Gaddmeister
Retrobike Rider
Re:
How has the terrain changed? Still the same to me, just softer riders these days! ;-)
How has the terrain changed? Still the same to me, just softer riders these days! ;-)
Retro Bike as main squeeze?
- Thread starter gusman2x
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Once A Hero
Old School Grand Master
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Stiff_Orange said:however if you want to learn how to ride a bike nothing beats a fully rigid steel retro bike. No crashing into rocks or roots and expecting the suspension to save you, you have to pick you lines correctly, lift the front and use power where necessary.
Agreed
It is merely my old bones that don't allow me to ride a retro bike on a regular basis!
Re: Re:
If you want to ride with the same style and pace you rode with in 1992, a 1992 bike works perfectly. If you've tried and picked up anything new in the intervening years it requires considerable self discipline to dial it back to that style of riding and the limits are pretty clear.
As for all the 'passing people on modern blah blah' toss, keep congratulating yourselves but you're just passing people who can't ride or aren't having a real crack. That was the same 25 years ago as it is now. I imagine people on rigid bikes congratulated themselves on passing a bloke with RS-1s, or even when the first purpose built production mountain bikes hit the scene, maybe some klunker holdouts on their cobbled up specials slapped their own backs for overtaking a guy on a stumpjumper. Ever it was thus.
Gaddmeister":303rg1ds said:
If you want to ride with the same style and pace you rode with in 1992, a 1992 bike works perfectly. If you've tried and picked up anything new in the intervening years it requires considerable self discipline to dial it back to that style of riding and the limits are pretty clear.
As for all the 'passing people on modern blah blah' toss, keep congratulating yourselves but you're just passing people who can't ride or aren't having a real crack. That was the same 25 years ago as it is now. I imagine people on rigid bikes congratulated themselves on passing a bloke with RS-1s, or even when the first purpose built production mountain bikes hit the scene, maybe some klunker holdouts on their cobbled up specials slapped their own backs for overtaking a guy on a stumpjumper. Ever it was thus.
Rod_Saetan
Old School Grand Master
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Main MTBs are a Pipedream 650B 853 hardtail with 130mm forks, 2x10 and a dropper post and a 94 DeKerf Mountain, rigid forks, Pauls V brakes (albeit on ceramic rims) and single speed. The Pipedream is way more confidence inspiring and more than capable enough for my abilities, but the DeKerf is more fun, and more importantly looks cooler.
My commuters are a 1989 Bridgestone Hybrid with 7 gears, a 90 Concorde steel SS or the more
Modern 94 Salsa La Raza with DA group and flat bars. I had a Genesis Equilibrium for a while too but that was so dull I sold it at a huge loss.
As alluded to above, you can easily ride retro if your local trails are agreeable to the bike's (or your) capabilities, but Modern is more fun, and it offers a new experience, surely it's all about the riding, right?
Main MTBs are a Pipedream 650B 853 hardtail with 130mm forks, 2x10 and a dropper post and a 94 DeKerf Mountain, rigid forks, Pauls V brakes (albeit on ceramic rims) and single speed. The Pipedream is way more confidence inspiring and more than capable enough for my abilities, but the DeKerf is more fun, and more importantly looks cooler.
My commuters are a 1989 Bridgestone Hybrid with 7 gears, a 90 Concorde steel SS or the more
Modern 94 Salsa La Raza with DA group and flat bars. I had a Genesis Equilibrium for a while too but that was so dull I sold it at a huge loss.
As alluded to above, you can easily ride retro if your local trails are agreeable to the bike's (or your) capabilities, but Modern is more fun, and it offers a new experience, surely it's all about the riding, right?
Gaddmeister
Retrobike Rider
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If you are all justifying modern bikes as the best thing, why are you on this site? To show off? Don't get it. We rode hard trails bitd and challenged ourselves and I certainly enjoyed every bike I had from Explosive through to Pace RC-200. Had four kids, not ridden for 13 years and now back see no difference. You will say try a modern bike, but am happy to carry on where I left off. Modern bikes are like modern cars......boring! Yes they are faster, but where's the pleasure? Thinking about your line and thinking ahead is the real adrenaline buzz, not how fast you can go without a sore bum!
