Mountain biking

Post your Mountain bikes picture here.

I ve totally lost touch of the mountain biking world ever since I started working and now trying to catch up.

What are the latest parts and bikes nowdays?

My last mountian bike was a Klein Attitude, hardtail with a rock shox Judy XL fork, XT parts and Magura hydraulic brakes. SOLD to buy my wife a wedding ring back then.

LOL -- Soooooo many bikers I know have temporarily gotten out of the swing of things (including me) because of marriage/kiddies kind of thing.

Heck, even the mtb magazine scene has changed. Mountain Bike Action and Bike are still plugging along, but Mountain Bike was downgraded to a quarterly supplement to Bicycling coincidentally shortly after they just absolutely got in some huge fight with Rock Shox.

Klein etc... Veeeery nice bike!

I just went to an MTB event on Sunday where the best part was that my 2 older boys (5 & 7) had a little obstacle course they could race through. They had a total blast going through that again & again for about 2 hours straight, and then watching the bigger kids catch some air and do 360's off the bigger ramps. Now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and maybe getting back into racing myself as my kids are able to participate in things.

Anyhooo... My Gary Fisher Supercaliber, Intense M1, and Intense XC bike are now dinosaurs but still sorta carrying along.

Check out the bikes at bikemag.com or the 2005 bike review at Mountain Bike magazine. They have a pretty nice site for catching up. If you had that Klein you probably liked going fast as possible on your own power (rather than just a gravity junky) but the market has totally gone freeride. Klein hasn't -- still about lowest weight highest efficiency.

Happy trails

thinking back of those good ol days make me itch to get back into MTB.

Browse thru MBA magazine while at the gas station a couple of weeks back, and holy smack have MTB evolve with all those freeride stuff. They re building bicycle to compete against Motocross Bike or what

I could buy a second hand car at the price tag they put up on those freeride bike.

I have stayed with it through the years and participate in as many 24 hr races as I can.

Stuff has gotten better and cheaper, relatively speaking.

I ride a trek fuel 90. It's a very nice dual suspension bike. It retails for $1700 or so, but can be had for $1k if you find the right place.

The bottom brackets have changed. No more square taper except in the cheapest bikes. But, there are 2-4 standards out there now. They are stronger than the old stuff and will _never_ loosen up either.

Riser bars are back. And more thought is being given to hand and back comfort. My fuel's seat is an inch below the handlebars, whereas an old sport class schwinn I have has a seat 4" ABOVE the handlebars.

The new 27 speed drivetrains are nice when you are pooped and still need to make it up a hill. But, they are thinner than 21 speed and will not last as long, nor shift as well.

If you've never tried one, look at a thudbuster. You can still ride a hardtail, but not be hard on your tail. It replaces your seatpost.

I had my trials days



But nothing beats screaming down a hill

I'm still a fan of the old 8-speed Shimano XT setup. I intentionally ditched my 9 speed drive train on my now-retired Intense M1 in favor of the thicker chain and cogs of the old 8 speed system.

VPP(virtual pivot point) is big now a days with Santa Cruz, Intense, Iron Horse and a lot of other companies making them for XC, DS, DH and FR. But I'm still on a Hardtail and a Hurst Link bike.

And the Marzocchi Shivers Single Crown is the best single crown I hae ever ridden, after using the Z1 Freeride, ROckshox Psylos and Manitous. For dual crowns the 888 is expensive but still cheaper than the Manitous and Boxxer WC.

CHeck out ridemonkey.com. My user name is LuxV there....

turbodog said:

The bottom brackets have changed. No more square taper except in the cheapest bikes. But, there are 2-4 standards out there now. They are stronger than the old stuff and will _never_ loosen up either.

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I just discovered this, when trying to find a new UN72 bottom bracket for my bike (and I'm not happy about it).

I'm like GhostReaction; I used to be a professional bike mechanic, ride all the time, and race XC every weekend... but in the last five or so years I've kinda gotten out of the whole mountain bike thing. I still ride once in a while, but I've lost a lot of endurance and a lot of the technical skills I used to have. I just looked at a few baike manufacture's websites... a lot of the stuff out now just blows my mind!

GhostReaction said:

Post your Mountain bikes picture here.

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Ok. Here's my current bike:

Ok this is my mountain bike. It is specialized stumpjumper 2004 with Fox 130mm air fork. It is best XC fork in the market. It is very easy to adjust and perform smoothly on rocky trails.

http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/a_do12/detail?.dir=/61dare2&.dnm=9044re2.jpg&.src=ph

Here's my baby.

Right after a really, really nasty and wet race in some glue/clay mud.

Weeehheeeee!!!!
I missed getting mud and dirt in between my teeth.
Your bike photo made me feel the rush all of a sudden. I bet you sure had fun.

VT, is that a SantaCruz Chameleon? great bike for stunt trial isnt it.

Are grip shift still the best gear shifters in the market?

turbodog said:

Here's my baby.

Right after a really, really nasty and wet race in some glue/clay mud.

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Grip shift has almost completely gone away. I can't think of a single bike that comes with them.

My 2001 Specialized S-Works FSR

I had a old s-works stuntjumper hardtail, but it is a 18 inch frame so I don't really fit on it anymore(I'm 6'4"). My brother rides a specialized epic with newer brakes, and the fox f100x fork I believe. My dad just bought a specialized stuntjumper expert which is pretty nice.

how do you guys post the pictures on this forum? I can only insert a link from my yahoo site.

Hey Ghost: When I started riding about 8 years ago, everyone had 'V' brakes. These days, only a few people still use them. Most bikes come equiped with disc brakes. They add on a pound or two of weight but the stopping power is more than worth it! (Note: I've never used XTR V brakes.)

eebowler said:

Hey Ghost: When I started riding about 8 years ago, everyone had 'V' brakes. These days, only a few people still use them. Most bikes come equiped with disc brakes. They add on a pound or two of weight but the stopping power is more than worth it! (Note: I've never used XTR V brakes.)

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I just gotta obnoxiously snipe that v-brakes are "disc brakes" it's just a matter of how big you're going to measure the disc (the wheel's a disc rotor)
Okay, enough of that. Sorry. Late night & bad dinner or something.

You can see the xtr v brakes on my bike above. You just have to picture them not covered in mud and straw.

The v brake vs disk is a little hobby of mine. I have never had properly adjusted v brakes fail to lock up the tires in any condition. I think that if disk had come out first and v second, we would consider v an upgrade to disk. The conversation would be like this: "just think, 95% the stopping power of disk but 2 pounds lighter and $150 cheaper!".

eebowler said:

Hey Ghost: When I started riding about 8 years ago, everyone had 'V' brakes. These days, only a few people still use them. Most bikes come equiped with disc brakes. They add on a pound or two of weight but the stopping power is more than worth it! (Note: I've never used XTR V brakes.)

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Some pics of the XTR V Brakes

95% stopping power? I don't know. My last bike had XT V brakes on them and when I changed bikes to one with Avid mechanical discs, the stopping power was increased dramatically.

I m thinking that way as well.
I ve not tried disc brakes for MTB but they sure look nice and heavy.
The magura's I had was considered some of the best back then and stopping power is great enough for trails and downhill.
Despite that I still prefer to use lighter V brakes during races.

Who are the new players in MTB nowdays? Hans Rey, Missy "rocket", Tinker Juarez, Scott, Chris King and Shaun Palmer sounds familliar to anyone?

binky said:

I just gotta obnoxiously snipe that v-brakes are "disc brakes" it's just a matter of how big you're going to measure the disc (the wheel's a disc rotor)
Okay, enough of that. Sorry. Late night & bad dinner or something.

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