Head scratching rear suspension

[guest868]

I'm calling on the aged wisdom that dwells here...
A few months ago I read a few pages online as a magazine article, they were discussing the development of long travel rear suspension on motocross bikes. The date would have been around the late 70s/early 80s bikes, and I think it was Maico. Anyway, the reason it was so interesting was that the company (Maico?) had used front forks split, as the rear suspension units, in a twin shock format.
Now I know I saw this, and read it, but I'll be damned if I can find any reference to it now! If anyone can help out then please do!
Oh and a picture of an interesting front end to keep you on track-

[guest7]

All I can find is references to Maico being the first to use 'lay down' shocks, thus increasing rear suspension travel.

Oooh, a big twin shock 70s aircooled Maico... that's a bike that commands your attention, especially as they had tiny drum brakes. Very bloody fast though 

GC

[Steve H]

Very nice piece of engineering, but what problem is it trying to solve ?

[guest7]

Very nice piece of engineering, but what problem is it trying to solve ?

A world aluminium surplus?

GC

[guest868]

Thanks for the responses. I'm sure it was Maico. I remember the article saying that they wanted to try long travel but there were no rear shocks built, so they used forks.
The Ribi front end is supposed to address dive under braking. They did a steel version with twin shocks as well. It's very nice.

[Andy M]

The Ribi front end is supposed to address dive under braking. They did a steel version with twin shocks as well. It's very nice.

Enfield solved that years ago, but I see Ribi are going for a similar front brake, so at least that experience wasn't wasted 

Andy

[guest868]

Ha ha ha! See I bet you all thought I was mad eh? It was Maico- http://articles.superhunky.com/4/17 and it was front suspension out back.

[JOOLZ]

I have never heard of Maico doing this with the rear shocks, but I will have a trawl through the internet and see what I can come up with. In my late teens I used to own a Maico 490 twin plug, a fearsome and sometimes frightening bike that I often took up through the forest.

[andy230]

Very nice piece of engineering, but what problem is it trying to solve ?

A world aluminium surplus?

GC

Hahahaha!!     Love it...

a

[guest868]

Here's the earlier steel version-



and some more pictures of another CR-

The Ribi front end is supposed to address dive under braking. They did a steel version with twin shocks as well. It's very nice.

Enfield solved that years ago, but I see Ribi are going for a similar front brake, so at least that experience wasn't wasted 

Andy

How did Enfield do that Andy?

[guest7]

Coool!


GC

[guest7]

Is fork dive such a massive problem on a crosser? I think most off-roaders subconsciously utilise the difference in steering angle when braking hard (or not) when cornering.

GC