Watson Bikes

Sam Hill's Bike in 09?

I don't normally post *ahem* interesting design ideas when the fall into my inbox, but this particular incarnation of the mountain bicycle just had to be shared. What follows is a press release from Watson Bikes and is not meant to be construed as editorial.

Enjoy,
Cam McRae

To date, many designs of linkage front suspension have been tried and tested, in particular, on motorcycles, but none have been deemed successful enough to replace telescopic forks. The main disadvantage of such designs being a lack of feel from the front tyre. Whereas with the design shown the handlebars are allowed to marginally move by around one degree with suspension movement, thus allowing feel from the front tyre where such feel is enhanced, also, with the considerable distance out to the pivot point any flex in the system will have less of a bearing on steering action thereby retaining all available feel. The second main disadvantage with other linkage front suspension systems is complication, but this new design has only three moving parts where only six bearings are required, two of which being ball joints. Full downhill mountain bike suspension travel is permitted with this design – i.e. eight inches.


"Full downhill mountain bike suspension travel is permitted with this design – i.e. eight inches."

The advantages over telescopic forks include : -
1. Strength and stiffness - in comparison to a conventional steering head, the massive distance between the two ball joints, with the lower one situated in the centre of the front wheel, gives immense strength. Only the small bottom triangle of crank, front swinging arm pivot, and, rear swing arm pivot requires stiffness and strength.
2. Lightness - the frame construction can be made lighter than conventional telescopic fork designed bikes with the weight lower thereby lowering the centre of gravity. (Consider the small ‘U’ member in comparison to the large inverted ‘U’ of the load path of a telescopic forked frame.)
Frame weight to date on this downhill racer, as demonstrated, is 2.3 kilos, where this frame is over engineered and further weight saving are available. 2 kilo frames will be possible for downhill, whereas all mountain, cross country, etc frames will weigh under 2 kilo. As another example the complete front steering member weighs only 900 grams.
N.B. the heavy looking front hub only weighs 900grams with bearings and spacers but can be reduced to around 750grams.
3. Lack of complication - with only 12 bearing surfaces whereas the average mountain bike has 14 bearing surfaces (2 telescopic sliders, 2 steering head bearings, 2 swinging arm bearings, 6 suspension linkage bearings, and, 2 bearings on either end of the shock absorber) there is a reduction of 2 bearing surfaces.


"Lightness - the frame construction can be made lighter than conventional telescopic fork designed bikes with the weight lower thereby lowering the centre of gravity."

4. Reduced maintenance - fewer bearings, fewer moving parts, and no longer having telescopic forks with potentially vulnerable surfaces to damage/protect from damage.
5. Reduced frame pitch - as tested on a motocrosser there is a reduction in frame pitch of 80% to 90% with a fully connected suspension arrangement. Stability is superior in all dynamic conditions.
6. Superior front suspension - linkage front suspension systems have been found to give superior suspension action compared to telescopic forks where the rider is now further greatly isolated from the jolts with these designs.
7. Superior rear suspension - without the use of a linkage on the shock absorber, the rear suspension action is greatly improved with the impact from the bumps no longer registering directly with the frame/rider. Connected suspension reacts to place greater emphasis on either shock absorber, front and rear, which gives more efficient performance, again improving suspension action.
8. Superior braking - linkage front suspension has been found to give superior braking on motorcycle application.
9. Increased braking feedback - with the brake caliper mounted onto the member of the suspension that rotates in an arc with the front wheel spindle this increases feedback to the brake lever.
10. Increased feel through the handlebars - it is now possible to design in the amount of feel required plus retain superior front suspension action.
11. Lighter steering - there is the possibility of steeper steering head angles which will offset the effects of greater polar moments of inertia with the forward front pivot being so far from the line of steering axis. Very little structural strength is required with these members where this pivot can be made of very light construction.
12. Reduced diving during braking - the suspension can now fully function with only a minimum of dive during braking of the front wheel; enough to ensure increased front tyre grip but not an excessive reduction of suspension travel.


"Plus many other unspecified minor advantages and novelty value."

13. Shorter wheelbase - with the stabilising effect from fully connected suspension it is now possible to have a shorter wheelbase to benefit overall handling, weight saving, stiffness and strength.
14. Handlebars that move very slightly downwards at full suspension travel (after marginal upwards movement in the first part of suspension travel to help detect the surface below the front wheel) - increasing suspension action plus again reducing the impact on the rider from heavy landings.
15. An automatic altering of the suspension ratios for cornering and straight-line traveling - when cornering forces act to compress the suspension, with the outward end of both shock absorbers allowed to move by means of the respective opposite arms this alters the suspension geometry where it is now possible to get more ideal settings for different dynamic conditions. This principle can also be applied under braking.


"This final prototype will be available shortly for testing (possibly as soon as you receive this) and interested parties, potential business partners and potential sponsors..."

16. Superior suspension action on square-edged bumps – the system was designed specifically to combat this menace, in particular the dynamic conditions leading to the rider being thrown over the handlebars, where this could be considered the design's forte.
17. Reduced impact from heavy landings – with both ends of both shocks being compressed together on two-wheeled landings this gives a higher rate of compression on the shock absorbers, i.e. stiffening up automatically on landing.

Plus many other unspecified minor advantages and novelty value.
To date, the principle of connected suspension has been tried and tested on a motocrosser whereas the linkage front suspension concept has been tried and tested on a mountain bike with only partially connected suspension. With both designs successfully tested this is the final prototype which is being constructed from aircraft materials (7075 T6 etc) with the intention of being a working prototype available for testing.

All the designs demonstrated here are patent pending, plus other designs where the ball joint is positioned above the front wheel have copyright applied for, and a former national downhill mountain bike champion has already tested one of the prototypes, all is extremely positive where mountain biking has never had such a massive development step since the first ‘Y’ shaped framed bikes appeared. This final prototype will be available shortly for testing (possibly as soon as you receive this) and interested parties, potential business partners and potential sponsors can contact by E-mail,
watsonbikes@gmail.com
P.S. Updated photographs will be available very soon plus possible test reports which will be forwarded to you.

Dying to get your greasy mitts on one of these? Is this the design of the future? Are Specialized and Trek in trouble? Share your design wisdom here...