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Pictures of old and obscure suspension bikes

xy9ine

Turbo Monkey
Mar 22, 2004
2,940
353
vancouver eastside

Remember when these were DH forks?
2nd generation Manitou's (first ones made by Answer)
1st generation Rock Shox (these ones are #00237!)
Have these sitting in the shop.
i had those rockshox - my 1st suspension fork (pretty much THE 1st suspension fork). first test involved riding into curbs with the thing. we were amazed at it's plushness (with a stictiony 2" of air sprung travel). revolutionary. though i knew a guy at the time who insisted suspension would never fly - too heavy, too much loss of efficiency to bobbing, etc.
 

JohnnyBoyDH

Monkey
Aug 6, 2003
422
0
Burlington, Ontario, Canada


Can't remember if I posted this one before. Rob Ruppe (Tomac's brother in law or something) rolled into the Ste Anne World Cup in '93 or '94 with this bad boy. 8 inches of travel front and rear at a time when we all had 3" (and front and rear discs!). A man before his time!

Edit: notice the padding of choice at the time: Hammer Pads!
 
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dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
I know they are clearly out of thier minds. I remember seeing them at Interbike, with thier 10 pound aluminum hardtail, with 165 rear spacing, and what looked like aluminum baseball bats as chainstays.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,218
4,471
haven't seen the Rock Shox v1 in a long time... brings back memories. I used to ride w/ a buddy that had that setup on a white klien. Great stuff.
 

Fastrax8.5

Chimp
Mar 24, 2009
1
0
Clueless about this bike....can't find much info on it maybe someone here knows. Not sure of the year...Was told it was an '05 or '06. Has coilover rear shock with rebound knob. Fitted with '09 SR Suntour Raidon Air LO 120mm front fork, Hayes Hydraulic Disc's, Mavic Crossland UST's, Race Face Bars, X9 triggers, X9 front and rear Deraileurs, FSA Pig headset, Fizzik Seat, Titec Post, Maxxis Tires, even Yeti Lock on grips. Anyone with any information on this? It rides better than my Giant NRS.
 

Attachments

sAFETY

Chimp
Mar 5, 2007
41
0
Clueless about this bike....can't find much info on it maybe someone here knows. Not sure of the year...Was told it was an '05 or '06. Has coilover rear shock with rebound knob. Fitted with '09 SR Suntour Raidon Air LO 120mm front fork, Hayes Hydraulic Disc's, Mavic Crossland UST's, Race Face Bars, X9 triggers, X9 front and rear Deraileurs, FSA Pig headset, Fizzik Seat, Titec Post, Maxxis Tires, even Yeti Lock on grips. Anyone with any information on this? It rides better than my Giant NRS.
That shock looks like it's been in a cold swimming pool.
 

spornographer

Monkey
Feb 19, 2009
246
0
I don't have photos, but maybe someone else does...

2) The Manitou bike from Mountain Bike Action that had custom rims and moto tires. That thing was classic - giant chainring, and no chainguide whatsoever.
yeah, where's that bike!? didn't the article say each wheel was like $10k or something nutty?

has anyone posted this yet? cannondale pong bike or whatever they called it...

 

chufta

Chimp
Sep 6, 2007
12
0
Croatia - "here be dragons"
they are out of production, patrizio bergamelli, the maker of these forks is now just servicing old models.
this is email adress of the main italian distributor that has direct contact with the man behind these forks: info@pro-m.com
they have stopped selling them, and is possible that they will speak only italian language, but give it a try, they might help you.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,076
5,989
borcester rhymes
That one, or one like it? That's one mangled mess of awesome 90s-ness. Noleen elite carbon fork, HS33s, Kore stem with matching CK headset, ESP USA derailleur, half pipe shifters, SDG, speedplay?, cook bros F? cranks....so kind of awesome.
 
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trib

not worthy of a Rux.
Jun 22, 2009
1,480
422


santa cruz tazmon



pace rc500



Orange Mr O



and not so much the frame but the inverted carbon rac fork from marzocchi. i wanted one soooo bad!
 

trib

not worthy of a Rux.
Jun 22, 2009
1,480
422
still searching for a few images, first of all Faith (british company, also made amazing steel hardtails and carbon chain guides) made a carbon dh bike at least 8-10 years ago. Cant find anything about it though, the company doesnt seem to exist anymore and the only store i know of that sold their stuff has gone bust.....

Also X-lite made a moto inspired dn frame an fork that were super expensive so never hit full time production. closest i can get to a picture is on http://www.x-lite.com/techlab.html
 

ska todd

Turbo Monkey
Oct 10, 2001
1,776
0
Nice! I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for my size large translucent red Tazmon. It was my first "downhill" bike.

-ska todd
 

ska todd

Turbo Monkey
Oct 10, 2001
1,776
0
Ok, so the bike isn't a suspension bike but it does have a rare nugget of suspension equipment on it.



(Photo taken in Lindau, Germany during Eurobike. I reckon it's a bar bike. A rather pimp one at that.)

-ska todd
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
this was my first real DH bike....one of the best bikes i have owned
a 2000 Foes DHS mono first with the Foes F1 6.5" fork:

then with a Shivver:

then my first Avy in 2001:


im bummed i cant find pics of my Schwinn S20 or my Outland VPP w/ 8000 pivots
 
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IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
I remember that bike. Always liked how that fork felt. Wasn't Eric using that thing until recently?
yeah man...thats when we worked at Cycle Craft

he did have it, but he neglected it too much so i had to take it back from him. it was THE best fork i have ever had, hands down. super simple, plush, super stiff.
the only bad side is that it had a 1 1/4" steerer tube that went into a 1 1/8" sleeve tube...weird design.

they showed a proto that was a cross b/w the old F1 and and newer Curnutt fork.
 

JeRkY

Chimp
Sep 27, 2009
1
0


pace rc500
My bike!

Cheers for showing it, just found this site after noticing that image had been viewed 400+ times from ridemonkey.com

I have 2 other retro Pace XC bikes but suspect they wont be of interest on a DH forum :)

Looking through this thread brings back some memories though!
 

Sacredg

Chimp
Nov 25, 2008
3
0
This is my bike. a 2007 Versus Weapon X. I think it is pretty strange, but it rides amazing. hope you guys like it. I know I do. it is strange obscure, and heave, but it bombs the rough stuff like you have pillows strapped to the tires. I love this bike.
check her out. this picture she is unfinished. I hope to keep her under 50lbs. spec on request.

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/4059462/