What's the late 90s steel frame of choice?

[finbar]

The best riding hardtail I've ever had - and I've tried titanium, 853, niche fillet brazed Columbus etc. - was a posh steel Sunn. I think it was a 1997. It was like a coiled spring in all the right ways. I got some Strava KOMs on that as late as 2017.

I don't remember the tubing unfortunately.

 

[pictonroad]

Maybe the answer to getting the thin tube aesthetic hit is to go titanium, they hung on a bit longer.

 

[pictonroad]

I don't think I could love a late 90s Kona, the Crash Bandicoot era graphics are an abomination compared to the classy early 90s designs.

 

[pictonroad]

WTB Phoenix or a nice Kona for the more budget minded. There are great late 90s Salsa ala Cartes and Serotta-built Fats too

Were the Salsa and Serrotta just early 90s frames holding on for dear life or were they adapted for suspension and v brakes?

 

[winjohn]

What about a Marin Team Issue or a Rocky Mountain Blizzard.

 

[PhillB]

Sunn is a good shout - I'd like to try one, one day.

I guess it depends upon whether you consider Salsa and Serotta boutique or not (either way they are lovely!!) Salsa A la carte had older geo - a good thing in my book

I would put them in the same category as an Independent Fabrication Deluxe and a GT Psyclone - top of the line at the time and hard to find today as a result.

Another contender might be a Jamis Dragon - this had more modern geo. As did the On-One Inbred....

 

[ferrus]

My 97 Breezer Jetstream is the nicest riding steel frame I've tried; supple and comfortable but with great handling. It feels both lively and very stable.

 

[mk one]

Voodoo frames are underatted, pretty much took over from where Kona left off.

 

[pictonroad]

Rocky Mountain Blizzard! Oof, I could go one of those..

*turns thread into a thinly disguised wanted ad...

18" please

 

[highlandsflyer]

I've got a clear picture in my head of the hierarchy of steel from the early 90s. Where is gets woolly is the transition years, late 90s to early 2000s.

How does it play out in the V brake years before frames started having disc mounts as standard? Frames that have brake bosses but are designed to take a suspension fork.

Stumpjumpers were aluminium by this point so not them. Does the Trek buyout rule out the Bontrager frames?

Some of the really niche stuff was probably unchanged since the early 90s so I'm discounting them.

Or is it the case that by 97/98 the equivalent Rockhopper (full Ritchey double butted tubes) made in Taiwan was actually as good as the hand fettled stuff from the early 90s?

So many great steel high end frames from that era. Hard to narrow it down.