Benji dons possibly rose-tinted spectacles and brings us the technology that he thinks has fallen undeservedly out of fashion.

WORDS BENJI

PHOTOGRAPHY SINGLETRACK

INVERTED FORKS

Kicking things off with a real doozy. What are upsidedown forks? Basically, the stanchion is at the bottom and the sliders are at the top. Inverted forks like these simply work better at doing the jobs that are important. Hugely more supple, because all the lube oil stays in the area where it’s needed, i.e. the seals. Massively stiffer fore-aft than a single-crown normal fork and thus no oddball jittering or binding under heavy braking. Much better sprung-to-unsprung mass ratio, which means the wheel goes up and down nicerer. And they look super rad. Why don’t we have inverted forks? Because folk can’t get over them being less rotationally stiff than a regular fork. As if a) it matters, and b) it may actually be a good thing. I’d kill for a triple-clamp Lefty with 150mm travel. Or at least inflict a wound.

FLEXSTEMS

I appreciate that the suspension stem still exists – Redshift does the ShockStop. And I suspect we’ll start to see a lot more brands coming out with them for the gravel market over the forthcoming months. I am also aware that Fasst produces what amounts to a Flex handlebar (which I do concede to be a very good product albeit one with a shape/sweep that I don’t get along with). But I don’t want to go down either of these avenues. I want a 35mm long Flexstem with a very firm elastomer in its ‘mouth’. Something that can take the edge off that doesn’t have the ker-twannng surprise of a flexy alloy handlebar.

SINGLE PIVOTS

This is another item that technically still exists. Sorry. You can still get single pivots – flipping amazing ones at that – from companies such as Starling and Orange Bikes. I just wish there were more out there to choose from. I’m not talking about theoretical single pivots either where the chainstay is one uninterrupted beam from main pivot to rear axle. There are plenty of those around. And they all have some sort of rocker linkage thing interfering with… stuff. We got rid of front mechs about a decade ago. Why can’t we have our single pivots back now? Nothing rides as sweetly as a well-executed single pivot.