The Biggest Flops In MTB Tech | Why Did These Products Fail?

Not everyone gets it right the first time... or the second or third time for that matter either! Bike companies love innovation, but sometimes pursuing the new and interesting can be a windy road, filled with pitfalls and dark turns. We've compiled a list of some of the biggest flops we could think of when it comes to mountain bike and component design, where optimistic companies have made unique MTB products that haven't quite hit the mark.

⏱ Timestamps ⏱
00:00 - Intro
00:24 - URT Suspension Frames
02:44 - Girvin Flex Stem
04:41 -Truvativ Hammerschmidt
06:57 - Shimano Dual Control
08:13 - Linkage Forks
9:50 - Shimano Airlines
11:12 - The Cannondale Lefty?

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Do you use any of these products regularly? Do you disagree with us or think we've missed anything from the list? Let us know 👇

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[Mtb_Nerd]

Build a bike with all the biggest flops! 😂

[lacucaracha]

I would call lefies "not worth it" instead of a flop:

-It works
-It genuinely makes the bike lighter while not negatively affecting anything else


BUT:

-Special hubs
-Only fitting some bikes
-Lower volume = more cost

only make with worth it for races and competitions

[FoothillsBrassBandSC]

My first bike had roller cam brakes mounted underneath the chainstays. They were great if you wanted to spend your whole ride digging mud out with a stick.

[Hydun]

Actually Mavic had already launched an electronic groupset by the time the Airlines came out called the Mektronic

[karlj]

How can the lefty be a flop? Its been around for

[tomwagemans]

I had the xtr dual control and loved them. It took a while to get used to them but then it was a good system, no problems whatsoever.

[GeezersWithToys-ublu]

No, the lefty absolutely isn't a flop. It's tighter and lighter than anything. The biggest problem with the Lefty is Cannondale. It's copyrighted and everything about it is propetorial. Meaning, you can't just go buy yourself a Lefty at any shop like you can a Fox or a RockShock. And, getting it serviced is.... well, you better know somebody with all the special tools to do it with.. If it wasn't for the difficulty servicing them I'd want to run a Lefty on everything, with the yeah, there's a reason I'm not riding my old Rush as much as I love it. But no way is it a flop, they still make them for a reason, because riding them is awesome.

[devincook]

The lefty Ocho is my favorite XC fork. It eats roots and sharp edges much better than my 2024 SID ultimate and my 2023 Fox 34 factory Stepcast

[RalphBrooker-gniv]

What!!! You’re letting the *elastomer* (in shocks or forks) through! Only slightly worked in extremely hot weather. Rigid chromoly far superior.
Great to see Martyn again.
The hammerschmidt on the Transition looked a sweet package.
Cannondale flop: 20" rear wheel, 26" front.
Magura hydraulic rim brake. I had one. Mixed feelings.
GT thermoplastic frame with a bladder inside
5th Element twin-valve, 2-speed shock!! When solving the single pivot design became an issue not about pivot placement but twin-speed dampers. Tbf Rockshox guru Tim Flook, top bloke, was the UK concessionaire for the 5th Element. I had one on a Bullit. Tim was brilliant given all the problems I had. Several trips to his barn workshop in the West Country.

[peglor]

The combination of rapid rise derailleur and dual control was absolutely amazing. It does seem that what killed dual control is that there's a large cohort of people who hang sideways on the brake levers for no reason while riding. As someone who doesn't do this, so they worked beautifully for me. I put thousands of miles on a bike with this setup, and it shifts a lot better than current 12 speed. The pinnacle of drivetrains was Shimano 3x10 with a clutch derailleur though. Every new system I try feels significantly worse than that, mostly because the downshift force is way higher for some reason. The only system that partly beats it is the front derailleur shifting on Shimano 2x12 drivetrains, which is the best front shifting I've ever experienced (And I've put thousands of miles on this setup too) but almost nobody even knows that exists.

