Offroad Proflex 950

GMT? you mean BST... We'll be back to proper time soon.. (aka GMT)

Was that needing a new Elastomer setup for the rear ?
I would ask what the dimensions are but err it's dark and probably well stashed under other bikes now.

No thats the brand new elastomer I had lying around thats fitted to it Ben.

how much travel does the rear elastomer have? I like the bike, how does it ride with that fork? The geometry looks pretty laid back.

Andy, the bike rides very nicely so far but its not really been pushed. The Flexstem absorbs the small bumps and trail vibration and the fork starts working on the bigger bumps.
I might consider putting a normal stem on it next spring when I start to ride it more.

I think the rear elastomer will give an inch or so of travel but no real way of measuring it when riding.

love this. A proper Proflex.

These where so popular back in the day.

I was there when they first came out :facepalm:

I have a RF-1 and a 550.
The original travel of the rear arm was a 1" BITD. I fixed the rear suspension with the original proflex spacers and some cane creek thudbusters bushes. They are practically identical than the original ones. I got some NOS bushes but after 20 years in their bag probably they can't be used.



Rf-1 rear arm


550 rear arm

I use both bikes with no problems.

And the (hand draw) scheme of the rear suspension

I don't remember the twin blue elastomer in the catalogue (they MCU or solid). I just remember the large yellow mcu and purple top cover on my mates bike like Chris has. Same model bike iirc as well.

One thing I didn't know was that Serotta made them.

First models had twin blue bushes. First prototype of proflex system used an only small yellow elastomer. It broke easily so in the production series of 1991 they started using the two blue elastomers. In 1993 proflex models started to use a bigger mcu yellow elastomer if I'm not in a mistake, maybe in 1992 but I'm not sure.

RF-1 models weren't in catalogue. They were a very small production of frames supposed to be the race frames of the team. It is said that Serotta welded the rf-1 frames, so nowadays I'm not sure if actually were the RF-1 alu models or another model that was in catalogue wich was made of good steel with cook bros and other nice stuff the frames that Serotta really welded. (This model was named PROFLEX USA Limited)

IMHO It has more sense that the USA limited edition were the frames welded by Serotta.


(you can see the two blue bushes)

I had the luck of had a conversation with the PROFLEX Sales manager BITD and he told that few frames were made by serotta, but he couldn't tell me how many were made there and he wasn't sure if they were the alu RF-1 or the steel USA Limited. We were talking about some cranks they made wich were similar to the bullseye ones. He told me they only made about a hundred of them but I've never seen one of them except for older bw pics

According to the review it would be a 1990 Offroad Proflex mig'd by Soretta... Reviewed late 1990. (Red)
I assume 1990 as they mention the updates for 1991 after that.

Where they farmed out to the Far East then?

I think all 1991 models except USA Limited were welded in Taiwan. At least my 550 shows a decal of Made in Taiwan. I'm pretty sure that Alu models were made in Taiwan too.

The problem is that the RF-1 denomination appears in 1991, the 1990 model was named Proflex only

The pic shows three bushes(???) I think it was a pre-production bike. I'm not sure at all that 1990 models were production frames.