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So iv just changed my road bike from an Planet X full carbon 105 10 speed Ultegra wheels to
The stiffest most responsive bike iv owned.
Specialized sl4 tarmac, Ultegra 11 speed fulcrum Quattro wheels.
What have you ridden been impressed with when all your power goes forward?
Some Cannondale road bike I can't remember the model from 05 I think, like riding a metal gate, hated it! first and last aluminium road bike.....sold it after a year and it put me off another road bikes for 9 years....
Has to be our 20" wheel Specialized kids bike. Made of scaffold, weighed in at the same as an adults bike and rode like a lump of granite...
An Orange Aluminium O.
It was so stiff that if you rode over a coin you could tell if it was heads or tails. After a days riding my arms had absorbed so much vibration they were useless - I could barely unlock my front door.
I miss that bike.
Mk 1 santa cruz chameleon
or
Mk1 cove stiffee
One of the own-brand alu road bikes from Revolution.
Sale bargain that went straight back after the first few pedal strokes in my street because I could feel every grain of grit and dust on the tarmac.
MTB-wise, I've had a fair few bikes but nothing horrendous. Current Orange Stage 6 is hard to beat for lateral stiffness in a good way. Previous Mega 290 had a little too harsh a ride in a bad way, for me.
Have to agree on the Orange Aluminium O. Still suffering white knuckle 25 years on.
my 1997 aluminium GT Backwoods. no give in that at all, it rattles your skeleton.
Some Cannondale road bike I can’t remember the model from 05 I think, like riding a metal gate, hated it! first and last aluminium road bike…..sold it after a year and it put me off another road bikes for 9 years….
Ironically my Cannondale is ~2004 and is one of the nicest aluminium bike I've ridden (and most reviewers cite cannondales of that era being some of the nicest!).
I had a Cannondale MTB from that era, and that was absolutely stiff, you had to barely touch the pedals and it would just rocket forwards!
Also, Orange Sub Zero, a Sub 5 front end welded to a Ms Isle back end. If the Cannondale was stiff that thing was almost beyond stiff, it was completely unyielding!
My old Dave Yates -made of Columbus Max OR - serious chain stays- and back then - 1.9" tyres didn't help much either 😉
2012 Canyon Grand Canyon AL8.something
Arse-punishly stiff, unbeatable spec for the money, super fast yet utterly uninspiring. Sold it after a about a dozen rides.
Toss up between the early v-braked SC chameleon with what were I swear 1" square chainstays, and the Planet-X Compo that seemed to be made of baseball bats welded together.
That's my memories, anyway.
Mk 1 santa cruz chameleon
or
Mk1 cove stiffee
Have to agree with this.
Had both of them. Stiffest bikes I've ever ridden.
The Chameleon was the stiffer of the two though.
Those big square chainstays were brutal.
My orange missile or mk1 chameleon neither felt like they gave a mm.
Cube cx bike, persuaded me that cx bikes are not the do it all bikes as promised.
MTB -- (I don't change my bikes much) - old M2 Stumpjumper -- twitchy, light, fast - and rather unforgiving..
My Klein Fervour was/is very stiff. So much so I had to have a week off work due to lower back muscle spasms after using it at Mountain Mayhem in Sandwell back in 2001.
On-One 456. Proved the value of tubeless. Fun bike but harsh
What have you ridden been impressed with when all your power goes forward?
Just because a bike feels harsh, doesn't mean it is efficient.
My original chameleon. Wow did that give you a sore back if you rode it a long way.
Stiffist MTB was probably a C456. Felt like it could cope with anything and was very unforgiving but, I loved the way it rode - until I got knackered later in a ride and then it was a real brutal beast on anything other than the smoothest of trails.
Although I generally ride FS nowadays, have also gone back to a carbon hardtail as n+1 - this time with plus tyres to take away the brutality a bit. Seems to work well.
A 1999 Robinson ruckus oversized cromo steel tubed dirt jump BMX.
Your roadbike isn't stiff
An Orange Aluminium O.
It was so stiff that if you rode over a coin you could tell if it was heads or tails. After a days riding my arms had absorbed so much vibration they were useless – I could barely unlock my front door.
Imiss****ing hated that bike.
+2 (and FTFY obvs)
I swear I lost all my fillings coming off Morven one time....
Some horrible Kaloi Alu frame from the bike shop in Reigate decades ago. It had rectangular section extruded chain stays with internal stiffening structures and the front triangle was massive size tubes. Horrible jarring POS.
