Don't shoot me down in flames but.....

[suburbanreuben]

This is a worse travesty with a vintage suspension fork because the loss of the steering capabilities of the fork will far outweigh any gains made by the shitty suspension.

This!

 

[NeilM]

I think it's your bike you do what you like with it (short of any alterations to the frame).

I like my bikes both ways, and my 94 Dekerf Mountain is rigid, although it has P2, not DeKerf forks, but on the other hand my DOGS BOLX has Pace RC35 forks, which just take the worst of the trail shock out.

I think the most important things is that you enjoy riding the thing, after all, that is why it was made in the first place, to ride and enjoy.

 

[M-Power]

Respect to the poster from Durango but strongly disagree with all your points. Firstly, when quality cantis are set up properly they can modulate better than anything else, are easier to repair after a prang and still lock the front wheel if required and I'm no 9st rider, I can assure

We all appreciate the wonderful FCC marketing speel from bitd, fun that it was but...the Yo works incredibly well with steel and top end sus forks of the era for MOST purposes. Sure its not ideal for 70mph life threatening descents in Colorado but many of us are past that bucket tick.

Personally, I like to feel the trail vibrations, like I like to track an old school manual race car, where I make the decisions based on feedback and my input. If I want a comfy lazy ride id just buy a motorcycle and be done with it. A Yo hard tail with or without period sus is the zenith of steel bicycle design IMO

 

[fattiman]

I actually prefer the look of the Yo with suspension up front, asthetics aside i actually ride my bikes and like to be as comfortable as possible on the long rides that we do as a group. In my eyes the bike is period correct, the Rock Shox fork range were offered as an option from the FCC factory so all is well.
I thought i would raise the point as the most worshiped Yo's on the forum all seem to have the FCC front fork - they also look as if they dont get ridden..... Moreover, the argument about the performance of early suspension forks relative to fixed leg forks to me is irelevant due to the kind of riding i do, i.e less than competitive/racing speed!
Back in the day i dont remeber grumbling when i first took my Judy XC out for a spin and nothing has changed for me as i dont ride modern bikes.

 

[M-Power]

Flame suit on Having been out of the mountainbiking scene for the last 15yrs, until recently, the daftest thing I have seen is Yo's/Merlin's etc. set up as single speed rides. Cycling has become so fad orientated these days its nuts.

 

[Mike Muz]

As has already been mentioned , it's your bike , set it up however you like . Who cares what anyone else thinks of it , you build it, ride it , have fun . Who's to say what's right and wrong . Don't let anyone try to force their opinion on you . They (probably) don't know you .
Mike

 

[clockworkgazz]

Flame suit on Having been out of the mountainbiking scene for the last 15yrs, until recently, the daftest thing I have seen is Yo's/Merlin's etc. set up as single speed rides. Cycling has become so fad orientated these days its nuts.

always remember that when mountain bikes appeared (in the charlie kelly flavour) people said it was a fad and look where we are now I like the fact that mountain bikes are changing 29ers- Single speed etc... gives us all another reason to buy a bike and that is always good

 

[suburbanreuben]

Flame suit on Having been out of the mountainbiking scene for the last 15yrs, until recently, the daftest thing I have seen is Yo's/Merlin's etc. set up as single speed rides. Cycling has become so fad orientated these days its nuts.

15 years ago singlespeed was a fad. Now it's mainstream and you can actually buy actual singlespeed frames. :shock:
If fat hadn't gone tits up they'd be making them too!
BTW, Why did they fold?

 

[ridevintagemtb]

BTW, Why did they fold?

http://forums.thepaceline.net/archive/i ... 43419.html

From Dave Kirk:

Fat City was in deep doo. They weren't making payroll. Folks were working and not getting paid for weeks at a time. Sales were poor and the money was very poorly managed. This is when they were still in Mass.

The owner of Serotta at the time was an uber-rich dude named Archie Cox. Cox somehow found out that Fat City was swirling the drain and offered to bail the company out.

So Cox bought Fat and moved them the NY. The guys who were Fat back in Mass got little to no warning and some were offered positions in NY if they wanted to move. None did. They got hosed.

So Chris and Wendel moved to NY and Fats were built in Glens Falls by Serotta guys. Frankly the quality of the bikes went way up. Not because the guys in Mass weren't skilled but because the tooling in NY was much much better and there was actually money to buy good materials. I can't tell you how many dumpsters I filled with Fat City "tooling". They brought 3 semi flat beds full of tooling and in the end it all went to scrap. Most of it was cobbled together junk that was very difficult to use and near impossible to make a good bike on. Most of the NY Fats stays pretty close to the same in spec to what they had been building at first. After a bit we (Serotta guys) were able to modernize the Fat stuff a bit and update the materials and processes while still allowing them to maintain their "Fatness". This was a very difficult thing to do without hurting Chris. Chris is a super nice guy who you just did not want to hurt and he fought hard to keep everything the same as it had been. The trouble here, IMO, was that Fat had some sales before the move, had a reputation and Chris didn't want to risk that. A good thing. The bad thing was he had no idea what the reputation was based on. So he was paralyzed and wouldn't change anything for fear of ruining Fat. It was sad. Little things like bottle boss placement were fought about for days. Chris wouldn't change the stuff thinking folks would think it wasn't a real Fat now so they wouldn't buy.

The simple fact of the matter was they they of course weren't "real" Fats. They were very good bikes. Maybe better than the old Fats but they weren't real. And folks knew it and they stayed away. Of course the guys from IF rose from the ashes and started making real Fats if you will.

About this time Ben Serotta bought the whole deal back from Cox. We reorganized everything and lots of folks left. It was a very good thing. Serotta was turned around and made profitable for the first time ever. When Ben bought Serotta back he got Fat in the deal. He sold Fat to Chris for a bizarrely low price (a dollar as I recall) so Chris could do what he wanted with it. But it was too late and the brand was toast. I don't know what Chris and Wendel did with the brand after they left. They had some farm in VT as I recall and tried to make stuff there but it was over.

So the important thing to remember in this is that Serotta didn't buy Fat and run it out of business. Cox bought Fat. Ben bought Serotta and Fat from Cox and then sold Fat to Chris. Fat died a natural death at this point.

When I look back on this time I get sad. It was a very tough time for everyone in NY and Mass. A real lose-lose situation. The tough part was that the Fat brand was dead before Chris sold it. It was almost worthless and sales were very low. The product was old and dated and no real design had happened in a long time as they had no money. The only thing they really had was a cool logo. But it wasn't enough.



Scott Bengston has some more insight on Fatcogs.

 

[fattiman]

Wow, a real eye opener there thanks for the info. Innovate or die has never been more relevant, a similar story with SAAB cars too, digressing slightly.