GT Zaskar, the original one 1993-1997 before they did horrible things with the frame design. THE original hardcore hardtail, light enough to race xc, yet strong enough to race DH on, which I did for years & still have the thing!
1) the original clunkers from the repack days – the birth of mtbs and still great fun to ride.
2) muddy fox courier – the British stumpjumper – the bike that kick started the UK scene in the 1980s
3) niner SIR9 – the best bike I have ever ridden, more soul and character than should be possible from a collection of steel tubes.
Another 90s steel Kona fan here; a classic Explosif, with Project 2s would still be a dream machine for me today (only ever had a fire mountain, but loved that too)…
Not really sure what else I would class as the greatest ever, there are too many choices, it all tends to be stuff I remember from my youth, not necessarily great bikes, but my perception at the time was of unattainable wonder machines… any bike that gets people out riding takes the prize I guess.
Not sure if im just looking back through rose tinted spectacles but the bike that will always stay in my heart is the
1992 Kona Kilauea I got for my 16th birthday- I managed to pusuede my grandad to buy it me when he was drunk:)
steel, project 2's and designed by joe Murray – beautiful
blatently a 5 or specialized pitch for all round suspension performance and geometry. zaskar or p7 for hardtail lushness. Surely a sunn radical or a ironhorse sunday santa cruz v10 for suspension performance dh. I've not owned any of these by the way I have a reign and a glory. Both excellent bikes and brill suspension performance although the reign doesn't have tip top geometry, still rides nice though. It was accident rather then design that I ended up with two giants.
i was wondering,will they ever release the old ball burnished zaskar,as a full production model (i know that they released 500 ltd edition frames back in 2008).i did try to order one,but hotwheels kept messing the shop around,as to when it was going to arrive. p.s i will have to add it to my list.