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I think i already know the answer to this question as no but does anyone know of a UK company who supply elastomers/rebuild kits for the Quadra 21r?
Can find them in the states but not had any luck finding a UK supplier. Also have read a few bits regarding the option to convert to could however it has a nasty effect on the damping.
Any advice would be great.
Will also try asking over on retro bike 🙂
Cheers
That’s a very old fork but you probably know that. I don’t believe it has any damper in it from memory - just an elastomer in each leg. I had a quadra 5 which I think was just a shorter travel version of the 21r. Something like an RST Mozo Pro was a game changer vs those early RS forks!
Just a thought - the Indy C was a follow on from the quadra forks I think - still no damper but I believe they had an elastomer with a tiny coil spring on the end - I wonder if they fit the quadra 21r / might be easier to get hold of?
got sorted quick as a flash, seller johndeverill on ebay can make them it would appear. retro bike user's to the rescue ha ha.
I was going to say there is a thread over on Retrobike about replacment elastomers. I'd be interested to see how you get on, I have a Judy thats still good at the moment but it wouldn't hurt to have some spares in the garage.
Quadra 21r's - a blast from the past!
I had some of those. They were so bad I put my Pace RC30's back on as I preferred the beating I got from those. 🙂
Theres a guy on facebook in Hungary makes them, proper MCU elastomers not just PU rod chopped up like the american ones.
About £40
I had a Q21r as my first ever suspension fork. About 1995/6 I think. 1” threaded steerer too.
Anyway it was rubbish and the elastomers seemed to harden in cold weather so I just threw them away and put a loose coil spring in there with a splash of oil. It was an improvement I think.
Q21Rs. God they were horrible forks! Rode E2E on a pair of those; at some point they stopped working and I chucked a packet of lube in and popped the top back on. They were a bit bobby for a day, then went back to their normal unarrested boingyness.
I didn't learn and then bought a pair of Indys...
Q21Rs. God they were horrible forks!... I didn’t learn and then bought a pair of Indys…
Jesus, kids today don't know how lucky they are. One of the tricks with old elasotomers is to drop them into a pot of boiling water. This softens the rubber and expands the air so they get their bounce back long enough to sell them to the next fool.
My mrs has a bike with INDY C on them, basically the same fork.
They do work just to take the buzz off the trail and are very light.
No good for proper MTB, I would rather have a rigid fork and big tyre in any case, but they are what they are.
I wouldn't be buying elastomers for anything other than nostalgia. Put the £40 and what you get for the Q21R on ebay towards a rigid fork and big tyre.
I had a set of elastomer manitou 4s on the bench for ages without elastomers, but in the end flogged them for a fortune (£120) in the last lockdown when prices went mad and everyone wanted a project.
Jesus, kids today don’t know how lucky they are. One of the tricks with old elasotomers is to drop them into a pot of boiling water. This softens the rubber and expands the air so they get their bounce back long enough to sell them to the next fool.
Elastomer forks, them were the days.
I have a vague recollection you could buy cold weather elastomers that didn't freeze, I think Brant used them when he did Iditabike (on a Pace maybe).
Never had Quadra's mind you, I went from rigid to Indy's, 60mm travel and about the same in back and forth flex. Terrible things, but they looked better than the rigid forks they replaced and that was all that mattered. Also had a pair of Judy DH's with a vast 80mm of travel.
I had a Pro-flex with elastomers front (in the Girvin linkage fork) and back. I replaced the fork with a pair of Bombers, and fitted a coil spring on the back. Totally transformed the bike into something you might actually want to ride.
I had a cannondale m600 in 1992 they did a recall on the rigid forks and offered some quadra 21 instead. I tried them for one ride and rang cannondale and asked for some of the rigid forks back because they were so bad! Things have come a long way since then.
Mine used to seize when you pulled the front cantilever brake, due to the high quality rigid construction of the lowers.
You lot are far too pampered by modern standards! For taking a bit of buzz out of the trail I still rate Pace RC35's. Quadra's were not as good but were far from terrible.
I had a set of elastomer manitou 4s on the bench for ages without elastomers, but in the end flogged them for a fortune (£120) in the last lockdown when prices went mad
You're sh!tting me? Someone paid £120 for Manitou 4s in 2020!? I threw mine away in the mid 90s and went rigid again until the late 90s, I was so scarred by the experience of using them...
Quadra 21R's were really highly rated when they first came out. Don't forget that ALL suspension back then was either stratospherically expensive or terrible or sometimes both.
Mag21's were £500+, had 46mm of travel. Everything else had 25mm of shit travel. Even the first Pace RC35's were only about 40mm travel (elastomer).
Getting a simple elastomer fork for £200 that had 63mm of travel? Game changer.
Anyway - each leg has 6 small elastomers, each separated by a small plastic spacer, you can custom tune the feel by changing some/all of the elastomers between hard/medium/soft. They were quite prone to water ingress and seizing though.
I went from some very ghetto 5+ owner coil-sprung Judy DHs (the original red ones) to a brand new (elastomer spring) Indy SL thinking it would be a step up. Bloody hateful thing. Boingy and awful for topping out.
