rear triangle

[Jon_Prothero]

Hi, I am new to the forum. I have yesterday I bought a titanium coloured proflex 586 for £200 pounds. It is in very good condition and we had to hacksaw   two locks off it because the man did not have the keys anymore, he said the last time he took it for a run was about seven years ago! Anyway I have heard that the rear triangle of these bikes can be far to flexy and even break quite easy. Is this true? Any advice on getting the back end as stiff as possible?

[shovelon]

I recall that the weak part of the rear is the strut. I have never seen a broken strut. If bent, they can be restraightned.

The swingarm has had an upgrade at one time. A reinforcement plate had been welded over the derailluer input hole for some reason. I suspect that the hole had weakened the joint.

Have fun!

Terry

[Simon]

I take it you meant 856
anyway I feel the rear end of the 856 to be very
stiff laterally,never read anything to contradict this,
it has a short aluminium s/arm and a strut so by design its going
to be stiffer than a design with a long s/arm
linked to a frame via a forward mounted shock unit.

Simon.

[Jon_Prothero]

My mistake simon, I did mean 856, I went on a mountain bike forum asking should I buy this bike for £300 off a friend, (he originally spent approx £2200 with up grades)  the bikers there where generally critical, a couple of bikers said  it was flexy some said it was great in its day but most said I should save and get a new bike. Anyway when I turned my friend down  he said OK, have it for £200! which I felt I could not refuse because the parts alone where very good. Anyway thanks for your postive reply. I give it a good ride on the weekend!

[Ziggy]

Definately wouldn't class it as a flexy frame, and it's a hell of a lot lighter than most stuff you'd get these days which is nice...!  Great as an XC bike, but you'd obviously run into problems if you treated it like a modern 6" travel thing, & clattered it down 'proper' DH.

[Colin]

£200 for an "586" (sic) sounds like a bargain!

Hey 856's are great bikes and if it's a go-er for £200 then your larfin' !!

P.S. Who's garage was it padlocked in when you "bought" it.........."we had to hacksaw two padlocks off it.........."
look out, it'll be on "Crimewatch"! <grin>

Seriously though, as long as the pivots are in good knick and the shock is fitted properly and working OK, then there should be no noticeable "flex", but as other people have said, it's an XC bike not a DH Monster, but hell ride it and see if you can break it!

I generally chicken out before the bike does!

Col.

[Jon_Prothero]

Thanks for your replies they have been really helpful. One thing I did was put a decent air pressure in my tyres with a pressure guaged pump I bought today. What a difference! I got so used to riding my rigid bike with a very low pressure (delivered by my dogy mini pump that has trouble reaching anything like the sort of pressure that should be in the tyre) this was ok on my rigid stumpjumper it gave it some protection over the rougher stuff. Anyway I can't see me do any real downhilling, downsteps yes! Small jumps Yes. I shant be trying an Evel Knevel jump over loads of buses!