has fallen out of favor because it did not deliver on it's hype. At
one time URT was considered a great thing (
http://www.cycletech.com/TechTips/body.htm and look at the bottom). Now is
seems to be hated. In a recent Velo News article, the author seems to sneer
at somebody he meets on the trail because that rider liked his URT bike.
http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/4082.0.html So the mags say it
is fashionable to hate URT, but a few years ago they were touting it. Does
it really suck that bad?
From googling a bit, I can say that the generally accepted behavior traits
of the URT a
- It is immune to bob on out of saddle sprints. good
- Supposedly they bob (especially low pivot designs) bad
- It has no pedal kickback. good
- Prone to brake jack bad
- BB-seat distance varies bad
- Only active if rider remains seated (rider stands on swing arm when out of
saddle) bad?
I have a mid-90's Katraga Proto Winner in my garage that I have logged a lot
of miles on. FYI, a little background- Katarga is an Austrian bike maker
that I would not call boutique. They are a small maker of low to mid end
bikes, inhabiting the same ecological niche as e.g. GT. The Proto Winner
was a URT design that they sold in the mid to late 90's. It is not a high
pivot design like the Mantra. The BB sits about 2" directly behind the
pivot. If you are interested in what it looks like, I could photograph it,
but I do not have a web page at the moment to post it to.
From my experience on this bike I can report:
- It does bob a little bit if you pedal very badly, but bob is easy to
completely eliminate with a seated spin (easier than with 4-bar). I do not
know where the low pivot URT bikes developed the reputation for bobbing. It
really does behave like a hardtail on out of saddle sprints. On steep
climbs this is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.
I tend to pull hard on the upstroke and climb better on a more
"conventional" FS design than on a URT.
- Never experienced pedal kickback. Hell, I could run this bike as an SS.
- Brake Jack. I hate that term. This bike has a low pivot and this is not
really an issue. I have heard that it can be quite severe on a high pivot
bike.
- BB-Seat distance only varies by about a half an inch at full travel on
this bike. No biggie.
- The not active part I can attest to. I recently bought a four bar bike
and now the old URT bikes seems quite harsh and inactive. It is still
taking the edge off of hits. In this respect, it behaves a bit like a heavy
(13kg) Giant NRS.
There is no suspension design that is the Holy Grail. Path Analysis makes
interesting reading if you have the proper background:
http://www.mtbcomprador.com/pa/english/ IMHO- URT does quite well in a
couple of applications:
1) The lightest FS frames are single pivot. URT is basically single pivot
with the BB on the rear triangle. It follows that a URT frame could make it
into the 4lb range. One good application would be XC marathon bike where
big travel was not an issue and the suspension is mostly there to take the
edge off and delay the onset of fatigue. The NRS works this way. My old
low pivot URT bike is too heavy to be considered for racing, but it is great
on epic rides. Too bad URT is unfashionable. It could in principle be used
for a great XC marathon bike.
2) Touring bikes and Walgooses. Wallgoose buyers want the FS look and
tourers want to take the edge off, but both are ridden by people who
probably have never (and never will) practiced a clean spin. I do not buy
the "URT bobs like crazy" line. The FSR bobs like crazy if I do not spin
smoothly. The URT bike is very forgiving.
In short, it URT has shortcomings, but the vilification of URT has more to
do with fashion than anything else. Remenber, the macstrut is making a
comback.
Runs for cover.
-Dave