Turner Suspension Bicycles

Turner Suspension Bicycles, inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Bicycles
Founded	1994 (1994)
Headquarters	Murrieta, California
Products	Bicycles and related components
Owner	David Turner
Slogan	Quality without Compromise
Website	www.turnerbikes.com

Turner Suspension Bicycles, Inc is an American bicycle frame manufacturer, based in Murrieta, California, specializing in full suspension mountain bikes. Turner Bikes was founded in 1994 by David Turner,^[1] a former professional mountain bike rider who had ridden for amongst others, the Marin and Mongoose teams. Turner had also had worked with Horst Leitner at AMP Research whilst Horst developed the Horst Link suspension design.^[2]

Turner Bicycles have built a reputation of excellent customer service and bicycle frames with superb riding characteristics and exceptional durability. These attributes have resulted in a high degree of success within the competitive cycling arena and an avid customer following.

History

1992

• David Turner starts designing his own bicycles.

1993

• Riding one of his own designs, Turner races and wins the Mammoth Mountain Classic Kamikaze Manufacturers Cup downhill race.^[3]

1994

• The first 150 production Turner mountain bike frames were built by Ventana Mountain Bikes USA. These bikes were known only as “the Turner bike” until reviewed by the magazine “Mountain Bike Action”, where the magazine dubbed it the “Turner Burner”.^[4] The “Turner Burner” name would be applied to many of Turner’s future designs. The Burner has 2.75” inches rear suspension travel with a down hill race option of 3.6 inches.

1995

• To meet demand for Turner’s frames production is carried out by FTW manufacturing out of Arizona.^[5]
• Bernard Unhasibiscay riding a prototype Turner Afterburner wins the veteran silver medal at the UCI World Championships Downhill.

1996

• Production moved to Sportech. With this move came several improvements to the design of the Burner, including a single machined block to support the bottom bracket, rear shock mount and chainstay swing-arm pivot.^[6]

• The Turner Afterburner starts production; it is Turner’s first downhill specific frame, has 3.6” of rear wheel travel and is identified by the large plate gussets on the front.

1997

• Turner’s one-off tandem the “Twin Burner” produced.

• Reflecting the rapid change in mountain biking the Afterburner, is re-designed to have 6” of rear wheel travel and there are now large holes in the plate gussets.

• Thomas Misser riding a Kona stickered Turner Afterburner achieves multiple wins and podium places in UCI World Cup races. A limited number of Turner Afterburners were sold by Kona as “ Misser replicas”.^[7]

1998

• The Turner range expands to four models as the Burner XC and Afterburner are joined with the Turner Stinger (cross country racer) and the Turner RFX (freeride bike).

1999

• The Stinger design with its proprietary pull shock is licensed to K2 and produced as the “K2 Razorback".^[8]

• The Burner is replaced by a lighter weight Turner O2 and the beefier Turner XCE.

• Turner’s first single pivot suspension bike the downhill race specific Turner DH Javelin introduced. one of the first frames to have ISCG.

2000

• Turner DH Javelin renamed Turner DH Racer (DHR.) It has improved machining to the rear end.

2001

2002

• The RFX is strengthened and the travel increased to 150mm

• The front triangle of the DHR get its one piece shock mount

2003

• Turner 5-spot is introduced. It soon becomes Turner’s best selling frame to date.^[9]

• The DHR receives its make-over: A 12mm rear end and the linkage is altered giving the bike more travel.

• Eric Carter debuts his custom 'Mongoose Stickered' DHR and takes the NORBA National Downhill Championship title. Eric then rides his custom 'one-off' DHR/Rail combination to the UCI World Cup 4-cross Champion Gold Medal and then also the NORBA National Mountain-cross Series Championship title.

• Production moved to SAPA who manufactures the entire Turner range with both in house tubesets and US made tubesets sourced externally.

2004

• Geoff Kabush rides his Turner Nitrous to NORBA championships in both the Elite Men’s XC and the Short Track.

• Eric Carter rides his custom 'Mongoose' Turner to both the UCI World Cup 4-cross Champion Gold Medal and then also the NORBA National Mountain-cross Series Championship title.

• The Turner DHR is remodeled with 8.5” of travel, 20mm dropouts on the rear with a 12mm axle, and a 1.5" headtube. Gone are the "classic" twin toptube and rounded downtube to be replaced with box section tubing

• The Turner Burner wins "The Best Full-Suspension XC Bike of the year" Riders Award on mtbr.com.^[10]

• The Turner 5.Spot wins "The Best Full-Suspension Freeride Bike of the year" Riders Award on mtbr.com.^[11]

• Last year of the 3.5" Burner model.

2005

• Turner drops the Romic shock on the DHR. It is to be replaced with the Fox DHX with a remote reservoir

• Geoff Kabush wins NORBA championships in both the Elite Men’s XC and the Short Track, again on a Turner Nitrous.

• Eric Carter rides his custom 'Mongoose' Turner to the NORBA National Mountain-cross Series Championship title.

• Eric Delsouiller wins FFC French National championships in the Veteran DH (over 40) on a Turner DHR.

• The Turner Flux replaces the Turner Burner to fill the 4-inch cross country slot

2006

• Citing increasingly difficult relationship with the license holders, Turner abandons the use of the Horst Link on his designs. Turner adopts a similar seat stay single pivot design with positive feedback from the cycling community. It is dubbed the TNT.

• Geoff Kabush breaks all time NORBA short track win record and takes Championship.

• The Turner Sultan, Turner’s first 29-inch wheel mountain bike debuts at Interbike 06.

2007

• Eric Delsouiller takes the downhill bronze medal at UCI World Championships MTB Masters in Pra Loup in the 45-49 class on a Turner DHR.

2008

• Eric Delsouiller downhill GOLD medalist at UCI World Championships MTB Masters in Pra Loup in the 50-54 class on a Turner DHR.

• The Turner Flux wins "The Best Full-Suspension XC Bike of the year" Riders Award on mtbr.com.^[12]

• The Turner Sultan wins "The Best Full-Suspension 29er of the year" Riders Award on mtbr.com.^[13]

• After over a year of design collaboration with David Weagle,^[14] David Turner announces that the 2009 models will all feature the DW-Link rear linkage.^[15] The TNT linkage will no longer be offered.

2009

• Turner dw-link 2009 models hit the shops.

• The Turner Sultan wins "The Best Full-Suspension 29er of the year" Riders Award on mtbr.com.^[16]

• Womans Pro French Rider, Emmeline Ragot is the 2009 UCI World Downhill Champion on a Turner DHR.

• The DW DHR model out in April 2010 after 1 year of R&D 5 prototypes.

2010

• Turner dw-link DHR recalled due to head tube cracking and remade with new head tube gusset.

References

External links

• www.turnerbikes.com
• Bike 198 .com - 'The History of Turner Bikes'
• PinkBike.com - 'Dave Weagle Interview: And the DW-Link goes to...Turner Bikes '
• 'Interview with Suspension Pioneer Dave Turner'