[neilmeansneil]

I loved my Flexstem went I spent £135 on it in 1992, it made riding much more comfortable on the dirt trails, bridlepaths and tracks we were riding on then. Compared with the available suspension forks available at the time, it was the best option. I've still got it fitted to my Saracen I bought in 1990 lurking in the back of the shed!

[dwaynebrietzke]

My first suspension bike was a 1998 Rocky Mtn Pipeline. URT but you could select between 4, 5 or 6 inches of rear travel just using a QR skewer on the rear shock.

[patrickrgrier]

Hammerschmidt was expensive, had a dedicated bottom bracket, a couple parts were fragile, but have instant, no pedaling downshift for moments when surprises arose, I liked it.

[blurglide]

I rode a linkage fork on a BMW motorcycle and it was amazing. Much less brake dive.

[Andy_ATB]

Lefty is hardly a flop; still going and won the last World Cup in Les Gets (Alan Hatherly), and a bronze medal in the Olympics.

[carsonchambers]

Berm Peak has a cool video about the headshock’s history. It basically paved the way for the lefty fork. It rode better than the forks of that era, and eventually got up to 100mm of travel (I think, not sure if there were any higher travel fork versions).

Only downside was its needle bearings design. Besides the fact it was a PITA to service apparently, the needles could get out of alignment from rapid constant movement. Which required you to disassemble the fork, and realign the bearings correctly.

Would have been a great fork if they found a way to limit the travel of the bearings so that they couldn’t get out of alignment. Anyways its successor, the lefty, is also another engineering marvel for bikes. IIRC the shock is basically flipped upside down compared to a normal shock.

The downsides like others have said, the lack of specialized hubs that specifically fit it. Plus the weight of it is pretty hefty due to the big piece of metal that connects the shock, and hub together. It needs to be a giant solid connection between the two in order to hold the rider’s weight. Dunno if it has the same problem of the needle bearings getting out of alignment as it’s predecessor, and if it’s a pita to service.

I agree about those combined brake, and shifters, aka the brifters. Having to pull the handle a certain way to brake in an emergency (that you could pull incorrectly, and end up shifting instead of stopping), seems like a bad idea.

[Rambleon]

How about the Softride, a bike designed for comfort in triathlons. And then they beefed up the frame and created a mountain bike (catapult) around the concept.

[fakeaccount]

Linkage forks do not deserve to be on this list. I have always liked linkage suspension forks.
1- I had an AMP Linkage fork on a light weight cross country bike i built up in the 1990s. It was great for what I was using it for. Lightest suspension fork available at the time. Was lighter even than a rigid cromolly fork. I had built the bike with light cross country in mind.
2- I also took a Girwyn Linkage Fork off a Pro Flex, and put it on a hard tail MTB that I built up for tougher trails. This would have been back in the late 1990s I think. The fork was heavy, but had a really good feel compared to telescoping forks available at the time. I had built this bike up as a more capable cross country hardtail MTB.

[eddierivera]

Shimano Rapid rise derailleur. Had an XTR and loved it but some peoples brain couldn’t deal with having to think. Knuckleheads! My AXS shifters are all setup in reverse and I love it, but I can chew bubblegum and walk at the same time.

[drumbrakes]

URT was one way of solving a number of issues for early full suss bikes: One of the biggies was mounting cantilever Rim brakes They need to be held a fixed distance and angle relative to the rear hub, be strongly braced against each other and have a path for the brake cable to pull from. Designers also had to reduce twist at the rear hub relative to rim brakes when 135x10 with a QR was the only hub standard available, so keeping the chain stays and seat stays all in one piece did the job better then many designs.

URT has been surpassed by modern designs but it wasn't a flop at the time, and that's how they should be judged now.
Disc brakes and through axles really opened up the options for suspension designers.

If you want proper flops:
Greentyres (solid foam tyres that needed a 12" trye lever just to get them on.)

Biopace!

Helical (self energising!) cantilever brakes (used the forward motion of the rim to push them on harder, but terrible modulation, and disappeared when V-brakes came along)

Bullhorn handlebars.