To explain like I am five, because in the great scheme of bicycle trigonometry, I am five, non-suspension corrected bikes are when bikes are designed to not be made to accommodate suspension. It is a firm decision in an otherwise wishy-washy industry. It is saying “We have decided we do not want suspension. This is the way it will be from this day forwards.” It is Moses casting down his spear and proclaiming something, and watching the world part ahead of him. It is the Red Sea of handling kinematics. Hudski has decided that suspension is unnecessary. So we made the bike better.

Suspension forks go up and down, and need the required space to do so, but rigid forks do not go up and down (Or at least, they shouldn’t. Contact your local bike mechanic if your rigid fork is moving up and down.) Therefore, a rigid bike doesn’t need all that extra space up front. So, a non-suspension corrected bike (NSC) has a shorter fork, which makes the bike handle differently, but most importantly, if a bike is designed correctly, this makes the frame bag wayyyy bigger. And what’s most important to a bikepacker? 

Storage space!!

A properly designed NSC bike, (like a Hudski Doggler) has a larger head tube, to accommodate for the non-squishy bit of the fork. And this taller head tube means the framebag can be taller, and this, according to the laws of mathematics, means more area, and more area, means more snickers bars. And more snickers bars means you can go further on your next bikepacking trip than if you had a different bike. We throw away the squishy wasted area, and give you more space to carry what you need. Easy.

The taller the head tube, the taller the framebag, and the more space. Easy math.

Why did some other companies design suspension corrected rigid bikes and we didn’t? Well simple, because we make decisions and stick to them. Other companies say “ehhh, uhhh, I dunnooooo, maybeeeee they’ll want to pay $1000 for a heavy suspension fork that won’t make their life any better???”  We are confident. We know what we want and we don’t mess around with the silly stuff in the middle, where indecision makes everything worse. We believe a rigid bike can be fun, exciting, fast, and rewarding to ride in the chunk. A 2.6” tire makes a bike plenty squishy for us. Plenty bouncy to jump off rocks and still make it down the other side. Suspension is heavy, complicated, it breaks, it wears down, it’s unreliable. Fork seals leak oil like old people leak food waste. Rigid bikes don’t. That is better. Undeniably. No one wants brown sludge streaking down their fork stanchions. Or their pants on a fancy Sunday dinner. 

Sorry grandma.

We designed a bike to go up hills fast, and down way faster. Our bikes aren’t suspended because it’s just plain silly. So instead, we made your life easier. Slap a bigger framebag in that puppy, grab another box of snickers bars, go ride until you can’t ride no more. A rough calculation shows that because we make decisions here and don’t wallow in the center, and have a NSC bike, you can fit an extra 20 snickers bars in your framebag. That is 10,000 calories. 10,000!!!! According to livestrong.org, we burn about 50 calories a mile. Say what you will about the old guy Lance, but he did know a thing or two about riding bikes. 

10,000 calories / 50 (calories/mile) = 200 extra miles. 

That’s the math. Doggler = better bikepacking bike because relative to a silly suspension corrected rigid bike, you can ride an extra 200 miles in one go on ours. Don’t waste time with indecision. Buy a doggler, 20 snickers bars, and go crazy. 

Thanks for attending my TED talk.