We took a road trip down to the Forest of Dean to meet up with Allen Millyard and his sons Stephen and Sam and check out their latest creation, the Hyper Ride Suspension system.
It was a baking hot day in the midst of a heatwave when we rolled up to Pedalabikeaway in the Forest of Dean to meet up with the Millyards. Hot as hell, humid like a jungle, but dusty dry on the trails, it hardly seemed the ideal conditions for riding mountain bikes or motor bikes. A float down the river Wye seemed much more inviting. But since they’d made the hour and a half trip – Allen on a motorbike, his sons in their pickup truck – we were committed. Some obligatory mechanical faffing later, and we sweated our way up the fire road in the Forest of Dean for a quick descent down before catching up with Allen for a chat.
It was a hairy ride down for our US rider Fahzure as he borrowed Stephen’s bike – brakes still in UK orientation – and followed Sam blind down trails that might have been called Sheepskull and Ski Run, but on the tail of Sam went by in such a blur that it’s hard to be sure. Drops, ruts, turns and enough roots to make us glad of the dry conditions, we emerged at the bottom to find Allen and sit down for a chat in the shade before he headed home to cool off. As well as making things in his shed (oh how we wish we had arranged to see in there) he’s busy shooting a series of ‘Find It Fix It Flog It’ so this was his second day out in the heatwave in a row. Maybe he really was tired, or maybe he had a plan for whipping up some super efficient new cooling system and he was eager to get home to the lathe?
Quietly spoken, with his reading glasses on his head, he looks more like a sound engineer at a Stones gig than he does a mad inventor. And while he might not set much store by technical drawings, elaborate plans and mathematics, he’s no madman. He turns the idea that he has in his head into a finished creation using his hands rather than any computer model, but there’s plenty of thought going on in that head. With his sons riding the suspension systems he’s created, he’s safety conscious and has built them to withstand all the pressure that their construction – and the riding they’re out through – can throw at them. Watch the video to learn all about how Allen made the system and what he’s planning to do next.
As Allen donned his leather jacket and headed home aboard a large green Honda ST1100, Stephen and Sam joined us for another lap of the woods. In his slip on Vans and shorts, Sam looked more like he was heading to the beach than the woods, while Stephen had the all black steezey style that is usually accompanied by a sleeve of tattoos – but in this case isn’t. While the Hyper Ride Suspension is a family project, both have other ‘proper’ jobs. Sam does some kind of Really Quite Serious project management, while Stephen seems to have an entrepreneurial streak that ranges from air conditioning to burritos. Today though, they’re both out to play, and after some photo shooting in the dust we leave them to play some more before a planned evening meet up at Redhill Extreme Mountain Bike, a dirt jump park just along the road from Forest of Dean.
At the Forest of Dean we got a taste of the speed the Millyards like to play at. Here we get to see the style. With wood chip lander to play on, it’s trick time, and Fahzure and the Millyard brothers are soon grabbing tyres, saddles and throwing shapes. Eventually wind stops play as a thunderstorm skirts the area, and with layers of dust stuck to sweat from the day’s riding, it’s time to say goodbye and finally head to the river for cooling swim.
Allen tells us he likes to prove people wrong, by making things they think can’t be done. On a day out to play, it doesn’t seem like Sam and Stephen have much to prove – they’re too busy having fun – but perhaps if Stephen gets back between the race tape the red mist will descend.
Thank you that was quite interesting.
I’m still puzzled as to why no performance vehicles use oleo dampers if they’re this good.
Good point.
Aircraft use oleo dampers because they’re lighter than coil springs – no point in carrying potentially tens or perhaps hundreds of kilos of springs for just taking off and landing. Mountain bikes use oleo shocks because they can be tuned to a variety of rider weights easily – hence reducing spring stock required by manufacturers or shops and the complexity in fitting them etc.
Springs (wound or leaf etc) are used everywhere else they are cheap, reliable and consistent and as a proportion of a vehicle weight that is the driver etc is much lower
“ Mountain bikes use oleo shocks because they can be tuned to a variety of rider weights easily – hence reducing spring stock required by manufacturers or shops and the complexity in fitting them etc.”
To be fair Boris, “Mountain Bikes” don’t use Oleo struts/shocks- their application is pretty much limited to the pair you can see above and the earlier versions of Alan’s downhill bike. They always come out great performing with a few quirks, so it would be interesting to hear exactly why they’re not more widely used.
One question remains: how did it ride?