The young ‘uns amongst you might not believe this, but there was a time when even the validity of front suspension forks was questioned. For those that weren’t sold on this new fangled idea, but didn’t want to suffer the pain that a fully rigid bike dished out, then there was an alternative…the suspension stem.
The most well known of these was the Girvin Flex Stem, and that was a crime against suspension itself (it even used elastomers!), but its saving grace was that it was at least relatively cheap compared to a suspension fork. This Softride stem on the other hand was the supposed dogs bollocks of suspension stems, and it cost as much as many suspension forks…but unsurprisingly it was just as rubbish as the Girvin, which is why I think it’s the Softride in particular that needs naming and shaming.
