John K Cherry, III began his two wheel career
at the early age of three when he removed the training wheels from his sister's bicycle
and showed her how to ride without them. By the time he was four, his grandfather
was taking him for rides on motorcycles, buying John his first motorcycle when he
was seven years old. With grandfather being a tool and die maker, John was exposed
to the tools of that trade most of his growing years - - developing a keen interest
in tools and metal work. The family garage took on the appearance of a bike repair
shop as John collected bicycles and parts as well as doing repairs for the entire
neighborhood. As a bicycle racer he perfected his riding skills, holding a NBL professional
license and continuing to be active in racing until age 24. John also continued his
motorcycle interest during these years as well: racing off road events he obtained
an expert rating in motorcycle motocross.
In June of 1983 with the assistance of his mother and father, John opened a retail bicycle shop. Project Bike Shop has grown and today occupies an 8,000 square foot building. The growth of Project Bike Shop can be attributed to John's reputation for knowledge of his products and the quality of his service.
Early in 1990, John began to develop Cherry Bicycles, a custom frame building company. Acquiring the tools and skills, he began developing a line of custom steel frames based on extensive research available through contacts and information at Purdue University as well as his own personal experience. During 1991 John, working with a respected race car fabricator, began developing a titanium line of frames and compo- nents. Late in 1992, John attended a titanium workshop in Oregon and picked up some great tips on working with titanium. This workshop was conducted by Gary Helfrich, the creator of the first titanium mountain bicycle. Gary was the founder of Merlin Metal Works and now owns Arctos Machine.
Most mountain bikes are built to excel in one of two extremes. You have bikes which excel at high speeds and you have the bikes which excel on tight single tracks and are very agile at slow speeds.
When I set out to build a mountain bike for myself, I was interested in the slow speed geometry. My riding time is spent thrashing in the woods with tight single trails.
There is quite a debate as to which head angle works best. I thought that steeper was better for me and my type of riding. I have a wealth of knowledge of off road riding having competed both on a motorcycle and a bicycle for years.
Holding a NBL professional BMX license for three years, I mastered riding 20 inch BMX bikes with head tube angles as steep as 76'. With 18 years of off road motorcycling, I have definitely acquired a preference for how I want a bike to feel and work.
With all this experience I still feel you can't always trust your instincts and that real world testing is the only way to gather information.
During 1992 I began developing proto-types. First I built two frames, identical except for head tube angles; one had a 71' angle and the other a 72' angle. Then, having acquired forks with rakes from 1-3/4 to 1-1/4 inch, I assembled both bikes with identical parts and headed to the races.
I have always felt that testing under actual racing conditions is the best gauge of performance. By switching between the two bikes every lap it became clear, by the end of the race, which bike handled best. I then repeated this procedure with different fork rakes.
After racing on a variety of terrain and different locations on multiple combinations of head tube angle/fork rake - - one set up became my clear choice. Much to my surprise this combination was the one I felt I would dislike the most before the testing. What surprised me even more was that this combination worked well on a wider variety of conditions than I thought possible. This combination was the most agile at wiggling through the trees; it had a steering geometry for turning instead of leaning, something I find highly desirable on tight wooded trails, an upright bike simply takes up less space then one you have to lean over. As good as the bike worked at slow speeds it seemed as if it were glued to the ground at higher speeds. At either speed, the bike inspired confidence.
My final test of stability was in sand . Though speeds are slow, the variable that makes a bike stable at high speeds also makes a bike track straight in soft terrain. I was amazed at how well this combination worked in bike traps. Sections that were almost unridable at best, were a breeze, and I found that I was looking forward to negotiating those traps. Next, I began tinkering with suspension forks. The first thing I did was measure a selection of both rigid and suspension forks commonly available; these lengths ranged from 15' to 16-1/2'. I built a proto-type bike using the head tube angle and fork rake I found worked best with the rigid fork, but compensating for the added length of the suspension fork. I found that what was my favorite handling bike became very ugly when built this way. Next I installed the suspension fork on my favorite rigid proto-type. After riding this version, I determined that while it was better than the proto-type built for the suspension fork, it still didn't handle as well as the rigid one.
The compression and rebounding of a suspension fork causes the frame to hobby horse through the bumps ñ changing the steering geometry. This is a trait that I feel is not very desirable. While not the ideal solution, my remedy was to find the best compromise in compensating for the added length of suspension forks. I feel confident that my frames are correctly built and will give the best handling characteristics of any suspension specific designed frame available. My advice is that you consider the type of riding you do most and select the proper fork for the job. If you spend your time thrashing in the woods doing lots of technical riding, you would probably be happiest with a rigid fork and with practice will become a better rider too. Suspension forks seemed to work well eliminating fatigue associated with bump forces. They also allow higher speeds and control for racing situations where you can just put your head down and hammer ñ but their unpredictable handling in technical terrain make them a liability.
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Last Updated: May 25, 2007
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