awful designed suspension bikes (retro content ;-)

i don’t hate any of them by the way,i just imagine the suspension must’ve been wallowy/energy sapping e.t.c 😉
some of my choices.

over to you 😉

Happy days when there was more change to talk about than wheel size.

I’d love three of those above to be in my garage – you could keep the Treks.

This has to go in here. End of thread.

Trek 9000=

Davey, if you’d ever ridden one, you’d know it wasn’t an “awful design” at all. Rode wonderfully, looked awful!

I raise you this…..

That Manitou is damned sexy…and the SBike doesn’t look bad…

Bow-Ti with USB?

The Bow Ti is gorgeous… The fork is very very wrong though.

So many more here….

More BSO than bike

The first Orange FS. The X1, was it?

X1

And a bonus….Orange Mr O

That Muddy Fox had me lusting after it…

The original Orange wasn’t that bad – only a steel URT.

The Bow-ti can’t be in this thread – just too gorgeous and used some really crazy ti alloys.

For me it has to be anything ‘sweet spot’ eg Klein Mantra, Ibis Szazbo, WTB Bon Tempe. Just scary to ride.

GB

Bloke in our bike club very occasionally comes out on one of those Y framed treks in the OP. He didn’t like the wallowy suspension, (born and bred roadie!) so swapped the shock for a couple of lengths of steel plate. 😯 I’m always expecting a massive BANG as the mount explodes into the frame.

I saw the thread title and had a £50 bet with myself the Klein Mantra would appear in the first post…but i was wrong.

Too many ‘shockers’ to compete for the title.

Edit-Gee mentioned the Mantra while i was typing!

That Bow-ti is mine and the SUB fork worked really well BTW (for the era)

It did 40000 miles before a tube crack. One day I’ll get it over to Enigma for a repair. Fork still works.

Yep, longer than I thought to see Mantra named

I test rode a Mantra back in the day…and then bought an Attitude Race

How about…

Allsop Softride

You’re wrong about that manitou, it actually rode really well. It was light, short travel with the main pivot within the chain rings.

I really liked mine.

Ever given your hair a trim and cut a little too much off one side, so tried to rectify it by snipping a bit off the opposite side, then a bit more, then some more until you end up BICing the lot off? The design of that Karpiel is basically the opposite of that train of thought.

Always wondered what would happen if you managed to get a Slingshot airborne and massively cased a jump. I expect it would involve a high-tension cable and lower limbs.

I always wanted one of these, but can’t imagine the were the most efficient design…

halcyon days.

when there was more than two suspension designs, and engineers made stuff on cnc machines.

pity they were super expensive and snapped.

AMP research. oof. rear wheel steering.

kona sex

Matt, I don’t think the old super v and rave s were that bad. I had a super v and remember it being alright.

He old Trek and Gary Fisher Y framed full sus bikes were rubbish, I hated the early Oange bouncy bikes too…the Mr O was a monstrosity. I int like the others either!

You’re wrong about that manitou, it actually rode really well. It was light, short travel with the main pivot within the chain rings.

And it looks flipping ace, I really, really wanted one of those when I was 14.

Everything else on this page was run over by the ugly bus. And that Cannondale got reversed over a few times to make sure…

i must admit that i lusted after the manitou (still do tbh) am seriously regretting putting it up now (goes off and thrashes himself with a rusty flexstem as penance 😳

Double post….

I remember the Kona Sex bikes. A friend had one as his first introduction to full suss but it got knicked at Burnham Beeches. I don’t remember it being much good though.

I had one of these, saved for ages…good god it was gash

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.
Even then it looked like a pile of poo.
edit, my 2000 mount vision still looks and rides great.

For those that remember these old designs from bitd, don’t you think its amazing how much this stuff has come on since year 2000?
Will we be ridiculing current Santa Cruz/Giant/Orange designs in ten years time (ignoring wheel sizes!)

dropper posts are the new girving flex stem 😀

Will we be ridiculing current Santa Cruz/Giant/Orange designs in ten years time (ignoring wheel sizes!)

Doubt it. Wasn’t there a thing in the 10th Anniversary issue of the mag looking at bikes from then and bikes from now, and there weren’t a whole lot of differences (apart from functioning brakes and increased travel)

I had a Super V 1000 SL and it wasn’t too bad! The Headshok wasn’t the best though. +1 for Bigrich though. Back in the 90’s every manufacturer had a different design and everything was cutting edge. It made buying the magazines worthwhile…..

Don forget the GT RTS…that was an awful looking bike.

I think we probably will look back and think WTF, but part of me think that bikes are not changing the way that they did back then. Technology was being tried and tested back then…some of be old DH bikes were mental.

+1 on the Manitou. I had (still have the frame) the single shock model after that one with the linkage shock. It was a really supple ride with an excellent geometry, it was just the shock and damping technology that was lacking at the time. That and a 60mm fork mated to the 100mm back end. I updated with a Pace downhill fork with a huge 75mm travel!

Orange X1 bob yak trailer swingarm!

Gone are the days of anything goes experimentation then. Concepts and designs have plateaued and been standardized?

Surely that means sales will stagnate? They’ll have to invent something radical like a whole new wheel size? Crazy talk i know!!

hows about this beauty 😆
mountain goat are awesome bikes,but i think i’d pass on this 😯

I’ve ridden the Manitou in Singapore of all places! Not that bad, and looks lush.

Jesus wept that Mountain Goat is awful! I need some bleach to remove the I age from my eyes.

A Boulder Gazelle

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.

Saleem that posts on here had a Coyote prototype with a softride? unit fangled onto it. I think they ground the dropouts off the frame to bolt it on. The rear canti brake mounts were fine but the anchor for the cable hanger was a botch. I rode it one sunday on a group ride and although I was fairly fit at the time, it was a mare on the climbs. I can’t even remember it having any advantage. It seemed to be working on the descents but I suffered so much that it was the first and last time I took it out.