Quasar Racing linkage forks - a slight confession!

[pushbikerider]

Howdy folks,

Couldn't resist searching for my old employer when I discovered the retro forums - and even more impressed that people have remembered Quasar forks and want to still ride them!

I was, for most of the few years they were around, one half of Quasar Racing and still have the business card to prove it; 'Race Engineer' it says here.

If you'd like to know anything just fire away and I'll try my best to help. I've got copies of the original brochures for the first two models of fork plus I've saved some mag reviews and such if anyone's interested...

 

[orange71]

wow - we've had some bought here recently and I've always had a passing interest. Are you able to post up some scanned images of your brochures etc?

I take it you've seen these threads? A few erm... varied comments

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... ght=quasar

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... ght=quasar

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... ght=quasar

 

[pushbikerider]

Varied comments indeed

Scary to see the frankenstien remains of the forks in bits. When I get a chance I'll see if I can do a potted history of the forks.

There were basically three models spanning 1994 - 1996. The #1, Linx and Linx Evolution. It looks like the one's that have come up for sale recently were the later Evolution models.

Although the Evolution model doesn't seem too consistent as there are two different sizes of elastomers in the forks we've seen here. It could be they were put together of whatever bits came to hand - I'd left by then and only really played a part in the first two years.

"A mate of mine had some on his Clockwork, about 93, the dropout folded over riding off a kerb" Yes, that would have been the #1's

Goes to dust of the scanner for a bit of a session - err, any FAQ for picture posting? I take it I'd put another post in the brochures and stuff thread?

 

[orange71]

yes stick it in catalogue scans bit - would be great to see the history... where fundamentally did it all go wrong? In terms of the design what parallels (see what I did there ) can you draw between the Quasar and other linkage forks like the Vectors/Crosslinks - were the Quasars better in any respects?

 

[pushbikerider]

More catalogues and mag review's appearing in t'other forum as promised, I've got a few more things to go on when I get back tonight.

Hmm, where did it all go wrong... Well, finding the right elastomer was very tricky, Proflex were spot on there. The Proflex shock is under fairly large pre-load too, it was a weird material. We had problems with consistency of the shock material which made production difficult.

Production in this country is also very difficult if you want to sell through shops - which is why companies like Middleburn are OK as they are using spare CNC capacity that they already have to keep costs down. And also why USE, X-Lite etc. just have R+D here and produce in Far East (apologies if I've just offended anyone who does still make stuff in house).

It's always easy to say what we could have done better in hind sight - now I think it would turn out much like those German:A forks

http://www.endorfinbikes.co.uk/germana.htm

With small, sealed bearings and a lightweight air shock (that hadn't been invented back in the day). Linkage forks are at a slight disadvantage as it's more difficult to do a long travel one without the axle path going all over the place.

We did have grease nipples and a clamp on top mount (so you could run any stem) which, interestingly, appeared on the later Proflex (I think). I really liked the bling CNC milling of the first fork, although it would just need a nice top to bottom complete re-design and it would be fine!

 

[orange71]

I've always liked the Vectors by Girvin found on Proflexes and some Oranges in the day, (cycled to work with some today actually as it happens on my Proflex 855 http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9332 !). One issue we've found with the Vector elastomers is they either went rock solid (temperate climes - Europe, Northern USA etc), or dripped off the forks (hot climes, Southern USA etc) eventually.

How did the Quasar elastomer fare?

Vectors can be upgraded with coils easily enough which is how I run mine now, though obviously a weight penalty (unless you can afford titanium!).

 

[pushbikerider]

Ahh, yes some late model Girvin's; they look rather good. Removing the elastomer and having oil damping makes a big difference. They are also cleverly made to keep the manufacturing cost down - one big disadvantage of linkage forks the all the fiddly bits instead of a few pipes and such that you need for a tele fork! I think Girvin extruded aluminium for the links to keep maching to a minimum.

I'm sure the normal Quasar elastomers had similar temperature problems (the red, blue or clear jelly looking ones, I can't remember what they were made from).

We briefly used an elastomer called Autothane which is still made (have a google), it's used in car bump stops and similar. If you see a fork with a white or grey elastomer that's Autothane, the problem was with getting the spring rate the same across a batch of shocks. Because of the way the material worked and because we only had a fairly small shock the injection process wasn't consistent.

Some shocks were really good, it had the best rebound damping of anything else we'd tried, other shocks were rock solid and wouldn't move at all!

I wonder if you could adapt a modern air shock to fit the Girvin's - although that's not perhaps in the spirit of Retrobike?

 

[pushbikerider]

I've popped the last of my current set of scans over in the, err, scans forum - Coleman cow from MBUK magazine's Mint Sauce rode a pair of Quasar's from 1995-1996...

Deb Murrell and Coleman cow, our two 'sponsored' riders! I hope Deb's doing OK now, after leaving Quasar she managed to only pick teams that went bust!

 

[orange71]

I wonder if you could adapt a modern air shock to fit the Girvin's - although that's not perhaps in the spirit of Retrobike?

you mean like this?

Risseracing: http://www.risseracing.com

 

[pushbikerider]

Ahh, yes just like that! You've not been tempted to try one out on your forks?