rarity value.

[bathyena]

On a rarity type thought......
Has anyone seen a Foes Fab on here? of has anyone seen one at all? ever?
Also. How rare are Manitou FS's? saw one once at a race in Grizedale back in '96, then never heard nothing about 'em till I came on here.

 

[jimihendrix]

I think i can just about remember the Foes Fab, was it a radical Y shaped frame ?, i'm only recently on here myself, the Manitou system FS was a dream bike of mine at one time, i first seen one in the early 90's on test in MBUK mag, then seen one in an American magazine with Doug Bradbury sitting on it, around the same time there was a system FS frame for sale in a bike shop in Glasgow (for £2300) .
Like you i had'nt seen one for years and forgot all about them until one turned up on E-bay last year then i found this site.

As for rarity they are certainly not common but like anything else they do come around for sale now and again, if you want one it's just a case of getting the funds, sitting back and waiting.
Sadly though something i found out recently (through this site) the Manitou frames are quite prone to cracking which is something to consider, also see a lot that are dented in some way so i think they were made of soft alloy (just an assumtion though)

 

[bathyena]

Hi.
You're right, the Foes was RADICAL! it had custom rear shock and forks offering 150mm travel front and rear...... Back in '94!!
It was in MBUK at the time, but not a sniff since
Still fancy a manitou FS though, I'm a welder so maybe if I can find a cracked one for sale.......... :roll:

 

[yo-eddy]

we had one back in those days, got it from a sponsor and wrecked it within a week!! We were used to do drops on our rigid bikes and thought this one would easily cope with double the amounts off height... NOP :?

 

[stevet1]

I had a foes weasel, it also snapped. I think the relatively long travel tempts you into doing bigger stuff than the frame was actually designed for, bit like the long travel all-mountain* bikes that are becoming popular now.

*not my choice of phrase.

#

hey yo-eddy if you still have the front triangle anywhere we could build a whole one between us.

 

[yo-eddy]

I had a foes weasel, it also snapped. I think the relatively long travel tempts you into doing bigger stuff than the frame was actually designed for, bit like the long travel all-mountain* bikes that are becoming popular now.

*not my choice of phrase.

#

hey yo-eddy if you still have the front triangle anywhere we could build a whole one between us.

Complete bike returned to the sponsor to sort any warranty.... never seen it return

 

[neilll]

How rare are Manitou FS's? saw one once at a race in Grizedale back in '96, then never heard nothing about 'em till I came on here.

There's a few on here...one or two got sold very recently, see them on eBay more often than you would expect to as well...not really that rare IMHO.