Top 5 Mountain Biking companies ever.

[Prodigal Son]

it would be fun to make a Top 5 Worst Mountain Biking companies ever :mrgreen:

Specialized for suing everyone
Trek for putting an end to Klein and bontrager bikes.
Every single suspension fork company that left the rim brake, 11/8 steerer bikes behind.

 

[ishaw]

it would be fun to make a Top 5 Worst Mountain Biking companies ever :mrgreen:

Trek for putting an end to Klein and bontrager bikes.

And Gary Fisher.

 

[Double-E F]

1. Shimano

2. Syncros
3. Yeti
4. Ringle
5. Magura

 

[legrandefromage]

The cat alarm went off at 5am and the snooze button just doesnt work so I dozed thinking back, back into the 1980's and what influenced me.

1983, Brighton, about 9 years old and still small enough to go bombing up and down Brighton/ Hove seafront sat on my Action Man tank

No bicycle influences there then!

1986, September, I've been given a new bicycle with fat tyres and bullmoose bars. The Lee Chi levers are a little to big for my teeny hands and the 18 inch frame is from the ''he'll grow into it, sir'' school of cycling.

So what influenced that gift/ purchase? None of the family were cyclists. Within 3 years that bike had Tioga rings, Suntour XCM shifting and Farmer Johns tyres... Where did that all come from? Magazines? not many about and certainly no internet.

The school bike rack always had the rich kids latest and a holiday in Slovenia in '88 had me up the Julian Alps on a rented Peugeot 5spd watching properly proper mountain bikes being ridden properly proper. There was DUST! not mud and snot from ill kept bridleways at home. And our local shop always had a bit of exotica in to nose at. Halfords was just a split level shop the size of a newsagents and I didnt pick up a magazine until 1990.

Where I lived we had a lot of American servicemen (and women), there were fat tubed Cannondales leaving us slack jawed (it was 1987), and even an Off Road Toad of all things, parked up outside Tesco's. Later came the Marins, GTs and Konas but very very few Specialized in our little world

*later there was a Cannondale SE2000 and a very early Proflex that had us on our steel antiques gawping

1992, a 531 Magnum frame (scaffolding) adorned with RS MAG20 and the then new black LX for the 1993 model year

So in 6 short years it was ignorance to air/ oil suspension and a growth spurt.

1994 it was a Zaskar and in 1997 it was a Marin Mt. Vision - neither bike have really been topped by later purchases, 1995 saw me spending what seemed an absurd amount on Hope wheels and hydraulic brakes, again, the original Hopes always seem better than later offerings with their bendy levers and sticky pistons. I felt I'd hit a peak in 2000 with the hope kit, 9spd XT and some Judy DH (shoulda gone with Marzocchi! Duh!!)

Friends at the time were on a GT Pantera, the brittle square tubed Saracen Conquest e-stay, Orange Prestige, a Clockwork and a Raleigh Apex. So quite the mix. The dream bikes? Pace (I so nearly bought the red Team frame hanging up in one of the Cambridge shops), Nishiki Alien and a Xixang, RTS or Zaskar.

Anyway, there you go, I think seeing proper mountain biking abroad was the biggest influence over any specific manufacturer. All brands were battered and broken with no real loyalty to anything in our small group. There was a Mavic BB in the Prestige, a Campagnolo Record road mech on my bike and loudly sworn at Suntour Xpress shifters on the Pantera,

My first sexy purchase was a Kingsbery headset to replace the Tioga Avenger on my Zaskar.

 

[Curveking]

The cat alarm went off at 5am and the snooze button just doesnt work so I dozed thinking back, back into the 1980's and what influenced me.

1983, Brighton, about 9 years old and still small enough to go bombing up and down Brighton/ Hove seafront sat on my Action Man tank

No bicycle influences there then!

1986, September, I've been given a new bicycle with fat tyres and bullmoose bars. The Lee Chi levers are a little to big for my teeny hands and the 18 inch frame is from the ''he'll grow into it, sir'' school of cycling.

So what influenced that gift/ purchase? None of the family were cyclists. Within 3 years that bike had Tioga rings, Suntour XCM shifting and Farmer Johns tyres... Where did that all come from? Magazines? not many about and certainly no internet.

The school bike rack always had the rich kids latest and a holiday in Slovenia in '88 had me up the Julian Alps on a rented Peugeot 5spd watching properly proper mountain bikes being ridden properly proper. There was DUST! not mud and snot from ill kept bridleways at home. And our local shop always had a bit of exotica in to nose at. Halfords was just a split level shop the size of a newsagents and I didnt pick up a magazine until 1990.

Where I lived we had a lot of American servicemen (and women), there were fat tubed Cannondales leaving us slack jawed (it was 1987), and even an Off Road Toad of all things, parked up outside Tesco's. Later came the Marins, GTs and Konas but very very few Specialized in our little world

*later there was a Cannondale SE2000 and a very early Proflex that had us on our steel antiques gawping

1992, a 531 Magnum frame (scaffolding) adorned with RS MAG20 and the then new black LX for the 1993 model year

So in 6 short years it was ignorance to air/ oil suspension and a growth spurt.

1994 it was a Zaskar and in 1997 it was a Marin Mt. Vision - neither bike have really been topped by later purchases, 1995 saw me spending what seemed an absurd amount on Hope wheels and hydraulic brakes, again, the original Hopes always seem better than later offerings with their bendy levers and sticky pistons. I felt I'd hit a peak in 2000 with the hope kit, 9spd XT and some Judy DH (shoulda gone with Marzocchi! Duh!!)

Friends at the time were on a GT Pantera, the brittle square tubed Saracen Conquest e-stay, Orange Prestige, a Clockwork and a Raleigh Apex. So quite the mix. The dream bikes? Pace (I so nearly bought the red Team frame hanging up in one of the Cambridge shops), Nishiki Alien and a Xixang, RTS or Zaskar.

Anyway, there you go, I think seeing proper mountain biking abroad was the biggest influence over any specific manufacturer. All brands were battered and broken with no real loyalty to anything in our small group. There was a Mavic BB in the Prestige, a Campagnolo Record road mech on my bike and loudly sworn at Suntour Xpress shifters on the Pantera,

My first sexy purchase was a Kingsbery headset to replace the Tioga Avenger on my Zaskar.

You should be a writer. i would read your books.