[Closed] The biggest advance in MTBing in the last decade...? Discuss...

the internet

enabled non-club group rides, changed the way of bike shopping, on-line event/race entry, promoted endless, er, discussion

Yeah, I see your point druidh, fatbikes will do stuff that couldn't be done 10 years ago, but very few people want to do it (or want to do it enough to buy a bike for it).

Not getting punctures and being able to ride at night appeals to everyone.

I have very few punctures, so I don't see tubeless as much of an advance.

Lights - good call. That's certainly opened up a new type of riding for those that want to do it.

[b]The internet[/b] more specifically web 2.0 (even though I hate that term) to make discussions like this and the many other threads possible.

To be able to discuss/ask questions/obtain information/share experiences globally is pretty amazing no?

On a personal level; me getting a FS bike after having a rigid with v brakes only 2 years ago! 😀
[b]
EDIT[/b] -JoB just said it!

Oh OK, the internet wins the thread in all honesty- very good call.

druidh - Member

You can take a FLOATilla of Fatbikes into places a 10-year old bike would never reach.

And generally the only reason to do so is that you've bought a fat bike 😉

Maybe bikepacking kit. That really does make new riding options that make me happy / motivated / excited more possible.

Affordable Hydro Disc brakes and Air Forks.

Not getting punctures and being able to ride at night appeals to everyone.

Oddly enough not everyone Graham! Though I'm completely with you on both counts... Tubeless was available back in 2002 though, albeit only UST, and a very limited choice of tyres. I was riding at night too back then, probably more than now ironically, but with a cobbled together homebrew style light that wasn't much better than a maglite, certainly nothing like what even just £50 will get you these days.

I'm gobsmacked at how many people are saying about uppy-downy posts being their biggest advance in cycling in the last 10 years! I like to drop my post once in a while, but really they're not that much of an advance.

Really? Outside of trail centres my rides tend to go along for a while, up for a while, or down for a while. In various orders, but rarely have I felt the need to adjust my seat height every 10 seconds.
They're useful, yes, and easier than using a qr, but surely to say they've revolutionised riding is a bit steep.

What he said...

the internet

enabled non-club group rides, changed the way of bike shopping, on-line event/race entry, promoted endless, er, discussion

Good point. Use it as much for keeping in touch with riding buddies and organising rides these days as I do anything else. Was using CRC back in the day when you had to phone them up though... 😉

Affordable Hydro Disc brakes and Air Forks.

Were already available by 2002... My XT disc brakes I bought in 2001 cost me £100 an end including rotors, roughly what the new equivalent is today online.

And air sprung forks have been around since the very first MTB suspension, the Original Rockshox RS1 was air sprung back in the early 90's!

Were already available by 2002... My XT disc brakes I bought in 2001 cost me £100 an end including rotors, roughly what the new equivalent is today online.

And air sprung forks have been around since the very first MTB suspension, the Original Rockshox RS1 was air sprung back in the early 90's!

Fully aware they where around then, but no where near as many affordable versions,

Look at the bikes out there now with hydro discs and air forks, something in 2002 was on very few bikes under £1.5k

Slack head angles and wide bars. They've made bikes more RAD which is the most important thing.

The thing with uppy-downy posts is that if you don't need one, you don't need one. As soon as you do, then you really do! I'll explain 😉

If you ride the sort of XC stuff that you have the skills to do with your normal height seat, or accept that you might have to stop for 15sec everynow and then for a height change, then you won't see any, none, zipp, zilch, benefit to fitting a droppy post.

But, if like me, you ride places that have a mixture of XC and AM stuff (in my case Woburn) then the ability to get the seat out of the way on the fly is worth a lot. it's not sometimes even that it's completely necessary, but the confidence boost (and extra margin for body positioning that a low seat opens up) it gives is marked and worthwhile.

I'm not fussed about all that GPS stuff (i'll just flow my eyes, ears and nose (or the locals!) to the best trails thanks 😉 but decent lights and a droppy post hit the spot for me.

Properly grippy flat pedal shoes that were designed for MTBing rather than borrowed from skate/bmx?

