[Closed] Modern classics

merlin xlm

santa cruz bullit
Iron horse sunday
spooky metal head
cotic soul
zaskar
santa cruz chameleon
orange patriot ( and thing from 5 to 7+ - which I have! ) - totally bombing SP tank
Spesh enduro
trek fuel
pashley trials bikes
DMR trailstar
intense M3

The clam shell (04ish?) and the (06) SX style Enduros.

I've owned both, so I might be biased, but still...

Rocky Mountain Blizzard
Kona Explosif

Sanderson Life

2 clean lined steel hardtails for the op, there are loads of others!

Seven Sola (I have one)
Indy Fab
Spesh Stumpy
Intense M3
DMR trailstar

Cotic Soul
Specialized Enduro 2003/2004?
Orange P7
Trek 69er
On One Inbred
Charge Plug
Orange 5
Whyte/Marin - minus the beard / sandles

Indy Fab steel/ti deluxe

SC Chameleon

SC Heckler

Ibis Mojo

Whyte 19

Intense M3

Surely you mean an Intense M1?

How modern is modern?

Pace square framers
Cannondale Caad plus the Badboy?
Spesh FSRs
Langster?
Don't own any of them.

NO NO NO NO NO

This is just a list of modern mountain bikes? No one is justifying what makes them a classic.

You may as well list eurobox hatchbacks as classic cars.

For me

Orange 224 -Ridden by a legend, never used the most up to date design but still had a great following. Was a great bike because it just got the geometry so right, but it was not forgiving if you were having an off day.

SC Heckler

like a porsche 911, it's continually evolved and is still quite desirable, well I think so anyway.

Right now there are no stand out bikes for me, just a lot of "look I'm better" full sus designs and "I'm so niche and sophisticated" steel hardtails

Mountain Cycle San Andreas- The first true monocoque, the first with disc brakes, the first with a removable sub-frame.
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Dont see why the Cotic soul is a classic myself.
GT Zaskar is definatley a modern classic imo, won world cup xc, dh trials
Intense M1

i agree with the San An but its not really that modern, well in the whole short lived MTB world anyway

Nomad

04 SWorks Enduro w/ brain shock.
Still rides brilliantly.
Looks a little dated but, (IMO) they raised the bar for FS trail bikes.

Even he recognises its classic status...
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In order to be considered a classic won't it have to last some time? Not sure you'll see that many Sundays about in a few years.

no, the opposite is true, as the ones that are left will be rare, like an alfasud

surely the epic would be more notable than the enduro, as the brain first appeared on that along with a rather unconventional shock mounting

DMR Trailstar was the first frame I remember with sliding dropouts and chaintugs to use singlespeed or geared, and has evolved to suit modern longer travel forks, tough as shit and ride ace!

Azonic DS-1 was one of the first hardtail frames I remember labelled as, and pretty much kicking off, the whole 'hardcore hardtail' frame thing. At one point it was pretty much the only frame to have for people who liked chucking their bike around over jumps, street, trials and singletrack!

I wanted an Azonic but by the time I could afford a new bike I ended up with a Trailstar!

this thread all gone a bit wrong surely chameleons, trailstar, pace square, spooky, intense M1 and zasker, are already classic as there old enough to be, have been around the block and then some.

I would nominate Ironhorse Sunday such a big following, rarely any detractors, awesome downhill frame catapulted to the top by a very talented rider in sam hill.

Also blackmarket mob frame was at the beginning of all this mtb park riding (whether this was good or bad don't matter) pushed dirt jumping forward. All the north american dirt jumpers rave about them. also made in USA by SandM which many still feel is better than Taiwan.

my 2p worth anyway.

Santa Cruz Heckler. Can't think of any other bike that qualifies as a 'modern classic'.

Ok i'll make a date -----post 2000------

There said it!!!!

Spooky Metalhead for the company's status and rarity

stonemonkey - Member

Ok i'll make a date -----post 2000------

There said it!!!!

Nothing before 2000?

Well, I still think the Cannondale M800 (Beast of the east)circa 1995 was a classic if ever there was one

takisawa - why do you have the shock on that way round?

but the title is [u]modern[/u] classic, not saying the beast isn't a classic, just not so modern, I think the stumpy M4 hardtails are pretty classic too for being a great ride, but they are from a different era to the now

yes 1995 would be "modern retro" not "modern classic" 😀

I had one of the early metalheads around 1996 i think wish i had kept it. Isnt frank the welder building for sinsiter bikes now? Spookys back but i'm not 100% convinced , i like the horror taxi though

didn't think the metalhead was that old, ooops

Thats why i said "i think" must be before 1997-98 ive got some pics of it somewhere i'll dig them out for you non belivers :o. It was in the sky blue

whyte preston

Indy Fab is a modern classic. It's a simple but elegant hardtail that harks back to the classic Yo Eddy, which at the time was out of my reach. Pure class.

Take Spooky Metalhead off the list - some of the worst built frames I ever saw - and I had two! Swapped for a Pitboss which might have been one of the earliest 'burly' cross country hardtails around - and potentially a classic (although still dogged by sloppy welding amd stickers that fell off in a week...)

I thought my metalhead was well built, remember the sliding dropouts fitted the painted frame with perfection, welds were ok quickly done but ok

OK, now it's just a list of expensive bikes....
Boutique does not necessarily mean classic.

Take a look at the car world and check the cars that become classics - VW Beetle, Mk1 Escort and Cortina, Citroen 2CV, The Mini, the Landrover, Fiat 500....

These are the ones that many people love and cherish, cars that stood for something, or broke new ground (Which in some cases has never been bettered) but not because of how much they cost or how fast they are.....

So, I've got 3 suggestions, in no particular order.

Kona Explosif - Still in production after what, 18-19 years? Set the standard for hardtails in so many ways, hugely influential, a joy to ride. People scrabble over getting their hands on a decent used one...

The original Specialized Enduro - A bike that just worked very, very well. They still fetch a good price, there's still not been a massive leap foreward since then. Still a brilliant bike.

And the Landrover of MTBs, the On-One Inbred - A bit ugly and utilerian, does anything for anyone at a pinch, hard to kill, cheap, endlessly repairable.

🙂

I like your logic, PP.

I reckon the Stiffee could be a modern classic. An early 'hardcore hardtail' copied by many, equalled by few; can be built up in various ways; [i]essentially[/i] unchanged since introduction; holds value well; still shifts out of the shops new; inspiring to ride; distinctive looks..

Also has minor quirks that fans get by with, like paint made from the dust on moth wings.

Yep, I'm with those that said the Spesh Enduro and the Inbred (although the 'classic' white ones), P7, Stiffee and Cotic Soul. Also the Trek 69er (the original orange one with the matching coloured forks). I also reckon the Hummer and the ti456 (still youngish but will eventually be a modern classic imho). Also Orange 5 and SC Superlight.

Stiffee.

Dialled PA -

Relatively cheap ,tough as old boots, rides great and almost universally loved by those who have ridden them. I think the number which have been broken can be counted on the fingers of one hand, which considering the riding that is done on them and the number out there is pretty impressive.

Inbred fro' sure.

Orange Five for sure then - slowly evolved since 2000 and stick kicking arse left right and centre - an inconvenient truth to advocates of modern suss bikes.

It's the Porsche 911 of mountain bikes for sure! Supposedly fundamentally flawed but still one of the best!

Oh and the P7 - possibly the longest running model name in the biz?

(Although I accept this probably falls into the already a classic in it's own right)

It just a bunch of oldish bikes as far as I'm concerned.

Inbred is like saying the Austin Maxi is a classic.