Outside my garage a minute ago pumping up my daughters tyres and this lad rolls up my dead end road on a paint spatter red GT Karrakorum with Girvin Vectors and just turns round and rides back down the street.

When was the last time anyone saw a bike with Girvin Vectors?

THE LAST TIME ? I’ve never seen em !!!!!! before. 😯

Now those are proper old school…..I really wanted then at he time

He didn’t then load his bike into a De Lorean, speed off down the road & just disappear did he?

😯

Class! I see a guy every day riding to work on a Kona with AMP Forks! RetroWIN!

Last time i saw some in the flesh was when i put my Pro-flex (oh yes) off to the LBS for a service. Got nicked overnight when shop was broken into. Despite the dodgy elastomer suspension medium (before that fancy coil version pictured) I really liked how linkage forks worked, so much so that I went for the Whyte when it came out. Thing is, in the last few years riding has gotten that bit more er, gnarly, dude, and one thing linkage forks don’t like is steep steppy stuff, which is maybe why no manufacturer knocks em out any more (that and the complexity of the design of course!). Track brilliantly, no twisting or flexing, great over stutter bumps and big square hits but the front wheel trying to tuck itself underneath on rocky drops is not really what you want to be happening! 😀

Someone at work has an old Marin with a girvin flexstem.

I’ve not seen Amp forks this Millennium!

My mate had a set of elastomer Vectors and had plenty of linkage issues. But then again pretty much all suspension in the early to mid nineties was crap and didn’t work to well. My Manitou 2s were fairly stiff and only took the sting out of the trail.

Oh I’m coming over all old and feel like telling the young’uns how good they’ve got it with their big bounce bikes, grippy tyres, brakes that work…

I got a proflex beast 98 as my main bike which i am selling. It is real good fun and loon around ashton court, afan and cwn carn. Would have liked a pair of those noleen/girvin forks with the smart brain shock

Wow. Was there a Tardis about?

I had a Karakoram and a Girvin link fork but not on the same bike together. The GT is in my brothers garage and the forks are in my loft. When short travel suspension forks first came out the j-shaped axle travel path of the Girvin was IMO superior to the up and down (in and out) road-drill action of a poorly damped telescopic fork. Major stiction on the elastomer and the damper rod mean they didn’t last long between strip downs. There were some lads Rapid Descent Scotland doing COR springs for them a years or so back but they called it a day.

Flexstems on a Marin – does it have matt grey powdercoat with a fluro forks?

I’ve still got some amp forks, the ones with steel lowers. I’ve still got the Mongoose Amplifier frame they came with too!

Those vectors seem to have the wheel drop outs on the wrong side

I used to own one of these (95 Proflex Animal) with the elastomer Girvin forks. My first full susser which lead me on to bigger and better.

Those vectors seem to have the wheel drop outs on the wrong side

Votchy, take a look at the pic above, they are right. 🙂

I like linkage forks too.

Still got all these.

Look Fournales on 1×1 ready for the ‘Puffer

Girvin on 1×1 after doing the Corrieyairack

Licensed German-A fork on Dahon Groove.

Girvin on Diamondback at Herberton 8 hour (Oz)

The tuck under effect is pyschological IMO – the fork can only move in its prescribed path – but it can be changed by different length links.

Browning is where its at for retro leftfield:

Good god LMTTM, awaiting a pic of a Browning automatic transmission next…

I’ll just get my walkingstick..

Can’t find the pic of my Browning, but will this pic of a 16 speed front ring do instead?

Two people I ride with regularly ride Proflex’s with Girvins.

Common old things…

Never mind the forks, that GT was the first propoer MTB I bought, cost me £400 quid and some scumbag stole it 6 month later and later admitted he sold it on for £40…scarred me for life.

Great bike with 150mm long stem!

Anyone remember Quasar forks? They were a bit like the Girvins. Remember the guy trying to sell some to the shop I used to work at.

I used to have a Flexstem for a while… 🙄

saw a red proflex with vectors (could have been carbon ones too) last weekend actually.

that’s genius Epicyclo. I noticed in one of the engineering magazines recently a student at one of the London Unis had won a prize for designing a variable size chainring. plagarism?

Cycle Surgery (the original Spitalfields Market shop) tried to sell me some of those Amp Research forks about 15 years ago. They’d had them in for a while and were trying to get rid of them.

I think they still have them in their Strype st shop.

There’s a good reason why stuff like that don’t exist any more…

that’s genius Epicyclo. I noticed in one of the engineering magazines recently a student at one of the London Unis had won a prize for designing a variable size chainring. plagarism?

I thought that too, but couldn’t remember who made them originaly.

I used to have a proflex with the easton monocoque carbon swingarm 🙂

SimonLovesRocks had a AMP frame and fork, think he did the BUSAs on a giant composite with the amp forks and a carbon faired rear wheel one year (arround 2008)?

Flexstem 😮 – you are lucky you are still alive…
I used to share a house with a guy who had an AMP fork, there was more flex in the fork than travel haha.

I’m trying to decide if “pumping up my daughters tyres” is a euphemism or not.

I think they still have them in their Strype st shop.

No. They don’t. 🙂

Flexstems on a Marin – does it have matt grey powdercoat with a fluro forks?

Similar.

does it have matt grey powdercoat with a fluro forks

Like this?:

Loaded and Ready by ir_bandito, on Flickr

I had a pair of ballistic suspension forks on my fluoro green alpinestars AL-MEGA DX, they lasted about an hour before they were knackered.

ir_bandito – Member
that’s genius Epicyclo. I noticed in one of the engineering magazines recently a student at one of the London Unis had won a prize for designing a variable size chainring. plagarism?

If you want to look really innovative in modern cycling circles, just get copies of patents from the 1890s and re-invent them in the USA. Four bar suspension – old hat, Hammerschmidt bb gear – Sunbeam did it in 1903, the list is endless.

franki – Member
Anyone remember Quasar forks? They were a bit like the Girvins.

I have a couple. Their suspension design was superior to the Girvin and the Look Fournales IMO. They could easily be brought up to date using a modern airshock and more robust legs with disk mounts.

I have a Girvin Flexstem and some Manitou 2 forks lying around in the garage at the moment.

Best left in the garage unless you like visiting your local A&E dept. 😀

No. They don’t.

Really? You mean they actually sold them?? 😯

You din’t buy them did you? Please tell me you din’t…

Got a Purple Kona Lave Dome with project two forks and flex stem. still ride it down the shops! Was thinking of fleabaying it. Worth anything do you think?

Elfinsafety – Member
…There’s a good reason why stuff like that don’t exist any more…

Then this might interest you.
🙂

Suspension forks that weigh 1 kilo are worth a look.

Mrs M’s day-to-day town bike is a 96 or 97 Karakorum in dark blue speckle pattern. It’s a very easy ride. There’s a Flexstem in the shed, too, still attached to a Raleigh frame.

Wow, memory lane indeed!

Anyone remember Quasar forks? They were a bit like the Girvins. Remember the guy trying to sell some to the shop I used to work at

Hi Franki, that was probably me, hopefully your shop didn’t buy any? 😉

I posted a load of Quasar related stuff over on Retrobike if anyone fancies a look:

Quasar Gallery

Although my proudest moment was getting them into Mint Sauce (Hi Jo!)

MBUK Summer 95

MBUK April 96

MBUK Summer 96

I can’t match epicyclo’s collection of forks (the ultra rare Look’s are particularly impressive) but I can offer a pair of Lawwill Leader 3’s: