That bike you had, you loved. They made a big splash at the time and you were sold into the hype. You wanted one, you had one, you loved it and now you're left wondering "Where did they all go?". They can't all have fallen into a landfill hole or the recycling skip can they?
Over the years they became unfashionable, worked their way to the back of the bike garage/shed before finally and sadly heading out on a run to the tip or worse ..... passed on to a non-cycling friend to abuse without any love or care.
I'll start with a Planet X Compo. Brant playing around with seat angles and tyre sizes .... definitely an early step on the journey from XC bikes of the '90s to the kind of bikes we ride today. Wacky head tube junction, loads of fun to ride, massively stiff. Forks were getting bigger, rims were getting wider, stems were getting shorter, bars were getting taller, bash rings were reducing the number of chainrings and bike weight was no longer the number one priority.
I loved mine but I have no idea when it disappeared from being a front line ride and how it moved out from my stable.
17" blue dragon paint job. You were so cool. How did I fall out of love with you?
Sadly, early digital camera photos of mine no longer exist but it looked very similar to this one.
Can't be many of these around. Felt like they had more than 140mm rear travel. They probably all cracked. This white frame was a replacement for a cracked frame. I miss those Fox Vanillas. The most buttery smooth fork over small bumps.
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My cove stiffee.
I gave up on it after 12 years when I got a geometron and couldn't swap back and forth between the knee smashing short top tube of the cove and the super long geometron.
It went down Fort William dh with box fresh 105mm forks and 130mm stem when I didn't realise I'd been sent the wrong stem. It was much better when I borrowed a 50mm.
It got a respray under warranty when the paint flaked of in thumbnail soaked flakes.
I raced it xc, I went cycle touring on it.
In hindsight I should have turned it into a gravel bike. The massive chain suck that had eaten into the chain stay was probably a reason to call it a day.
some serious seatpost extension there!
Turners
I have a Turner Flux hanging up in my garage.
Can’t be many of these around. Felt like they had more than 140mm rear travel. They probably all cracked. This white frame was a replacement for a cracked frame. I miss those Fox Vanillas. The most buttery smooth fork over small bumps
I had almost the exact same bike, until it…. Cracked, almost all the way around the headtube
My first hardtail was a Funk. Aluminium elevated chain stay frame with a Rockshox RS-1 up front. Cadbury purple paint job. Really enjoyed that bike but you never see e-stay bikes anymore
Turners
I'd still love a Turner. Red front end, yellow decals and a polished rear with a set of Judy DHs or DHOs/Boxxers.
It got a respray under warranty when the paint flaked of in thumbnail soaked flakes.
They all did that!
Turners
God I lusted after those. Saw one in the wild yesterday, rather ruined by the fact that he'd got narrow Schwalbe Winters on for the ice
el_boufadorFull Member
Turners
Lovely bikes. My 6-Pack was fantastic and the bike I'm trying to recreate with my Airdrop Edit MX.
I did have a carbon RFX but the quality off it was far below what I expected from Turner. I think it might well have been the bike that broke them
Shame they felt they had to go carbon. Aluminium seems to have come full circle now. Having said that, I think their manufacturing subby turned back to aerospace so that door closed to them anyway.
Jesus, the saddle to bar drop on that Cove.
They all did that!
Yep, mine too!
Warranty respray via Argos Racing Cycles (which was an excellent paint job). Mine never had chainsuck. Seemed to be hit and miss. Either you had it BADLY or it never happened at all.
Ran mine with RS Psylo forks, again they seemed to be either bombproof or they'd fall apart within months. Thankfully, mine were the bombproof version!
Did all sorts on that bike including Moab & Porcupine Rim.
Used to be you'd see loads of Stiffee and Handjob. Maybe the owners all grew up and realised the name was more cringe than hilarious...
Turners.....had the Xce rfx, flux, 5spot, sultan.
Rfx great bike.
Would love a up to date Turner in aluminum. Dw link ot horst link.
Double p
Dang the double post ! Don't see many of these any more only in my garage, the Hummer is my lifer , the adventures we've had together are just amazing.
On the subject of Cove our 9 year old grandson is giving the HJ a new lease of life , minus the offending decal !
DeKerf
Never had one but always wanted one
A guy i used to race with in the late 90's had some sort of deal with DeKerf, or possibly their importers. No idea.
Anyway, he used to turn up on a handful of new DeKerf bikes every year, only ones i truly lusted after was a deep deep metallic green cross bike and it's sibling, which matched geometry and equipment but was painted in some iridescent bronzy orange colour.
Unfortunately he was about 10-12 cm shorter than me, so i couldn't ever buy one of them when he sold them on.
Jesus, the saddle to bar drop on that Cove.
