Why did soft tail tail bikes never really catch on. I remember I used to lust after the ritchey one from waaaay back. And the moots stuf looks ace. But there must be SOME reason they didn’t make it to the masses?

Because real FS frames got lighter and more effective to the point that softail didn’t really do anything?

I’ve often considered one as I reckon it would add a bit of comfort for longer (multi-day) adventures. However, I don’t think that’s a huge market. The nearest I’ve seen more recently would be something like a Salsa Spearfish (80mm travel).

Ooh yeah:

A “Scalpel” is now some 29er full sus rubbish 🙁

I lusted after one of these with SIDS and singlespeed for a long time.

(proper STW style bike shot off google too)

Had a couple of scalpels – they were great bikes and the soft tail design worked brilliantly. Wasn’t there some issue with getting the flexy chain stays to work with the new 29er design that meant dropping them?
Took the scalpel up hill and down dale – was surprisingly comfy on the longer rides.

I’ve got a Litespeed Unicoi in the shed.
Great mile munching bike.
It takes a while to get beyond the feeling of a slow puncture but when you do it’s lovely, light and fast.

I lusted after one of these with SIDS

Mmm, me too, with gears! Saw one exactly like it at Mayhem at the weekend, looked very tidy!

Some bloke on WW got his resprayed into the (then) current paint job and put new bits on it, looked good!

Edit – like this one, but there was definitely a better one around!

One of my previous bikes was a Dekerf Team ST. The suspension was no more than about half an inch which felt like having a bigger tyre on the bike. It wasn’t a patch on todays lightweight suspension designs but at the time it was light and pretty much bob free and seen as a good solution to issues with suspension bikes of the time.

But there must be SOME reason they didn’t make it to the masses?

I’d hazard a guess at ‘cost’ being the reason.

The Moots and Ibis softails are things of unadulterated desire – plain and simple.