Wierd cable 'downtube' bike

Quoted message said:

Is there real benefit to this design?

Not that I can see.

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________ ------------------"Buddy Holly,
the Texas Elvis"------------------
__________306.350.357.38>>[email hidden]__________

"Ed" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I saw an old one of these at the local (Evanston,IL) bicycle club.

slingshotbikes.comstandard.cfmOpen ↗

The downtube is replaced by a spring tensioned cable. There appears to be

a

Quoted message said:

hinge at the intersection of the seat tube and top tube. The description

comes

Quoted message said:

close to making a perpetual motion claim:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

normal road shock is absorbed and turned into forward motion - every

bump

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

becomes a boost

Yeah, so they say. It might work. There are quite a few devoted fans. The cool part is that they are
also completely foldable. If the performance is as they claim, it could be a great bike to own.

Quoted message said:

Is there real benefit to this design?

A friend of mine used to race on a Slingshot mountain bike, before conventional full-suspension
bikes were common. He loved the Slingshot, and said it was pretty fast. But, then, the guy I'm
talking about also won a 500-mile road race (all in one day) with a ride time of 23:42 - with the
2nd place finisher more than an hour behind him. Any bike is fast with a rider like that. (He
*averaged* over 21mph for 500 miles, on hilly terrain.)

Rocketman

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Is there real benefit to this design?

Not that I can see.

Looks like it would have a lot of bobbing when you're pedaling, and it would probably be difficult
to get the BB stiff enough to keep it from flexing a lot as you pedal.

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

"David Kerber" <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Is there real benefit to this design?

Not that I can see.

Looks like it would have a lot of bobbing when you're pedaling, and it would probably be difficult
to get the BB stiff enough to keep it from flexing a lot as you pedal.

In fact, the Slingshot mountain bike is/was a rocket ship. It bobs less than a full suspension bike
and is very efficient. Particularly on long hard rides the riders of these bikes did OK.

The road bike version was OK but you couldn't tell much difference between it and a regular bike.

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The road bike version was OK but you couldn't tell much difference between it and a regular bike.

That's actually a pretty high compliment for a folding bike.

In article <[email hidden]>,

David Kerber ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net said:

Looks like it would have a lot of bobbing when you're pedaling, and it would probably be difficult
to get the BB stiff enough to keep it from flexing a lot as you pedal.

I have ridden a borrowed Slingshot mountain bike a few times (perhaps 20 times). My normal mountain
bike is an older Gary Fisher hardtail with a suspension seatpost. I'm not an expert on mountain
bikes -- I don't ride often enough, and I haven't ridden enough different setups -- so take this
with a grain of salt.

My impression is that you do lose some efficiency when climbing (by comparison to a hardtail), but
the flex is not bad enough that I notice it when riding. I also don't notice any more bob than on a
bike with a suspension seatpost. In fact, there's less bob than on my Fisher due to a more modern
front fork on the Slingshot.

The slingshot is a nice bike, and as others have mentioned, it folds into a compact case. I would
guess it is most comparable to a softtail in performance and ride.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Dave

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In article said:

Looks like it would have a lot of bobbing when you're pedaling, and it would probably be
difficult to get the BB stiff enough to keep it from flexing a lot as you pedal.

I have ridden a borrowed Slingshot mountain bike a few times (perhaps 20 times). My normal
mountain bike is an older Gary Fisher hardtail with a suspension seatpost. I'm not an expert on
mountain bikes -- I don't ride often enough, and I haven't ridden enough different setups -- so
take this with a grain of salt.

My impression is that you do lose some efficiency when climbing (by comparison to a hardtail), but
the flex is not bad enough that I notice it when riding. I also don't notice any more bob than on
a bike with a suspension seatpost. In fact, there's less bob than on my Fisher due to a more
modern front fork on the Slingshot.

The slingshot is a nice bike, and as others have mentioned, it folds into a compact case. I would
guess it is most comparable to a softtail in performance and ride.

I've never ridden a bike with either a rear suspension or a suspended seatpost, so I don't have
even one data point to compare. I was trying to imagine what it would feel like on the road, rather
than off road. It must not be too bad though, since at least a couple of people have ridden one and
said it's ok.

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.