Do 26" wheels make it retro?

[averagebiker]

Morning all,
I was working on my "newest" MTB last, a Boardman hardtail XC bike. It was the last 26" wheel model before the range switched to 650b and 29er only.

It got me thinking. 26" is the original MTB wheel size and was the only size for many years; so does this make anything 26" retro?

What do you think?

 

[tintin40]

IMOP no it doesn't. 26 is still the best size.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

They say that my 3x8, v braked, coil sprung 26er is not retro because it was made in 2012. I guess it is retro-themed.

 

[hamster]

I think it's more like all retro MTBs are 26"; but not all 26" are retro.
At which point the pedants shoot be down with Clelands and those old Cannondales with 24" rear wheels.

Of course retro is an arbitrary boundary, I didn't wake up with a sigh on 1 Jan 1998 and shed a tear as a new era began. However it's a fairly good dividing line when the major experimentation stopped and things matured. Since then (in my view) bikes simply became over-specialised to narrow applications, along with silly gimmicks (all the bottom bracket and chainset standards, excessive suspension travel, ever more miracle wheel sizes and numbers of gears etc).

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Of course retro is an arbitrary boundary, I didn't wake up with a sigh on 1 Jan 1998 and shed a tear as a new era began

I think arbitrary boundaries should be abandoned if there is no real reason for them.

By the forum definition, one is not a retro bike. I recognize the difficulty of having to completely rebuild the whole place, it isn't happening anytime soon, but I'd say that our definition is flawed.

 

[Vesatoro]

I think arbitrary boundaries should be abandoned if there is no real reason for them.
By the forum definition, one is not a retro bike. I recognize the difficulty of having to completely rebuild the whole place, it isn't happening anytime soon, but I'd say that our definition is flawed.

I think so too, years are "easy", but it also makes a lot wrong. Maybe we should divide the genre to "real vintage", "transitional" and "modern" to separate with better means. Just did a quick table of propable properties in each category. Feel free to diasagree

	Vintage	Transitional	Modern
Frame	steel	alu	carbon mono
		titanium	hydroformed alu
		carbon tube
		Thermoplastic
gears	up to 3*7	3*8-9	2*/1*
Brakes	Roll cam	V	Disc
	U
	Canti
	Drum
Headset	Threaded headset	Threadless	Integrated
F.susp.	Rigid	up to 3"	more than 3"
Rear susp.	None	URT	Floating pivot
		McPherson
		Single pivot
Wheels	24/26, 26	26​	27,5 / 29
Bars	Bullmoose	Narrow straight	Wide
	Straight	Narrow riser
Grips	BMX-type	plain	Lock grips
Wheelset	Bolt axle	QR 100/130/135	Through axle
Geometry	Clunker	71/73	Slack

 

[hamster]

The boundaries don't do any harm and are a quick starting point. Otherwise it ends up like Martial Arts with each having 5 different governing bodies etc.
Let's have proto-retro, pre-retro, retro, post retro, neo-retro and spirit of retro. Not forgetting 'spirit of post-proto-neo-retro', Euro-retro...etc.

 

[greencat]

You can call any bike you like retro if you like.

26 is fast becoming a strong indication of a retro bike as fewer and fewer bikes made post 2015(ish) are 26ers. Geometry is becoming another marker. Again 2015(ish) seems to be a watershed. Many quality bikes dedicated for mountain biking, as opposed to Halfords BSOs, have seen big shifts in geometry since. Ditto anything other than 1x.

 

[Tootyred]

I think the forums cut off is about right, it cuts out v brakes, bigger suspension and most dh kit. There were lots of industry changes around 97.....most of them not good imho.

I should think that's why the cut off date doesn't change every year.....

 

[Tootyred]

You also have to consider personal perspective.

Is a 1999 bike retro.....of course not.....i was middle aged when that rolled of the production line! Anything north of 1992 is new and pretty Uninspiring.

But if your 35 years old, you were only 12! So you probably looked up to those bikes in shops and catalogues....so hell yes, its retro!

However it does make me laugh.....2000, ive got tshirts older than that!