What should we hoard today for future retro junkies

Hope Stems, small manufacturers stuff.

King headsets will always be valuable as will XTR anything. Most of us covet M900 because it was what we aspired to when we first rode but each year there is a new generation of bikers that grow up with M9**.

There isn't much around at the moment thats appealing to me. Too many people pushing their bikes to the top of the hill, strapping on body armour and roosting down. There's lots of stuff being designed for that type of riding but nice XC orientated stuff seems to be hard to come by. Shame.

Russ, take a look at Poshbikes and Tune stuff. Niiiiiiiiiiice

gump":3dgn5p0m said:

Russ, take a look at Poshbikes and Tune stuff. Niiiiiiiiiiice

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My word!

These, these are worth hoarding. lovely!

Orange71 and gump made good points. I wasn't talking about hoarding for profit. I was saying hoard the stuff because ( like M900 gear ) it works. Powers that be will say " Oh crap! That works too well, they won't " upgrade! " Discontinue it and give them shiney crap that looks the business ( M960 cranks anyone? ) but wears out in minutes.

Russell":3tmh1dlq said:

There isn't much around at the moment thats appealing to me. Too many people pushing their bikes to the top of the hill, strapping on body armour and roosting down.

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Very nicely said, I couldn't agree more.

Seconded. How many times have I seen, this winter, half a dozen disc braked full sussers in a little train sh@gging up the same old circuit 'coz no one's had the idea " Hey, why not just go xc somewhere we've not been before? "

Personally i think white industried 3 bolt hubs are well worth stocking up on , also rockshox pre 2000 before they got bought out, i have been picking up disc brakes and hubs at silly prices a year or so ago now people are asking silly prices.

I have just had a stupid offer from someone on MTBR for a set of 1998 discs and white industries boxxer hubs i am hording for a GT LOBO build when i have finished building the bikes i am already working on i could make a huge profit from the offer the guy made, but im not sure i want to part with them as i have need for them as either spares or the new build.

I am also looking to stock pile shocks for full sussers that have weird configurations ie. most GT , shwinn , also shocks for maverik bikes.

i think anything that has suspension is a good bet as things brake, wear out and are not off the shelf components that are interchangable like bushings , bearings , aftermarket linkage plates , etc.

there are still loads of boutique manufacturers who are making cool inovative products that work well and look cool, to name but a few goldtech , roox, northshore billet , atomlabs , dangerboy, nokon.

I know most of these are a bit more industrial than pre 90's products but I remember when suspension hit the market i was like who is going to use that and what is the need!

for instance look at

Race face diabolus stems, CNC lovelyness which are still light yet bombproof components

sram 0.X components, there carbon lovelyness.

It is only through owning an early full suspension bike but riding since the early 90,s that i have straddled both worlds and kept up with technology and still look for things that go bling on a bike.

It dose seem that todays new crop of dirt jumping, big hitting young riders dont want to stand out and only want their bikes in black , white or something inbetween, i was reading a post on the southern down hill forum where one of the pros got his bike slated because he had the gaul to get it painted fluro green!

what is the world comming to!

imho: the rule for today's (2007) possible mtb classics are somewhat the same as our current retro fav's; small builders, unique desireable products, pricey ...

niccolai frames
brooklyn machine works frames
jeff jones frames
vanilla frames
calfee bamboo frame
highend lightweight stuff (tune/extralite/m2/storck/etc)
scott frames (top models)
boone rings
cannondale si crank
king ti headset and limited run colors
paul cranks
potts forks
bruce gordon cantilever brakes

...

edit: i should add, i don't have any of these and if it weren't for the fact that my free money gets channeled to retro bits, these would be items i'd likely buy.