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those browning chainsets, I've never seen in the flesh, but I'm pretty sure sanny's bike cupboard (this is gettting weird now) has a set of Vyro cranks, based on the same principle.
The USE bars were lovely, but USE being USE needed to do things slightly differently. saw a couple of racers using them, but they creaked at the bar end bolt.
I had a set of 'Advanced Composites Battle Bar' back in around 1993. carbon/kevlar/e-glass composite bars, stated to be one of the stronger of the carbon bars at the time. only carbon bars out in 600mm width, most were between 560-580mm. never saw another pair.
@ chakaping, was that Olympic and World Champ Tom Pidcock you spotted on the Suntours? 😉
I only used to ride locally BITD, so I never saw most of the exotica from magazines out on the trails.
It was only at the local (Marshalls) XC race series that I'd get to see stuff like Klein Mantras and Cannondales.
X-lite triple clamp rigid fork. That was a thing of beauty.
And also wrist-breakingly, teeth-shatteringly, eyeball-rattlingly stiff I seem to remember!
Sold a few (sunn) soft tails bitd, but never saw a soft tail out on the trail
@ chakaping, was that Olympic and World Champ Tom Pidcock you spotted on the Suntours?
No, I shut my eyes as he went past so I didn't have to look at his Pinarello.
Rapid Rise. One of Shimano’s more obvious cock-ups, everyone hated them.
I quite liked them. Took me a while to get used to ‘normal’ mechs.
I loved the Rapid Rise mechs had them on three of my mountain bikes until I couldn't buy them anymore.
I got a bike back off of a mate recently that still has one on there, I still think they shift better going up the cassette.
I remember a brake manufacturer ( no idea if the name) making a twin caliper front disc brake for the original ‘zocchi Z1 that had caliper mounts on both legs. Only ever saw them at shows though, probably because they needed a dedicated hub with disc mounts in both sides.
I assume it's not who you are actually thinking of, but I'm pretty certain that Hope did a twin caliper setup for them
I assume it’s not who you are actually thinking of, but I’m pretty certain that Hope did a twin caliper setup for them
I've been having a bit of a dig around the dusty corners of my memory and Cullymore Hydraulic Engineering rings a vague bell, although I wouldn't have surprised if Hope did that too.
Talking of Hope, I'm the only person I've ever seen riding a pair of Hope Big 'Uns, on Mavic D321 rims. Completely indestructible wheel build which I've ridden down one DH course with the back wheel blown out and not a mark on them at the bottom. Way overkill for any UK DH in the mid '90's but they looked great. I've still got them hanging up in the garage, gathering yet more dust.
IIRC I used them with a Girvin Pipeline Triple Clamp fork. A whole 100mm of elastomer travel, but I splashed out and bought the 25mm extension kit for it.
For everyone who looks misty eyed at tech that was, have a read of my piece “Back to the Future” in Issue 120. You can also find it on the site. The reality is entirely divergent from rose tinted notions of retro goodness.
@sanny - I must have missed that article first time round although I remember Nick told me about the ride.
Great read, most amusing!
campagnolo MTB groupsets.
I did see a Univega specced out with a record OR groupset, back in about 1993. Massive brake levers with integrated thumbies complete with the chainset that took spline on middle and inner chainrings.
never ever saw one out on the trails or at races.
re: rapid rise. they made a lot of sense to me, worked really well with my SRAM rocket gripshifters until I finally went 10 speed (when everyone else was going 11)
I have seen (and had a wee go on) a Hammerschmidt, didn't fancy it. Neither did the owner I think, it disappeared quickly
The fella with the Lauf fork was going up Boxhill - the bridleway.
From the look of him he might have done every hill in Surrey!
Christini two wheel drive MTB - never seen one.
I always wanted one of these but never saw one.
https://secondspincycles.com/1983-mantis-xcr/
or one of these
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/now-that-was-a-bike-1993-amp-b2.html
Anyone ride with someone who had Magura HS33s? My mate Phil had some on his Pace RC200. very cool bike. Lucky git.
Looks like you can still buy HS33s new!!!!
Great bit of kit, especially the neon yellow version.
XTR med cage rapid rise, still one of the best, smoothest, fastest shifting rear mechs shimano ever made. I have one on my retro, and two or three in my box of rear mechs. Took until Di2 to get as good a shift as RR again.
Treated myself to an XTR RR upgrade on my 2006 Orange 5 after a house sale. Still the best shifting I've ever had, made sense then, makes sense now. Not the flappy paddles though.
Being a Retrobike has spoiled this thread a bit for me as most of the stuff mentioned pops up frequently on the main site. Had a Girvin forked Proflex pass through my garage a few weeks ago!
The fella with the Lauf fork was going up Boxhill – the bridleway.
From the look of him he might have done every hill in Surrey!
Must be the same chap. Usually flying uphill with a stereo blasting when I've seen him
Has anyone mentioned Hope 6 pot brakes?
@sanny, I guess you've never heard of and used IRD switchback brakes?
Also, I'm still running several Flites on my fleet of steeds
It's interesting that much of this hype was dictated by the magazines and no doubt the freebies/back handers/whatever they received*.
A mate bought a Yeti FRO, it weighed a ton and rode like a brick. It also broke and the importer was quite an arse about that.
*Same for Giant bikes winning awards while being tested on a holiday in Majorca 😀
Has anyone mentioned Hope 6 pot brakes?
saw a few sets when they were fresh out (I pretty much lived at the local DH spot) but not so much now, cuz ‘retro’
I desperately wanted an Edison, but by the time I got a go on an Evo- I think it was the exact press bike you linked to ThePinkster- people were already figuring out geometry that worked for everything so the moment had passed really, and tbh the "descent mode" on the Bionicon was still a wee bit conservative. The adjustable suspension platform was good though.
