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Brace Tips
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• To brace or not to brace, that may still be the question. I installed the SuperBrace on "Black Mischief" and ran road tests today. The short story goes like this. Yes, the brace looks good, fits well, installs easily, and stiffens the front end. I could definitely tell the bike is stiffer doing swerves and weaves. Stability in ruts seems better. I couldn't tell for sure if there was any improvement on grating decked bridges. Maybe a little. However, such is life, there is a trade off. There is more road feel, i.e. harshness of ride. Not much, but it is clearly discernible. To make sure I was feeling what I thought I was feeling, after the first thirty mile road test, I came home and took the brace off, then repeated the route and tests. After that I put the brace back on and ran the route and tests again. No doubt about it, the front end is stiffer and so is the ride. It's probably going to be sweet, I should say sweeter, running roads like Deal's Gap, and hopefully, when the front tire has a chance to get worn a bit into the new front end tuning, the ride will smooth a bit. We will see. At this point I could only recommend the brace to those already running 41 psi front who want more stiffness and are willing to trade a bit of ride smoothness to get it. Anyone running less than 41 psi front because they find the ride too harsh at 41 should probably skip the brace. Anyhow, these are my first impressions. With time I will know more about the brace and how it affects the bike.
      

• This is exactly what occurs when fork braces are used on dirt bikes, too. As a hard-charging young buck, I sometimes liked them on early dirt bikes with flexy forks, but as a modern-day old fart riding bikes with modern and stiff forks, the harsher ride fails to offset the slight gain in steering response