So how did it come about? Well, Brent had already spent many a year designing, making and racing off–road Baja trucks for the likes of Ford and Nissan, and basically he just liked making stuff. He then got into mountain biking and soon realised that he could produce something better than what was currently on offer. It was in 1992 when he originally started the bike side of Foes Fabrications, and then just a year later we got to see that first production LTS. That was just the start, and it was all taking place in Brent’s garage on the outskirts of LA.

Ever since the day that Brent first started thinking about making a bike he knew he’d struggle to get a suitable quality shocks or forks from any of the people already involved in the bike business, but with his off–road truck connections he had a solution…Charlie Curnutt. If you wanted the best suspension for your truck then Curnutt shocks were the way to go, and it was obvious to Brent that if he was to find help anywhere Charlie would be his man. Actually it was his son Charlie Jr who was already making shocks for mini–bikes that turned out to be Brent’s saviour, and that relationship marked the start of yet another part of what makes Foes bikes so special, and so ahead of their time.

It took Brent and Charlie Jr a few years to translate their know–how into something applicable for the bikes, but by the time 1995 came around they had it sorted…well for the forks at least. The introduction of the Foes F1 fork finally gave the LTS frame a worthy playmate. Five inches of travel were on offer through a triple clamp fork that had pretty much everything that you’d expect to see in a quality fork today; Coil sprung with air assist/progression, adjustable rebound and compression damping, internal floating piston and a massive 30mm bolt–thru hub. It was massively impressive to say the least, especially when you think that it was made half a decade before we got to see a RockShox BoXXer, and even when we did get to see one of those it looked basic in comparison to the F1, which by then had more travel and an oil bath design. When I turned up at DH race and saw Jason Jessop aboard his Foes LTS complete with F1 fork I thought I’d come across a time traveller or something. Even if you had a suspension bike (many didn’t at that time) it looked archaic in comparison to the Foes, it was like looking into the future of DH bikes.

Of course we all know that it’s not just a fork that makes a bike, the rear shock is equally important, and Brent knew that too. It took a few years longer to produce, but with a Curnutt shock in charge of things at the rear Foes were finally able to make all that travel perform exactly as they wanted. What made Foes so different though was that Brent took a kind of holistic approach to designing a frame, something that he still does today. Rather than come up with a design and then bolt whatever shock to it, Brent pretty much did the reverse. Make a great shock, and then come up with a chassis that brings the most out of it. Some other companies are now doing that to some degree, but at the time it was pretty revolutionary and Foes are still the only manufacturer that we know of that make both the shock and frame in–house. If you’ve ever ridden a Curnutt equipped Foes you’ll know what a difference that can make.

It’s easy to forget too just how ahead of its time the shock itself was. It was the forefather of stable platform damping, there’s no doubt about it. Would we have the likes of ProPedal without it? Who knows, but if your shock or fork has any kind of platform damping it almost certainly owes something to the Curnutt. On that note, if you’re riding a modern full susser the chances are that your bike owes something else to Foes, and that’s a low leverage ratio. They’ve always believed that a low leverage ratio is the way to go for ultimate suspension performance, and even took it as far as their 2:1 bikes, but for some reason it took every other manufacturer a whole lot longer to cotton on to the idea, and it’s only in relatively recent times that other shock manufacturers have started making much longer stroke shocks. More about that later…