[Closed] worst mountain bike products....EVER!

Still use bar ends ,fingerless gloves all the time, a 150mm stem and toeclips on one or other bike

What a bunch of old curmudgeons you are, riding around in your remote mountain bogs, with your bar ends, toe clips and 150mm stems! 😉

FWIW

MBUK ran an article about how to file down/drill out your components!

I was just thinking about this very article the other day - and trying to remember if it were real, or I'd imagined it!

Toe clips were an awful necessity, as were the Onza elastomer pedals that replaced them for me. Useless things. Bar ends.. Sigh.. Bar ends.. How I miss my tubular welded aluminium Specialized 'Control Sticks'. I think Ned Overend 'ran' them on his XC 'rig' at the time. They were probably useless though. Elastomer forks, were a joke.

The only thing I balk at on that list is the Girvin forks. The late (oil / coil spring) ones were ACE. Apart from when the bushings collapsed and took out the soft aluminium mountings beneath them. Okay, they were probably crap too.

I think the Dirt perspective on this list has made it very gravity-oriented, hence fingerless gloves being seen as like a condom with a hole in the end. Fair enough if you are totally Gnar in everything you do, but probably not if you are an old STW curmudgeon.. 😉

Well I'm glad to see fingerless gloves are considered an essential in summer, as that's what I thought!

Rapid Rise was ace and I'd use it now if it came in 10sp.

Kinda gutted I went ten speed when I had a perfectly functioning RR mech in my bike plus a brand new one in the basement.

Going up the cassette is easy. Takes the pressure of the mech on the climbs and means you can skip gears when descending rather than hitting the lever several times over.

I would put quick releases in the list as I really don't see the advantage of them and they just seem to create a danger. Well documented people having accidents due to them.

Early forks were never strong enough and always breaking. Quite scary really.

There are plenty of first generation products which have since been improved. SRAMS first rear derailleurs jump to my mind as the jockey wheels would seize every single ride. Or egg beaters with the cleats that lasted a month.

I can't get my head round the whole mtb hatred of ISIS or how they're so bad. It's pretty much the standard for trials and despite taking some severe hammer and abuse from a lot of riders they don't really have much trouble with them??

Also, the original Tioga downhill tyres that everyone at Bike 99 had slung over their shoulder (me included). Most dangerous tyres in the world!

no_eyed_deer - Member

Toe clips were an awful necessity

They really weren't. All you needed was a half sensible shoe and a half decent beartrap, sorted.

Avid brakes!?!

slingshot bikes

I can't get my head round the whole mtb hatred of ISIS or how they're so bad. It's pretty much the standard for trials and despite taking some severe hammer and abuse from a lot of riders they don't really have much trouble with them??

They are actually a good design for trials as the big fat axle is much harder to bend than the old square taper that existed before. The big problem however with ISIS is the tiny bearings that simply wear out in no time if you start putting decent mileage on them.

So to summarise great for trials, but sh*t for mtbing or road.

7,10,11 and 12. Nothing wrong with all them at the time imo. Spds weren't invented back then, those [s]bear[/s] (power strap maybe? neoprene thingy) things felt insecure, so toeclips/ straps were the thing. 130mm stems and zoom bar ends - all great because the top tubes were on the short side.

Also had purple anodised things, canti brake boosters (very trick), rear mech 'protectors' and prior to indexing, nice friction shift thumbies. Obviously rubbish now, but all good then.

I think for it to have been a rubbish product it needs to be 'defective' in some way at the time.

All you needed was a half sensible shoe and a half decent beartrap, sorted.

No one did though. I've got old mags and virtually ever rider pre-SPD in riding n clips & straps, no matter whether they touring in Scotland / Himalayas, racing XC or DH. Even the Trials guys were using those Powerstrap things.

Everyone I knew threw their toeclips in the bin, except for the one super-xc dude. I think it was one of those things you thought was essential because everyone did it and it was in the mags, but as soon as you tried anything else realised it wasn't.

some of those products in the list were the best available at that time.../... as time passes and you look back that you realise how crap some stuff was

But as epicyclo has proved crapness can be in the eye of the beholder, pretty sure most of us wouldn't put dérailleurs on the list but if you broke several a year on your local trails you may well agree with him. See also all the US kit that works well in dry places but sucks balls in UK winter conditions.

*actually compared to 2007 stuff as most of my "current" forks are a good few years old now

but as soon as you tried anything else realised it wasn't.

*did later give proper, grippy flats a go but I don't like em for mtbing.

Elastomer forks, were a joke.

Why? What was better between 1991-95?

chestrockwell - Member
'Elastomer forks, were a joke.'
Why? What was better between 1991-95?

Rigid. 🙂

That could certainly be argued!

