I would like to tap some of that knowledgebase out there. I haven't seen many and was wondering more about them. I have always been enamored by them.

Did they make forks?
How long was the Sling Shot produced?
Any idea to the number made?

This is what I have...

[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1068/858971749_42b93c7348.jpg?v=0[/img]

web page

It was born in Grand Rapids Michigan, Brain child
Was Gordy(Gordon) Bryan, Owner of Free wheel bicycle shop, on leonrd street in Grand Rapids MI.
he started the company in his garage in 80, he partnered up with a family freind in late 81/82, they had a major falling out in mid 83, Gordon And the gental man( I cant remember his name to save my life right now.) split ways at that point, and the other gentalman ended up with the legal rights to the company( name,patents, ect.). Gordy is a wonderful man, he has done alot for the kids in the aera, for alot of people... I know all this because I was a bike shop rider for him from 81-87.
I seen him again last year @ the shop doin his thing,(the shop has been there since 73'..)
gave me an old shop jersey, shop stickers. and some fond memories....
hope this helps a little.....

I just noticed the Freewheeler bicycle shop sponcer
spot on tha AD.....
Cool....
there were 200 orginals made.

Wow!! I really need to spend more time in this area of the forum. I was a lil young but I do remember seeing one of these at my old race track. I had no info but I'm glad that NBKA-SENSEI was able to enlighten us.

Mark Groehndal (sp?) was the builder (and I think he had a brother involved too). I was told about 800 made (only about 1-2 dozen cruisers...and ONE mini). The frames started out with square tubed front triangles, then round. Lot's of changes with them, i.e. little gussets added all the time. Big majority of them cracked.

i do enjoy riding my slingshot,i rode this at the milton keynes meet to help raise money for stephen murray a few weeks back and it held up well.

you can just spot me 3 from the left on slingshot and they do flex but with enough presure on cables its quite stable for an old frame.

after the race its still together ,shame i wasnt to good

o and i have spare decals if anyone ever needs any pm me dan

OT: Dan, what;s that chrome freestyle frame in the 1st pic??

that is a prototype vincent freestyler from around 1984/5 .made in the uk.

The SlingShot bike concept was invented by Mark Groendal. First prototype like 1980. He and his brother (Joel) started the business to build & sell them. Gordy was involved some ...but he had his shop to run so it was mostly the Groendal Brothers.

They were first built as BMX bikes in early 80s. But the SlingShot concept did not work well on BMX track (wheelbase stretch and lots-o-flex) ...around then, mtbs were coming on strong so sometime Later-mid 80s had first production SlingShot MTB.
Here they found their thing... what made it crappy BMX bike, made it a great MTB

Over next years frame designs evolved - many good mountain bikes built.
Around 1994-95 the company was sold to investors for first time. It's been sold 3 or 4 times since and has become what it is today.
Current owner is having hard go of it... but he's working hard and wants it to grow.


Didn't make BMX fork. I think Todd is correct re production numbers.
IIRC - you can find detail on FirstFlightBikes

The current owner is a guy I went to high school with!