Fuel EX with Lefty?
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439 Posts
Seriously though...
I certainly have not seen anything like what you described, but there is a pretty cool Mooto-X YBB 29er with a Lefty over in the Moots forum.
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=660325
You might PM the thread originator for some info on putting Lefty forks on non-Cannondale builds. He mentioned a shop that helped him out in that regard.
I certainly have not seen anything like what you described, but there is a pretty cool Mooto-X YBB 29er with a Lefty over in the Moots forum.
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=660325
You might PM the thread originator for some info on putting Lefty forks on non-Cannondale builds. He mentioned a shop that helped him out in that regard.
It's not that complicated anymore: http://www.project321.com/products_bike.php
I've seen one EX with Lefty in this forum, but that was a '07 I think.
I've seen one EX with Lefty in this forum, but that was a '07 I think.
I've been thinking of doing the same thing on my fuel ex, please keep us posted if you go through with it.
IMO:
advantages - incredible stiffness + light weight
disadvantages - hard to take front wheel off
DTSwiss makes a 240s lefty hub i'd buy. Also for those without confidence in the design, take a look at plane landing gear - for light planes and fighters often is single stanchion single wheel.
IMO:
advantages - incredible stiffness + light weight
disadvantages - hard to take front wheel off
DTSwiss makes a 240s lefty hub i'd buy. Also for those without confidence in the design, take a look at plane landing gear - for light planes and fighters often is single stanchion single wheel.
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437 Posts
what about cornering tho?? is there a difference in hard cornering left and right because of the left side having the shock and the right side being empty?
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4 Posts
me too
I've been thinking about doing this and even with the project 321 steerer tube I can only see a few ways of doing this. The headtube length is soo close to the standard crown fitment that you need a headset type like cannondales where the bearings sit inside the headtube completely flush as there is only about 1mm to play with, or machine down the normal bearing cups so they don't stick out either end of the headtube. Trek have informed me that bearings cannot be pressed directly into the headtube so looks like the machining route would be best. Or you could go with the lefty that has the max crowns which will give you about 3cm of clearance to play with but then your gonna have a big ugly stack height which will look a mess with lots of spacers and also risk messing up the geometry of the bike, this way would be very easy and work fine I believe but to usea lefty with standard crowns to get it looking sexy and flush its gonna mean making something and a bit of work and also the testing of a new conversion and as mine is a 2010 fuel ex 9.9 so carbon this could be less of a safe conversion than if it was metal so will test carefully but if it works will make a greak bike even better and look sediment, failing that or if i chicken out ill just stick the original headset in and use the fox fork.
People thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
Joel
I've been thinking about doing this and even with the project 321 steerer tube I can only see a few ways of doing this. The headtube length is soo close to the standard crown fitment that you need a headset type like cannondales where the bearings sit inside the headtube completely flush as there is only about 1mm to play with, or machine down the normal bearing cups so they don't stick out either end of the headtube. Trek have informed me that bearings cannot be pressed directly into the headtube so looks like the machining route would be best. Or you could go with the lefty that has the max crowns which will give you about 3cm of clearance to play with but then your gonna have a big ugly stack height which will look a mess with lots of spacers and also risk messing up the geometry of the bike, this way would be very easy and work fine I believe but to usea lefty with standard crowns to get it looking sexy and flush its gonna mean making something and a bit of work and also the testing of a new conversion and as mine is a 2010 fuel ex 9.9 so carbon this could be less of a safe conversion than if it was metal so will test carefully but if it works will make a greak bike even better and look sediment, failing that or if i chicken out ill just stick the original headset in and use the fox fork.
People thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
Joel
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208 Posts
But isn't that the whole point of doing this conversion? Personally I think it could produce a distinctive and improved rig and I know that Cannondale announced some conversion parts for 1 1/8 headset frames last year.An unholy union of Cannondale and Trek bits?!? BLASPHEMER! UNCLEAN!
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320 Posts
Any issues with the Lefty putting torsional stress to the left side of the frame? I look down at my head tube and even though it is pretty beefy, I still wonder about all that stress twisting the frame and welds. I know the wheel is centered under the frame, but where is the contact point of all that stress?
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4 Posts
trek lefty
The extra stress is one of the things I am concerned about especially with a carbon head tube, although the carbon headtube on the fuel ex is beefy trek say not to do it even though the carbon headtube on the cannondales can handle the stress so wouldnt see why the trek wouldn't, plus the stress technically is still coming through a sreerer directly about the front wheel so stress applies sideways flexing the front wheel should only twist the sreerer in the same way as a conventional fork anf may only be slightly more force due to the lefty having less flex. I guess its just gonna be down to a few of us brave ones to actually just give it a go.
The extra stress is one of the things I am concerned about especially with a carbon head tube, although the carbon headtube on the fuel ex is beefy trek say not to do it even though the carbon headtube on the cannondales can handle the stress so wouldnt see why the trek wouldn't, plus the stress technically is still coming through a sreerer directly about the front wheel so stress applies sideways flexing the front wheel should only twist the sreerer in the same way as a conventional fork anf may only be slightly more force due to the lefty having less flex. I guess its just gonna be down to a few of us brave ones to actually just give it a go.
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4 Posts
trek lefty
Im happy about the headtube being able to take it now its just making a headset that will sit completely flush inside the headtube to be able to use the standard spaced crowns so I get the absolutely flush fit as you get using a lefty say with a cannondale flash frame. I was wondering if it would be safe to take a normal tapered zero stack headset and machining.g down the lips on the cups so they sit completely flush with the headtube. Really don't like the look of the lefty fork on a bike with the xl crowns and a steerer full of spacers.
Any thoughts on the headset aspect? It's either grind down a bought headset or machine something frech from ally.
Im happy about the headtube being able to take it now its just making a headset that will sit completely flush inside the headtube to be able to use the standard spaced crowns so I get the absolutely flush fit as you get using a lefty say with a cannondale flash frame. I was wondering if it would be safe to take a normal tapered zero stack headset and machining.g down the lips on the cups so they sit completely flush with the headtube. Really don't like the look of the lefty fork on a bike with the xl crowns and a steerer full of spacers.
Any thoughts on the headset aspect? It's either grind down a bought headset or machine something frech from ally.
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