over a decade ago I subscribed to mountain bike magazine, I kept a few issues and recently flipped through them, these bikes are at least interesting. the first is designed by manitou the second needs no introduction but I will say it was raced in the Paris-Roubaix




please post pics of road bikes or cross bike with suspension, if nothing else for a laugh.

Cannondale has/is making at least one road model which incorporated their headshok. I'll look for a picture. Here's a 2003 R800.

The Cannondales with a single shock absorber built into the head tube had soon made this feature available on only their "Hybrid" and "Touring" road bikes. Travel was only 15 mm. on the road racing bikes 25 mm on the others.

Read the brief blurb on the catalog page linked below for the 1000 (below) to understand their theory behind the suspension concept. The speedy lock-out makes sense for a time trial, ... maybe - but no way for a massed sprint.

One enthusiastic Positive review I read online from a customer about their Touring bike model claimed: ... Wow!... sounds great - so what was a BAD opinion like?

1999 catalog Silk Road 1000

1999 Catalog Silk Road 500


On-the-fly lockout dial



Pro racer Michael Rich in a Paris-Roubaix with a full Campy Team Issue prototype - late 1990s

A Daniel Rebour illustration showing a bike fork from 1954.

I was watching the '94 paris roubaix race a few weeks back and saw a few of em, I think museeuw was riding that bianchi pictured, or at least a bike with a frame like that. I got pretty happy when he punctured and got a normal bike to finish the race on as I think its rather silly, I think he tossed it to the ground angrily as he couldnt get unclipped right away (obvliously gunked up cleats!)

Nice REBOUR drawing....what bike was this please...also take a look at my Flickr album for another REBOUR suspension cycle drawing....

While not "vintage", the Klein Reve incorporates a small shock absorber thingie up above the rear stays. I test drove one once, and it was a VERY nice riding bike. Almost bought it, but sold my soul at the last minute for a CF frame.

you are correct Museeuw was riding that bike. According to the write up in the magazine he had to change bikes 25kms from the finish. "A bike inspection afterward showed that the downtube had severed."

Here's a couple of pics of my 96 Cannondale, Silk Road, SR500. I've made a few changes since these pics were taken, but I still enjoy the gentle ride the head shock provides. It is currently my main road rider. It is true the travel of the shock is not very far, but I'm not jumping logs or berms with this bike. It's great for smoothing out those 1" bumps where sections of the road pavement has lifted. I strongly recommend one of these for anyone who has had neck surgery/fusion (like I've had).
Sadly, I don't think Cannondale still makes this bike frame.

I wish I knew the bike. The illustration was scanned from a book reprinted in the US directly from an earlier (1983) Japanese published compilation. The book is known as "The Data Book" in the later US printed version, from 1998. As with the original Japanese printing, very few captions, and for the most part only dates when the drawings had first appeared - many taken directly from "Le Cycle"... one of the French cycling magazines to which Rebour frequently contributed.

Boulder bicycles also had a full suspension road bike, and so did Lemond. I can't remember if either made it to production or not.

Ha! Funny you should bring this topic up. Yesterday I saw this on fleabay. https://cgi.ebay.com/KHS-TEAM-XL-CYCL...ayphotohosting

Rock Shox made a road suspension fork in the '90s and GT had a full suspension road bicycle too.

Long ago, so 1972 +/- a year, Bicycling! Magazine had an article on a full suspension roadbike, it had a type of leading link suspension, a U shaped fork held the wheel, and springs provided dampening, too concentrated on saving money to buy the Mag, read it in the public library, lots of photos in the article,it was during the Fred DeLong (sp?) era.

Back then Bicycling! had many "tech" articles of odd stuff, the BB axle with the bulged center section to provide stiffer BB system, (why not bigger all the way through? I thought at the time) The Checkerd Flag Special, a bike with a compressor built into the seat tube with an offset crank inside the BB shell, you worked on the flats to build up pressure stored in the down tube and unused seat tube then with a lever released the compressed air to provide extra power during a sprint or steep climb.

I've never owned a bike with any kind of suspension or damping beyond fatter lower pressure tires, so I'm really out of the loop here. I can't understand how this would work when the chainstays are solidly welded or brazed to the bottom bracket shell. Does this make sense? I always assumed you would need some type of paralleolgram movement for the rear triangle, a lower pivot of some sort.

I guess I just missed out on a couple decades of technology. Seems like a lot of hardware for a couple mm of potential frame travel. What am I missing here? Is this common on some mountain bikes?

Hum.... I seem to recall a modern (Ti maybe) mountain bike with a fair amount of rear travel and a flat horse shoe shaped section that served as the BB linkage. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit. Ibis Silk Ti and Ripley models. No good pictures I can find though

The chainstays most likely have enough flex to allow some movement at the upper joint. To me it seems almost pointless, but I've never raced Cyclecross so who knows?