If you are all justifying modern bikes as the best thing, why are you on this site? To show off? Don't get it. We rode hard trails bitd and challenged ourselves and I certainly enjoyed every bike I had from Explosive through to Pace RC-200. Had four kids, not ridden for 13 years and now back see no difference. You will say try a modern bike, but am happy to carry on where I left off. Modern bikes are like modern cars......boring! Yes they are faster, but where's the pleasure? Thinking about your line and thinking ahead is the real adrenaline buzz, not how fast you can go without a sore bum!
ted andkilde
Rocky Mountain Fan
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Purely by chance I still have the Rocky Mountain Blizzard I bought, nearly new, in 96, it fits me to a t and I can't see myself ever parting with it, so smooth and comfortable. And even better since I've ditched the suspension fork (it'd been fitted with a succession of poorly functioning suspension forks over the years - I was never able to get it truly dialed in). I've ridden a few moderns, and I'll admit that 1x drivetrains are a welcome innovation (be better with a single thumbie IMO), and I don't know if it's modern tires or the 29" rims, but they do seem to roll a little better on the trails. Here's the big 'but' though, they don't feel particularly connected to the trail, so they make me a little uncomfortable. On my Rocky, I can tell when I'm pushing too hard, bit of brakes and a foot dab and all is well. On a modern, full squisher, you sit up a tad higher, a combination of the higher BB and the uncompressed suspension, so pretty much every time I've felt the need to 'dab', it was a prelude to an ugly off. I don't race, so don't feel a need to be fast, and TBH, I run out of lungs and skill equally on both, so I just stick to riding the bikes I'm more comfortable on. Also, I can now afford the bikes I lusted after in the magazines of my childhood, vintage Merlin, Hei Hei, Ibis, Slingshot, what have you are pretty much all available for the price of a half decent department store modern, and they are fantastic riders.
One caveat, I'd really like to take a framebuilding class someday, I think it would be amazing to ride a bike you built with your own two hands, by definition, it would be a modern though...
Cheers, Ted
Purely by chance I still have the Rocky Mountain Blizzard I bought, nearly new, in 96, it fits me to a t and I can't see myself ever parting with it, so smooth and comfortable. And even better since I've ditched the suspension fork (it'd been fitted with a succession of poorly functioning suspension forks over the years - I was never able to get it truly dialed in). I've ridden a few moderns, and I'll admit that 1x drivetrains are a welcome innovation (be better with a single thumbie IMO), and I don't know if it's modern tires or the 29" rims, but they do seem to roll a little better on the trails. Here's the big 'but' though, they don't feel particularly connected to the trail, so they make me a little uncomfortable. On my Rocky, I can tell when I'm pushing too hard, bit of brakes and a foot dab and all is well. On a modern, full squisher, you sit up a tad higher, a combination of the higher BB and the uncompressed suspension, so pretty much every time I've felt the need to 'dab', it was a prelude to an ugly off. I don't race, so don't feel a need to be fast, and TBH, I run out of lungs and skill equally on both
, so I just stick to riding the bikes I'm more comfortable on. Also, I can now afford the bikes I lusted after in the magazines of my childhood, vintage Merlin, Hei Hei, Ibis, Slingshot, what have you are pretty much all available for the price of a half decent department store modern, and they are fantastic riders.One caveat, I'd really like to take a framebuilding class someday, I think it would be amazing to ride a bike you built with your own two hands, by definition, it would be a modern though...
Cheers, Ted
Silvergoat
Senior Retro Guru
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I squeeze my retro everyday. May be I've got it confused with something else...
I squeeze my retro everyday. May be I've got it confused with something else...
Mine are 2000 Kona Kaboom singlespeed and a 1996 Orange P7. It's flattish and smooth round here, there is no need for full sus or monster brakes. I tried a full susser but gave up on it as it was slower uphill, uninvolving (if massively competent) and heavy. If I lived somewhere else it might be a different story. My singlespeed has needed nothing more than brake pads, a chainring and several chains in the past 6 years. I bet the modern full sussers need more than that.
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