If all bikes were the same...

supertwisted

How would you feel about your hobby if, instead of the multitude of options we have now, there was just one bike available, same design year on year, no options or upgrades.
If you want a bike, you buy this one. Everyone else does the same.

For the sake of argument lets imagine it's an early 90's steel hardtail, rigid fork - you get the picture.

Sounds dreadful doesn't it?
But at the same time, I get the twinge that it would be quite liberating. No more agonizing over setup or component choice. No more 'have I got the right bike for this trail?' or 'will a new bike make me better?'

Just grab the bike and ride, pure and simple.

Discuss.

Or ignore.

nicklouse

My Hobby would be the same.

and re the bikes i would still be out there riding.

Bling Bling

I would paint it

Kiblams

Would be fine for me, but then the bike you described isn't far off my latest bike purchase (B'Twin Vitamin)

Anonymous

id give it up.

Northwind

supertwisted wrote:

How would you feel about your hobby if, instead of the multitude of options we have now, there was just one bike available, same design year on year, no options or upgrades. If you want a bike, you buy this one. Everyone else does the same.

People would still put an Orange sticker on it and tell everyone it's better than theirs

meesterbond

Sorry, you guys ride your bikes????

kestrel03

just so it had campy on it, i don't see a problem....lol....

Where are my stabilisers?

Well at least we'd be able to see who the best riders are

Dubzy

Might turn to a 3 wheeler. Love those baskets on the back for your gear.

TheNorthernTrain

Before today i would have called you an idiot and stop thinking such stupid evil thoughts

But now after having a real go on a rigid i think this is the best idea ever, it was so much fun!

Joe_Pineapples

supertwisted wrote:

For the sake of argument lets imagine it's an early 90's steel hardtail, rigid fork - you get the picture.

Hmmm...it would make Fort William a lot more "interesting", that's for sure.

I'd probably still ride as much as I do now. Like most of us on here I adore getting technical and anal (behave!), comparing one bike to another, discussing them with friends before finally jumping in with the credit card and buying the one that has pretty colours, but at the end of the day, if I didn't get a buzz from clearing the coffin jump at Innerleithen, then I would take up golf instead.

Lance Armstrong was right, it's not about the bike.

Know what I mean?

jairaj

I think most of would still be out on the bike, just not hitting the trails as fast as we do now.

As Lance said its not about the bike. There are so many more aspects of it, its very enjoyable, the sense of achievement, get to go out in the country and get some fresh air ....

I don't really see a nice bike as a necessity just a bonus, so as long my generic bike was built to ride on mountains I think I'd still be happy.

jay12

i wouldn't mind it and also no one will be saying "haha you have a crap bike, your poor, i'm better than you"

gezzza

But the people who say that usually ride there £5k bikes that mummy and daddy bought them like girls and think that they are the best as they have a nice bike but cant ride for sh!t.

real rides know that if your good on a bike it dosent make much differance if its £500 or £10,000

Stevo_666

supertwisted wrote:

For the sake of argument lets imagine it's an early 90's steel hardtail, rigid fork - you get the picture.

You could make lots of new friends in the commuting forum.

nickfrog

I started on such a bike in 94. Fantastic fun at the time. Could not cope with it today though, particularly downhill. Main upside is that you had to have really good technique to survive at speed.

stubs

I think I would probably give up if I was forced to go back to an early 90s MTB. There is a lot of rose tinted crap written about bikes from that era when the truth is they were boneshakers that broke down on virtually every ride. One bike I had I used to carry a spare axle for the rear hub it broke so often.

If we were forced to ride early 90s bikes then apart from a handfull of riding gods most of us would have to ride early 90s trails which for the most part meant fireroads and bridleways. If you rode them on twisty trails they often had a lethal combination of a turning circle the size of an oil tanker with the tendency to twitch and have you over the bars. Trail obstacles like steps, roots and rock gardens that I ride through without much more than a quick buttock clench these days would mean getting off slinging the bike on your shoulder and walking. They didnt use to sell those foam shoulder pads that fitted under the top tube for no good reason, the reason being we used to spend large parts of an off road ride carrying the damn bike.

Yes it was fun but we didnt know better and I wouldnt go back.

I speak as someone who has a pair of leaky, rattly, unreliable old British Motorbikes. I love them and spend a lot of time tinkering and polishing the old girls but I wouldnt dare go out and thrash them on a regular basis because thats not what they are for. They are for pottering around country lanes on sunny evenings then sitting in the beer garden and admiring the oil dripping out of the engine all over the landlords nice clean car park.

Leave the old stuff to nostalgia its better that way

kaytronika

Rode a steel hardtail around Delamere on Saturday... 20 miles on a 16 year old bike with it's original chainset, cassette, 2 inch travel fork, cones coming loose at the back wheel. I did have a wider bar than the original but it was a flat bar and combined with a long stem with a circa 8 degree rise.

It was a laugh. I enjoyed it and I'll do it again.

I rode it down the 4X (didn't jump, too old), I think that might have loosened the threaded headset a bit.


The one thing that did hold me back was the cantilever brakes.

Buckled_Rims

I was still using (a bit infrequently, I'll admit) an old steel Rockhopper only a few years ago. It was great fun and I used it when I went up to Scotland biking up the land-rover tracks of Glens. I miss the lightness and steel framed handling.

Oh, I also did quite a few red runs on it as well.

However nostalgia doesn't compete against modern suspensions

jairaj

no doubt the experience wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is today with all the technology we have but I still think it would be a lot of fun.

tsenior

i rode 30 odd miles on my 1995 7spd steel giant last friday, taking in coed llandegla and up over the top of the mountain behind it .

was good, ok i was taking it easy on the downs but i'm no speed demon anyway, saying that the only old school kit i felt was impeding me was the canti brakes TBH...thankfully it was dry

ride_whenever

if it was a steel rigid 29er singlespeed with v-brakes and gigantic tyres i'd be happy.

But they'd totally all get customised...

thel33ter

I've taken my Hardrock all over Swinley forest, with slicks on, it was great, apart from the grips eroding my hand after 2 hours, but the blood adds to the lived in appeal of the bike

And don't diss canti's, I still went over the bars by grabbing them too hard.

floosy

Well I still ride an early 90`s steel rigid bike and still loving it

(ohh btw its green in colour)

Dave..


Yeeee Haaaa....

NatoED

ah i remember my first bike. was my brothers sarracen XC PRO (with the raised chainstay) , it was steel ridged and i converted it to single speed before it became a fad( gears broke and i had no money to fix it so bodged a single speed) . Did a few NPS races at margan on it in 97 and 98. Wish i still had in sometimes. can't believe i used to ride with a 50th front ring. It was a pace TiNi coated affair .

supertwisted

Some good tales there. Tempted to give my old Scott commuter a few offroad outings to try out my theory.

kaytronika

Gave my old bike away... The fella I gave it to started asking for advice about a new bike... So of course, I asked about the old one. It was sat in his garage unused... It's mine again now

weescott

Since it's a 90's bike I would drill holes in the frame to make it lighter. That coupled with my illuminous green, yellow and pink lycra I would be better than everyone else.

gregmorris234

My father did the whole of Skyline on his 15 year old Claud Butler rigid! On his new GT Aggressor he would struggle, new bikes have changed us.

Anonymous

jairaj wrote:

no doubt the experience wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is today with all the technology we have but I still think it would be a lot of fun.

I think you're right there.
I used to ride rigid steel bikes with cantis, then a rigid aluminium one with Vs.
Had loads of fun, but couldn't get anywhere near as fast back then as I can nowadays.