Mountain Biking - What do you most remember???

Hi gang...

I feel it's time for another one of my pointless polls, which do you most remember about the early days of MTB's (whenever you got into it)

Here's just a few of the ones I can remember...hehe...whatever happened to Etto helmets?

Rich

Well, it has to be top mounted thumbshifters since I still ride them!!!

Servus!

Top-mounted thumb shifters! I don't know if I could even shift with a set of those anymore! :D

Then again, when I ride a road bike, I can't shift worth a damned with those new-fangled STI levers either! :blush:

Did I mention that I run them in friction mode (no indexing)? Simplicity and less maintenance, that's what I'm all about.

riderx...

Isn't that what singlespeed is all about? ;) I secretly want to make myself a trick single for intracity work, but I already own two bikes and RangerGirl will kill me when I get a third! I must be patient....

I would not call this pointless. I thought it was cool. I remember thumbies I still use them as well. The purple anodized parts were funny they made it over there to the UK huh? Wow good memories Rich! Etto helmets HMMM I dunno maybe the same thing happened to them like Nishiki.

Here's one to add to the list:

Does anyone remember the brake lever extenders that were made so you could brake from the bar ends? Talk about an accident waiting to happen!

One thing I really liked about the thumbies in friction mode was that you could trim the front derailleur so it wouldn't rub. I wish you could do that with the Shimano rapidfire.

Does Suntour make shifters anymore?

Hey Joe,
No Suntour does not but you can still get them. Third Hand still has some, and Recycled Cycles still gets some evey once in a while.

He he...I thought the funniest things were the fluro pink tights, never had a pair by the way!!!!:blush:

Nishiki bikes were waaaaay cool...I met Richard Cunningham (the designer) at a local bike gig..he was cool too! :)

You still see the odd old mtb with chainstay-mounted u-brakes.

Yes, I remember the old U brakes - GT seemed to favor those for a while. My first MTB had roller cam brakes that were far superior to the cantilever brakes, but never seemed to catch on. Funny that V-brakes, which over took cantilevers, use a similar principle as the cams - namely long brake arms for leverage.

I guess I haven't been around as long as the rest of ya'll, but i do remember toe-clip pedals. My first MTB came with them, but people were already using clipless by then.

I bought my first MTB around '96 and back then what i remember is rigid forks being common and URT full-suspension bikes, like the Trek Y bikes and the Gary Fisher Joshua's. People dropped a bunch of money on those bikes and now everyone says the URT design is flawed. Oh well, I guess I'm glad I couldn't afford one then.

I also remember Bike magazine as being really good, back when it was owned by Surfer Publications. Lots of interesting articles and just a different feel to it altogether.

Some time around 93 or 94, I told a bike shop guy that I saw someone riding a full suspension Trek on the local trail. Full suspension?? He though I was smoking weed.

It's amazing how much bikes have progressed in the past few years. It seems like you can get better bike for less money now than even just few years ago.

Better suspension forks, full-suspension bikes, disc brakes...it's amazing to see all of the technology packed into a bike.

Sadly I remember when Bike magazine was good. Now it is a shell of it's former self. Dirt Rag all the way!!! They haven't lost their soul.

I can't agree more with RiderX on the mag issue. What I remember most was not just the Etto helmets, but all helmets without visors. When visors first came out, man everyone had to have one!!! Remember the lycra helmet covers? Wow that was a bad idea.

I still have a deep affinity to anything purple anodized. I just can't stop myself. One of my buddies has an old Caloi: black frame with all purple anodized parts. Although I'm not a big fan of Caloi, I've always secretely lusted over his bike.

Do you guys remember when Camelback first came out? It was like the greatest invention since the telephone. All the magz where writing how great these were.

What else? Oh yeah, the suspension stem. Who made those? Are they still around?

You guys want to go even further back in your memories? What about when triple chainrings first came out? That was the turning point as far as I'm concerned.

Later Gator
Boomer:D

I ran into a guy while riding in the Santa Cruz mountains who had a suspension stem on a '88 Ritchey. Talk about history, he still had the suntour thumbshifters on there and pedals with straps.

Who made those suspension stems. Girvin (or something)? Not only were they big and ugly, they were painted all sorts of colors. They went away, but I notice all sorts of newer hybrid/comfort bikes are wearing the boingy stems.

Originally posted by Oscar
Who made those suspension stems. Girvin (or something)? Not only were they big and ugly, they were painted all sorts of colors. They went away, but I notice all sorts of newer hybrid/comfort bikes are wearing the boingy stems.

He he...

There were a couple of manufactorers who made boingy stems back in the early 90's...Offroad (later becoming Pro-flex) brought out the Flex Stem in 1990...my mate had one, and I was well jealous...I noticed that later on, riders such as Thomas Frishneict and Henrik Dejernis were riding Softail flexy stems on their Ritchey's.

As you said, it's spawned many a copy for the Hybrid market, but it's interesting to note that no racers use these stems anymore...guess those days are long gone. :)

Rich

I can't remember what brand stem it was, but it was huge and painted gold.

Originally posted by Joe Pozer
I can't remember what brand stem it was, but it was huge and painted gold.

Probably was a Softride (http://www.softride.com/). I run one on my single speed and have to say it works pretty well. These are the ones with the parallelogram design with a coil spring as opposed to the hinged design of the Flexstem that uses an elastomer.

Don't get me wrong, it sure can't be compared to a high end susp. fork. I wanted to stay rigid with the SS, so this cuts enough edge off of the ride, keeps the front end light and I don't have to worry about fork maintenance.

Originally posted by riderx
These are the ones with the parallelogram design with a coil spring as opposed to the hinged design of the Flexstem that uses an elastomer.

I think you are right Rider. It did look like a Parallelogram design.

Heck, I'd buy one of those inner spring parallelogram stems (for cheap) and use it on my rigid. Why not?

Originally posted by Oscar
Heck, I'd buy one of those inner spring parallelogram stems (for cheap) and use it on my rigid. Why not?

Bought mine for $25 @ Nashbar on closeout. I think they are all out though. $99 retail for the least expensive version they make.

Here's another one: cantilever brakes that stuck out from the fork perpendicularly. My brother finally destroyed his old Univega mountain bike (stripped bb shell). It has lovely Dia Compe high profile cantis. He's sending me the remains for parts looting and a proper burial.