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, a former professional mountain bike rider who had ridden for the Marin and Mongoose teams. Turner had also worked with Horst Leitner at AMP Research whilst Horst developed the Horst Link suspension design.
History
David Turner started designing his own bicycles in 1992. By 1993, he was riding his designs for the Mammoth Mountain Kamikaze Manufacturers Cup downhill race and finished 1st. In 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, which dubbed it the "Turner Burner". This name would be applied to many of Turner's future designs. Burner had 2.75” inches rear travel with a down hill race option of 3.6 inches. To meet the demand for Turner's frames, production was carried out by FTW manufacturing out of Arizona in 1995. Bernard Unhasibiscay, riding a prototype Turner Afterburner, won the veteran silver medal at the UCI World Championships Downhill.
By 1996, production had 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 chain stay swing-arm pivot. Another pivotal moment for the company was when the Turner Afterburner started production; it was Turner's first downhill-specific frame, had 3.6" of rear wheel travel, and was identified by the large plate gussets on the front. Turner's one-off tandem, the "Twin Burner", was produced in 1997. Reflecting the rapid change in mountain biking, the Afterburner was re-designed to have 6" of rear wheel travel. There were now large holes in the plate gussets. Thomas Misser, riding a Kona stickered Turner Afterburner, achieved multiple wins and podium places in UCI World Cup races. A limited number of Turner Afterburners were sold by Kona as "Misser replicas". The Turner range expanded to four models in 1998, as the Burner XC and Afterburner were joined by the Turner Stinger (cross-country racer) and the Turner RFX (freeride bike).
The Stinger design with its proprietary pull shock was licensed to K2 in 1999 and produced as the "K2 Razorback". The Burner was 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, was introduced. It was one of the first frames to have ISCG. The Turner DH Javelin was renamed Turner DH Racer (DHR) in 2000 and improved machining to the rear end. The RFX was strengthened and the travel increased to 150mm, while the front triangle of the DHR got its one-piece shock mount in 2002.
2003 was a banner year for Turner, The Turner 5-spot is introduced. It soon became Turner's best-selling frame to date. The DHR receives its make-over: A 12mm rear end and the linkage is altered giving the bike more travel. Eric Carter debuted his custom 'Mongoose Stickered' DHR and took the [NORBA] National Downhill Championship title. He then rode his custom 'one-off' DHR/Rail combination to the UCI World Cup 4-cross Champion Gold Medal and the NORBA National Mountain-cross Series Championship title. Production moved to SAPA, which manufactures the entire Turner range with both in-house tubesets and US-made tubesets sourced externally.
After the success of 2003, the year of the Turner 5-spot, by 2004 the company could perform among other top bicycle brands. The Turner Burner won "The Best Full-Suspension XC Bike of the Year" Riders Award on mtbr.com. The Turner 5-Spot won "The Best Full-Suspension Freeride Bike of the Year" Riders Award on mtbr.com. This was the last year of the 3.5" Burner model.
Within the same year, Geoff Kabush rode his Turner Nitrous to NORBA championships in both the Elite Men's XC and the Short Track. Eric Carter rode his custom 'Mongoose' Turner to the UCI World Cup 4-cross Champion Gold Medal and the NORBA National Mountain-cross Series Championship title. The Turner DHR was remodeled with 8.5" of travel, 20mm dropouts on the rear with a 12mm axle, and a 1.5" headtube. Gone were the "classic" twin toptube and rounded downtube, to be replaced with box section tubing.