Rigid Ruth (Going rigid part deux)

The December 1 holiday (the "delayed Bonifacio Day") gave me the chance to hop on over to the nearest LBS (Newton) and give Ruth a makeover. I posted about purchasing a rigid fork for her here. Here's how it came out.

Attack mode

The business end

Replacing the Zokes brought down my front end by about 40mm. This was fine since it felt too choppered out before. I adjusted my cockpit some more by flipping my stem (a 10-degree model) and twisting my riser bar so the tips pointed down a bit. These made the handling feel more relaxed for my wrists/hands but more aggressive (based on a quick trip to the store), like I was always in attack mode and could go faster. It felt good =)
Still, I'll have to reserve final judgment 'til I try it out on a full commute.

Stiffy

With the Zokes, I always thought I could pedal quite efficiently, without too much front end bob. Then, on the way home from the LBS, I stood up and mashed, and... Whoa boy! I rocketed forward like I had a motor out back. OK, so the Kinesis lightened up the bike a bit (by maybe a kilo?), but I never realised I was wasting so much energy to front end bob with the suspension fork. Now I understand why most advice on on-line forums say suspension isn't needed on the road. And to quote an overused cliché (isn't that redundant, two times over?), the difference was like night and day ;-)

Spaced out - Holy tire clearance, Batman!
Granted, I've only got a 1.5" there, but I can imagine a full-size (2.2" or more) knobby would fit in there quite nicely.

Normally, a "before" shot would be just that. But I decided to show it last, just for old time's sake...

I don't know what to do with the Zokes; can't get myself to sell it. I'm secretly hoping I'd find an inexpensive 4-inch travel suspension frame so I can transfer all of Ruth's MTB parts to it once I've fully converted her into my urban attack commuter ;-)