Has anyone seen.....

[Bikeshopowner]

What they would describe as a 'Good looking Full suspension?'

even the ones made by IF, Salsa, Mantis WTB etc, seem to be hit (if thats a strong enough word) by the ugly stick.... severely!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[retrobikeguy]

The Kestrel Nitro 1988 vintage I think
.......Oh and look - V brakes

 

[cchris2lou]

For me the GT RTS had a really good look . love it .

 

[adamgent]

Ritchey soft tails?

 

[scant]

IMHO softails arent full suspension. ride an orange sub5 & then moots ybb. totally utterly different ride.

I dont think theres many.. if any truly good looking full suspension bikes.

 

[Elev12k]

How to define good looking?

Sure, an Elev12k and ARC LT do appeal to me, but if good looking also means subtle I don't think they qualify.

Not an old bike, but I tend to approve this silhouette.

It looks relatively clean for an FS. Simple, fast lines with some resemblance to the early FS Amplifier/AMP ...but those are functionally not up to todays standards. Maybe the Lapierre is.

 

[cchris2lou]

The lapierre is for cross country only , but it is apparently a very good bike .

 

[THWANG-666]

i like the look of the old GT i drivesbut i suppose its an personal thing

 

[Elev12k]

The lapierre is for cross country only ,

I think there you raised a point. Probabaly most of us vintage bike enthousiast are looking for some elegance and finesse in a bikedesign. Downhill or dirt jump kids are maybe after something really different in a design.

Another point is that quite a lot FS's look like as if derived from traditional frames, but of course 98% of those FS bikes fall short in aesthetics when it comes to direct comparison. Maybe the way to go should be designing something really different from traditional frames, but than the industry often ends up with designs the above kids are more likely to appreciate.

 

[scant]

pretty much spot on. In more recent years with new shock technology single pivot bikes are massively back in <fashion?>. Although pretty ugly in appearance, bikes like the santa cruz superlite & orange sub5 etc are extremely successful & for anything other than the smoothest climbs are surprisingly... no, amazingly efficient under pedalling performance & obvious downhill performance. Asthetics have definately taken a back seat in my eyes on bikes like this!
There are a few examples where smaller companies are making slightly more attractive bikes, 1 example that springs to mind would be the custom paint offered by vicious cycles using the titus racer X back end....

...but hey! for every orange sub5 owner out there that doesnt give a fig about asthetics & just loves the performance, theres another retrohead riding fully rigid with thumbshifters, 130mm stem & their bike probabily IS beautiful whatever flicks your switch yeh