Trakhak

Great find! That stem looks beautifully engineered. The only downside is that if you want more travel, the only way to get it is with a longer stem.

Not everyone knows that there was a similar parallelogram-based suspension stem made in the U.S.A. by Softride and sold in bike shops in the late '80's through the late '90's. Their slogan: "Suspend the Rider, Not the Bike!" (The picture below is from an eBay listing.)

I used one for trail riding with a cobbled-together hybrid starting in 1990 or so. Worked great.

Guys who rode mountain bikes back then loved their motorcycle-looking fork suspensions ("Just Like Dad's!") and sneered at my Softride stem. Once or twice, I had what, in retrospect, was a classic Bike Forums-like back-and-forth with one of them:

Them: What is that thing? A joke?
Me: Works for me.
Them: You don'r ride off-road with it, though, do you?
Me: I've been using it off-road for a year or so.
Them: But no one would use it for off-road racing. It wouldn't hold up under a racer for five minutes.
Me: Softride sponsors a pro team. They've been using the stem for several seasons now.
Them: There's no way anyone on a bike with one of those stems could keep up with a bike with a suspension fork.
Me: One of the team members won the Mountain Bike World Championships using the stem last year. Another team member won the World Cup.
Them: But suspension forks rule! No way that stem is as good as a suspension fork.
Me: [Sigh.]

biosync

Just wanted to share my Change 700c dropbar conversion. Everything is stock, folding with the stock wheels you just need to go slow and align the shifter in between the spokes.

pinholecam

Sometimes its down to marketing and hype that elevates items into the mainstream.
Often enough nowadays, there is a lot of mainstream marketing that gets passed on into an echo chamber and people think those are the only products that work.

pinholecam

The 700c road bike version of the bike is a nice looking bike.
Cool 'slot in' of the road bar when folded.
My many spoked MTB wheels don't allow it unfortunately.

pinholecam

ZV101296 by pinholecam02, on Flickr

Another photo of the bike for the day.

pinholecam

Another trip with the Change Bike 650B.

'Gravel' ride that turned out to be more of a trail ride.

I was happy that the bike and setup worked fine.
The suspension stem and seatpost added confidence on the descents with no worry that I'd hit a depression, bump and it affects steering or jar my control of the bike too much.

The tire choice could be better when the surface turned to loose pebbles, but then, even those with studded tires struggled.

gpp

It really seems like a great bike. I would love a distributer here in Europe. The closest we have is UK but appart from paying import fees/ customs taxes they do not reply to my emails.
When I contacted Change bike Taiwan through ebay they said it would be too expensive to ship to Portugal. So I guess I am out of optioins.

The good news is that they told me that in a few months they will release a new type of bike!

biosync

If that is true, I can't wait for their announcement. Their pages / profile have been quiet for years

pinholecam

Sorry to hear about your situation in Europe. (and the UK for that matter)


Keen to see what they will come up with as a new bike offering.

questionesse

Did they elaborate on the direction/type gpp ? Might also be some completely uninteresting type - and who knows what 'a few' months mean...

Winfried

+1. It'd be nice to have retailers within the EU.

https://newatlas.com/bicycles/flatbi...dventure-bike/

questionesse

You think that's it? Hmm, pretty lame, same frame, just some other components thrown at it. Sounded like something completely different coming through :/

Winfried

Guess not since it's already here, not "in a few months".

tds101 

I quite like it. I have a 27.5 bike and it's good, but I prefer standard 700c tires. And the 1X or 2X11 drivetrain is a nice update as well. The extended gear range is a nice addition...

questionesse

Speaking of gears - just to confirm if what I took from here was correct (for the MTB style frame):
- the max (without changing the chain line) is a 42T chainring?
How about a 2x double chainring - anyone has experience with that? Any limitations with that?

Thanks!

questionesse

I had to query them more on this to avoid buyers remorse when ordering now - and it is indeed intended to be a gravel bike!

I now asked if that'd mean it's the same frame as the road bike, which would make possible tire clearance an issue and frankly rule it out as a true gravel bike, but we'll see.

Anyone going to Eurobike beginning of June in Frankfurt, Germany? Still way to go, let's see if they themselves publish and sell it before...

questionesse

And here we go:



For comparison:
DF-733 road frame, 28C
DF-833 MTB frame, 27.5*2.1

So there is more tire clearance compared to the road bike, though 35mm is still not tooo generous.

Would be interesting to compare geometries if there's anything else different compared to the two previous frames.

biosync

The frame looks different from the current MTB. I kinda want one along with my 702

questionesse

The tire width limitation is also with the rear triangle I was hoping it was more an issue if the front fork that could be fixed by swapping it.
That's a bummer, at least for me. A dedicated gravel frame that maxes out at 35mm is not exactly what at least I have been waiting for.
Looks like I have to tamper with the MTB frame after a short moment of hope and excitement.

pinholecam

E-version of the bike makes sense and probably will sell well for them.

Not that special to the current non-e version and just add a bafang motor (or similar) to it though.

tds101 

Considering I'd have personally gone with 2.3" width tires I'm a bit disappointed in this new bike. Dang...

questionesse

Got the bike geometry for the 19" DF-833 frame.
Hoping to receive the data for the other sizes as well.

gpp

Regarding the bike and europe. I went to change bike UK page in facebook, got the number and called it. I spoke with the owner, Simon, who was very helpful and answered all my questions and now I can say I am also a proud owner of a change bike! I will start a new post with all the info regarding importing the bike to europe.

questionesse

Curious to hear! I was checking them out as well. Though given the higher prices and equally import fees when ordering from the UK, one can simply just order from Taiwan as well from within the EU I reckon...

questionesse

The other geometries for reference:

17"




21"