All aluminium bikes for me;
Claud Butler CRX which was probably one of the 2nd generation of Aluminium where they figured out that you cant just swap like for like with steel. Horrible ride.
SE Floval Flyer which just felt absolutely dead.
Bianchi Pista Concept that I'd swapped with a mate. Stiff, focussed racing bike, horrendous to ride on the roads.
Unsurprisingly, a Cove Stiffee! Did Snowdon on it donkeys years ago - top bike that always felt like it was going to get you out of the mess your lack of skills were getting you into, and it certainly was stiff. That and an old PX Nanolight that pinged you about a fair bit.
Another was my friend Bens green pink and white 1990 Klein Attitude. Like riding a wooden giraffe. Tall short and dead
I had a Norco Sasquatch in 2004 that was horrifically stiff. My hands and back still haven’t recovered from having to use it for a week in Morzine when my DH bike broke.
Identiti Mr Hyde
Egads it was stiff. fast, but stiff.
My OG Ragley Mmmmmmmmmmmmmbop.
Still convinced it’s the reason I had to have my knees done.
my 4x gt moto is very stiff. Large alloy tubing and a cnc yoke. great bike tho.
Vertically stiff and laterally stiff. Rode like 33lbs of mild steel. Even with the forks I was a bit broken after ssuk in Staveley.
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Giant Bowery track bike I had in Oz. It felt like you just had to touch the pedal for it to drive forward.
It was brilliant for climbing.
Rode it up Mt Nebo on 48/18 10 years ago now. (Similar to Bealach na Bah)
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I had another stashed in Cairns that I used to ride up to the Copperlode Dam at Lake Morris, much the same sort of climb.
+1 for the Mr Hyde given its back end was made from girders. However... When was ready to replace mine, I thought I'd go steel for a bit more compliance. I got an XS BFe which has turned out to be even stiffer. Tiny rear triangle with no give in it anywhere. Great little bike but batters you on a longer ride.
A Ragley mmmbop. Only thing wrong with it was the stiffness, I replaced it with the titanium version which was just ridiculously better
Mick_r - did you weld some bike bits to a radiator!? That's epic!
Anyways, I had a banshee morphine which was pretty stiff but nothing, and I mean nothing, could prepare me for the Nicolai 2mxtb. I suspect vertical deflection during normal use was at
least an order of magnitude less than most other bikes.
1997 or 98 GT Zaskar (whichever was the last year they made it in America). There was no shortage of trail feedback from that bike! Ironically I was offered it as a warranty replacement for a broken LTS (there's a suprise...). It didn't last long, but I've still got the frame gathering dust!
Cotic Bfe. Fell for the hype. Lasted a winter before moving it on. Unbelievably solid.
It's a tie between the 1997 Kona Koa or the Dawes Edge ONE single speed
The square alloy girder rear triangle of the Dawes probably edges it (wahey!), but both bikes take the piss out of your nethers in 7005 ways, unless running very low tyre pressures.
No, I really loved it, honestly - it was uncomfortable but fun.
It climbed like a spider and turned on the spot. I've never been able to bunny hop so well on another bike, and its the only bike on which I successfully pulled off a front wheel 180.
Dawes Edge One singlespeed, a bike constructed entirely from construction girders. Ragley Mmmbop, a bike constructed entirely from aluminium piping half-inched from a nuclear power plant. Giant OCR2, I think, just very stiff.
The Edge One was probably the stiffest of them tbh, horribly uncomfortable but it was very direct. The rear triangle was some sort of large, box-section aluminium.
OCR frames weren't all that stiff.
the ORC2 was harsh though but mainly because of the fork
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Pace RC200 ...
Best ride has to be my Columbus SLX 'custom built' 1990 Road bike with Dura Ace. Compliant over bumps as it's steel, but the internal tube 'rifles' in the tubes add to stiffness in key areas.
The 'fixed gear' alloy/carbon bike I used for commuting wasn't anything like as good over crap road surfaces.
Stiff doesn't mean fastest.
Specialized Langster ally track bike - stiffer than RSJ's
@malvernrider funnily I was thinking that the Koa I had was one of the nicer Al frames I've ridden.
Orange Sub Zero, meant to be super-strong but I still cracked the thing
early v-braked SC chameleon with what were I swear 1″ square chainstays
Close, but not quite... 😅 (this is a mk2 with mounts for vees and IS)
1996 Trek 1400 roadie.
Glued aluminium, 23mm tyres.
