The Bike That Would Not Die
Spawned by the purest of motives—zero budget—this Softride became one of the most infamous bikes in the sport
The article you’re about to read is the product of dozens of texts, a handful of phone calls, and ten minutes of internet searches. To the best of our knowledge, what you are about to read is probably mostly definitely occasionally true.
The Softride beam bike has raised eyebrows and inspired curious gazes since forever. First designed in 1989 by James Allsop and David Calopp as a triathlon bike, later adopted by Otis Guy for dirt use, the Softride was always destined to turn heads (and conjure any manner of penis jokes). However, once people saw legend Bob Roll whupping up on all-comers in any given NORBA Nationals race aboard the design in the early 1990s, jests were immediately quieted. That of course isn’t to say that they stopped all together, but by the late ’90s, when Slingshot and Mantis frames clad with Pro Flex and AMP Research forks were frequent and curious sights on the trail, oddball designs were commonplace. This was a
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