Forum menu
The rep left one of those shockster things behind when I worked in the trade. We had it for years, he didn't want it back, tried to sell it, eventually fitted it to a pub bike and good god it was terrifying. Took it off again and sold it to a kid for £20. Was one of those legendary things you know you've had for absolutely ages.
Well it's been mentioned but there aren't any pictures so far...
[img] 
[/img]
Anyone remember the "commuting" version you could buy? Rigid forks and a big foam bumper in place of the shock, designed (apparently) as a comfortable commuter bike.
Madness.
[img] 
[/img]
😆 (someone had to, surprised it took this long)
Iain1775, as a five owner, LOL.
And for world DH champ winning reto- awfulness, I give you
[img][url= http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1005/650241946_395ee317f9.jp g" target="_blank">
This is like reading MBUK in the 90's - ace
I had a Y11 - and it was pretty good - for the time ...
I rode a proflex - and that wasn't ....
i feel a little guilty including these, they're not *awful* as such, i think they're quite clever, sort of...
anyway, the kona 'future shock':
[img] 
[/img]
I know those Kleins wer rubbish to ride, but they did look ace. I've seen a chap at Cannock a few times on a purple one complete with Spinergy wheels.
I've never seen that bolt on suspension...not a good idea. How much did it weigh?
I had the chance to buy one of those muddy foxes a few years ago. I didn't and have regretted it ever since. I'd love to have one for retro rides.
I had a Whyte PRST-1 & 4 and despite the looks they both rode well, in fact the PRST-4 is still one of my favorite XC bikes.
Futureshock?
I love the way it was touted as a new thing when leading link suspension had been about on motorbikes for years.
Lawwill did leading better.
Gary Fisher less so with the rear end.
[img] 
[/img]
Those GT RTS bikes always looked ace though, they had a properly mean look about them - sorted design. I remember being at the Short Course DH CHamps at Penshurst back in about 1998 and it being THE bike to own. Especially if fitted with RockShox Mag 21 SL Ti, a fork that even back then cost £650! Had a whole 46mm of travel but the really rich folk would have got the long travel kit which put it up to 60mm.
Anyway, how about one of the traditionals:
[img] 
[/img]
A mate had one on a sponsorship deal. To be fair he would have been fast on anything but he did the pro thing and only said nice things about it while he was riding it.
Then once the deal was over, he told us all quietly about how dreadful it had been. Again, this was back in late 90's so most full sus designs were dreadful back then!
There are actually some technologically significant bikes listed there. Represented an existing era! What do we have now - austerity and 29ers
Those Shocksters are still listed on the Lightning recumbent site...
[url= http://www.lightningbikes.com/accessories.html#rear-suspension ]Lightning rear suspension[/url]
[img] 
[/img]
I must say all these bikes look great to me! I'm a sucker for anything unusual...
Simple and effect human suspension.......hardtail 🙂
zippykona - Member
OK here's a challenge. Find a picture of the bolt on rear suspension I saw in MBUK back in the day.
It was some sort of parallelogram that fixed to the brake bosses and spindle.
Here's mine. I'm keeping it in reserve for my worst bike in the world build.
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/8730467957_172a05d776_z.jp g" target="_blank">
epicyclo,
Awesome!
You don't use it then.
Anyone else remember the Isolator front hub from back in the days when all you needed for front suspension was a hub that had the body separated from the bearings by elastomers 😯
This is funny - I currently own a GT RTS, a Slingshot, a Proflex, and a USE SUB fork 😉
And they're all brilliant. Well, not sure about the Slingshot as I haven't got around to building it up. The SUB fork is the best front suspension I've ever used.
[img] 
[/img]
Had one of these, absolutely loved it...So much so, that I've ridden hardtails ever since 😆
If you look at the evolution of motorcycle suspension it used the same designs before settling on what we have now. Very, very odd that bicycle designers didn't just adapt current motorcycle designs.
There was even a backlash to having rear suspension on off road bikes with many handrail bikes co-existing for years.
Motorbikes don't have the engine jumping up and down on top - I don't think you can just translate the design across.
very odd that bicycle designers didn't just adapt current motorcycle designs.
No constant power source
The need to damp rider induced movement
Efficiency
Differing sprocket sizes
Weight
Packaging
The designs we now have look like adapted modern motorcycle designs. Complete with linkages, mono-shocks and forks.
The designs posted here all look like pre-ww2 motorcycles designs.
"very odd that bicycle designers didn't just adapt current motorcycle designs."
"The designs we now have look like adapted modern motorcycle designs. Complete with linkages, mono-shocks and forks."
Make your mind up eh.
