COOLWALL: Proflex Bikes? Are they cool?

[Russell]

Hmmm... but alot of the 'uncool' votes here seem to be based on poor design or performance. There are plenty of badly designed and poorly performing components out there which would be deemed as 'cool',

Is a bad design a reason to be uncool or is it just a sign of a cool company going through a design process to push boundaries and develop even better systems? No one gets suspension right first time, even now there is a huge debate about how to do it right. As Proflex developed, they dropped the elastomers and flexstems and moved to coil shocks and forks.

The Proflex was cool because it was innovative and brought suspension to the masses. Bikes like the Beast specced mix and match groupsets which always wins points for me and is a sure sign of a cool bike.

Oh and Volvos are cool too

 

[Ziggy]

Still worked when I took it out for a ride today...

Yeah but anoraks "work"

That bit was just a reply to the people who'd say that they were 'orrible flexy things that didn't work... I'm guessing plenty of people assume they don't without having ridden one, or at least one of the later ones anyway (I've not tried the earlier ones, so can't comment there).

Like Russel's just said though (& as I said on the debate about the Manitou FS!), whether things work is largely irrelevant to whether they're cool or not!

The reason they're cool (for me) is that when I was 15, I saw an 856 & wanted one for 10 years after that day! They were different, nicely made, really light, & looked ace in bright red with the polished box section swingarm & Vectors! I'd always argue that you can't define what makes something cool though - proflexes just do it for me, & if it was the same for everyone, I'd probably class em as uncool because they were too common.

 

[Stick Legs]

Oh and Volvos are cool too

You haven't seen my Volvo yet!

 

[gump]

OK, I will disregard whether they work well or not.



Still Uncool

 

[Ziggy]

OK, I will disregard whether they work well or not.



Still Uncool

Got no problem with that!

 

[orange71]

so when do Proflex get to be cool then?! I want to see them up on that Cool side! c'mon c'mon!

 

[mrkawasaki]

Out of confusion...

Is this vote about the bikes, the brand or just the flexstem??

Here's my tuppence worth:

Then - the unpainted 955 was cool, that's why I bought one (from Stif, with orange Bombers)

Now - as long as it has an 'Offroad' sticker on it - it's cool once more.

The flexstem was and is not cool - however it made us think at the time, is now quirky and makes people laugh, so it still has a place in the world...

Neil

 

[ape]

Can anybody remember the really expesive one with the smart shock and the carbon/thermoplastic rear end or was that when they becam K2. Anyway I think proflex are cool. Well they llok cool anyway never ridden one to be honest didn't like the idea of flexstems though.

 

[ridevintagemtb]

I raced for K2 in 1998 and my bike came with smart shocks front and rear. Other than intimidated people on the starting line by turning them on with 30 secs to go, they did absolutely nothing. Worked the same turned on or off.

The bike was a sled. 27 lbs. But it still rode nice, and those Girvin forks were always nice in the deep woods.

 

[Lysander]

'Course they're Cool!..........and not in the same way that David Hasselhoff is 'cool' (apparently he's a Massive Cult, though you may want to spellcheck that one).

Cheers,
Dav