Giant Mountain Bike with Handlebar and Seat that have Built-in Absorbers
Last Saturday, I was sitting in a coffee shop in Sri Petaling together with my daughter sheltering from the rain (while waiting for my sons to finish their mental Arimetic classes for the day). I was going to twitter about being caught in the rain when I noticed a Giant mountain bike parked outside the coffee shop as I took a photo of my daughter.
The geometry of the bike was interesting to me as I was considering getting a cross-country mountain bike, which I hoped to be able to configure as an urban trial bike.
The Giant mountain bike in the photo behind by daughter.
When I checked out the bike, I noticed the strange looking handlebar stem and seat post. The first thing that came to mind was that, "Hey, cool!. The handlebar stem and seat post were quickly adjustable by the rider to suit riding uphill or downhill (e.g. stem higher and lower seat for downhill and vice versa)."
Later that night while on the drive down to Singapore together with Syarul to watch the BikeTrial competition, I showed the photos I took of the Giant bike. He told me that those modifications were not meant to adjust the stem nor the seat, but were the actual suspension system of the whole bike... and that this was old technology... LOL.
When I got over laughing at myself, I was actually quite impressed with this new found discovery... LOL. It never crossed my mind that the handlebar and seat post could play a big part in a bike's suspension system design. Now that I have this "revealed" to me, I must say that it made perfect sense... doesn't it? LOL... It is not even thinking ouside-the-box... Hahaha...
The Giant mountain bike without any front or rear suspension, or so I thought.
The handlebar stem with a built-in suspension.
The seat post with a built-in suspension.
After getting back from Singapore, I went and did some research on the net. I found out that there were many patents related to this kind of suspension system for bicycles... :-)
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