Originally Posted by mtnbke

To the original poster, believe it or not the components on that era of mountain bike are better than almost anything you can buy today. I've got lots of bikes from lots of eras. My modern XT and XTR and X0 level stuff is plasticky garbage compared to the quality of parts from that era. You can't even begin to compare fit, finish, and technical quality of the current "Wal-Mart" era of cheap crap that gets passed off as high end to the era of when stuff was top-drawer.

Get a chance to look at Superbe Pro someday from the Suntour era and compare it with top shelf Shimanoculture stuff today. A modern Dura-Ace group today looks like it came on a $200 bike in comparison. I love XT from the 7 and 8 speed era. XT thumbshifters I acquire whenever I can find them. The wider spacing on the cogs on 7/8 speed means the shifting is less finicky and problematic. There is really essentially no gain from the extra cog to 9 speed. You change cadence so much on a mountain bike the argument that you need the extra cog is just inane. It makes no sense to compromise chain strength by going to a chain with thinner outer plates and that you need to tighten the shifting tolerances to get a cog you'll use one-ninth of the time. Heck, I almost makes no sense to go from seven to eight speed, but at least that only affected wheel dish, not chain strength or shifting tune tolerances.

If it was from that era be it Kooka, Nuke Proof, Ringle, Bullseye, XT, XTR, XC Pro, Mavic mountain group (yes there was one - 8 speed indexing in fact), whatever that was top-drawer stuff. Today's stuff is garbage surrounded by marketing.