No solely restricted to bikes but has made a big impact – hydroforming.

GPS is a good one. gravity droppers seem nice but I don’t think they’d be as useful as a GPS for riding new trails without a local guide.

no one mentioned gravity droppers yet, or is that like the naughty word on QI?

Uppy downy posts – mine has made the biggest difference to my riding.
Way more than anything else has.

+ 1 Uppy Downy

Uppy downy posts.

Another +1 for uppy downy seatposts

+1 Reverb uppy downy.

Nothing else has so enhanced the riding experience,

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.

Tyres, imo- Tyres that work in specific circumstances, tyres that work in all situations, light tyres, heavy duty tyres, tubeless, fat, we’ve got them all now.
Don’t forget the fat bike thing is totally driven by tyres.

If you could magically transport a bike and rider from 10 years ago to join in a forum ride today, most of the things mentioned so far wouldn’t make all that much difference, they’d still keep up and ride the same stuff.

Apart from all the puncture stops and not being able to see where they’re going at night.

Tubeless and modern LED lights and batteries are the biggest advances.

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.

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.

The internet 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! 😀

EDIT -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.Given the average group ride stops every 200 yards to scratch their collective arse, it doesn’t sound like much of an advance. Riding on your own I can see them being good though.

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 could 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 just 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.