Is it too soon

tintin40

Retrobike Rider
Gold Trader
98+ BoTM Winner
Klein Fan
Feedback
View
to ask which was the best year or decade for MTB? My fav is 1990's and 1993
 
Re:

1995 for me,the introduction of XT M739 V brake group(arguably their best group)and suspension starting to work and not be bonkers.That XT v brake group was a game changer and made the previous group look antique.
 
For me, 1990

The oversize frames and underbar shifters etc just seemed to start the snowball of innovation rolling. Some good, some less so, but fun nonetheless.
 
Re:

Best decade?

In memory, the early 1990s, when we had long TT Marin Team frames and suspension that began to work. But that's through rose-tint of memory.

In reality, last week, on our modern slack, long and low Ragleys and Stantons - singletrack, South Downs fast tracks, and long slogs. Nothing better.
 
Decade wise - I'd plump for two. 90s and 2010s. Both have seen a huge amount of innovation (much good, some missteps) - and bikes look very different at the beginning/end of both decades.

Years wise - somewhere around the mid 90s were good. The groupsets were reliable and you could still run them with quality thumbshifters. High end steel frames probably peaked (in terms of availability at least). More recently, probably somewhere around 2015 where actual standards were still somewhat common place, but the trend towards slacker geometry had well and truly set in. Groupset wise, the peak was earlier. Still think 9 speed should have stayed the default (simply give us wider ranges in 1x).
 
For me, early mid '90's for xc bikes, still no better feeling or riding frames, and mid '90's through early 2000's for dh, took things over the limit and back, great times :D :cool:
 
Back
Top