"soft-tail" suspension bikes.

[auraslip]

Hey what do you all think about "soft tail" suspension systems?

It seems like it would be simple, light, and cheap.

Obviously not good for trail riding, but the 1 inch of play might be good enough for handling pot holes at +20 mph.

The moots ybb is made of titanium and costs as much as a small car.

The salsa dos niner is only$1000.

The KHS solo one was available as a soft tail in 2005 for $600. Chromoly too. I wish they still made it!

The cheapest I've found is a Schwinn midtown for $300 through costco.

The frame geometry doesn't look good for mounting batteries.

In sumnation scour ebay and craigslist for khs solo one.

 

[jag]

The Cannondale Scalpel is a bit like a hopped up soft tail with if I remember right 4-5" of rear suspension:

The large amount of suspension is achieved by carbon fibre rear stays that are flexy in the up-down direction but wide and stable in the other. I'd be careful of making anything with carbon fibre into an ebike though.

 

[TylerDurden]

Xyster had a softtail Cadillac, much like the Schwinn.

IIRC, he ran a 24" in the rear with an 5304.