Softride mountain bike! Always wanted a Softride since way back when I used to do triathlons and Greg Welch was my hero, had no idea they did a mountain bike version first! Quite tempted to snaffle it up just to see what it's like to ride… hmmmm… do I have an addiction to weirdness?? 😆

Possibly the worlds most inelegant engineering solution ever.

But I still want one. Niche is good, except for single speeds and fixed of course, that's just fashion……….

I'd buy one, realise i didn't like it, never use it again but never be able to sell it because i loved it too much. odd stuff like that is my weakness

I'd buy one, realise i didn't like it, never use it again but never be able to sell it because i loved it too much. odd stuff like that is my weakness

Same here… it's driving my wife mental, but there you go 😆

Possibly the worlds most inelegant engineering solution ever.

Yep, it's not exactly pretty is it? but rather cool, in it's own way… cutting edge at the time I'd have thought?

If you had ever ridden a Softride you wouldn't be drawn to it for one second

pretty awful are they? I can imagine it'd feel a bit weird with the flexy stem and the beam… can't have been too awful for it's era, it did win several XC world champs right? and in roadie form it was pretty indomitable for a while, esp. in triathlons?

that stem looks incredibly disconcerting. My LBS had a customers tri bike like that in recently, the carbon seat thing-y was pretty creaky…

Less than 6 hours and only two bids! Go for it! 😀

That is strangely cool, I'd see if you can get it, only 100 quid so far too.

no no no… there were wrong back in the day and they are wrong now…

like humping a snake rather than riding a bike…

like humping a snake rather than riding a bike…

That just makes me even more strangely attracted to it! 😆 How could they have been ridden to XC World Cup success then?

psychle – Member

How could they have been ridden to XC World Cup success then?

A burning desire to get off the thing as quickly as possible?

A burning desire to get off the thing as quickly as possible?

😆

Just had an email through from the seller, the beam on it has the lighter 'rider weight limit' of 180lbs offroad, 200lbs on road… I'm currently over that, but aiming to drop the excess kg's off to get back down to 84kg, which would still have me a teeny bit over the 180lbs offroad limit… I wonder how much margin is built into these things?…

How could they have been ridden to XC World Cup success then?

probably more down to the pro riders than the bike and also back them other would have lost the air from their mag 21 rockshox, the proflexes would have snapped…. 😉

probably more down to the pro riders than the bike and also back them other would have lost the air from their mag 21 rockshox, the proflexes would have snapped….

Figured as much! 😆

They really are crashtastic, bounce up and down like riding a spacehopper and actually quite dangerous for an amateur like me

Made my Orange Clockwork feel like it was on rails and if you remember how noodly they were it gives you an idea about the Softride

safety margin a standard engineering 25% ?!

How could they have been ridden to XC World Cup success then?

Cos most other bikes of that era were equally shite although in different ways to that. They really are horrendous to ride.

Barry at Firth Cycles has one, go be friendly to him and you could buy it 😉

I remember seeing them in Hardisty Cycles in Gateshead when I was about 13 – thought it must be the pinnacle of cycle engineering given the extreme design and the price. Were they about £1,600 for the frame?

The elastomer 'damping' strip probably died years ago and it'll be like riding a springboard. Or at least that was the feeling I got from the one I rode a year or so ago.

Barry at Firth Cycles has one, go be friendly to him and you could buy it

I guess it's his that's for sale then, as it's being sold through the Firth Cycles eBay site.

£272.90… I didn't want it that much! 😆 If it had stayed under £200 I'd have had it though, just for the interest factor almost! 8)

leave a search running on ebay for them. No doubt the lucky new owners widow will have it back on there after his funeral.

Psycle hows youf bow ti going?

Hows the rc31s too?

How do you alter the seat height?

Howdy Tim 🙂 . Bow-ti is good, have you seen the pics of the 'rebuild'? Been riding it a bit lately, slowly getting used to it's vagaries 😆

With your forks, haven't actually popped them on a bike yet, they're sitting in my 'spares' cupboard… their eventual home will be the Indy Fab, but for now I'm running that with a Fox F100 up front, while the trails are so hard!

If you fancy sellng them back id have em back in
A shot!

Doing a rigid build at the mo

saw you're selling your Enigma… seems a shame?

Yeah it was lovely im just doing different riding at the moment it seems an expensive bike to just ride on bridleways….

I have a stumpjumper which is doing me proud andvill probably look for a cheap hardtail or even a cross for the training rides

American Bike magazine have been running a feature on a softride named the S**tbike.

Having various journos and pros riding it in comps and thing. Quite amusing reading.

Wouldn't want to ride 1 though.