Softride was a manufacturer of bicycles located in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (loc ...

. They specialized in bicycles for

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...

s. The

bicycle frame A bicycle frame is the main component of a bicycle, onto which wheels and other components are fitted. The modern and most common frame design for an upright bicycle is based on the safety bicycle, and consists of two triangles: a main triangl ...

s were distinctive for their lack of seat tubes and seat stays. The idea was to reduce aerodynamic drag and improve ride comfort. The company no longer manufactures bicycles, and focuses on bicycle carriers instead. The design was developed by James Allsop and David Calopp, and became the most successful of the beam suspension systems. It was intended as a retrofit for traditional diamond frame bicycles, at first, but there were concerns about causing frame damage. Notable Softride users include Greg Welch and Jürgen Zäck. In a survey of bicycles ridden at the 1996 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, there were 126 Softrides, out of 857 total bicycles, representing 14.7%. That was an increase from the 11.9% of 798 bicycles in 1995.

Softride Suspension System

The Softride Suspension System was launched at the Interbike 1989 bike show. The original SRS systems consisted of two foam filled fiberglass boxes bonded together with a viscoelastic layer. Originally intended for the use in mountain bikes, Softride produced its first full-fledged mountain bike, the PowerCurve, in 1991. During 1996 Softride released its first aluminum frame road bike, the Classic TT. The Softride Suspension System is used almost exclusively for triathlon racing. Softride ceased bicycle production in 2007 after the design was banned from UCI races. A closely related suspension design to the Softride is the

Zipp 2001 Zipp 2001 and 3001 were a line of bicycle frames, now discontinued, made by the Zipp company. Though they have been out of production since 1997, they are still considered one of the fastest time trial frames ever made , and still have a cult f ...

, a contemporary competing beam bicycle, where the suspension was in the hinge, rather than in flex of the beam itself.

Suspension stems

Softride also designed and marketed suspension stems.

References

{{Reflist

External links

www.softride.com
Cycle manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Bellingham, Washington