Softtails

[velomaniac]

Who made softtails, I've seen KHS and DeKerf examples, who else made them and what are the best ones ?

 

[Martin]

Ritchey.....

 

[Tazio]

There's a beautiful Ritchey one on here somewhere.

 

[Owwwwk]

Moots YBB (26" + 29")
Dean Duke (26" + 29")
Curtlo Epic Mountaineer (26" + 29")
Salsa Dos Niner (29")
Ibis (had one several years ago)
Merlin Echo and another model (both several years ago)
Litespeed Unicoi (several years ago)
Trek STP (several years ago)
Dekerf Team Softail (several years ago)
Ritchey Softail
Cannondale Scalpel

The best one will probably be the Ti-ones. I don't trust other materials for softails (including my own scandium Salsa).

 

[suburbanreuben]

Sunn also had a couple in their lineup, '98/'99 ish.
KHS made one.
I would imagine there are many others.

Which are the best ones?
The Dekerf team ST was described by Mike Ferrentino, in '99, as "The Best Handling Bike in the World!"
So, it's probably one of the better ones>

 

[ajantom]

Global bikes did/do one too.
I've ridden a Sunn one, a Moots YBB, and a Cannondale Scalpel - though the Cannondale is really a full-sus XC bike rather than a softail IMO.

I'd say the best ones ride like a hardtail, but with that little extra bit of comfort for long/marathon rides. The main issue with frame sizes and dimensions is fitting the shock at the top of the seat stays in smaller frames - as the smaller the bike the less room you have to play with. For example on my Global they've extended the seatstays beyond the toptube junction and used a brace - but in the larger sizes they didn't have to:

 

[Moqi]

softail

My Scalpel rides fine - with the newer shocks with propedal it can feel like a hardtail.

 

[Defender]

Soft tails

Trek did the STP range, 200, 300 and 400 which was effectively the 'Team' bike.
It was originally a Gary Fisher bikes but swapped to Trek for full production.
I seem to remember that Lance Armstrong won an MTB race on an STP for the Trek team as a warn up before returning to take the first of his 7 TdF wins?
Carbon works quite well, steel is quite springy naturally, as is titanium.
I have a KHS STP Comp (steel) and a Trek STP200 (carbon), so I need a titainum boke to complete the set :!:
Both of mine date from around Y2K.
Schwin did some fairly run of the mill ones about 10 years ago, and just remembered Airborne did the Paka Wallup to add to the list.

 

[Slow6]

What makes a soft tail? is it just that the small amount of travel in the rear or do the chainstays have to be fixed? no moving parts save for the shock?

 

[Defender]

What makes a soft tail? is it just that the small amount of travel in the rear or do the chainstays have to be fixed? no moving parts save for the shock?

It's the fact it has no pivot point on the chain stays and uses the natural spring in the material they're made from?
They are by that very nature short travel, typically 1"-2"'s depending on the design and shock etc.
I like the simplicity and the hard tail look.