For Sale SUNN Radical Plus Cofactory 1998

[coreygun]

Sorry JBen. It's a great bike - one of the coolest vintage DH rigs I've ever seen. However, I have to agree with 44Racing. From my experience working with Jan Karpiel, that non-factory addition actually took what was a perfectly triangulated frame and made two four-sided squares, which most people know are weaker than triangles. In my opinion, the previous owner should have just made better gussets between the head tube and downtube, keeping everything triangulated while strengthening the front of the frame. Nonetheless, it's still a fantastic bike and truly rare. For a collector, a centerpeice.

Well actually, that part of the frame wasn't perfectly triangulated, it was already made of 4 pieces, one of which was also curved. Plus, taking a real triangulated frame and adding in an extra strut, would not weaken the pre-existing triangle, unless the welding process itself damaged the integrity of the top and down tubes - as those are still intact tubes.

 

[Markybeau]

I would never have known about the modification but whilst I can appreciate what it is, it's not a bike of interest for me. Although I can see the point some people are making, if not sensitively. It kind of comes down to something like this for those people
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Mona_Lisa_moustache.jpg ...
And a collector in the market paying top dollar would probably want it unmodified.

 

[franx]

This modification has ruined a beautiful bike very sought after bike and is now worth hundreds not thousands to someone who is a collector.

I'm pretty sure the guy who modded this downhill rig back then wasn't pondering much on the state of the collectors market 30 years in the future, he just wanted a stiffer frame

 

[Jben]

Thanks guys for these posts.
Love the Mona Lisa reference.
This making me happy, here are some hints about the point that modifications had been done correctly by a smart person :
97-99 he worked as a developper at Sunn RnD département
99-2018, he was an engineer at Bos Suspension
Since then he is working in race car tuning, as his father did.
Last hint : every proof of this is on the frame...

 

[Jben]

Here are more pics

 

[Jben]

Others

 

[Jben]

Last but not least