The Grinch talks …

[2manyoranges]

Mike Levy frequently is considered the Grinch of mountain bike journalism but here he talks a lot of sense - and reinforces the idea that many of the steeds which RetroBike members revel in can be rewarding, useful skill platforms and by no means redundant….

Throwback Thursday: Opinion - The Argument For Short-Travel Bikes - Pinkbike

Are we all riding bikes with too much travel that numbs our senses and our skills? Levy states his case in this Thursday Throwback article originally posted ten years ago.

m.pinkbike.com

A nice read …

 

[Tootyred]

Well thank the lord somebody has finally noticed the Emperor is is the nude...

Put my 2 nephews on one of my early 90s bikes and they poop themselves! They have zero skills and totally rely on the bike to bail them out. I was told my bike was "suicidal and twitchy, tried to chuck them over the bars, but was easy to accelerate on"......so translated into skilled rider speak "you have to think to ride it, steers exactly where you want it and good for technical xc and gets moving faster than a bloody hulking great 29er"..... errrrrrrr..... good, exactly what you need.....so why we selling 29ers again?.....oh yes fashion....everybody want to look like the guys crashing cliffs in Utah.

One nephew a few years back told me he had been learning some new skills and proceeded to try to teach me to "manual"....ok, well lets learn something new as i had never seen that.....

I physically had to stop riding as i was laughing so hard when he proceeded to "put his weight over the back wheel" .....wow....REVOLUTIONARY!

But it sums it up totally....don't bother picking a line, don't move your weight, don't absorb the shock through your elbows and knees, don't worry about obstacles.....

Yes 29ers with mahoosive suspension have their place (serious downhill).... but its not on xc or on tesco car park inho.

 

[M-Power]

Similar to a sports performance classic manual analog car. Just a shame they are becoming crazy prices. The best of classic retro bikes are still a joy to ride and still have that alive handling thats now been lost imo.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Well thank the lord somebody has finally noticed the Emperor is is the nude...

Put my 2 nephews on one of my early 90s bikes and they poop themselves! They have zero skills and totally rely on the bike to bail them out. I was told my bike was "suicidal and twitchy, tried to chuck them over the bars, but was easy to accelerate on"......so translated into skilled rider speak "you have to think to ride it, steers exactly where you want it and good for technical xc and gets moving faster than a bloody hulking great 29er"..... errrrrrrr..... good, exactly what you need.....so why we selling 29ers again?.....oh yes fashion....everybody want to look like the guys crashing cliffs in Utah.

One nephew a few years back told me he had been learning some new skills and proceeded to try to teach me to "manual"....ok, well lets learn something new as i had never seen that.....

I physically had to stop riding as i was laughing so hard when he proceeded to "put his weight over the back wheel" .....wow....REVOLUTIONARY!

But it sums it up totally....don't bother picking a line, don't move your weight, don't absorb the shock through your elbows and knees, don't worry about obstacles.....

Yes 29ers with mahoosive suspension have their place (serious downhill).... but its not on xc or on tesco car park inho.

Can't you get more in the panniers of a 29er?

And it was the Waitrose car park for us (actually it was a Giant Grandways back then, and as it was getting built)