Originally Posted by
bargainguy
I had a SlingShot road in yellow. My thoughts:
1. The fold was crazy. Having to maneuver a cable at high tension is not for the faint hearted!
2. The ride quality was strange, almost disconnected in a way. It was like riding a bike without a down tube, because that's exactly what it was.
3. The cable was supposed to store tension like a spring and release it during the power stroke, but I'm not sure it worked out that way. I never felt more efficient on this bike than any other.
4. In the end, I sold it as a curiosity. The fold was too difficult, the ride quality too disconnected, and I moved on.
Oh, and by the way, the company with a similar design is Puma:
https://www.campfirecycling.com/blog...the-glow-rider
So the Slingshot was intended to have a sort of "planing" behavior!
I could certainly see the hinged/spring frame main triangle providing shock absorption, but I'm not sure about beneficial energy return to the task of pulling the chain.