I had a bike fit and the bloke pointed out I'd been pedaling about with my toes pointed down. It was only a problem when I hit 40 and it started to cause knee pain. My saddle to bar drop is a lot closer to level now : )
A photo after the forks and handle bars got stolen from outside a hostel. I got a load of old bits a bike shop had kicking about and re built the front end to last another week round central Sweden
I also only see geometrons at the Dify bike park. There used to be one or two everywhere, but the early adopters have moved on to e bikes I guess
I'll nominate another PX, this time the Bommer. Steel version of the On-One Gimp, I had a black one that cracked and folded the down tube at Fort William. The crash replacement had a Daktari (cheetah print) paint job which was cool as **** but it was sold as soon as I had it to fund a 24 Le Toy (another unicorn these days, see also the .243 FR that replaced it).
I had a P-X Compo, don't think I ever saw another one though.
There was a time when every second bike seemed to be an Inbred of one flavour or another, then for years all the cool kid at Cannock were on Souls- it's been a while since I saw either now. Chameleon is a rarer beast now as well.
Lapierre – Zesty’s were everywhere for a few years, now you never see them.
That's what sprung to my mind for some reason. I had a 2009 that was my main bike until 2016. Agree that you used to see them everywhere.
I’ll nominate another PX, this time the Bommer. Steel version of the On-One Gimp,
The Gimp was steel wasn’t it?
There's been definite phases of bikes that were in vogue.
When I started riding in the late nineties, then through to about 2003, it was all Marins. They were cheap and light and simple enough that they worked well in the UK. Now you never see a Marin.
Then it seemed to be Specialized Enduros.
In the late 2000s, it was Cannondale Prophets, Commencal Metas then Lapierres. They were everywhere. Now you never see Lapierres and it's rare to see a Cannondale MTB that's not a Scalpel.
That then moved to Orange Fives. You couldn't move for them around 2010. And now, you'll not see an Orange.
Since Orange went out of fashion, Santa Cruz seems to be the brand. And at some point, they'll either forget what made their bikes appealing (like Lapierre, Orange, Cannondale and Marin) or rest on their laurels and no longer be the latest and greatest thing (like Specialized Enduros and Commencal Metas).
@oldfart, I think I bought that Hummer and those forks off you about 8 years ago?
I loaned it to a friend who used it at Cannock, got followed home then had it stolen off his drive.
Edit, just seen your second post. I must be mistaken of who I bought it off
There’s been definite phases of bikes that were in vogue.
…but where do all of those out of vogue bikes go? That’s a lot of mid/high end metal just slung into skips.
very niche forum centric bikes though mentioned, how many Compos were there in reality? couple of hundred? been here long back in the day enough to see 1000 trends come and go, Marin Mount Visions or B17's if you wanted more cush in the early years, Mavericks were de rigueur once, the On-One years, the Cove years, the Turner years, Lapierre years , half the forum seemingly on the same bike, same locally, one decent bike shop pushing certain bikes over the years, you'd barely see anything else, then they'd switch brands and everyone would jump
Edit: tldr - What he said…/\
Mavericks did well for a couple of summers
Whyte, after the PRST1 and 4, Marin-a-likes, 46 I think.
speaking of which, Marin Mount Vision and Mount Vision Pro, not long after they won that first Polaris (or trail quest, I forget) you could make an unbroken line of them all the way round coed y Brenin. £1500 for a full XT equipped full sus *reminisces*
Then it seemed to be Specialized Enduros.
And yes, that 2-3 years when MBR insisted that you simply weren't an MTBer unless you had a 6" adjustable travel Specialized Enduro.
They did move onto the Orange 5 after a while and every time Orange shifted the pivot point by half an inch, that model would be the best bike ever and what were you doing riding the old model?! The one that was the best bike ever last year but was now obsolete and incapable.
I had a dragon coloured compo with 130 mm pushed vanilla forks and a dark cycle bashring, loved it....until the frame cracked. So it ended up in the bin.
KHS ?
A very brief spell in the spotlight c.93 when I bought mine off the back of a glowing MBUK review. I think the next year they were pretty much gone. Lovely skinny True Temper steel frame, sadly it was nicked in commuter mode nearly 20 years later.
Fisher
My first mtb was a Hoo Koo e Koo and I also had a Rig (in purple natch) which was my first 29er
Always been around since the late 80's and then suddenly they weren't
Which is a shame
Coventry handjob
Although I know what happened to this one, I crashed it racing a friend to a corner on a fire road. Folded it and broke both magnesium braces if a set of pace forks
Salsa Spearfish and Horsethief. Or Salsa bikes in general. Had a Horsethief myself, complete with crazy saddle to bar drop. Used to be quite a number of them belonging to people I ride with. Don't see any now, other than the occasional gravel bike. Seemed like Salsa were ahead of the curve for a while but let it slip through their fingers. Then when new/updated models eventually came along they made them spectacularly undesirable with superboost.
I'm always wondering what happened to all those old bikes that used to be popular. Surely they're just hiding in the back of a shed rather taken to the tip?
I've got a Turner Flux and a Kona A-Ha hanging in bike room. Together with a built up Bontrager Race.
All are fantastic bikes of their time.
My current Canyon Lux is by far the better bike...
It feels like I'm riding around on a Ford though - the older bikes felt somehow more 'special' in my head ?
