Foldable Bikes Party: Throwback Thursday: 1992 Slingshot Team Issue

Thursday, 1 October 2015

Throwback Thursday: 1992 Slingshot Team Issue

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By any definition of bicycle design, Slingshot’s ‘Sling Power Technology’ frame design is unusual, to say the least. By completely replacing the down tube with a spring-loaded braided steel cable, Slingshot claimed that the bikes would not only be faster but more comfortable, too. That such an idea was able to take hold in the Wild West early days of mountain biking is no surprise, but the fact it’s still available today might be.

Slingshot’s SPT design flew in the face of every piece of conventional thought when it came to frame and suspension design. There are no conventional mechanical pivots, there are no claims of ‘travel’, and no separate shock. In fact, there’s essentially zero vertical movement built into the chassis at all.

What the...

Instead, a ‘flex plate’ built into the top tube (just ahead of the seat tube) works in conjunction with the spring-loaded steel cable to let the bike’s overall length increase slightly with load. Think of how an inchworm crawls along a leaf and you sort of get the idea.

The idea was that such movement would allow the frame to better conform to the terrain than a fully rigid frame, yielding improved traction and rider comfort. In effect, what Slingshot created was a Unified Rear Triangle design with an exceptionally high pivot (and just a simple undamped coil spring for the shock).