From the Archives - Road Bike Suspension?

In the mountain bike arena, the suspension revolution was in full swing by the mid-90s. Multiple companies putting out various types of forks and bike companies - big and small - experimenting with rear suspension designs. It was an interesting era and if you're new to riding, would probably laugh at what passed as "suspension" in those days. Leading link front forks, elastomer bumpers, greased rods for damping, 3 inch travel downhill forks - all kinds of progression and progress along the way. Some ideas worked, others did not. Some companies survived, others eventually folded shop.

Mixed in with all this, for a short period of time anyway, the idea of suspending road bikes was tossed into the fray. RockShox and few others manufactured suspension forks for road bikes. High end road bike use, not the 40 pound hybrids you sometimes see sporting forks today. A few companies, such as Boulder, designed and sold full suspension road bikes. Boulder previously designed a full suspension mountain bike and carried the technology over to the road model. The mountain bike was a bit ahead of its time, I thought so anyway. Boulder has since closed its doors.

I dragged this 1994 issue of Bicycle Guide out of my massive Pile-O-Mags for a look back. This article compares the Boulder against a Merckx fitted with a RockShox fork. Suspension for road bikes eventually was declared a waste of time, although some production models still dabbled with the idea; Klein, Trek, Cannondale, Moulton come to mind - although most only sported front or rear suspension, not both.

Take a tour of '94 if you will. Clicking on each pic will enlarge to allow semi-readable viewing. Using the Zoom feature on your browser also helps. That classic steel Merckx looks sweet, even with the suspension fork...

In the same issue, article featuring suspended road bikes for the Paris-Roubaix race. Blasting across cobblestones at race speeds sounds like a place for suspension. However, even the pros abandoned that idea and rigid bikes were the norm soon after. Interesting to see what the teams put under their riders at the time however...

With that, the '94 edition of Bicycle Guide goes back to the vault. I hope you enjoyed the trip down suspended memory lane. I'll dig through the massive Pile-O-Mags and see what else I can discover worthy of posting.

From the Archives: Fat City Slim Chance

I have a few old bicycle magazines laying around the house. Okay, a ton of old magazines. Actually - a stupid amount of magazines. I am the magazine fanatic. I have issues dating back to the early '80s up to current stuff. Over the years, I've dumped piles of magazines from other interests, but the bike magazines remain. I can't seem to throw those away.

I occasionally pull out an old copy to read once again. The Pile-O-Mags live in a closet, once a spare room, now my son's bedroom. They're buried behind toys and clothes, so I can't really see what I'm grabbing - it's sort of like playing the lottery. I reach back there and pull something out - sometimes it's cool, sometimes a waste of time. At this stage, it's all free entertainment.

Out of my ancient collection, Bicycle Guide is my favorite. This great magazine lived from the mid '80s up until the early '90s. I think it was the best all around bicycle publication ever printed. The writing style and detail was impressive. They covered mountain and road bikes, a bit of racing, interviews - a little of everything.

Posted is an example from 1991 that featured a Fat Chance Slim Chance article. Compare the detail and length of the road test to some newer magazines. Don't get me wrong, I dig some of the newer publications - but Bicycle Guide rocked.

This old Fat is pretty sweet - cool fork, great color, dig the Mavic parts - nice. I've never owed a Slim Chance or even seen one in the flesh, uh - metal. Make that steel. I'd take one now though.

I'll occasionally raid the archive for future posts. Excuse the semi-lame scan job, I'll get that sorted out for the next installment.

Enjoy.