Fork Brace - holy cow!

[Dave Spaulding]

I'm happy to hear my old fork brace is out tearing up the roads of New
England!

Dave in Des Moines


-----Original Message-----
From: gpzlist-bounces at micapeak.com [mailto:gpzlist-bounces at micapeak.com] On
Behalf Of Drew Blanchard
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 8:25 AM
To: Dave (in Des Moines) Spaulding
Subject: Fork Brace - holy cow!

Last weekend, I finally got around to installing the fork brace I got from
Dave (admittedly, many weeks ago).  Job would have taken 30 minutes or less
if I hadn't been an idiot and misinterpreted a key piece of Murph's
instructions (which was embarrassing when I figured it out).  Took some
trial and error with shim fitment (no feeler gauges) and I was done.

It's hard to express how differently (and better) the bike handles now.  I
was truly shocked by the immediate,  night-and-day difference.  My wife and
I live in the woods in Vermont, with a dirt driveway leading to .5 miles of
dirt road before we reach civilization.  The GPZ has always been really
nervous when negotiating this (really, really rough) road, but I attributed
it to the general unsuitability of sporty bikes on this terrain (my old
Super III was a bit better, but also 100+ pounds lighter).  As soon as the
front tire left our smoother driveway, I experienced something new: rock
solid stability.  The big GPZ made it to the main road with complete
composure and stability.  All the rough pavement common on our back roads
was no longer a problem; no more trammeling, no more head shake, just smooth
riding.  For the first time ever, I could actually *feel the front
suspension doing it's job.  *

**I'd been debating reworking the front forks (my last '95 had a Race Tech
cartridge emulator kit and I loved it - and, sadly, it's no longer
available) to sort out the GPZ's one real fault (in my opinion), but this
fork brace has done everything I wanted and more.  I can't recommend this
enough.  I was completely unaware of how much wiggle was happening in the
front end over our rough roads.  With that eliminated, I'm falling back in
love with ol' blue (named Barry - but that's another story).  That weekend,
Jan and I took part in the Ruff Ride (we raised almost $600 for the local
Humane Society) and I got to experience 120+ miles of pure stability and
comfort.

If you don't have one yet, get a fork brace!  There must be more floating
around out there...

Drew in VT

-- 
Drew Blanchard
Technology Teacher
Winooski City Schools
Normand St.
Winooski, VT 05404
(802) 655 - 3530 x6073
______________________________________________________________________
GENERAL GPZList MAILING LIST INFORMATION:
This is from the GPZList mailing list. GPZList at micapeak.com
http://micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/gpzlist
You subscribed to this mailing list. Therefore, you solicited all
mail that you receive from this list. Therefore, ANY mail that you
receive from this list is, by definition, NOT Spam, and if you report
it as such, you are violating the micapeak.com terms of service. 

To unsubscribe, you may send email to gpzlist-unsubscribe at micapeak.com
______________________________________________________________________
YOUR PERSONAL SUBSCRIBER OPTIONS:
Unsubscribe or choose new options at
http://micapeak.com/mailman/options/gpzlist/spauldingd%40hotmail.com
You are subscribed at the email address SPAULDINGD at hotmail.com
______________________________________________________________________