I think Marin and Balance were the only two companies to adopt this "rear fork" suspension thing. It was just the first design and was easy I guess.laffeaux said:Does anyone know the story behind this bike?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3694834563
It's a Marin, but has a Manitou 3 bolted on as a rear suspension. I've seen this on the aluminum Manitou bikes, but not anywhere else. And in Ti?
Did Answer of Doug Bradbury have anything to do with this (I assume so)? Anyone seen one before?
laffeaux said:Does anyone know the story behind this bike?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3694834563
It's a Marin, but has a Manitou 3 bolted on as a rear suspension. I've seen this on the aluminum Manitou bikes, but not anywhere else. And in Ti?
Did Answer of Doug Bradbury have anything to do with this (I assume so)? Anyone seen one before?
Actually to revise that, Doug designed and was hand-building the FS frames before he hooked up with Answer. Answer was only after his suspension forks at first, and later (starting 1993) started doing his frames also. They had to change a few details with the frames though, like industry standard hub/dropout dimensions instead of the custom ones his hand-built frames had (145mm rear, 115mm front, made for wider flanges/stronger wheels, and he included hubs with the framesets) and they also went to a larger diameter seatttube (1.5" O.D.) that needed a specially modifiied XTR front deraiileur. The frames also took a 31.8 post, that inserted into a shim that was was 1/16th of an inch thick / 3.6" long, that itself sat inside the seattube (again, 1/16th in tubewalls), among other things.neveride said:Doug Bradbury designed the original while working for Answer. Marin made frames with both aluminum and this Ti version. The rear end's machining on the Marin was not near as nice as the Answer frame, but the Marin was also significantly cheaper.
Way back in 95 when I still had my Answer-made Manitou FS frame, I was staying at a hotel in Mt. Snow at the nationals and we did a side by side comparison with another guy who had the Marin Aluminum version, and before he saw mine he told everyone that Marin purchased the frames from Answer and simply sold the exact frame much cheaper. Both rode similar, with some slight variances in geometry, but the finish on the Manitou was head and shoulder's above Marin's, and the Manitou was close to a pound lighter frame-wise. Welds on the Marin were typical for frames fabricated overseas, functionional but not aesthetically pleasing, meant to do the job but not be expensive. The manitou was a pure work of art, both with the welds and the machining (and maybe twice the price, of course).
In my opinion my Manitou frame was one of the best handling FS bikes of the day. I still miss it sometimes...
Balance's version used the less expensive Answer made Pro Forx.
Doug Bradbury also made a few one-off, Bradbury labeled frames, very rare, and had a custom fabricated wider rear hub.
Looks like a Ringlé seatpost and headset, Answer Hyperend barends, and Adventure Components RaceBraces on the front and rear shocks. Can't tell what the skewers are from the picture angle. The AC braces are the easy part for me, I have the same color one on the back of my '95 Manitou FS-DH frame.mik_git said:there some purple going on there...
