Softride bike..to buy or not to buy?

Softrides are some of the "slipperiest" bikes made, especially in the "wing" configurations. Not the lightest by any means, but mine never held me back (a few USCF hillclimb TT titles attest to that). I have three, though none of the frames were made by Softride. My first is a Paul Barkley custom (he did make the first run of Softride frames, however), looks much like a Qualifier. Second is very similar, though in titanium, made by TiCycles. Third is a track/fixie/single speed custom made by TiCycles in steel.

So I guess you know how much I like the Softride beam ride. It does very much reward a smooth pedal stroke (you'll know right away if you're pedalling in squares or have a choppy pedal stroke). The biggest thing for me was just isolating the road buzz, especially of chip-sealed back roads (of which we used a LOT in USCF road races). I set my current best 40K TT time (54:35) on that Paul Barkley in road set up plus clip-ons. Taking that road buzz goes a LONG way to staving off fatigue.

A lot of people tout the bike with saving their riding -- back problems disappeared. I never had back problems, so I can't speak directly to that.

Hope that helps.

I owned a Softride Classic TT about 8 years ago. I bought it new from Cobb Cyclery. It was a very enjoyable bike. Comfortable and fast. Very adjustable as well. I miss the darn thing.

Never ridden one myself, but I will say, I haven't met an unhappy softride owner. One of my good friends has a Rocket TT that he still rides--long after everyone else who bought bikes that same year has gone on to buy new ones. (And not b/c of budget reasons)

Never ridden either, but I've heard the Kestrel Airfoil is sort of similar in how it rides since it doesn't have a seat tube and therefore has a little more "give" when riding.  Just throwing that out there as something to consider.