The thing with uppy-downy posts is that if you don't need one, you don't need one. As soon as you do, then you really do! I'll explain

If you ride the sort of XC stuff that you have the skills to do with your normal height seat, or accept that you might have to stop for 15sec everynow and then for a height change, then you won't see any, none, zipp, zilch, benefit to fitting a droppy post.

Forks/rear shocks.......generally lighter more travel travel adjust pretty good all round
rear shocks pretyy impressive with push technology, cane creek double barrel will make any suspension system better......

Another +1 for uppy downy posts.

If you ride the sort of XC stuff that you have the skills to do with your normal height seat, or accept that you might have to stop for 15sec everynow and then for a height change, then you won't see any, none, zipp, zilch, benefit to fitting a droppy post.

If I'm riding something undulating, I'll have my seat at a good height. Imagine there's an optional little drop / jump / bunny hop over tree etc, one that I wouldn't do it with my seat up. With a normal seatpost, I [i]could[/i] stop, lose all momentum, put my seat down, but half the time if you do that you're going too slow for whatever's in front of you - I probably wouldn't bother, I'd keep my seat up and ride round. Or I'm rolling downhill on a road, with the Reverb I'll put my seat down and bunny hop or manual something. You'd never stop to put your seat down just to do that.

So I'd argue that even if your rides are generally up-for-20-minutes, down for 5 minutes (and repeat), as mine are, then you'll still see a good benefit from an Uppy-Downy. They're not [i]just[/i] time-saving devices.

I know its not a part, but trail centres must be the biggest advance.

Bikes 10 years ago were not really that different from today, maybe if you went back 20 years then you ould get more advances.

Not to get dragged off into the whole dropper post debate, but I think part of the reason some people who've not tried them think they're pointless is that they call them "dropper posts". Mine isn't a dropper post at all, it's a raiser post- on descents it's down almost all the time and pops up for the traverses and pedals. Which is an awful lot more useful than dropping it 😉

It's got to be down to an individual's experience surely?

10 years ago I was riding a steel 'hardcore' HT with Marzocchi air forks.

Today I'm riding a steel 'burly' AM HT with Marzocchi air forks.

Granted, I now have more travel from the air forks (twice as much), better brakes (disks as opposed to Vs), better geometry for the type of riding I do and marginally better tyres (I LOVED Spesh Evil Twins!).

For me individually though it's a dropper post with remote that's made the most difference. Weren't around 10 years ago (in any recognisable current form) and until I got one I didn't know I wanted one. Has changed the way I ride totally in terms of what I will take on and how confident I feel doing things. Not just for steep stuff, but I tend to drop the saddle now for everything other than just riding along or climbing - makes moving the bike around and getting it up, over and down stuff so much easier.

Having said that, can also easily see how for others lights, tyres, GPS, whatever would be more significant.

slainte 🙂 rob

its not carbon fibre....well not as it currently stands

I might also put a vote in for my Garmin Edge 200, im loving it.

Probably borderline ten years but bike specific 5 10s.

Hydraulic disk brakes - reliable, strong and they don't eat wheels

Tapered Headsets.

I can't believe how we managed before.

hmm, yeah another vote for the internet, especially combined with YouTube, Vimeo and a GoProHD. ADmitedly this has led to some pretty dull vids, but its pretty easy to create and shared decent HD vids these days.

druidh - Member
MTG - you're looking at it the wrong way round.

You can take a FLOATilla of Fatbikes into places a 10-year old bike would never reach. That's a true advance.

Like bogs, or beaches, or other, featureless places that aren't much fun to ride?

10 speed gearing

All the above are wrong.

The biggest advance in the last decade is the change in social acceptance, the whole 'mountain biking is the new golf' thing. It has had a far greater influence on MTBing than anything else. As MTBing has become more 'middle class', so more money has become available in the 'sport', allowing manufacturers to produce new models, or to revamp old stuff, or to flog you different colours or different sized wheels or different niches.

It's become a business, that's the difference.

lights... No not really was using Lumicycles a decade ago and they were fine, used Vistas before that and again fine.

