I am a newbie on this forum but not a newbie to mountain bikes. I was present here in the U.S.A. on the west coast during the late 70s through the 90's when mountain biking was born. I was in the second half of my 20s in the late 80s and early 90s and heavily into mountain bikes. That era in my life is a very fond memory because of mountain bikes. Mainly because of the state of the mountain biking industry. I dumped all my old hacked up schwinn cruisers and bought a Giant Iguana in 1989 and over the next year I swapped out parts. For me that was the incredible part of the scene at the time. Mountain bikes were simple...there were only a few things to worry about when it came to fitting on parts. Headset, bottom bracket and seat post. If it had seat stay cantilever mounts and was built by someone to be a 'mountain bike' then chances were very very good the sky was the limit on aftermarket parts. Sure, there were exceptions but those were few. In Seattle in the early 90’s there were 3 shops I used to haunt on a frequent basis and I remember so vividly the feeling of walking in one of those shops never knowing what was going to be displayed for sale. I never got tired of seeing these insane bikes from these legendary frame builders of the time. I walk in and there on the wall is a Salsa Ala Carte in the jelly bean paint, over there was a Whiskey Town Racer in orange and green...next to that was a Mantis or a Yeti FRO. Could see a Yo Eddie in all its neon glory or Klein Attitude in team colors. The parts cases with IRD switch backs, Bullseye cranks, Grafton, Pauls, WTB...name it I drooled over it. The parts...all that anodized insanity was crazy to take in. Small little machine shops making cool stuff like brakes or levers. and it ALL worked together for the most part. and it ALL would work on my mass produced Giant frame which a lot of it did.
That right there is the reason I loved that moment in time, the simplicity and innovation of the time and why I LOVE seeing what you all do here on Retrobikes in the restorations to bring back those bikes. I had all these awesome parts on my Giant and guess what...the bullseye hubs and IRD brakes and pauls levers, they all fit perfectly on the Yeti FRO frame I bought in '90. Try that now...what spacing...normal, boost? ..this or that? tapered head tube or not...bottom bracket madness, rotors center lock or not? 26", 27.5", 29"...what rim width…will the frame fit plus size tires? All that choice is AWESOME for the crowd into it now because your choices are nonstop but it left me cold about the time Cannondale made a motorcycle and the trend was for mountain bikes to look like motorcycle. I never cared about speed or needing a foot of suspension travel or a visor on my Giro Hammerhead, it became a different mindset and a different crowd and to me that was when whole mountain bike industry started to lose its soul.
I grew up in Chehalis WA not far from the Klein shop, an unassuming building out in the country I drove by all the time and I saw many Klein road bikes on the roads before ever seeing an Attitude in real life. Even in the heyday if you didn't know what it was you would never know it produced some seriously sweet bikes. Most of the high end frames at the time were made in little places like that. In '91 I took the pilgrimage to Mt Tam and saw trails like Hoo-Koo-E-Koo, Paradigm and repack. I even saw a guy on a Ritchey P-23 at the parking lot at the top of the mountain...yeah I know, most likely not built by Tom but still it was surreal to see it on that mountain. On the way back north I checked out Salsa in Petaluma, headed out past Whiskeytown national forest to Chico CA to see the Mountain Goat shop. It was a grand time in those days and the good bike shops were filled with perfection...from the hand done welds that were out of this world perfect, components built in small shops by hand and paint schemes that will never be matched again. Heck I even got hand drawn instructions with my Yeti frame!
I rode then a lot too. I remember heading to trail heads and maybe seeing a Merlin or a Moots or a set of purple Cooks Brothers Cranks…maybe even spotting an elusive Offroad Toad from up north. We rode long and hard in the mountains and loved our bikes and talked nonstop about parts and frames and what we were going to do next to our bikes. Mountain biking was taking off then like a rocket and everyone wanted in on the action. As that started to happen the experience started to lose its magic. Heading out of the '90s towards 2000 the Trails became crowded and then closed from overuse. Everyone was making a mountain bike and it seemed everyone was selling out and hoped the sticker on the down tube kept the sales coming. I kind of stopped going to shops then but kept riding. Breeze, Bontrager, Ritchey, Shafer all started selling to larger companies or had their frames made overseas. Jeff Lindsey called it quits, FTW left Yeti. It was magical for a period of time where near mythical little bike builders produced beautiful works of art but like anything new with a potential to make crazy money…the wolves came calling. I kind of fell out of touch with what was new in mountain biking.
In 1998 Doug Curtis of Curtlo cycles moved his shop from California up to Winthrop Wa. which is only a couple hours from me. On a whim I contacted him about a frame and he said come on over and let’s talk about a bike. I did. I had never met or talked to him before that phone call but that couple hours I spent with him talking bikes and seeing how he created them rekindled the passion I had lost. He was Curtlo cycles. No marketing guy, no parts guy, or paint guy or shipping guy...there was just Doug. He got his bike and told me to hop on and take a ride around the driveway. In that 40 seconds or so of watching me ride he had enough information to build me a frame that for over 20 years has been the most comfortable and fun bike I have ever been on. I really loved the big aluminum tubes of a Klein or an American frame of the time but he said...nope...you are too big a guy for aluminum and the way you ride I can't guarantee it wouldn't fail. he said tell you what, I will build it out of oversize steel and you get your big tubes and longevity all in one. sold. I said I wanted a Headshok and disc brakes, he said how about an Actiontec and disc brakes. He told me the Actiontec story and...sold again. I picked my color and the parts to go on it, wrote him a check paid in full and a few months later I got a frame and a bunch of parts to put on it delivered to my front door. Here is a guy who made custom frames for the US olympic team to ride in the '92 olympics making me a bike frame...there is nothing but cool in all of that. Doug is such a wonderful person and the whole experience made me realize the small builder is alive and well and they will always create magic for those who love a mountain bike and seek out something truly special.
Where am I even going with all this...I guess I rambled on far too long just to say, I believe like many others here have said in this and other posts that this "retro" mountain biking thing is like anything else...it is cyclical and a moving target. I think the insane prices for old parts will slowly wind down and the next generation will be all nostalgic of free ride or downhill bikes bikes from makers like Evil, Fezzari, Intense, Ion or Karpiel they will be the “sick” bikes of a younger crowd.
I say enjoy your retro bikes in whatever way that caused you to start down the path. Ride em or hang em on your wall. Life is a journey to find a passion to light the soul right? It shouldn't matter if the Yeti C26 you took years to source ends up being worth a fraction of what you put into it...the fact you built your dream in my mind eclipses the $$ value. There will come a time that those who do it for show or to get noticed will find nobody much cares any longer and it is just another old guy on an old bike…”err…what is it again...a Yo Team Ti Eddie Fat what???...whoah...NO WAY... look at that Saracen Myst over there let's go looook!!!”
On the other hand, those that do it purely because they LOVE the magic and don't give a hoot what anyone else thinks about a mismatched anodized chainring bolt well…they will always hear the bell ringing. :xmas-big-grin:
