MikeD
Senior Retro Guru
RichieB":3031kmiu said:Can someone can tell my how an elevated chainstay monocoque carbon-fibreglass near 30lb full rigid bike is NOT a "Dead End" design?
Because that bike was an early step on the way to the very many carbon monococque frames available today. Similar deal with the Schwinn -- very few of its features exist on modern MTBs (although the geometry's not far off...) but there's a clear line of development from there to here.
A proper dead-end is just that -- it stops and never comes back and doesn't develop into something else (except in the sense of pushing designers along a different path). The Disk Drive example is a good one (of a component, not a bike). I think Slingshots count too, TBH -- yes, they still make them, but crucially no-one else does.
I think we need to see some oddballs from the "Burgess Shale" early 90s period of FS design, when people were just trying anything that came to mind. Checker Pig hoop springs, Merlin air bladders, ATZ forks.