Specialised 95 FSR

[Wold Ranger]

Thinking of buying a 95 FSR, the beam welded version(pre cursor to the Enduro/SL/epic) not the XC tubular version. Hear some horror stories on frame breakage and linkage flex/pivot maintenance, but also a lot of good longevity and reliability stories, any views out there?

 

[Pickle]

Any pics on the one your talking about?
I think I know which design your talking about; same as SPESHMIKE's?

 

[development_cycle]

That's the same as the one I'm building at the mo I think.

Photo courtesy of scant (who I bought it from)

 

[Wold Ranger]

Spesh

No similar to this one:

 

[development_cycle]

wow, is that really a '95?

 

[Pickle]

Ahh, thats not like Mike's.

Can't recall that design to be honest. Looks like a San Andreas after a shock diet!!

 

[Void(EN12-82)]

Hehe, once rode one of those bikes... my dealer had a test-day back when they just arrived in Holland.

Really weird feeling when you're used to riding hardtails. It was like "boing boing boing" when pedaling to my experience. Still, they looked cool and indeed, that's because they're a bit "San Andreas" look-a-like ;-) Can't remember they were for downhill though, I think they were XC usage IIRC...

Never heard anything about breakage, though. Of course anything can break, but shouldn't the rear shock take some of the stress off the frame?

 

[Wold Ranger]

Spesh Comp

Think they were the Comp SL and a local dealer sold loads round here, A lot came with a triple clamp Mango Manitou option, but they broke the frames if you were'nt careful, 4 inch travel and were more free ride orientated and were half way between the FSR XC and the DH and Big hit models. There are very few pure UK Spesh dealers, most go thro the big groups like Evans ,but we have a good LBS that does the full range in all sizes. They were the equivalent to the Enduro and were mainly Blue with red/white decals. The later one like this were matt red paint. Think they dated back to '93 or 4 originally,. I remember we had a rider in our local club with one and he took some keeping up with even on a Pace and would smoke us all on DH. They were pretty pricey even then, which ruled a lot of buyers out though. I rode a few and they didn't bob at all on climbs.