I had done some research regarding the Prophet's Lefty fork, and I discovered that the TPC Max fork that came equipped with my 2005 Prophet could be upgraded to "PBR" (Progressive Bend Radius...whatever that means?!?). What a PBR upgrade equated to me was upgrading the fork's spring from an actual "spring" to an air spring, which is more fine-tunable. Also, most importantly, the PBR upgrade would provide me with a lockout feature on the front fork. This is a feature I had on my previous mountain bike, a 2001 Jekyll, and it was a feature I rather enjoyed. It was nice to lock out the fork on climbs or on pavement. It was surprisingly useful, so it was a feature I was looking forward to getting on my "new" fork.
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| Top of the new/improved Lefty Fork, showing off the PBR controls. The blue "Poptop" activates the lockout and also exposes more of the red Rebound Adjustment knob that surrounds the "poptop". Pushing the red Rebound knob down reactivates the fork. Easy! |
As it turned out, much of the maintenance on Cannondale's Headshok forks is now accomplished at the Cannondale factory. However, my research on the potential for fixing and upgrading my fork also uncovered a small New York based bike shop that specializes in fixing and upgrading Cannondale Headshok suspension systems. Mendon Cyclesmith is the shop,and Craig is owner, operator, and Headshok expert. So, I just removed the Headshok Lefty from my Prophet, stuffed it one of the many post-move-from-Italy boxes I had lying around, and shipped it off to NY. To my pleasant surprise, Craig had it back to me in about a week! Very fast service. And the fork feels like new. It's like butter! And the added lockout feature is great. There's a small "pop-top" button to hit, and that's it. The fork is locked out. The "pop-top" button releases the compression dampening adjustment knob that is beneath it. To reactivate the fork, I simply pushing the larger compression dampening knob back down. Piece of cake! Actually easier to use than the previous Jekyll's method, which was a dial or switch on the top that had to be turned about a quarter turn to activate/deactivate the fork. So, this option is battery free and easier than the old switch. And it looks great, too.
Craig also re-greased everything, and got all the fairly complicated details of the Headshok in perfect working order. As I said earlier, the fork feels like new, and considering how inexpensive it was for him to service it and upgrade it, I will be getting it service regularly by him, which he and Cannondale recommends to be once a year.
The second upgrade was new wheels! Well, sort of... Like the fork, I actually saved most of the wheels, or the most important part, the hubs, and had my local bike shop lace up a new set of rims. I had been considering a whole new set of wheels, in fact I had started to settle on a sweet set of Mavic wheels. But rather than go all out and get a new set of Mavics, I figured I spend half as much and get a great set of custom built wheels. I brought the old wheels, which had slightly bent rims and spokes (did I mention they were well worn?!) and asked to get some Mavic XM819s laced onto the existing hubs. The next day I received a call from the shop, and was told the XM819s would not be compatible, so they gave me a couple other options to consider. I took those options to the "internets", and decided upon the "Stan's No Tubes ZTR Arch EX". Wow. That's a mouthful! My local bike shop, Big Shark, built them up, and I have to say, they look great! I have not had the opportunity to give them a proper ride yet, but the test flights in the neighborhood were all successful.
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| Beautiful new wheels. |
So, the Prophet is all set for a new set of adventures in Missouri and where ever else I may find myself! Happy Trails!
...and a video demonstrating the Cannondale Lefty with PBR upgrade:
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