Did Mountain Mayhem in c2000 when it was at Sandwell, so racing was possible.

Biggest advance of the last 10 years????? As far as bikes go, there have been no real step changes, it has been tweaks.

The biggest change is probably the internet and how it allows bikes to be used.

Plus 1 for the Internet.
Not sure that mtb is the new golf though, still an obscenely uncool sport, but there's always been people
Paying a lot of money for a radder / cooler / lighter bike
Dropper post would be a good call. Where (what) I ride, I can really see the benefit and as soon as I get a job again, it'll be on my list!

Lights wise, I did my first Redbull 24hr at Trentam Gardens in about '97. Lights have got better, but they aren't new

Biggest advance? Dunno, but the biggest regression has to be proliferation of standards. From basically 1 standard BB standard (well 3 but all with identical frame spec) to an array of incomprehensible standards that even wikipedia can't answer.

still an obscenely uncool sport

I wonder why that is? Road has had a lot of profile building especially in the UK etc with Cav, Sky etc but still mtb is perceived the way it is.

Or is it alway going to be inherently uncool to be riding a bike around the woods with a rucksack?

I think road cycling has always been there, and has a good deal more tradition and heritage than mountain biking. Mountain biking has been led far more by fashion than road.

LED lights. Before, all we had were halogens or HIDs with huge batteries, I think people take the advances in lighting for granted. Luckily I sold my Lupine Edison 5 about six years ago on eBay for close to £400 just before the LED revolution started, that highlights how much LED tech has moved on. My Edison was complicated and tempremental, and prone to giving you a 'bit of a tingle' if you touched the head unit with wet hands. New bulbs might be needed at any time, were £120 and took a fortnight to be fitted and returned.

Proper, reliable LEDs made batteries and lights so much smaller and lighter, and night rides so much less faff. Anything that makes it easier to ride at any hour has to be a good thing.

MTB cool? Time for a new thread!

All the above are wrong.

The biggest advance in the last decade is the change in social acceptance, the whole 'mountain biking is the new golf' thing. It has had a far greater influence on MTBing than anything else. As MTBing has become more 'middle class', so more money has become available in the 'sport', allowing manufacturers to produce new models, or to revamp old stuff, or to flog you different colours or different sized wheels or different niches.

It's become a business, that's the difference.

middle aged??

Biggest advance? Dunno, but the biggest regression has to be proliferation of standards. From basically 1 standard BB standard (well 3 but all with identical frame spec) to an array of incomprehensible standards that even wikipedia can't answer

completely agree here once the shitheads stop bringing out a new standard every fortnight you will see a big advance in MTBs

Tapered Headsets.

I can't believe how we managed before.

Really? 😕

Or are you being ironic?

Cos I'm still (gratefully) free of the tapered headset nonsense myself...

LED lights have been a big improvement for the small minority of us that do want to ride at night, but as an overall, most people who ride MTB's don't do so at night, ever.

powerful lights with relatively small batteries and decent run times.

I'd agree lights, but 10 yrs? That's 2002 we had lights back then, I'm fairly sure I've had my Mi-newts since 2002, trying to think when I first started Night riding, I had a Whyte Prest1 I recall how long ago did they come out?

Edit found my ebay pics, I sold that in 2005 and I'd had it three or four years maybe more, so lights don't qualify for ten years, I don't reckon.

So it's defo uppy downy, we had internet in 2002 and there were bike forums...

Uppy Downy wins.

End of thread

Triathlons and road riding are the new golf. There is nothing less cool than those two pastimes.

Lights are for the minority.

What about Clothing, decent design and materials.

Can't honestly see the improvement in clothing from mid 90's shoes and lycra. Sure, baggies look better, but in use?

I can see the argument for dropper posts, but I don't believe it's the killer app as it were. If I was speccing a bike on a modest budget it wouldnt be in the build eating up money. Also, I think it's only with advances in other technologies - bikes, geo, air cans, componentry, wheels and tires etc...leading to very versatile trail and AM bikes that have created a market and a use for them. Right?