[Closed] The most iconic retro MTB component?

DCD

Synchros Cattleprod stem.

90s Selle Italia Flite

Z1s! Smoother than melted butter. What a fork!

Ringle stem

Cook bros cranks

Paul's components rear mech

Onza bar ends

ZZYZX forks
[img] [/img]

Edit: also, that saddle on that bike, and that stem.

Onza bar ends
[img] ?1516211164[/img]

XTR M950 groupset

*that* colour P7

Will always be these for me ...

Small boys in the park? Isn't it? Wasn't it? Mmm?

Onza bar ends.
Porcs.

Proper Thumbies.
9 speed XT Triple.

Salsa qrs.

+1 Flite Seat

Smoke and Dart

Actually..

My brother had that colour P7, STX RC groupset. I nicked it without asking and crashed it flat out head on into a barbed wire fence. Split the headtube. Fair to say he wasn't best pleased.

Small boys in the park? Isn’t it? Wasn’t it? Mmm?

Bula hats for slalom markers. Isn't it? Wasn't it?

@Matt- the Sprint version of that was my summer race tyre for a couple of years. Awesome in the dry, but if you so much as sneezed in front of your tyre, a crash was inevitable.

@Matt- the Sprint version of that was my summer race tyre for a couple of years. Awesome in the dry, but if you so much as sneezed in front of your tyre, a crash was inevitable

I think most retro kit lacked functionality... Tioga Disc anyone?

'86 Groondies

Hite Rite

Cool Tool

And a purple anno ringle bottle cage

Girvin fork.

USE alu seatpost
Dia Compe brake levers
Grip Shift

Carbon wheels by spin and spinergy

X lite riser bar

Anodized purple v-brake booster

I had a purple Marin 'rain proof'* top that made me look like a RibenaBerry and feel like Stuart Hall.
Not that.

*Nope.

Funnily enough the Cosmic stuff would probably go down quite well with the gravel grinder set 😉 A lot the other stuff was cool but an evolutionary dead end.

I'll give a nod to the 1988 proto bike by Kestrel / Paul Turner / Keith Bontrager IIRC. Proper oil damped air sprung suspension, and an early example of carbon fiber being used in an innovative way.

https://images.app.goo.gl/5FoSGeW26CHMBg4F7

<img src="https://images.app.goo.gl/5FoSGeW26CHMBg4F7" alt="Flexstem embed attempt 2"

Flexstem image embed attempt 3

I give up.... Flexstem 🙄

The Buffalo cycling shirt that was multi coloured & had a flap that wrapped around your under carriage.

AXO Pony boots.

The Buffalo cycling shirt that was multi coloured & had a flap that wrapped around your under carriage.

There's some on this forum that still wear one all winter...

Blimey. Small world ta11pau1. I was in Didcot yesterday and snapped this strange bike inside an office foyer:

https://flic.kr/p/2gqMwhb

Syncros Cranks

26" wheels.

Man, I don't know how we used to ride that shit...

Flex Stem, purple canti hangers, Crud Catcher and Flite saddle for me.

Sun Tour thumb shifters. The XT ones above come close and I have a set on a tandem. but it was Sun Tour that laid the foundations of mountain biking by making flat bar shifting a thing. Truly iconic.

my initial though was a Syncros component, such as

The cranks were also cool, but much rarer so the stem is a stronger bet.

But the true concept of 'retro' has got to be something that we don't use anymore, and that means bar ends, so I'll echo tallpaul but this time with the L-bends, not the welded type:

with a notable mention to:

full bike...

I’m hoping that Shimano XT DCL shifters and rapid rise rear mechs will one day receive recognition as being an iconic or at least as a system of doing things differently.
Have an immaculate set of dcl shifters and rapid rise xt mech on my pub bike .......

Hope Superlight ti hub

(better pic)

Like what I still have one of in the garage 🙂

Shark's fin.
Those yellow (mine was Specialized) frame bag - Spiders Web?

