Video: Forking Rear-Suspension, Value Performance, & A Bike From 2023 - Crankworx Whistler 2022

Aug 12, 2022
by Mike Levy  


The year is 2069. A massive solar flare knocked the power grid out decades ago, only to be followed by natural disasters that have ravaged the planet and decimated the population. You survive by constantly staying on the move while looking for anything edible, anything useful, and anywhere safe. It's a tough existence, but you still like to lay down a fat skid when you get the chance.

You stumble onto four bikes while searching for shelter from an acid rain storm: an antiquated Marin with a fork for a shock, one named PROTOTYPE, one that's way too green, and another that's way too heavy.

You can only take one. Choose wisely.


Pick your post-apocalyptic ride



Author Info:
mikelevy avatar

Member since Oct 18, 2005
2,032 articles

84 Comments
  • 94 0
 In the post apocalyptic world, I'll be dusting off my full rigid single speed. The rest of the world will be in tremendous pain, so why shouldn't I?
  • 6 0
 Sooner or later you will run out of tubeless milk.
  • 14 0
 @cxfahrer: I can think of a substitute I will have to hand
  • 5 0
 The zombies would get me on the climbs if I rocked the single speed.
  • 18 0
 @tacklingdummy: That's ok, when the zombies attack we all need to have that one slower friend.
  • 30 0
 I think a single-speed fat bike with a silent hub and cable brakes would be the ticket. Bunch of racks, paint it all black, and stick your bags and shit on it. Sounds like I should write a useless op-ed about the best bike for the apocalypse.
  • 11 0
 Even in a post-apocalyptic world single speeders will casually dropping the fact they did all the same trails and distance you did, but always in the wrong gear.
  • 4 0
 Ditch the baggy mtb clothes and start rockin a lycra. Zombies cant grab you with all the smoothness thats goin on
  • 7 0
 @Bdayhunter: You need the leather full-body suit so they can't bite you.
  • 2 0
 @mikelevy: can you please do this - if not I’d be happy to
  • 2 0
 @mikelevy: please do. I enjoyed all of those thought experiments and i think that would be a fun article.
  • 2 0
 @mikelevy: Go for it, Levy!
  • 3 0
 Fully rigid belt drive Rohloff.
  • 2 0
 @mikelevy: Please write that!
  • 1 0
 Put some drop bars on the Marin and call it the next best thing in gravel
  • 24 1
 That new Knolly is FIRE. I hope the sizing is a bit more realistic this go round for us 5'10 folks who are stuck between a medium being a little to small and large feeling like land barge.
  • 5 0
 It looks really so good!
  • 7 0
 5'11 with a short torso and T-rex arms...also always dancing this line. But now that things have gotten so long/slack, I've settled into a medium more comfortably now.

So thanks stupid long geometry! I know what size frame to buy now!
  • 5 5
 @y0bailey: Did you learn nothing from our drunk argument last week? Stupid long geo is DUMB!
  • 3 4
 Agreed, however I wish they would've updated their cable port-covers on the headtube. I've owned 4 Knollys with those covers, and they just don't last long. They get brittle and crack, and protrude quite a bit from the frame.
  • 2 0
 @ZSchnei: Can't learn anything if you can't remember anything! Bourbon -1, me-0
  • 2 1
 @y0bailey: I'm totally the opposite...ish. 5'9 with a long torso and 6'3 wingspan. Bike fit is a bitch.
  • 1 0
 @y0bailey: this. I found that a few years ago I was between sizes at 5'10". Now I'm definitely a medium
  • 2 0
 It looks SO good in person. That lower toptube really helps to make the bike look more aggressive.
  • 2 0
 @steezysam: to be fair 5'10 is also bang on medium for an American adult male, so sounds like they are finally getting it right.
  • 1 0
 @L0rdTom: took em long enough!
  • 1 0
 And then there's 6'2" me, who wishes they made a Chilcotin with 530mm reach.
  • 21 0
 The beginning of this video is like a glimpse into Levy’s future; just a crazy old dude in sandals standing on his front lawn, shouting and waving his arms around.
  • 11 0
 That's not the future, that's today tbh
  • 19 0
 Heads up, the Endorphin that @mikelevy featured is setup as a mullet (29er up front and 27.5 in the rear).
We will also be releasing it as a DUAL 27.5 (not 29er - which is the Fugitive).
  • 11 0
 Went to a bike shop today looking for a tire. They had this f*cking huge wall of tires. Solid 24 feet of wall space lined floor to ceiling with rubber.
An employee notices me staring in despair at their magnificent selection.