Elastomer was '95 on really - at least that's when RS, manipoo, etc were all using them in the Judys and so on. While they weren't a patch on either air or steel springs, they worked much better than rigid (but I'm assuming that was a joke) and they were certainly light.

isitafox - Member
I can't get my head round the whole mtb hatred of ISIS or how they're so bad.

I like ISIS, but it has to be a good quality one. It's not a design that allows shortcuts on quality. Mine last for years, but maybe it's because I never wash my bike or put it on the back of a car.

Elastomer was '95 on really

Nah, they were on the way out by then. The original Judy was about as good as it got. Pre 95 the best forks were the Pace RC35's, Manitou 1,2,3, and RS Mag 20/21's. 2 of the 3 were elastomer then RS went that way as well. As soon as Bombers turned up (1996 or 97 :?) it was game over for elastomers but in the early days they were as good as anything else.

Forgotten my Manitou Mars Elite fork circa 2002. Flex-tastic.

Shimano Airlines surely needed a vote. Powering gearshifts with giant compressed air cylinders was surely a solution for a far bigger problem

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While they weren't a patch on either air or steel springs

Some of them were better than air springs....you never tried a Rockshox Mag21?

I had a Mag10 🙂

I didn't find it too bad. Well, apart from the flex... If you added some oil to the air chamber it made them a lot smoother.

Besides, I was talking about current air spring models.

It's one of those "20/20 hindsight" type articles from someone without the wit or imagination to have come up with anything themselves, Lazy writing from a magazine that, by the end, deserved to go down the shitter IMO...

Most of the "Terrible" products in that piece were simply points along the way to the [i]awesome[/i] bikes we can buy today, which will no doubt, in years to come look equally dated...

The trouble with following fashion means you have to voluntarily loose all perspective on, and appreciation for history, even relatively recent history...

So yeah, whatever... [i]everything[/i] was shite 15-20 years ago... 🙄

Elastomer forks, were a joke.
Why? What was better between 1991-95?

Marzocchi mx100. 2 inches of plush air travel. (which was near on impossible to set up owing to the small air volume in the forks)

So yeah, whatever... everything was shite 15-20 years ago...

This. I'm sure some WhatGnarlBike magazine will look fondly back at todays bike and mock us for using bits of cable to manually move gears around, or the madness of ditching all your front chainrings to have a smaller range of gears, or wearing matching helmet, top, shorts and gloves in royal blue or orange etc., or fatbikes, or 27.5+ etc. etc.

cookeaa - Member

So yeah, whatever... everything was shite 15-20 years ago...

To be fair, it genuinely was. Rose to the dizzying heights of "barely adequate" at best.

Elastomer on the way back 🙂

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chestrockwell - Member
'Elastomer forks, were a joke.'
Why? What was better between 1991-95?

...No, seriously: rigid forks were better than 30mm of up and down elastomer fork 'movement', combined with 50mm of torsional flex, indifferent performance fade in real world conditions and unnecessary extra bike weight.

Pace RC35s (for example) did look pimp though.. 8)

Hmm looks like I hit the jackpot.
Purple - check
Narrow bars - check
Long stem - check
Beartrap pedals - check
X-ray Gripshift - check
Elastomer forks - check
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At least I've got another bike to fall back on
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Dangnammit!

Ah well back in the day I was well cooler with my fashion sense and amazeballs 6" travel Foes weasel / Stratos forks. Still rocking purple cook bros cranks and Rockguard as well
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One handed crotchgrab! Yeah baby!
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At least Warner had a cool bike for racing DH on. Well maybe not then
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4 pages in and no mention of sealskinz socks? Maybe not mountain bike specific but still a pile of sh*te.

I like my sealskinz, wouldn't be without them (or something like them) in winter. Now Gore waterproof socks, those are awful. I think it's great that Gore have an equal opportunities hiring policy and employ disabled people and that but I do think they should leave the sock design to people who've ever had feet.

dazh - Member
4 pages in and no mention of sealskinz socks? Maybe not mountain bike specific but still a pile of sh*te.

Not if you wear tights/trousers/something to stop water running down your legs and filling them up.

I worked in a bike shop briefly. Somebody brought a pair back complaining that they were leaking. He got a refund. We filled them with water and let them stand all day. No leakage at all.

Well I never tried a Zyzxx fork but there was a clear consensus that they worked for about 5 minutes so that's enough for me

The others were indeed rubbish or at least inferior to other products available at the time.

I gotta fess up......not only did I have these.....I even brought the 7" upgrade kit from USA too.....!!.....at the time I thought they were the nutz

Ooooooh I feel ashamed now!!!!.....lol

 

So yeah, whatever, everything was shite 15-20 years ago...

To be fair, it genuinely was. Rose to the dizzying heights of "barely adequate" at best

nope.

This was a flipping awesome frame. Still is now. It would still be a great ride with all the bits that came on it new. LX and XT, Bomber Z2s...

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