For me Syncros stems:

and Ringlé Moby seatposts:

I vote for Flexstem, although toeclips would be my second vote (for MTBs, I know touring types who still like them).

I've got that exact same P7 sat in my garage.

1996 P7 in Nickel, xt Groupset including some of the first sets of XT V Brakes and a Rock Shox Judy XC fork.

Rusting away, unused. Just cant bring myself to chuck it away.

Lots of good ones above.
How about some of the more experimental/hacky ones:

U-Brake under the seatstay

Bontrager cut down Mavic MA-40 rims

I might have a Synchros stem kicking about somewhere. But I probably binned it as the wedge didn't actually work very well.

I guess it depends how retro and what branch of MTB. That STS is pretty of-its-time. Hope C2s? The Ringle purple ano QRs too. And the Z1 was for a time the fork to have on anything hardcore with a single crown. Paul's rear mech was something I lusted after too even though it probably wouldn't have worked any better and I'd have spent my wages on replacement parts for it.

I'm going to propose (though I'm useless with images) a GT LTS with z1's and V brakes.

So much good stuff here so I will just add Hot Pies!

For me it's this...

And Mavic Sunset rims...

I've got one of those later Syncros stems with the hinged bar clamps still in everyday use on my commuter.

I reckon Onza ski-bends is the right answer.

and before those, the Syncros Steerhorns

[img] [/img]

sorry, but a stem is not iconic.
yes you stare at it a lot and it needs to look good but it's just a piece of connecting pipe.

for me it's the Flite Ti saddle even though I never had one because I couldn't afford one and knew I wouldn't get on with the shape. I have the modern version now which still looks great, though not nearly as great as the original, but is more comfortable.

Power Grips. I used them for years on Odyssey Triple Traps & AXO Ponies, on my elevated chainstayed rasta couloured Pacific bike along with a pair of white Rock Shox Mag21's in 1.25" ahead, Club Roost stem, Onza bar ends, XT thumbies and really wide 23" Control Tech bars...... #yesteryear

What about riser bars with braces, Club Roost did one, and X-Lite used to do a mad wide h'bar back in the day.

sorry, but a stem is not iconic.

Sorry but I beg to differ.

The stem that launched a million clones. For about a decade after the Shorty came out, almost every stem was either a Shorty or a rip off of one. Unless you were an XC mincer.

I think I've probably still got a lot of the stuff above in my spares box in the garage.

No-one mentioned the CK Rasta headset yet?

Got to be the recent Sick stem that looked like a vajazzled door stop.

That shark's fin is both iconic and unbelievably was still available until very recently.

I think a stem can be iconic

Got to be the recent Sick stem that looked like a vajazzled door stop

*Applause*

Ahh, the azonic stem - that#s the one.

Girvin flexstem is right up there with the Onza bar ends for me.

spooky metalhead frame. First hardcore hardtail/ jumpbike for the UK.

spooky

No mention of RS7's yet?

For me. Certainly this ...

http://www.bikepro.com/products/stems/girvin.html

(And if I could get hold of a pair of Axo Pony boots in green/purple (size 7) I would be a happy man)

Bontrager Switchblades for me:

Or the yeti accutrax in yellow.

In my loft. Coloured the pink bits black.

And they are size 7.

Got to be early front suspension for me. RS Judys were the first forks we all put onto our rigid hardtails. My old XCs are still sat in the shed, as are the Kona P2s I took off 🙂

Mmm.. gotta be magura hydro rim brakes or no definitely project 2 forks they work well and look cool too

Pace RC 35’s

For me the Smoke and Darts probably above all. Used off road and for commuting. Never entered my mind to change tyres avoiding to use. I just got on and rode. Things were so simple back then.

That said,I had a serious love affair with my Manitou 2's. I absolutely loved how those forks looked.

Magura HS33 for those without disc brake mounts.