“What kind of riding are you doing?”
Hell, uhh… Mountain biking? Enduro I guess? That’s not the problem though—
“Well, the Maxxis Assegai is very popular. Pair that with a—“
No, I need 27.5.
“Oh, they’re over there”

Off in the corner are some more tires. Hidden away. Boxes of Specialized tires haphazardly stacked on the floor. One row of Maxxis hanging above them. All suspiciously rear tire friendly treads. The salesman ghosts off.
“Grubby 27.5er. No dispensable income.” He probably thought. Which hurts, but is also entirely true.

Flashbacks of trying to find 26” tires what feels like only 4-5 years ago floods my vision. No no no no! It’s happening again! Rest of the day goes by in a fog. Wheel size stress haunting my every motion. Put a fresh Eliminator on the back of my bike. You see, honey. The tears are to help the tubeless sealant last longer. No, I am not weeping over the future of biking again.

Go on Pinkbike to wallow in my despair. See Knolly proclaim a new 27.5 bike in the future. The foreboding dread eases a little. Maybe it will be okay.
  • 2 0
 F ya knolly. 27.5 is the shit. 29 front wheel is good but not everyone's preference
  • 1 0
 @KNOLLYBIKES is this something that will be able to be swappable or will the frame be designed around one or the other?
  • 1 2
 @Lylat: you should blog your obsolete bike woes, very entertaining. peasantbike.com is available….
  • 1 1
 @stainerdome: not everyone likes boring autopilot wheels. Jumps are nice
  • 1 0
 Can't waitSmile
  • 16 2
 Bike manufacturers: please don’t make beefy derailleur hangers. Make them break like they’re supposed to! Warped a derailleur this year that could have been saved if my hanger wasn’t so overbuilt.
  • 12 0
 What if you cut a pre break line in the hanger so it would snap for ya
  • 4 0
 ^ This.

Mashed a derailleur on a rock last week and the indestructible hanger took my frame out along with it. I was under the impression that's exactly what they're designed to prevent?
  • 8 0
 Yurgen Beneke rode a Manitou bike, not a Marin. It was the same suspension layout, and it was aluminum. fwiw.
  • 2 0
 And infinitely more desirable now.
  • 3 0
 Ah, damn my Google skills. Thanks for the correction!
  • 1 0
 Jurgen not Yurgen Smile ... yes he used to have a marin kit and a Manitou kit but we won the first dh world cup on a Manitou frameset, Marin website is not correct on that.
  • 7 0
 is Levy happy to see us in the first shot or is it me?
  • 2 0
 Poor Levy…he’s going to need to start wearing Jnco’s to get the manhood comments to stop.
  • 5 0
 I'm always happy to see everyone
  • 2 0
 Is that a multi tool in your pocket or are you……
  • 3 0
 That particular Maris F.R.S. got all of 2 1/2 inches in back and 1 1/2 inches in front. And yes its Front Rear Suspension... same as Specialized... but note the all important periods and quite a few companies had F R S named full suspension bikes at the time.... and FS bikes which were just Front Suspension. Manitou forks up until the EFC-DH relied strictly on polyurethane elastomer bumpers as springs and damping mechanism (the act of absorbing energy created some heat, which wasn't returned when they rebounded). As such the elastomers tended to degrade over time, either doing one of two things... turn solid or turn to a gooey liquid. Better they turn solid as you can generally get those out of the fork to replace them...when they turn to go you basically need a heat gun to liquify them and hopefully "pour" it all out. There's a company called Butter Suspension which collects a lot of vintage forks/shocks and puts up videos about them as well as more modern stuff on youtube and IG.
  • 2 0
 FSR--future shock rear
  • 2 0
 @ceecee: NOT Originally. That's what they had to change to after running afoul of Marin's trademarking efforts. Same as Rockshox had to change names for what became the Judy fork (Jamis held the trademark for the bike industry use of Diablo, the original name they called that fork). In Specialized case it just happened to coincide with the earlier decision to call their variant of the Mag 20 fork the Future Shock (although by the time they got to the Judy version they'd ceased calling it the Future Shock and instead it was the Judy FSX, with FSX being carried over from the previous Mag-21 SL variant called the Future Shock FSX). They also had other models of FS and FSR that didn't at all use Specialized branded forks or shocks.