I don't know if it ever got released but they announced a nonadjustable frame that was just the descend mode, all the time which seemed like a bit of an admission.
Never tried IRD stuff but I am willing to bet they were overpriced and underperforming yank tat like Grafton?
Your knowledge of my cupboard is worrying but you are indeed correct as I do have some right old toot in there such as a Girvin Vector fork, an original Pace suspension fork (first generation no less!), 4 finger XT brake levers in the box and unused, an Ibis Silk Ti soft tail (never seen another one in the flesh) and a blue anodized Answer Hyperlite bar that is still in the plastic sleeve it came in. Ben at Kinetics has one of those USE sub forks mounted on a Ti Tomac.
I liked the VYRO cranks but they were let down by the plastic guide mounts which were simply too fragile. I may see if Ben can 3D print some new ones for me as when it worked, it was pretty darn good. The cranks themselves were excellent. The ability to snap between 170 and 175mm was a genuinely cool feature.
For never seen in the flesh, can I include the e stay Nishiki and anything by Boulder bikes?
Just remembered Mountain Goat. Kev Dangerous who runs Escape Route in Pitlochry had one and it rusted itself to death. Real shame.
Davie Nisbett used to come out on GMBC rides on an AMP bike. It looked even more fragile in the flesh!
@sanny IRD brakes were excellent and a dream to set up - even better than Deore! 😀 Mind you 5mm-adjustable cranks sound amazing, I wonder how they haven't caught on ...
How about the Mantis that inspired (and was licensed to) Nishiki for the Alien? "The Droid" had one - probably still in the basement of the Bicycleworks.
Avid Arch supreme brakes. They were bloody brilliant until the spring snapped. Only had one myself and have never seen them before or since.
Had Arch Supreme on my P20, they were fabulous things. Never had any issues
I had a USE SUB fork for a short while. Think it was on one of my many cannondales.never saw another on the trail, though I think Matt Carr had one when he worked at Alpine bikes. it was a great fork that was let down by the damper.
I also had a Lawwill Leader fork, never saw another one of those. That was an OK fork for what it was.
campagnolo MTB groupsets.
I did see a Univega specced out with a record OR groupset, back in about 1993. Massive brake levers with integrated thumbies complete with the chainset that took spline on middle and inner chainrings.
Oooooh, a friend of mine was on a pro team sponsored by Univega in the mid 90s, she was given a couple of campag equipped Univegas to do the national MTB series on, crashed out (badly) on her preride of the first event and never rode either of them again.
One got stolen and the other i rode a couple of times before it went back to the team.
Jones Bars outside of SSUK.
Truvativ Hammerschmidt is something I’ve never seen live.
I've seen it once, the guy had just bought a new canyon and they snapped the first week.
The trouble was it was marketed at "freeriders" or what we would probably call enduro now, DH bikes you could just about pedal up a fire road. But it used an ISIS style spline when everything else was 2-piece and therefore not as strong and snapped. The idea was sound, they just weren't very good. They also made a bit of a whirring noise and were a bit draggy which didn't help.
Shimano introduced a rear mech called Rapid Rise at the same time; in theory this “wrong way round” mech was supposed to be used with the Dual Control shifters but in practice a normal rear mech worked far better.
Mrs. Slow had a Kona which came with one. I could never get the bugger to index properly or shift cleanly. It got swapped out and lives, unloved, in the garage.
They also made a bit of a whirring noise
I like it when bikes make a whirring noise. I can pretend I'm in CHiPs.
I still have a couple of them in a box with all the adjustment shims (as the cables didn't have threaded adjusters).
They came on a couple of team bikes i got in 98 or 99. Used them quite a bit, never saw anyone else with one.
Oooooh, a friend of mine was on a pro team sponsored by Univega in the mid 90s,
the one I saw was when I was living in Eltham in that thar london, cant remember the bike shop name, but it was next to Avery Hill park. the shop owner was very excited about it. First bike I'd seen with dropped chainstays (all the rage now!), must've been the Alpina.
come to think of it, I think I bought those carbon battle bars from Sidcup Cycles around the same time
Any fork brand other than RS, Fox and a few Marzocchi’s…
Avalanche Racing Suspension - I had a pair of DHF forks and the shock came as standard on my Brooklyn Machine Works Racelink, the whole thing felt like riding a KX500 but without the engine.
I also had Magura Gustav M brakes on it. Never saw anyone else running them.
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The Trust "The Message" fork. The only one I ever saw in the flesh was the one that David Heyward had on review for STW.
How did that work?
Couple of little standoffs from the shifter and cable seating holes in the shifter paddles.
Two cables and outers between remote and shifter.
Press the button on the remote and the paddle moved, making a shift.
As Mert Says.
the shifter mounted on the end of the bar end (usually a short L bend type not a stubbie) So you could rest your hands on them or ull on the bars and reach the two paddles on the remote. These were cabled to the XT or XTR shifter of the time (M952) which had some blanks you coudl remove from the levers and thread the cables onto. THey physically moved the paddle shifter for you. With Rapid rise, it meant you could easily shift down a couple of gears while still pulling hard on the barends if you'd been a little over optimistic how strong you were getting up a hill without havign to move your hands and losing more momentum
If anyone wants to see some Paul Components gear out in the wild, come down to the New Forest and join one of the Woods Cyclery shop rides. If it's niche and a bit blingy, you'll likely see it on one of those rides surrounded by a sea of flannel and beards 😀