I reckon there could be a market for selling internals for retro forks that made them acceptable to ride. Whilst I love to looks of the original Judys, RC35s etc, it’s difficult to convey how much of a game-changer the Bomber was when it arrived.
I had some elastomer forks on a carrera I had - ballistic ? At some time they gave up the ghost and seized solid. i didn't even notice for several months. As much as I like the shape and colours of some retrobikes, much of the equipment on them was pants.
Elastomer forks! I still have a pair of Judy XC’s and a pair of Manitou X-Vert R’s ( still the best named forks IMHO) in the loft!
I actually have some Quadra 21/ Judy elastomers (the elastomers were the same for both forks) in a box somewhere, I bought them to try and spruce up my Marzocchi Zokes 2 forks, but they didn’t fit. Red in colour, which I think was soft. Let me know if you’re interested and I can try to find them.
You’re sh!tting me? Someone paid £120 for Manitou 4s in 2020!? I threw mine away in the mid 90s and went rigid again until the late 90s, I was so scarred by the experience of using them…
Yep it's the same with any toy or desirable item.
Once people hit their 40s and 50s and have disposable income, they look to collect the things they could not afford in their childhood-20s
So now 90's MTBs are a thing.
Especially prevalent in classic cars.... See also dinky toys (now that generation is dieing out so we are the other side of that demand) and hot hatch Fords.
I skipped the early rockshox and went straight in with mozo pros. Still elastomers iirc but swapped those out for a after market coil set meant for Judy's. They were grease and maybe a rudimentary air damper. Remember riding through a really flooded river and having to strip them to get the water out.
Replaced those with 98 Z1s, buttery smooth plushness. Still got most of the Z1s bar the lowers which snapped (really should sell what's left for spares!).
They were quite prone to water ingress and seizing though.
Other than the external boots, they had no seals at all as far as I remember. None. Bonkers.
Quadra 21R's were my second fork, replacing some Manitou Comps that looked trick (to use the vernacular of the time) but didn't really move. 63mm travel genuinely felt like loads by comparison, but more importantly they were yellow, which was Pro, so performance was a secondary consideration for this 16 year old.
They were ludicrously flexy even by 90's standards but bear in mind mine were fitted to a steel KHS that would shift down the chainrings simply by stomping my 8 stone weight on the pedals.
Mine went onto a '94 Saracen Sahara so they replaced the own-brand MaxShock forks (25mm elastomer travel) with 63mm of travel that was actually adjustable to my weight by swapping a couple of them around.
Plus yellow so from a distance, people might think you had Judy XC's!
The bike got lighter, gained 2.5x more travel and looked cool in one easy fork purchase! Yes they were shit but for a teenager bombing round a BMX track or the local woods, it didn't really matter. And besides, we didn't know any better back then. Compared to what else was around, they were very good at that price point.
They were £279.99 in 1996, which is apparently equivalent to £529 today. £500 gets you waaaay more fork now.
They were £279.99 in 1996, which is apparently equivalent to £529 today. £500 gets you waaaay more fork now.
Do you remember the RockShox Judy DHO (downhill only) fork which was released a couple of years later, late 90's. 4" of elastomer travel in a triple crown design. RRP, £1099 which was a lot for a bike back then, never mind a single set of forks.
Thx shop I worked in had a pair on display; they were eventually sold many years later for about £280!
Some fanciful recollections in this thread of what forks were like back then!
Mag21s were 320 quid in 1993; 48mm travel, steel stanchions. Awesome forks, bit noodly, bolted crown and steerer. Mine were 3lb2oz 1" threaded steerer. Small bump was a bit poor but ace elsewhere.
They got nicked and I ended up with a pair of Rond Hydro things. I bent the steerer tube on those. Twice. They bent inbetween the headset races as there was a pressfit bung holding it all together which must have acted as a stress riser. Big hit forks only those.
Then I got the Q21Rs which £280 sounds about right. 60mm travel. No seals, just boots. Divey as you like. Got some alu spacers made up to replace some of the elastomers (which were like marshmallows on a stick) to try and help. I think they were still bolted brace but bonded crown? This would have been 94/95 and the only other option was Pace, or go to Mag21SL which were north of 500. The Q21Rs were horrid, so flexy. I remember being very careful when riding ruts as there was a distinct possibility of different wheels tracking down different ruts. Then Judy arrived but I couldn't afford to upgrade so when the bushings failed (again) on my Q21Rs I went with Indy C or S. Can't quite remember. They were bonded crown and steerer. They were rubbish, but I seem to remember them being more tied together than the Q21Rs. I think they had one big elastomer.
Come 1999 I ended up with some Bombers - what a revelation that was!
I couldn't afford Quadra's or RS Indy's - RST 381 here 😎
I would steer one way, the bike went the other way....
Threads like this remind why I chuckle when someone complains that bikes these days are a rip off. Yes, some obviously are very expensive but you don't have to spend a fortune and BITD there was a load of overpriced crap!
Exactly!