DOB on their FB profile Their picture and general demeanour. Convos from selling and occasionally buying parts from them. I think its great, slightly surprised tbh. You would think that whole 80/90s era would be of little interest to such followers of contemporary bike marketing hype.
Maybe they have tried riding a classic rigid through tight tree gap, root festooned slippery trails beside a river and appreciate the purity of the experience. Wide bar 35lb modern rigs woukd struggle to make it through such places without regular ‘dabs’ and walks
Im more talking of guys in their early 30s who have discovered classic bikes from the late 80s and very early 90s. Most of these guys would have been too young to know much about mountainbiking or out riding them at this time, with a few possible exceptions. In the same way many of the modern gen grow to appreciate music from this era, i just think its cool there seems to be growing interested in the bikes too The baton of appreciation will keep on going methinks.
Retro never really goes out of fashion. The prob for collectors of classic cars is there are fewer and fewer mechanics who can/will work on them, so maintenance gets too pricy. At least classic higher end bikes are well made and fairly simple to maintain DIY.