What's Good for the Front, Is Good for the Rear

The Manitou FS was a fairly early suspension design that incorporated a modified suspension fork in place of the rear seat stays. The single-pivot design rotated at a pivot mounted just behind the bottom bracket, and nicely machined joints attach the Easton ProGram aluminum front triangle to the rear shock and the square-tubed aluminum chain stays.

Manitou was the brainchild of Doug Bradbury who gave up motorcycle racing in the mid-80s, and switched to handbuilding mountain bikes. In 1990 Doug introduced the first Manitou suspension fork, and by 1992 licensed the product and "Manitou" name to Answer Products who continues to manufacture Manitou forks to this day.

The Bradbury-designed Manitou FS (full-suspension) frame was introduced in October 1992 as a 1993 model-year Answer Products bike, and incorporated the Manitou 2 suspension fork as both the front and rear suspension. The 94-95 model years used a slightly modified frame, and was updated to use the Manitou 3, and Manitou 4 forks respectively. Later frames included additional machining on the seat stays at the shock/dropout connection, a single piece bottom bracket/pivot mount assembly (instead of a the two pieces being welded together), and updated graphics (which included white lettering with a black outline, instead of solid black). All of these changes occurred with the introduction of the Manitou 4-equipped 1994 model.

In addition to the FS model, a DH (down hill) model was available beginning in 1994 using the same front triangle, and "seat stays replaced by suspension fork" concept. The DH originally used the Manitou 3 fork, and later incorporated the Manitou EFC fork. To make the bike more downhill-worthy, the chainstays were lengthened by one inch, which increased both the wheelbase and rear travel.

For the 1996 model year (and later), Answer replaced the frame with a more conventional design that had solid seat stays attached to a seat tube mounted rocker arm that compressed a shock mounted under the top tube.

My frame was built on April, 16 1993, by Answer Products, and incorporates an early-production Manitou 3 fork as the rear shock. It has the older-style decals, and all of the features associated with the earlier frames. My bike was built during the transition from the '93 to '94 model years, and although it uses the 1994-introduced Manitou 3 shock, it is a 1993 frame. Interestingly, the '94 Manitou catalog includes a picture of the new bottom bracket assembly, which is dated May, 23, 1993 - a little more than a month after my frame was built.

In late 2005 I bought this bike fully built with very few original miles for not much more money than what I had paid in 1994 for my first Manitou 3 (purchased for my KHS). I'm very happy, and somewhat surprised, with the way the bike rides - it's one of the best handling bikes that I've ridden. Unfortunately, a known-issue with these frames is their tendency to crack. Mine is has no cranks, and I'll be sad on the day that it gets it's first one.

Additional pictures:
(The following bikes do not belong to me, nor do I know who owns them. The pictures were taken from the internet.)
Manitou FS built w/ Manitou 2
Manitou FS built w/ Manitou 3 (1st version)
Manitou FS built w/ Manitou 3 (2nd version)
Manitou FS built w/ Manitou 4
Manitou DH built w/ Manitou EFC