Disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever worked for Slingshot. I’m not related to, or married into the family of anyone who has - or currently does - work for Slingshot. I have never even seen one.
I wanted a Wrist Rocket
when I was a kid, but my dad wouldn’t let me have one. Something about his concern for the neighborhood birds.
BB guns fell into the same category as the Wrist Rocket…
something I lusted for, but would never own.
So I made myself a sling instead.
Couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn. Of course there were no barns in my neighborhood, but if there was, I probably couldn’t of hit them.
Since I was bent on mayhem and destruction, I had to come up with something with destructive power that I could easily get my 10 year old hands on. Then it came to me - matches! They were everywhere and with matches you could start fires! Alright, now we were cookin’!
That was, till my dad caught me playin’ with the matches behind the house and had me hold one until it burnt down to my fingertips. Yow, that hurt!
But I digress. I am just interested in learning about Slingshots, the bikes.
they were pretty popular 5 years back or so, heard good things about them and seen a couple but never ridden one. I’d check out www.roadbikereview.com and maybe search the reviews section.
Thanks Tai. Unfortunately, just 1 review. It seems as if this could be the most aero bike out there since it does not have a down tube. Or does it run afoul of the same rules as Softride, etc?
Hello, It runs afoul of UCI rules, not tri rules. Also it doesn’t have a down tube ,but does have a cable in its place. The picture shown is a prototype with the cable not yet installed.
My wife rode a Slingshot tri bike for a few years and I still have one of their mtn bikes that I’ve since converted to a single speed. It was a reasonably light bike for it’s time (circa 1996) but it really suffered in stiffness. My wife is only 115 lbs. and she couldn’t really climb out of the saddle without flexing the frame. The design supposedly provided some minimal shock absorption but it’s not much more than a hardtail. I did see a carbon prototype several years ago that never went into production. Too bad, that might have solved some of the bikes problems.
Not that light and very flexi is what I heard from the couple of guys that I know that rode them… I don’t imagine the aerodynamics are actually that great… Points for the idea, but that is all…
I have a 2004 cyclocross slingshot (steel-folding frameset) that I use for touring. It works well for the type of back-road touring that I enjoy. The manufacture was very helpful in setting up what I wanted, and added braze-ons for front and rear racks. The frame absorbs shock from rough surfaces, and even allows some off-road riding. I did a 550 mile tour of Michigan’s upper-peninsula, including about 150 miles of ‘gravel’ roads (really sand with big rocks).
**The frame folds easily for travel, the bike and both wheels fit into a box that is under the size limit for Delta’s baggage guidelines. I am planning to take it to Denmark in October. **
It is not a road racing bike, there is significant bottom bracket flex when you climb, but it is quite comfortable for long distance riding. I will be trying cyclocross racing this fall, and I believe that it will work well for that.
I picked one up on ebay pretty cheap two years ago, mainly because it can be broken down into suitcase-able size pieces for travel. Have never rode it, I got laid off and it is still in storage, need to put a front derailer on it.
They are/were too small to sponsor anyone of note & just faded away.