Fast forward a couple decades and Specialized would get a bit overzealous on filing trademark infringement cases for names in common language that they'd happened to use for bicycle models (Cafe Roubaix being the most famous example).
  • 1 0
 @deeeight: That's some good info, thanks!
  • 1 0
 @deeeight The degradation of the elastomers is 99% caused by petrol based grease that melt or dry them. The other factor is compression forces that brake them apart. I rode a Manitou FS and that stands for Full Suspension not Front Suspension... and the Manitou EFC was a far more common fork than the DH version of that fork, and yes both have a cartridge for rebound control
  • 1 0
 @mikelevy: that Marin rear is stuck, it should move with some plushness compared with the stiction that RS mags 20s had back then... elastomers brought that and all the other less good things
  • 1 0
 @brajal: Yes...but that was also the reccommended grease to use on them at the time. They even came that way from the factory.
  • 1 0
 @deeeight: you're giving me an acronym headache
  • 1 0
 @ceecee: There are no acronyms like military acronyms...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSYgb0XQd_8
  • 2 0
 For all your elastomer suspension needs: www.suspensionforkparts.net/eshop
  • 1 0
 The Knolly, the Fox 38s alone may get me more value for trade and services in post apocalyptic times, sharpen the disc rotors up for defending against the opposing gangs with booby traps etc, the raw alloy may hold up better in acid rain than the dripping running paint on other bikes, Ebikes will be doddos in suchs times and carbon wont repurpose well
  • 5 1
 the transition from the Marin to the Scor was jarring
  • 2 1
 After seeing the damper rebuild rates on those X2 shocks due to them blowing out, seems like that Marin is the only reasonable choice up there for something to actually survive the apocalypse with.
  • 1 0
 Ooohh - that Marin! I still have a Trek from 1992 with those same XT cantilever brakes. Complete with servowave! They were 2-finger brakes back when braking was a full fist exercise!.
  • 3 0
 Already own a Norco that will likely survive an apocalypse so…
  • 3 0
 2069...fully Ridgid fat bikes rule the world!
  • 2 0
 I'll take the Knolly kids bike with the 26" wheels and with a 480mm reach, please.
  • 2 0
 Aksually... that's a 1993 Shimano Deore XT on that Marin. Yes I'm old and used to be a bike catalogue wanker.
  • 1 0
 Agreed, I have its baby brother 1993 Eldridge Grade (hard tail) sitting in the garage and the LX shifters and brake levers look exactly the same. Also still rocking the DX rear derailleur too. Unfortunately, the Manitou 3 fork I installed in early 1994 became quite solid and I swapped it out for a friend's surplus bomber in the early-mid 2000's, so now it's a short wheelbased slack ass hardtail that I never seem to have time to ride. Funny thing is I'm running v-brakes up front and cantilevers out back with those original brake levers. Everyone at the time figured that was a huge mistake as the leverage combination would be incredibly dangerous.
  • 1 0
 Thanks Mike, killer little article. Love the Knolly, I had a glow in the dark Endo, the thing ruled. That Norco is awesome , they are making great bikes these days.
  • 2 0
 I love the high-end aluminum approach they have. Just something different.
  • 2 0
 Nobody vote for the bottom one. It's at 69.
  • 3 1
 E bikes are not the future now, why would they be then?
  • 1 0
 norco...because mine survived the early northshore nuttiness already
  • 2 0
 I choose Banshee!
  • 2 0
 Morphine is and always will be indestructible.
  • 1 0
 Refer to the 2000 Schwinn Catalog.. it was out of this world
  • 1 0
 Levy would be so good on QVC when he is retired from pb
  • 1 0
 When the EMP hits all the battery cars die ... Bring It On !!
  • 2 4
 And all the sheeple with there worthless mopeds are screwed..no excuses now my Excuse finding friends
  • 5 7
 The day I can't charge the ebike is the day I find a new hobby.
  • 14 3
 You, and the rest of the pussies







Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv65 0.040179
Mobile Version of Website