When is an MTB not an MTB - When its Old Apparently !

When its old a mountain bike seems no longer to be classed as a mountain bike. You will notice from ebay and other sites the increasing number of adverts that describe bikes as 26" tourers, as hybrids, as city bikes or commuters. To those who are younger or less well informed than us the rigid retro mtb is not a mtb. It does not have lots of bouncey bits, lacks umpteen linkages and hydraulicaly stopped discs of steel are missing from the wheels. Seems without the above its not a mtb anymore. I feel I have been robbed of a portion of my identity.

At a recent mtb event I was at, I was just about the only rider of a bike dating from the 20th century. The organisers cheered me like you would an elderly but eccentric relative. There were numerous looks of incredulity that anyone would attempt the race on anything that unsuitable.

An old bike can ride the terrain as can a new bike, the terrains the same now as then. Its still a mtb, lets keep reminding people of this !

agree 100% A workmate was shocked when i told them its an mtb. So i have a fat tired racing bike :facepalm:

Yes and with the coming of strava and powermeters most of those folks just want to go faster and beat records. They believe they can not do that on a retro mtb I guess. They could be right but a little bit more respect would do no harm.

Would be fun to see their faces if you beat them all on your retro bike

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Yeah I've seen a few "retro" 26" wheeled MTB's being advertised as hybrid bikes and such recently.
As you say, it seems that if it doesn't have suspension and disc brakes then it can't possibly be a Mountain bike
I remember about 5 years ago I picked up a Proflex 857 and took it to an xc/marathon race the next day. We did alright (at least I wasn't last!), had more folk cheering me on than anyone on a new bike I think

I remember when it was all fields around here.............

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How pathetic :facepalm: You wouldn't call a 50’s Le Mans race car a ‘runabout’, would you ?

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M-Power":9gswu149 said:

How pathetic :facepalm: You wouldn't call a 50’s Le Mans race car a ‘runabout’, would you ?

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or slow

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Blame the internet, its re-writing as we type.

One Facebook page contributor claimed Whyte 'invented' the full sus mountain bike.

Its happening everywhere.

Road 'plus' bikes, its a bleedin maaaaantin' bike, innit?!

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legrandefromage":apx2tuk4 said:

Road 'plus' bikes, its a bleedin maaaaantin' bike, innit?!

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Odd ain't it?

Almost like people are looking for a more simple, pure solution to riding off road.


You watch, soon some bright spark will bang some flat bars on one and a new type of bike will be created.

....and then we'll claim that we thought of it in the UK at least ten years earlier.

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Oops!