Cannondale Lefty Fork Technology and History - Sea Otter 2010

 lol riding a lefty is like getting head from a dude, its all good until you look down. I rode a lefty max for quite some time on my prophet, I beat the hell out of it, and eventually the fork lost, but it took a lot, I was really surprised. I wouldnt mind having another one. I wonder if anyone is running leftys on anything other than a cannondale now...

 I gotta say, Cannondale has done a great job of pulling the wool over the market's eyes. These forks were an absolute nightmare for the shop that I worked at which had customers riding them in demanding conditions. A torn boot means an hour rebuild to get all the dirt and water out. The damper units feature unreliable sealing and frequently came out of the box from Cannondale leaking. The Lefty hub disc side bearing has poor sealing and needs to be replaced more often than on any other front hub I have experience with. To top it all off the bearings need to be reset on a regular basis and depending on the specific tolerances it could be once a week. It is tough to convince a customer that a little bit better steering performance is worth the headache of constant maintenance.
I know that there are people out there who have won the Lefty sweepstakes, I also know that there are people out there riding on five year old Marzocchis with the original oil, that doesn't mean that every person who buys one will get that performace. My experience has been that the 'reliability' of a Lefty is that it will need more service than any other fork I could sell (except for those pesky two step Totems . . )

 lefty's were designed on a stick!

 It can't be rubbish, coz seems like they have put a lot of effort and money designing these creatures. Is SIMON the first fork on the market, which has brain????? Seems like the future forks (Like 2015-2020) will defnly all get Electrical brains, THIS IS NUTS!!!!!

 They obviously work, and pretty damned well considering the lack of actual reports of any suckiness. But I still keep wondering - if they can make a one-sided fork that does the job despite having to overcome colossal engineering disadvantages, how awesome could they make a fork with the proper number of legs? It would be the best fork ever.

 using inspiration from a piece of wood to build a fork is dumb. someone was smokin drugs when they thought, lets build a fork that looks like this piece of wood I found in whistler

 I have two and have had others in the past. I worked in two shops that carried Cannondale and I have NEVER heard an owner or customer testing a LEFTY complain. I love my LEFTYs and do so little to maintain them. Rock solid perfo rmance and technology!

 I rode the 2003 Lefty and it handled 4 foot drops to flat landings with no problem and it loved riding up stairs. The problem was that being proprietary, if I decided to swap to a traditional fork, I had to buy a new wheel and brakes too. I sold the bike instead.

 Let's face it, 2 legs are better than one. Give it up already, Cannondale. The amount of money they must have wasted over the years trying to make this fork design work could probably feed the world for a year. A classic example of blind overengineering. Now it seems they're just doing it to prove they can do it, but just because these forks work in certain circumstances doesn't make them a good idea. They break. I watched an XC guy break his arm when his Lefty failed on an easy downhill grade. I was on the chairlift so I was able to see the front end break off for no reason. The guy was riding super slow and cautious, he wasn't pushing that fork in any way. I had talked to him earlier in the lift lineup and he swore up and down that the fork was strong, amazing, this, that, etc etc. Well, he got one run out of it and we had to truck him down the hill and send him off in an ambulance.

 i have used a lefty and loved it, now i am left wondering why they havent explored making it a bit more stout and addapting it over to motorcycles? just think there are a bunch of people that live on 2 wheels that would go nuts for something like this. i know i would love a set of matching bikes.

well got to go, still looking at the drafting table trying to figure out a single side springer.

 I want a DJ lefty.

 Any one know the retail cost on the Simon is?

 I have used the entry level Lefty MAX 2005 for 12000 k and had one rebuild and will get another. Other guys may have had their problems but I've only had a boot replacement and regular maintenance. I wish they made it in 160mm and forever USA.

 no righty?

 I want a 160mm Lefty at 1600g

 I don't think it can be called a fork. Maybe a knife?

 sweet, love to try 1 of these out

 you cant figth the laws of the mechanics, and nature wasnt inspired by buisness profit

 I started my mtb "career" on a lefty. loved it. Also, Doug Dalton got me a free frame on crash replacement when I definitely didn't deserve it, love that guy!

 my mate's bike used to have a lefty, always thought it looked a bit strange, he bought a pike 454 in the end for it though

 I trust cannondale and all, but that shit is sketchy ahahha i would be to scared to ride one ahaha

 Does somebody know when the 1 1/8 Lefty versions come out?

 i just cant trust them, they scare me when i take a hard turn or drop......

 it would be great if they made suitable 50mm stem ♥♥♥

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Summer_Olympics

 i reckon a rigid lefty is the way forward

 look prety cool but you wouldnt realy want one

 80 more moving parts to break. Pass

 Does anyone know the MCU in it?

 Sydney Olympics (Australia) was in 2000 not 2002 !!!!!!!!

 if its so stiff try to make a downhill fork