Ok so the bench marks are:
Elvis
Michael Jackson
The Beatles
Liverpool FC (soz had to put this one in)
But bein new to mountainbikin what the benchmarks here?
I honestly have no idea and would really like to know?
Im talkin ground breaking, whats the roots and do they still have a place in the scene?
????

how fast your audi is.
how amazing your burr grinder is
etc 😉

Sorry wasnt very clear was I.
Whats the bench marks for mountain bikes?

Ah, we might be getting somewhere.

Riding your bike and coming home with a smile. That’s where it’s at. That’s where it’s always going to be.

+1 ^

Im struggling here – whats the benchmark as in wht was or were the bike models that kicked off mountain biking to the masses?

Specialized Stumpjumper.

In the UK, Muddy Fox Courier would be up there, but for the real “masses” it would be a Raleigh, Peugeot, Dawes and the like.

midlifecrashes has it right

Orange 5

Think of the Orange 5 as man Utd and the benchmarks you seek as liverpool
ie had their day and crap now but devotees wont listen

GCSE English would be a good one to start with.

Other than the bikes mentioned above, there aren’t any really as the sport moves on every few years. 6/7 years ago the benchmark for dropper seatposts was a hite-rite… As for today, it’s not that there is a bike/component that all others aspire to beat as there are so many specialist areas, eg the best xc wheels are going to be toss for an enduro/freeride bike.

The original Stumpjumper would be one as the first mass market MTB. But theres more than being first. I’d say the Mountain Cycle San Andreas is a more relevant forefather of the bikes most folk ride today than a 1980s arse-in-the-air, long stemmed, rigid bike.

The only real benchmark was the ten speed racers with cow horn handlebars and cyclocross tyres me and my mates rode. That’s how we invented mountainbiking before the yanks commercialised it. Maybe that should be commercialized.