You may possibly be thinking of the late Tom Bruni's "Second Century" from the way back machine, probably 1991 or so (not so far back I guess). There was even an article about it in Buycycling Magazine back then, and I may have been one of only a few who got to test ride it, as there only were two of them. I think it was Tom's first build, and other than his own tandem, was his personal bike for a year or so.
It had swing arms front and rear, sort of like the BMW motorcycle front end designed for use with side cars. The fork bent backwards and was hinged at it's end, 3" - 4" behind the hub (in the front) with a swing arm that looped around the rear of the tire and extended forward to the hub on either side. Short springs on either side, set on nylon bushings formed a compression triangle with the fork leg, the swing arm and spring in compression. The rear was basically a reverse of the front.
It was a very comfortable ride, and was fairly light weight. However the whole thing sort of made squeaking, creaking noises with all the moving hardware, and you could make the bike either lean back or forward while braking depending on which brake you favored. It was a hoot to ride, but I never took it quite seriously.
I first got to know Tom while on a long ride into Pennsylvania. He'd ridden about 20 miles from Baltimore City to the ride start on that bike, got there late and followed a cue sheet left at the ride start. Arriving at our luch stop shortly after us, he was holding court in the shallow end of the swimming pool at Codorus State Park, and I got into a fray with him about using frame design and wheels/tires to do essentially what he'd done with his Rube Goldberg suspension contraption. We both got badly sunburned that day arguing our points of view and were pretty close friends since. I was proud of being called a retro grouch the first time I'd met him, and we slowly came to accept the other's points of view over the years. His bikes, always steel, and only occasionally lugged, but quite light, metamorphosed into a bit more traditional but not quite KOF, often using curved stays for suspension and eventually embracing carbon in the mix. His bikes were more BOBish than traditional, favoring a stable front end and room for bigger tires and often loaded with lots of the lightest weight titanium goodies. I was luckily almost exactly his size and got to ride a number of his builds. As Larry Black more than once said, Tom never built the same bike twice. Some of them were really special! He built some of the lightest tandems around with the one I own, handling and climbing way better than the Santana it replaced.
Happy trails,
Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland USA
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I remember, quite some time ago when I still lived with my parents, seeing an older gentleman riding an old ten speed with front and rear suspension. It didn't use a compression style spring, it used something like what you have on your garage door, a linear tension pulling-type spring. I don't know the manufacturer, buit it was brown. And looked 60's / 70-ish.
Has anyone ever seen something like this?
Jesse Hearndon
West Melbourne, FL