From the days when no one had a clue how to make alloy comfy AND safe.
Still have it, because it's very pretty, but my word, it's nasty.
It's really good fun for about half an hour. After that, everything above the waist just goes numb.🙂
Having said that, I've done my longest ever rides on that frame, but I was younger and harder then.
I still like riding it. A flexible seatpost, very thick bar tape and soft wheels make it bearable these days.
Did I mention it's very pretty?
My mates cannondale mtb in the 80s. 24 inch back wheel, 26 front. Rigid natch. And 1.8 tyres at high pressure. But it was pink and looked awesome.
We underestimate awesome.
All these standards and awesome isn't one of them.
Humans - basic design flaw.
Carrera Fury, indestructible and good fun to ride but came back from a ride and had properly sore hands and stiff back.
Flexiest I ever rode was a mates cotic roadrat it swayed around like a cat having a stroke . Tried it once and handed straight back without a word because he thought it was ace and nothing I'd have said would have changed his mind
Got to be my Cannondale R400 (2.8 series road frame) from 1993. Still in service as my commuter, but every time I ride it I think "This is mega bumpy!"
My on one 456 summer season. It was already super stiff but.I decided a 10mm rear axle and some serious handbuilt wheels would be good. It was super stiff, super responsive but omg it was bone shatteringly rough!
On-one 456. May as well have been made out of scaffolding tubes. Bloody awful jarring thing. Replaced by a Dialled Alpine which, if anything, was even rigider but was somehow a whole load more betterer...
Def a GT Avalanche back in the 1990s
Saracen jump bike from years ago
OCR frames weren’t all that stiff.
the ORC2 was harsh though but mainly because of the fork
Yeah, you may be right in that it was more harsh than stiff. Not much fun on typical UK roads anyway.
It will never be a road bike (unless road bikes are all you have ever owned which is odd for an MTB forum). A small alloy MTB frame with big downtime, big box chain stays etc,. will always be stiffer.
It won't necessarily be less comfortable than a less stiff road bike because suspensions fork and 2"+ plus tyres compared to 23c tyres at 100PSI on a rigid frame make more difference that how stiff the frame is.
Azonic DS Evolution.
Had one of these, brutally stiff, but 17 year old me didn’t notice, and kept up with guys on DH bikes...
A 1998 GT hardtail, £400 or so (so not an Avalanche or Zaskar). Triple triangle, bright orange, rock solid.
The Rockhopper I replaced it with had so much give I had to fit a brake booster to stop the seatstays bending every time I braked...
Well for me the Orange Aluminium O too. Possibly the biggest seat stays on a rigid hard tail. Still got my old frame hanging up in the workshop!
1987 Cannondale SR500. Had the p!55 royally taken out of me by my 531 and 753 riding buddies (crash replacement for a bent 531c frame) but from the first pedal stroke it was apparent that all energy pushed the bike forward. I won a load of hillclimbs on that bike (6'2", 78kg).
When I sold it (by mistake; purchaser came to view a different bike but liked the Cannondale and I was broke), I attempted to recapture that feeling with its replacements. Never achieved it.
a carbon stumpjumper expert 2008.
it was my 'getting back into biking' experiment. loved it but quickly moved onto more compliant bendy tubed niche craziness...
Not much fun on typical UK roads anyway.
I absolutely loved mine and rode 10s of thousands of typical UK road miles on it (incl a fair few centuries). Just goes to show we're not all the same though, eh?
Bar tape was double wrapped on the tops (made a huge difference to the harshness of the fork).
An early 1990s Raleigh mountain bike that I bought in a junk shop around 2010 for use as a pub bike / commuter (I only had a flat 3 mile ride to work).
From what I can gather it was sold as an entry level "proper" mountain bike back in the day when Raleigh also did really nice stuff. Not in the least bit fancy but decent gears and looked the part.
Holy Mother, it was unbelievably stiff. If it was formed from a solid block of cast iron I don't think it could be less yielding. It made my low end alloy road bike with 23mm tyres feel like a magic carpet. I have massive resect for anyone who took one of these down a mountain back in the day with the cantis as well.
Borrowed my mates aluminium o to commute with in London for a couple of weeks. I gave up after two days. Every pothole felt like a bomb had gone off under the bike. Hideous heap that needs turning into coke cans.
Planet X Armadillo.
Properly fun bike for its time, highest BB ever.
Fantastic speckled dragon paintjob.
Stiffer than a really stiff thing.