[zr8tdk]

So i was cleaning out my parents house this weekend because they are moving and my mom walks up and throws a bag in my lap. She said she thinks its bike parts. I open the old bag and find my first "suspension" piece..a Girvin Flexstem!!! I had this on my Haro Escape from 1992 or 1993. My how far we have come. I remember trading up to my first suspension fork. I think it was some RS fork or something. :thumbsup: Does anyone else ever ride with one of these? LOL...fun times.

 

[RageHardIntoTheBendies]

I had a cheap knock-off flex stem on my old Cannondale, I remember downhilling with it and snapping it clean in 2. I also rode some of the Proflex frames back in the day, elastomer suspension was kinda fun, as you could add about 6" to your bunnyhop just from the rebound 8^)

 

[bidaci]

How does the flexstems wrok in isolating the wrist/hand from jarring? The reason I ask is I currently have built a rigid MTB and although I thoroughly enjoy riding rigid I would like to be able to isolate my wrists a bit. Softride still makes the suspension stem but I am hesitant to spend ~$100 for a whim.

 

[Crayfish McCorduroy]

after a bad wrist break (13 yrs old) i got a girvin flex stem for my rigid bike. it helped a lot with the jarring impacts.

 

[fatchanceti]

I had a Flexstem, used it for a few years, it was ok. The Allsop Softride that I use on my commuter bike now is much better. Still no substitute for a good suspension fork, but really nice on my commuter, especially the high frequency stuff.

FCTi

 

[meloh1]

Yeah, I've still got my Softride in the parts bin. Much better than the Girvin. Parallelogram design.

 

[Jim311]

I remember those. They were revolutionary.. LOL.

 

[TamJunkie]

Hang on to that old stuff...

The retro movement is gaining momentum. Someday you''ll be able to get some serious dough$$$$ for that stem.

 

[AndrewTO]

So i was cleaning out my parents house this weekend because they are moving and my mom walks up and throws a bag in my lap. She said she thinks its bike parts. I open the old bag and find my first "suspension" piece..a Girvin Flexstem!!! I had this on my Haro Escape from 1992 or 1993. My how far we have come. I remember trading up to my first suspension fork. I think it was some RS fork or something. :thumbsup: Does anyone else ever ride with one of these? LOL...fun times.

What do you mean OLD, mister?!?!?!??! :madmax:

I'll have you know those days paved the way for what we have now. (shaking fist)

Yeah, okay, i'm screwin' with ya'. I had a long hiatus and "came back" last year. Looks like the "experts" were wrong about disc brake's.

Funny though - i'd still KILL for red Cook's cranks. Mmmmm, The Billet Years ((tm) - thanks pinguwin!).

 

[Guest]

i didn't ride a flex stem, but my first suspension fork was a marzocchi xc400 which is probably not much better than the girvin.

 

[grawbass]

A Girvin Flexstem was my first piece of suspension also. I had the titanium version. One piece ti bar welded to the horizontal part of the stem. The vertical part was aluminum.

I used it for a few months in 1993 till I pulled up on the bar too hard and stripped the threads out of the aluminum part. Its been sitting in a box ever since.

By the way, they do work ok for smaller bumps. Riding with your hands on the end of the barends gives you about an extra inch of suspension. :eekster:

 

[Eric Hoefer]

I was just down in the basement and came across my old '95 GT outpost it was the bike that got me into mountainbiking. I think I may have to ressurect it as a SS one of these days.

 

[myata]

Please stop the melancholy

In contrast to suspension seat posts, these super flexy, unsafe and ugly stems have been one of the worst attempts toward decent suspension on mountain bikes.
How can one imagine, that uncoupling the single most important piece of control from the rest of your bike could be a good idea . The torsional forces on the handlebar are huge, especially when going uphill. And the handling of bike with these stems was terrible. I tried it once, and it was like riding with a super slack front hub. The bike is hopping nervously and you feel like being a bystander. No control over the front wheel.
Even worst, back in these days good working forks, as the legendary Mag21 were available.

