Early rear suspension designs

[Danone]

I understand frames with rear suspension of the early/mid 90s were typically a single pivot design, did all the mountain bike companies incorporate the same geometry on most of their downhill mountain bikes? Generally speaking, i haven't seen many front & rear mountain bikes from this period.

Am i right in believing full suspension mountain bikes have been in production since the late 80s? (An educated guess).

Maybe i'm to young too remember but i can i can only cast my back as far as the late 90s when i became familiar with rear suspension and the technical aspect of frame angles with new pivot designs.

 

[danson67]

Well, entirely my own opinion, but here's my potted history...

Nothing before the mid 80s. I'd start with the simple swing arm models from 1985:
MCR Descender 1985 and the Hanenbrink Shocker. Rigid front forks, though.

A little of the weird stuff like Slingshot and Allsop beams

Then the better single pivot stuff: Boulder, IRD, Cannondale Delta-V and the seminal MountainCycles San Andreas. These still live on in bikes like Orange 224.

XC made a more subtle split between:
-The Lawwill 4-bar linkage (1992 Fisher RS-1) still going strong on Yetisuntil recently.
-The classic seatstay pivot and rocker ones like this Alpinestars morphing into the classic 90s bikes like the Kona Stinky.
-And the Horst link rear end from AMP which became the Specialized FSR

Then there's the Unified Rear Triangle ones: Klein Mantra, Trek Y-frame and Ibis Szazbo. I really like these, but they'd died by 2000.

There's a whole lot more than single pivot in the early 90s and they're almost all still around in some form or other.
IMHO the only real innovation since 2000 is the analysis of suspension paths etc, rather than the 'finger in the wind' that these guys used. That and the 'virtual pivot' stuff like Ellsworth and Rocky Mountain etc use which makes my brain hurt...

Have a browse through Mombat's listing where most of these links go. So much more interesting than the standardised factory product we get these days

All the best,

 

[FluffyChicken]

-And the Horst link rear end from AMP which became the Specialized FSR

That FSR looks nothing like the AMP setup ?
I know Rocky Mountain used it from early on and pretty much still do in their current setup, all be it with a funny swing thing in there from the looks of the pictures, which is like an upside down one of.... The one where it ran under and along the top tube
and until recently (2010 I think) sued for a long time with little change..
http://element.bikes.com/en/history/

Then the better single pivot stuff: Boulder , IRD , Cannondale Delta-V

The Moulton ATB used that pivot and sprung behind the main triangle in the late 80's
Full sus to.

Other noticeables are the Manitou style and of course the Trek swing arm.
No idea who did what first, but none MTB things probably all used it first.

 

[Unclejack]

no ones mentioned Proflex ? :?

 

[Unclejack]

no ones mentioned Proflex ? :?

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

RTS. A truely dead concept that was 'the future' at the time.

The Amp/FSR link is in the chainstay/dropout pivot created by Horst Leitner at Amp, and sold to specialised, who patented it.


GT did a lot for mainstream full sus in the mid 90s with the LTS - proper 4 bar design, rideable all day.

For me, 92/3 - 96/97 saw some awesome designs - Delta V (and the later high pivot Super V), Verlicchi/iron horse, Lawwill, Merlin soft-tail, Trek 9500, Bigfoots bolt-on softtail.

Mostly crap, but all brilliant!

 

[ishaw]

I love the GT RTS frame/design. In a day when full sussers looked nothing like bikes, the RTS did, and imho it rode really well (still does if you have one). The more recent GT full suspension bikes looked very similar almost 20 years on.

I think that the Horst link did a lot for rear suspension, and a lot of manufacturers used the AMP rear end for their entry into the world of full suspension (FAT city cycles, Dekerf, Dagger, Mongoose etc).

After that things get hazy for me, anything past 2000 I can almost say I know nothing, though always liked Marin full suspension designs for some reason.

 

[danson67]

Fluffy C:

And the Horst link rear end from AMP which became the Specialized FSR.
That FSR looks nothing like the AMP setup ?

True, but it uses the chainstay Horst link, and evolved through the rigid mounted shock (AMP B3 + B4)

and the AMP B5 frame with the rocker:

Which was licensed etc and evolved into the 1997 FSR:

All the best,

 

[02gf74]

no ones mentioned Proflex ? :?

err. you have, twice!!

been wondering that myself, here is an early proflex, and yes, there is a pivot near the botom bracket. I have seen on evil bay, from US, frames that may be even earleir than this one, which is early to mid 90s.

http://kcsbikes.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=176

 

[Bike Hoarder]

quote]

Cool my FSR!!!! (Although it has changed alot since then.....)