An absolute classic (AKA terrible) MTB from 1996.
I don’t often race, but when I do I’m shocked at how nice and new most folks’ bikes are. Usually, when I’m riding I’m testing the latest and greatest model so you can decide whether you might want to buy one (not many people want to read a review of a bike that’s already old) and I sometimes feel a little conspicuous doing that – like driving to the shops in an unreleased Ferrari. But out on the trails, most of the bikes I see are fairly new. Not as new as the embargoed 2026 model with rocket thrusters, but I’d say most are less than five or six years old.
Bikes obviously last longer than that. Last weekend I saw a circa 2008 Specialized Enduro with the dual crown fork, and a few years back I chatted with someone on an Iron Horse Sunday just like I had on my bedroom wall in 2008.
But these are the rare exceptions to the rule. Old bikes just don’t seem to get ridden very much. There are loads of pre-2010 cars on the road but few MTBs of that vintage ever see daylight.
There’s no doubt about why – older bikes are terrible compared to newer ones. What I want to know is what happened to all those classics. Are they in a garage somewhere waiting for 26" wheels and non-functional brakes to come back into vogue? Or have they gone to live on a […]
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