90s MTB (which really refers to early 80s - mid 90s ATB/MTB) in particular makes the average consoomer bike website seethe, and the reasons are simple, they survive by selling advertising, they exist to hawk new kit, the fact that there are all these old bikes out there still being used and still working fine, the fact that most modern non racing bikes (commuter, hybrid, gravel etc) are effectively modern takes on the 90s MTB, well it embarrasses their patrons and makes people question whether paying through the nose for something just because it's new is really the smartest thing you can do.
We all know how durable and comfortable the early mountain bikes are, especially the better rigid steel framed ones with mid to high end groupsets, overbuilt is often used to describe them and that is about right, and because the sport was in its infancy during that time the bikes were yet to fully evolve into the specialist downhill/trials/jump bikes we see today, they still carry plenty of road bike DNA and are therefore perfectly suited for urban riding while still being more than capable on all but the most technical terrain, which less than 5% of cyclists ever encounter.
Retro makes a mockery of consumerism, it hurts the bottom line, in fact it seems to hurt the very bottoms of those who are fully plugged in to the consumer grid.
We all know how durable and comfortable the early mountain bikes are, especially the better rigid steel framed ones with mid to high end groupsets, overbuilt is often used to describe them and that is about right, and because the sport was in its infancy during that time the bikes were yet to fully evolve into the specialist downhill/trials/jump bikes we see today, they still carry plenty of road bike DNA and are therefore perfectly suited for urban riding while still being more than capable on all but the most technical terrain, which less than 5% of cyclists ever encounter.
Retro makes a mockery of consumerism, it hurts the bottom line, in fact it seems to hurt the very bottoms of those who are fully plugged in to the consumer grid.