You missed the context. This is about early designs. Bicycle suspension went through the same evolution as motorcycles. Unnecessarily.
They could have just fine gone straight to modern designs by copying motorcycles. Nothing has changed since the early 80s in motorcycle suspension design. Bicycles all follow that design now.
You lear to pedal smoothly when you own one of these:
[img] 
?v=0[/img]
Followed by one of these:
[img] 
[/img]
And one of these:
[img] 
[/img]
Then one of these:
[img] 
[/img]
And one of these:
[img] 
[/img]
I dont have to worry too much about that now though as I have one of these:
[url= http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5197/7204150870_9cf002a4a2.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/78973345@N02/7204150870/ ]6-April-2012 (1)[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/78973345@N02/ ]CaptainS404[/url], on Flickr
Things started getting a lot better from the subfive on. The subfive had a lockout, the five had a swinger and worked quite well. The SL had an RP23, the flux has an RP23 but doesn't need pro pedal
"Bicycles all follow that design now."
Apart from Dw link,Fsr,Maestro,Vpp,Zero Loss (and all derivations of twin link/4 bar),Pendbox,Idrive....
I quite like moto style linkage drive single pivots.They are however difficult to design with sufficient anti squat in all chairing sizes.May see more in the future as 1x drivetrain gain popularity.
Good reading [url= http://linkagedesign.blogspot.co.uk/ ]here[/url]
All variations of mono-shock linkage rear ends with forks. Which is where they could have started.
[img] 
[/img]
Apparently the Mantra was originally designed to have a rigid fork and pivot around the middle, hence the 'folding in half' sensation. The commuter version was as close as this got to market.
Those old ProFlex were also on my most wanted list in the 90s...
Ooooh 857...
Don forget the GT RTS...that was an awful looking bike.
😯
RTS1 with spin tri spokes, best looking bike of all time.
Still want one for the wall
Burn him.
Lawwill did leading better.Gary Fisher less so with the rear end.
I think Mert Lawwill designed both the front [i]and[/i] rear suspension on that old Fisher.......
RTS1 with spin tri spokes, best looking bike of all time.
Mine is a RTS-2, but it does have a trispoke on the front - and original Manitous 😉
You should see the looks I get when I turn up at Glentress on it, wearing jeans and no helmet...
Don forget the GT RTS...that was an awful looking bike.
you are mad. It might have worked oddly (designed to stiffen when pedaling) but they looked the mutts nuts.
Had a Trek Y22. The URT (you effectively stand on the swing arm) was only half the problem. The chain and seat stays were so thin my massive 11 stone used to make the back end flex more sideways than the shock compressed. I rode with a guy with one who was 15+ stone, his flexed so much the chain rings wore into the chain stay.
And that Manitou is still gorgeous.
Apparently the Mantra was originally designed to have a rigid fork and pivot around the middle, hence the 'folding in half'
never heard the rigid fork argument but Jon Castellano had very particular ideas and the pivot was in what he called the "sweet spot", the Ibis Bow Ti had the same effective pivot point (the Ibis Szazbo had a real pivot in the same place).
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
i've had/ridden 4 of the ones posted....
Trek 'y' bike - wasn't that bad to be honest although the suspension didn't really work it was quite a light xc bike.
Whyte PRST-1 - now this actually worked, looked like shi*te but rode really well, i broke mine! 🙁
GT RTS - best climbing full sus i've ever owned...possibly because it only had about 20mm of travel, it was okay but the rear triangle didn't feel part of the bike...ever!
GT LTS - got this when the RTS broke, it wasn't as good but did have more travel, a massive 100mm as i recall, looked the dogs at the time and worked to a certain extent.
Does anyone else remember greg herbold attaching a pair of rock shox to the rear of a hardtail....madness! always wanted to ride the amp.....
This thing...the Sotello CRS - Cantilever Rigid Suspension.
Not quite sure how that was meant to work
[img] 
[/img]
kin hell there's some munters on here!
i had a Y22 too - jeez it's ugly looking back...
Proflex. Mag 20 forks for the 'big hits' & a flex stem for the small ones.
Genius
The muddy fox on page 1 wins hands down.....
The front and rear were linked so that they worked in unison.... WTF!
[img] 
[/img]
i saw a crazy frenchie do the mega on one of these. amazing things.
d'you know what though? although they provoke mirth, and the bikes available today are in many ways vastly better, you'll never get the super excited 'what the **** is THAT?' emotional response as someone who's dad owns a bike shop rolls up on some USA exotica, when everyone else is on saracens, Raleigh and shoguns with cantis and fully rigid.
those were the days.