Taking inspiration from IHN’s thread, how about bikes and or bike brands that were successful for a short time and then seems to have largely disappeared?

for starters KHS – when Scott Dommett was sponsored for one and appeared in MBUK a bit, they seemed quite common. Then they just disappeared.

Or better still, Proflex – pretty successful in mid to late 90s (after Hank Djernis started riding for them) and again seemed to just go as K2 took the brand in a rather odd direction.

Onza

Or better still, Proflex – pretty successful in mid to late 90s (after Hank Djernis started riding for them) and again seemed to just go as K2 took the brand in a rather odd direction.

K2/Proflex were the one that leapt to mind when I saw the thread title!

Onza’s a good shout, I’ll go X-Lite too.

Scary fast rocket power parts

Onza are still going, Ibex tyres are great.

Muddy Fox

(-Cue a load of Spesh/Trek/Giant bashing)

KHS are alive and well, they do loads of stuff in the US and sponsor quite a few riders in DH and Enduro on that side of the pond.

It’s interesting that sponsorship of a rider who’s a mate of the mags can be such a big draw (or at least was back then).

Scary Fast – loved their gloves. they actually carried on for a while after they disappeared as I happened to meet the distributor and buy a pair of the latest model but they weren’t as good as the origianl SuperBs.

Klein.

Uber expensive, garish but actually built with some smart design features. Bought by Trek and ruined.

Tioga seemed pretty big back in the day. They still going?

Bigfoot bikes.
Were made locally in Malvern for a while but didn’t stay too long. We used to make the cable guides etc for them..

Klein.

Uber expensive, garish but actually built with some smart design features. Bought by Trek and ruined.

Just about to say that. Cue some very definite Trek bashing. 😈

Slingshot bikes?

I’m starting to think it’s me 🙂 I had a Klein too 🙂

Local motion (frame bags and ‘dominator’ gloves)
Bula (hats)
Marin (iirc they made bikes)
Girven (stems)
2nd X-lite
Many brand faded away and then the name was bought and rebranded.
See-Onza,WTB,Bontrager,Klein,Gary Fisher (technically these 3 were ok until Trek bought them and ran them into the ground until they were worthless),Syncros etc
Edit.
At least Trek did’nt side with a cheating scumbag and help rubbish the name and destroy the company of a legitimate (probly) tdf winner…….oh yeah.They did.

I’m going to be controversial and say. Pace have all but vanished.

X-Lite. Bar ends, seatposts, levers, and all sorts of goodies.

They were the company that founded Muc-Off, but after the death of the founder, the X-Lite part of the business was sold off.

Funk bikes/frames – always lusted after one of these:

Also Ringle purple bits – like Xlite but without the snapping

Edit: Alpinestars! How could we forget Cro Mega

A lot of the brands mentioned may have disappeared from the UK market, but are still going strong elsewhere, or like Onza, Vitus, Nukeproof and others, have been bought by bike shops and are used by them as brands.

For Trek and buying brands add Lemond to that, they totally killed that brand, as well as Klein, Gary Fisher has become a bit marketing term for the geometry, and they have done pretty decent job with the Bontrager brand, although it has nothing to do with what Bontys were BITD.

Add Parkpre (bikes) Bullseye, Kooka, Clark Kent, MachineTech and many others to the list of MIA brands

Ringle – where did they go? They were the dream spec component of choice when I started out – proper bike jewelery in their horrendous colourways ( 😉 )

EDIT – looks like they are now part of Sun Ringle but not really the same sorts of products.

That ^ looks like a Bigfoot. Was that the fashionable frame design back then?

(borrowed of RetroBike)

Iron horse

KHS have been doing what they do for a long time now. Just because they aren’t big in the UK doesn’t mean they were of their time or have vanished.
http://khsbicycles.com/

Probably a stronger brand and company than they were then.

Maverick, sadly, but I’ve been out on my ML7 this morning. Great joy.

I used to sell KHS many years ago – they were really, really good quality, easily on a par with the steel Konas. Slingshot are still in existence too.

OK, I’ll caveat it further for you TooTall to make it specific to the UK market 😉

Iron horse

They’re just a defunct brand, not sure I’d say they were “of their time”, in that they didn’t innovate and got left behind or owt, they just didn’t sell many bikes!

Pace aren’t what they were, but they are definitely still going.

Kestrel

Roberts – I still have my DB but not sure if they still make off roaders.

Schwinn MTB and bmx died in the UK are now toys r us level hybrids and tat
I raced for shwinn on the blue falcon Brian fosters signature ride back then they were as some
Although they seem to still have a booming trade in the states with beach cruisers

Talking of innovation I’m sure I remember Iron Horse bringing out a ‘fat bike’ about 25 years ago with small really fat wheels or was it a drug fuelled mirage….so much was around then

EDIT: No it was Hanebrink

Machine Tech
Mountain Cycles
Formula 1
Suntour

Mountain Cycles is a good shout, haven’t seen one for years!
Suntour are still going strong & making some pretty good suspension forks to be fair to them (Torq XC race team are using them for one)

The first name that popped into my head was Sunshine. If I remember the name correctly they produced cycle clothing. I purchased some items from Biketreks back in the mid nineties. If anyone else remembers this or knows which brand I mean please do say, especially if they’re still going and I’ve got the name wrong. I remember buying a bumbag (yes a bumbag) from Biketreks, kind of a brown checked think for cycling. Is keith about to shed some light on this?

Also for me as others have said Klein, Parkpre, Pro Flex. Always wanted a Klein and a Proflex. Sadly never happened.

EDIT: L&M also, I had a pair of their Stardrive cranks and loved them.

njee20 – Member

Iron horse

They’re just a defunct brand, not sure I’d say they were “of their time”, in that they didn’t innovate and got left behind or owt, they just didn’t sell many bikes!

Sold shit loads of Sundays, relative to the size of the DH market – but as you say, not many other bikes.

Sunn, although I think the name was resurrected a few years back, they are no longer the brand they were.

On Slingshot bikes (the ones with a steel cable for a downtube) on-one where selling those maybe 4 years ago.

whatever happened to Rox? used to love their T’s!

Dialled Bikes

On Slingshot bikes (the ones with a steel cable for a downtube) on-one where selling those maybe 4 years ago.

There’s a man who gets off the 5.45 to Carlisle in Newcastle everyday on a Slingshot. Makes me happy every time I see it.

Hard Knox pads.