Yes, I am bored at work, but, after being inspired by the retro DH video recently I have been asking myself the following question:
If you could take a bike (or 2) back to the early days of mountain biking in the UK (say, late 80’s, early 90’s, when the Malvern Festival was huge and Jason McRoy (RIP) was king), what would you take?
Maybe something that showcase what mountain biking will become, or something that show’s off todays technologies perhaps. However, you also have to take into account the kind of riding that was done then, the technicality of the terrain and also the attitudes of people at the time and what they were riding.
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[/img]Whyte 46 2007 edition - the pinnacle of all round mountain biking
It would have to be this:
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Blow their minds 😆
Mind you if you took one of these back ....
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I am sure they would think the future looked like this:
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Surly Pugsley
Dunno.. if I were riding somewhere rocky perhaps an Orange 5. I rode many of the same trails then which were just as rocky.
Although for an XC race my Kona Heihei - 21.5lb FS with discs and a riser bar, and tubeless tyres 🙂
Show them all that modern full on fs goodness and then try and explain the popularity of rigid single speeds.
Kona A
2nd the Honda, although even that's getting 'old' now, might give gear boxes a shove up the arse.
Empire DH - because it might kick start the development of cast frames (IIRC aren't they droping the casting and CNCing the next one?)
IBIS MOJO - because from a styling POV it's 'different'.
Well it wouldn't be a rigid single speed, that's for sure! Can you imagine their thoughts. "WTF were they thinking? They've got all these smooth gears, hydro brakes and 5" of smooth WORKING hydraulically damped suspension and they ride THIS abomination".
would have to be my 1993 Manitou HT... loved that bike.
Stupidly expensive,but worth it 🙂
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Surely a 29er? Give them a real vision of the future!
For the DH'ers?
I'd take a syndicate carbon v10.
Even a five would be better than the early DH bikes.
holycrap
Whyte 46 2007 edition - the pinnacle of all round mountain biking
Do forgive me if I have this all wrong as I am unfamiliar with your sense of humour but that was meant as dry joke yes?
For me, as an example of where MTB is trying to go I would take back a Scott Genius LT 10, the top of the range components mixed with a lightweight frame that has adjustable suspension (that beats all the old stuff) and seems to be a bike you can ride almost anywhere. Oh and has an uppy downy post!
Not that I have ridden one it just seems to tick all the marketing boxes they like to sell us at the moment.
It also represents an 'off the shelf' full bike package that would cost more than a family car 15 years back.
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Probably my carbon 456. And tell them: This is what you get for £1200 in 2011, a carbon frame 27 gears and under 26lb.... And yes we are riding XC on 150mm forks!
walleater, that looks pretty special. How's the back wheel driven? There's all sorts going on in there but I am meant to be working so can't look properly.
peterpoddy... you are right! I remember lusting after the original kona kula (£1100) in 1994ish it had alu frame and suspension and was a wow bike for me. That money now gets much more bike.
An entertaining thought experiment this one.
Personally, I'd take a SS, fully rigid 29er, and quite probably one fitted with a F & R rack too, but the reaction to that back then would be pretty much the same as it is now 😉 , so ... and have in mind that I don't know anything about FS bikes, (in fact I don't really believe they exist), but that aside; I'd have thought that pretty much any well regarded 'all-mountain / trail / enduro bike' at the £2.5k - £3k price point would be enough to blow plenty of minds back then (which I guess also gives you lots of options in exactly what to take).
I was going to post similar to PP actually. Something like a 456 where the innovation is all about the geometry.. to demonstrate that clever thinking has produced a great bike without any expensive technology that wasn't available 20 years ago.
Whippersnapper,
The bike has a high pivot suspension design similar to the Trek Session 10 and Brooklyn bikes, but is linked to a gearbox:
http://www.zerode.co.nz/bikes.php
Turner Sultan.
Specilized Epic. speaking from a technology point of view. They would be interested in the'Brain'
would have to choose my current bike (absolutely love my anthem x2 😀 [IMG] 
[/IMG] does everything i want out of a mountain bike 😀
a sub 36lb Mondraker summum with 750+ bars and slacked out to hell.. then piss myself laughing when Vouilloz kicked it's riders arse down Cap d'ail's switchbacks on his Zaskar
Probably a Giant AnthemX. Possibly also a 10sp Charge Skinny Duster.