Proflex

Saw this old Proflex locked up in Glastonbury today:
Mystery Proflex by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr
Rigid front end, which the older models had, but the rear end (and coil shock, rather than elastomer) suggests a later model. Detail:
Proflex rear triangle by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr
The brake routing for the cantis is horrible, though:
Proflex brake detail by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr
Trick cranks, though – what were they?

Happy memories!
I had an XP6 with air shock and Magura hydro rim brakes.
Looked lovely.

That shock has the optional “Heath Robinson” mounts! Nothing you can’t do with gaffer tape and zip ties 😆

Nice burger.
🙂

What are those QR’s?
Can’t make the name out.

Rusty Spanner – Can’t make the name out.

Google search suggests

QuickLight Seriously Quick Release, the axle is titanium and ours weighed just 22g (fr) and 24g (r) which is pretty darn feathery. You can buy a pair separately for £39.99.

http://road.cc/content/review/40913-spin-spitfire-mk-iii-supermarine

Have still got my 856 from ’96

It rides much the same as it did back then but my riding has changed a bit so it doesn’t get used much.

Serves as a poignant reminder of the days when MTBing was all about competition and CyB was just a clearing in the woods.

I went to the trouble of taking an 856 out for a test ride, the Girvin forks were OK up until the point they decided it was too bumpy and they didn’t want to play any more.

I had a 956, the one with the carbon swingarm which pivoted from the downtube, so supposedly could actually be pedalled efficiently! TBH it was actually pretty good handling until things went wrong then it had a habit of making even minor sketchy moments un-recoverable.

Cost me £110 from cash converters and came with XT hubs and Mavic 317 wheels, Hope C2 brakes, and Marzocchi Z4’s.

Sold the frame a couple of weeks later on ebay for £127 (I was honest in the description and it still made that!), the brakes, wheels an fork did me proud trough most of my time at uni on my own bike, then sold the brakes and forks for about £80 each again! Made for a very cheap few years MTBing

It’s a Proflex beast and should have came with Girvin forks. Always lusted after a 959 back in the day.

Superb. Test rode one back in the day. Loved it, but was out of my price range! Student we used to go riding with used to race DH on one… good skills he had.. where are you now Simon? 🙂

[edit] 857 not a 956, still have a photo on pinkbike!

I had an XP-6 (I think) which I upgraded the shocks from elastomers to Noleens. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if my £140 funcy stem that was only weeks old was binned as the new fork was 1&1/8th instead of the previous 1″…

My abiding memories of said bike are:

1) heading into a hollow/dip on the inner cairngorm loop about an hour and a half in, front diving, me just missing ripping my chugs off on the stem only to have my smug grin wiped off by the top tube battering my coxyc. Man it **** hurt! Still completed the ride though.

2) climbing all the way up to the top of the Firmounth (a two hour slog) only to have the rear Noleen snap rendering the bike useless and a three hour push back to the car pack having to hold the seat up all the way.

So, really, my rose tinted specs are still flected with shite. Unsurprising, I still hate the **** thing now!

It’s a Proflex beast and should have came with Girvin forks

Didnt the Beast come with Magura Hydro rim brakes ? Thats got canti’s.

Wow.

Brings back great memories. Had a blue 552 with flex stem then Vectors, then later a red 857 with Pace forks.

Loved them.

I had a red 857. Was awful. I got a blue rockhopper with RSTs instead. Much better

Found an old ad while having a clearout today…

I had a 955 from new with Girvin forks after seeing it on the front of an mtb mag,cost me a fortune . Loved it to bits and kept it for years.

I loved my 855 to bits*…two, possibly three full inches of weather dependant elastomer undamped front and rear suspension.

*Slightly ironic as it did eventually end up in bits that were donor parts for other bike projects with the exception of the frame and forks which went to the great big metal recycling bin in the sky (or the one at the local refuse dump)so it’s probably beer cans now. if only I had known about RetroBike back in 2000 I could have flogged it to some confused technophobe ten years later.

It’s a 1996 Proflex Beast. I had one. Came with Vector fork, elastomer shocks, and Magura HS22 brakes in red. I seem to recall that it was the first model to feature some kind of controlled damping. Nitrogen or something.

I owned mine for about a year. I’d say it spent more time being fixed than ridden. Definitely the worst bike I’ve ever owned and ridden. Hated it.