Silvio front triangle on softrider or conversion why not?

[Xtremedepot]

Why is the softrider and conversion kit boom fork connection different than the Silvio and the vendetta. For continuity sake and familiarity of the design they should be relatively the same meaning from the crank to the handle bars should be a straight line. Then the look and feel would be the same, performance would be better do to stiffer design, economies of scale (cheaper production cost) would work out due to the parts being used on more bikes and I just like the look better its cleaner. Just my thoughts. What does the rest of the group think. After looking at the pictures of the silvio the parts are similar at the fork attachment. I can seem to see why it would not work.

 

[Jerrye]

Recent upgrades

The bend at the BB of the Silvio and V booms are a recent modification. IIRC they were done to lower the BB position which is supposed to improve aero and pedal positioning.

Or I could be completely wrong. It has happened before. Once.

 

[Doug Burton]

It'll work fine...

... but it'll cost more.

The kit components are based on Sofrider parts. The Sofrider is our "most amortized" tooling set and our simplest design. To keep the conversion kit affordable, we simply over-run production of those components for Sofriders and package them as conversion kits. It is of prime importance to us that the conversion remain as affordable as we can make it, while still having it "pull its own weight" in supporting the overall business.

John's philosophy has been to develop major advancements on the more sophisticated (and expensive) bikes, and then port that technology from the top down on the product line. You can see this in the evolution of the SIlvio that occurred as the Vendetta's subsystems were optimized, first with the re-designed front triangle on the Silvio 1.5, and now the significantly redesigned Silvio 2.0.

When these advancements transfer to the Sofrider, you can also expect, I imagine, that the technology will be inherited by the conversion kit, since the tooling and methods will have been similarly amortized.

There is method in the madness around here, aimed at benefitting as many customers as we can.