1997 santa cruz tazmon

This is one I just couldn't pass up. A 1997 Santa Cruz Tazmon, with a Manitou FS Bulge Ti fork. I was always curious to know how this bike rode given it's unusual shock mounting.

By the early 2000s, designers were looking for suspension to be 'active' - meaning they would react to any bumps, not just the large ones. Early bikes like this Tazmon though, seemed to be more about riding like a hardtail until you hit something big.

What was odd about the Tazmon was that the Risse Terminator shock was mounted to the frame in two places; as all shocks were at the eyelet, and again with a band securing the shock body to the frame. Now, this shouldn't work because the swingarm mount will move in an arc, but the shock can only move in a linear path since the shock body is fixed.

I always figured this would make the shock less likely to move, and therefore the bike would ride like a softtail at best. Of course we're talking about 80mm of travel here, an amount that barely registers as suspension in the modern mountain bike world. I've seen reviews of bikes with 100mm of travel regarded as having so little suspension that it doesn't matter.

In 1997, 100mm was the realm of burly downhill extreme freeriding. I guess the mountains and roots and rocks have gotten a lot bigger since then.

I posted this in the vintage group I belong to on Facebook, and someone mentioned that there is an eccentric that allows this arrangement to work. I can't see any evidence of that, but I can verify that it works.

I believe this was the top fork in the Manitou lineup for '97 with a titanium spring and the 'bulge' stanchions. It only moves about an inch, so I'm thinking the elastomers in there are toast.

And speaking of toast - the tires. The front is minutes away from an explosive blow out, and the rear is headed there. They are Moab Trail XCs, a brand I don't recognize, but I'm told were the Schwinn OEM brand at that time.

Other parts include XT V-brakes (my favourite M739 models) and levers, XT Octalink cranks, XT rear derailleur, XTR front derailleur, SRAM Attack shifters, a TREK bar and Topo stem, and a cool ControlTech seatpost. Never heard of Topo before. It attaches just like the Syncros stems with the clamp built into the body of the stem.

The wheels are XT hubs on Mavic red 517 rims. The wheels were the clinching factor in pulling the trigger on this deal - the hubs are smooth and solid, the rims dead straight and have lots of life left.

​The Attack shifters were the extra long ones, which were an unusual thing. The complaint that kept surfacing about grip shifts was ghost shifts. Which was what happened when just the act of gripping the bar caused enough twist to shift. I don't see how making the grip even longer could ever help with that, but that's what SRAM tried. I can't say that I ever experienced a ghost shift in my time with grip shifts.

And OnZa barends, these were known as ski-bends I think. As opposed to the L-bends. Makes sense when you see them in context.

Now, it's apology time. Because if you're wondering how this rides compared to my Heckler, or my Haro Werks, I can't tell you. I immediately tore this down for parts. It's getting cold and I really need funds for other projects, what can I say?

​If you're interested in the frame, the fork, and maybe the V-brakes and levers, let me know.

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