COOLWALL: Proflex Bikes? Are they cool?

come on Slim, Jon_Prothero and others who I know have proflexes here - where are you?! We need your vote!

gump":2xg1kj3c said:

pics scant?

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hahaha, yeh would be amusing mostly got to work over sh.tty old raleighs & emmelles with the foot long crescent wrench. kinda frightening how easy they came apart... but then not exactly normal use

In the middle again - for the following reasons.

From a riding perspective my opinion has always been that they are a bobtastic piece of rubbish :x
The ones I rode in the the early days really put me off full suss. I hated the way the back end squirmed more side to side than it moved up and down.
I loved my Flexstem until I got rid of it and discovered how much better the bike was without it
Girvin Vectors were amazing when you braked, the front end dived to the floor then leapt back up when you release the brakes. Linked with the back end that extended under braking and moved more side to side and you have a bike that became a complete liability when manouvering slowly through rock gardens.
I hated that test bike so much I was put off full suspension for many years. Not until I tried a Mk1 Santa Cruz Heckler and a Specialised FSR did I see the benefits (I promtly ordered an Intense Uzzi SL)

As a piece of mountainbike history Proflex are way up there due to being the first readily available full suspension bikes, and the efforts of Henk Djernis :!:

Interesting as a piece of history, but not interesting enough to make them cool because they were rubbish to ride (in my opinion :twisted: ).

there seems to be a lot of emphasis here on the older bikes - the newer ones say after the 855 had eliminated a lot of the bob/sideways suspension/etc issues

Profex bikes always remid me of Jez Avery. Make of that what you will.

orange71":b8imkp8i said:

there seems to be a lot of emphasis here on the older bikes - the newer ones say after the 855 had eliminated a lot of the bob/sideways suspension/etc issues

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yeh maybe. but fairly often 1 bad experience (regardless of brand!) is enough to put people off for life! my old school friend andrew had a 550 & he loved it.

Again in my case I didnt really know anyone who had one back in the day but the reviews of them were very good. MBUK loved them if I remember, and they didnt really change the design that much over the years so something must have worked for them.

Personally, I dont like them very much (bit fugly I think) but appreciate the fans on here and the strong rave reviews they have of them.

So keep the discussion going...

I think they're very cool - lightweight and climb well but admittedly work better in the warmer months! Mag20 and flex stem a great combination - i raced my mates one one in teh early 90's with a Tioga Disc and White Porcs - wish i had bought it now!

I stuch one in 'ebay watch' recently - think it was an old 550 and that Chris bought it for about £10!

had a friend with a 550, and that was heeeaaavvyyyyy...

and as for cool, surely if it was cool would fetch more than £10?

What about the Pro-flex BEAST? I lusted after that when I first saw it, I've still got my eye open now for one (old times sake again). Maguras as standard, and it came with coloured tyres (amber WTB'S which are by consensus cool) as standard spec too!



Definately cool...

Anyone selling one?

And with that I bring it level at 11 all