Trail bike

Annoyed with the constant series of chain problems on my designs so far I resoved to do my next frame with no fancy chain routing. Still sticking to the high-as-practical pivot point design with a simple swingarm I started work on a 26" wheeled trail bike with 5" travel:

I was pretty happy with how this frame came together, particularly the swingarm:

I don't think this bike looked quite as impressive as the 29er DH prototype but it wasn't a bad machine:

More to the point, this was my first build that really worked. I rode this at Cwm Carn (it survived the red DH course), at Swinley forrest (it was pretty handy over the jumps) and I even commuted on it. It pedalled well, it wasn't exactly light but was a perfectly usable weight and it was totally reliable; and with a short chainstay length and sensible head angle it was even quite fun to ride. The suspension action was pretty unimpressive but that probably had something to do with the £30 rear shock that I had fitted.

Not quite the perfect bike, but getting closer?