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@malvernrider funnily I was thinking that the Koa I had was one of the nicer Al frames I've ridden.
Orange Sub Zero, meant to be super-strong but I still cracked the thing
early v-braked SC chameleon with what were I swear 1″ square chainstays
Close, but not quite... 😅 (this is a mk2 with mounts for vees and IS)
1996 Trek 1400 roadie.
Glued aluminium, 23mm tyres.
From the days when no one had a clue how to make alloy comfy AND safe.
Still have it, because it's very pretty, but my word, it's nasty.
It's really good fun for about half an hour. After that, everything above the waist just goes numb.🙂
Having said that, I've done my longest ever rides on that frame, but I was younger and harder then.
I still like riding it. A flexible seatpost, very thick bar tape and soft wheels make it bearable these days.
Did I mention it's very pretty?
My mates cannondale mtb in the 80s. 24 inch back wheel, 26 front. Rigid natch. And 1.8 tyres at high pressure. But it was pink and looked awesome.
We underestimate awesome.
All these standards and awesome isn't one of them.
Humans - basic design flaw.
Carrera Fury, indestructible and good fun to ride but came back from a ride and had properly sore hands and stiff back.
Flexiest I ever rode was a mates cotic roadrat it swayed around like a cat having a stroke . Tried it once and handed straight back without a word because he thought it was ace and nothing I'd have said would have changed his mind
Got to be my Cannondale R400 (2.8 series road frame) from 1993. Still in service as my commuter, but every time I ride it I think "This is mega bumpy!"
My on one 456 summer season. It was already super stiff but.I decided a 10mm rear axle and some serious handbuilt wheels would be good. It was super stiff, super responsive but omg it was bone shatteringly rough!
On-one 456. May as well have been made out of scaffolding tubes. Bloody awful jarring thing. Replaced by a Dialled Alpine which, if anything, was even rigider but was somehow a whole load more betterer...
Def a GT Avalanche back in the 1990s
Saracen jump bike from years ago
OCR frames weren’t all that stiff.
the ORC2 was harsh though but mainly because of the fork
Yeah, you may be right in that it was more harsh than stiff. Not much fun on typical UK roads anyway.
It will never be a road bike (unless road bikes are all you have ever owned which is odd for an MTB forum). A small alloy MTB frame with big downtime, big box chain stays etc,. will always be stiffer.
It won't necessarily be less comfortable than a less stiff road bike because suspensions fork and 2"+ plus tyres compared to 23c tyres at 100PSI on a rigid frame make more difference that how stiff the frame is.
Azonic DS Evolution.
Had one of these, brutally stiff, but 17 year old me didn’t notice, and kept up with guys on DH bikes...
A 1998 GT hardtail, £400 or so (so not an Avalanche or Zaskar). Triple triangle, bright orange, rock solid.
The Rockhopper I replaced it with had so much give I had to fit a brake booster to stop the seatstays bending every time I braked...
Well for me the Orange Aluminium O too. Possibly the biggest seat stays on a rigid hard tail. Still got my old frame hanging up in the workshop!
1987 Cannondale SR500. Had the p!55 royally taken out of me by my 531 and 753 riding buddies (crash replacement for a bent 531c frame) but from the first pedal stroke it was apparent that all energy pushed the bike forward. I won a load of hillclimbs on that bike (6'2", 78kg).
When I sold it (by mistake; purchaser came to view a different bike but liked the Cannondale and I was broke), I attempted to recapture that feeling with its replacements. Never achieved it.
a carbon stumpjumper expert 2008.
it was my 'getting back into biking' experiment. loved it but quickly moved onto more compliant bendy tubed niche craziness...
Not much fun on typical UK roads anyway.
I absolutely loved mine and rode 10s of thousands of typical UK road miles on it (incl a fair few centuries). Just goes to show we're not all the same though, eh?
Bar tape was double wrapped on the tops (made a huge difference to the harshness of the fork).
An early 1990s Raleigh mountain bike that I bought in a junk shop around 2010 for use as a pub bike / commuter (I only had a flat 3 mile ride to work).
From what I can gather it was sold as an entry level "proper" mountain bike back in the day when Raleigh also did really nice stuff. Not in the least bit fancy but decent gears and looked the part.
Holy Mother, it was unbelievably stiff. If it was formed from a solid block of cast iron I don't think it could be less yielding. It made my low end alloy road bike with 23mm tyres feel like a magic carpet. I have massive resect for anyone who took one of these down a mountain back in the day with the cantis as well.
Borrowed my mates aluminium o to commute with in London for a couple of weeks. I gave up after two days. Every pothole felt like a bomb had gone off under the bike. Hideous heap that needs turning into coke cans.
Planet X Armadillo.
Properly fun bike for its time, highest BB ever.
Fantastic speckled dragon paintjob.
Stiffer than a really stiff thing.