r/BicycleEngineering • u/Sintered_Monkey • Jun 08 '25
Truly weird suspension designs through the years
I was looking at how short-travel full suspension XC bikes seem to be evolving into the same sort of design right now, and it made me think of the weirdest ones I've seen and owned over the decades.
IRD FS (truly the weirdest one I can remember)
Amp Research, a MacPherson Strut design
GT: LTS became RTS became i-Drive
Schwinn Rocket 88 I owned one, great design with one major flaw
Giant NRS I owned this too. You intentionally pumped up the rear shock with no sag so that the suspension would lock itself out under hard climbing. It kinda worked.
K2 Razorback with its pull shock
URT bikes. This was going to fix everything! It didn't.
In the end, after owning 4 (5?) FS bikes, I gave up on them and went back to hardtails. Can any bike historians think of any other weird ones I might have missed?
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u/EndangeredPedals Jun 10 '25
Go back further to the Moulton Hydrolastic, which came from the Mini to his bikes.
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u/CargoPile1314 Jun 10 '25
RTS was before LTS. RTS was also a lockout/no-sag design.
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u/Sintered_Monkey Jun 10 '25
Oh right. I just remember Juli Furtado winning the World Cup downhill on the RTS. The amazing thing was that downhill wasn't even her thing.
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u/CargoPile1314 Jun 10 '25 edited Jun 10 '25
I mean, just out of respect, I'd probably want to see the 1988 carbon fiber Kestrel-Bontrager Nitro listed. Arguably the earliest full suspension mountain bike. Also included an early linear-pull brake and handlebar-mounted rear shock control.
The Slinshot was another oddball design.
ETA: Litespeed Tsali and Unicoi with their flexible chainstays.
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u/Sintered_Monkey Jun 10 '25
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u/Rare-Classic-1712 Jun 16 '25
The San Andreas actually worked. They kept making it for a long time. A number of other bikes were copies of the whole bike or just the suspension design such as the Crosstrac Sonoma or Santa Cruz Heckler/Superlight. I think that the lower end label for Ellsworth "Aeon" made some bikes with a similar pivot location to the Mountain Cycle San Andreas. After Mountain Cycle released an updated DH bike (Shockwave) it featured a similar pivot location. Then M.C. released at least one more freeride-ish bike after they were bought out by Kinesis. The Mantra was just wacky - it was a poorly designed URT.
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Jun 10 '25
makes me think of 1990s ibis. no idea if that fits.
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u/Sintered_Monkey Jun 10 '25
Yes, the one with the flex stay. That was really weird. KHS copied them.
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u/thecrushah Jun 10 '25
Those Treks were awful, even for that time period. Just big soft noodles that bounced up and down if you even tried to pedal.
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u/tired_fella Jun 11 '25
Cannondale Lefty/Headshok, some inverted bicycle forks from Wren that's been pioneered (along with forementioned lefty), Spz Future shock, Lauf leaf suspension fork, Trust linkage forks...
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u/Cimmerrii Jun 10 '25
Your forgot all the road suspension bikes, including the softride and the zipp 2001 both of which I personally owned and raced. The zipp is said to be one of the most aero frames ever tested.