This said, they could make a cool candleholder...

Cheers
Tom

 

[zr8tdk]

What do you mean OLD, mister?!?!?!??! :madmax:

I'll have you know those days paved the way for what we have now. (shaking fist)

Yeah, okay, i'm screwin' with ya'. I had a long hiatus and "came back" last year. Looks like the "experts" were wrong about disc brake's.

Funny though - i'd still KILL for red Cook's cranks. Mmmmm, The Billet Years ((tm) - thanks pinguwin!).

I did the same thing. I rode hardcore when i was a teenager. My life revolved around mt bikes. Got out of it in 1997 and just started again this season. I still drool over the billet years. A nice set of cnc kooka cranks, Ringle' moby post and the anodized ringle' hubs!!!

I remember the bike i wanted more then anything. A ritchey p-20!!

I also found the very first camelbak that ever came out. I remember buying it at the bike shop the second it came out of the box for the first time! I sit here now comparing it to my 2006 camelbak M.U.L.E and laugh.

 

[Wheelspeed]

Speaking of old parts,

I sadly had to discard my seatpost-pump recently. It was a seatpost with a screw-on schrader valve fitting near the seat, and a handle that unfolded at the other end of the seatpost. So, you could remove your entire seat+seatpost and pump up your tire. It was o.e. on my '90 Cannondale. Pretty amusing nowadays.

 

[Rumpfy]

In contrast to suspension seat posts, these super flexy, unsafe and ugly stems have been one of the worst attempts toward decent suspension on mountain bikes.
How can one imagine, that uncoupling the single most important piece of control from the rest of your bike could be a good idea . The torsional forces on the handlebar are huge, especially when going uphill. And the handling of bike with these stems was terrible. I tried it once, and it was like riding with a super slack front hub. The bike is hopping nervously and you feel like being a bystander. No control over the front wheel.
Even worst, back in these days good working forks, as the legendary Mag21 were available.

This said, they could make a cool candleholder...

Cheers
Tom

Ruthie Mathis won world championships on one. Frishi and Derjnise (sp?) also rode Softride stems.

Softrides being quite a sep up from a Girvin...

I'd never ride one, but you can't say it was the worst attempt at suspension ever. At one point in time there were 'suspension' hubs with elastomers built into the hubs themselves as well as handlebars designed to flex several inches.

But yeah...flex stems suck in general.

 

[hulvhole]

Here is a pcitrue of a Girvin Flex stem, well at a distance at least. It is attached to a Haro Escape circa 1992. I could never part with this bike for one reason or another, probabkly because I pumped gas for an entire summer to buy it back then. It has followed me for years and finally found a nice home hanging from the basement ceiling. It is still in great shape for it's age.

 

[No MSG]

In contrast to suspension seat posts, these super flexy, unsafe and ugly stems have been one of the worst attempts toward decent suspension on mountain bikes.
How can one imagine, that uncoupling the single most important piece of control from the rest of your bike could be a good idea . The torsional forces on the handlebar are huge, especially when going uphill. And the handling of bike with these stems was terrible. I tried it once, and it was like riding with a super slack front hub. The bike is hopping nervously and you feel like being a bystander. No control over the front wheel.
Even worst, back in these days good working forks, as the legendary Mag21 were available.

This said, they could make a cool candleholder...

Cheers
Tom

Dude, you just have to know how to tune it!

Just kidding. But, at the time I found it to be an improvement over my non-suspended front end. It took the sting out of the hits and gave me better control.

 

[Repack Rider]

I was about to get mad at my wife for rearranging the boxes of old bike literature until I realized whe had uncovered the long-lost box labeled "Product Files A-H." Been looking for it for six months, and it was about ten feet from my scanner, which should give you an idea of how much crap I have collected in the last 30 years.

Looking through it I found the Girvin literature. Here it is.

 

[DeeEight]

I still have some NOS flexstems, as well as an NOS Softride beam kit. At some stage I might build a "suspend the rider, not them bike" bike again. The last time I used a softride beam it was on a Rocky Mountain TeamComp frame.