Even though in today’s mountain bike world the bikes are better, the clothing more appropriate, and there are more trails to ride, there’s no denying the early 90s were the Golden Age of Mountain Biking. Just look at these fellas, and tell me I’m wrong.
Tomac knew what was up. You don’t get such a badass Rainbow Jersey by accident, and his year in the bands (’92) was probably the last time the jersey looked that good. Plain black shorts, white socks, back flat as a pancake. And who else would you expect to be the first to rock a Troy Lee paint job on their helmet?
Tinker, well he’s a man unto himself. Probably the crowd favourite on the strength of recognition, being the only dreadlocked Hispanic riding a fluoro green or purple bike at the time making him easy to spot. That and his cadence, crunching the big ring where others, even Tomac and Ned, feared to tread. Legend has it that Tinker would fill a backpack with the biggest rocks he could find then set off into the mountains for a six hour training ride. Even if it’s an urban myth, the fact that it’s an urban myth about Tinker makes it more than a bit plausible.
Gumwall tyres, polished silver rims, colour matched forks, Campa… Campa? Multicoloured Sidis, Tinker made it all work. Even the Etto helmet looked good on him. Tomac was arguably the most Rule Compliant mountain biker ever. Even with limited resources to work with, these guys set the bar. Not many have reached it since.
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@cognition Present the obvious evidence -- awesome.
@Nate
I love the one guy chugging the beer and then pinching the other guy's beer. Fucking classic.
I am not a DH MTB fan purely because of those two commentators. If the sport is smart enough to put those two guys behind a microphone, I'm all set.
@piwakawaka
Here is your bike, and this is the length stem you will ride and this is the angle your bars will be. Don't like it? Fuck off.
@cognition
I'll be the first to point out what fucking legends they were, but those guys were just riding the roads they had. They weren't doing anything more innovative than just riding their bikes over the highest roads they could find.
The Graveur scene is much more about leaving the paved, high quality roads and looking for something interesting elsewhere while still going fast and far. These are sub-standard roads and often even trails linking sections of a route together - the kinds of roads where even a 27, 28, or 30mm road tire would be woefully inadequate.
That gravel scene is found somewhere between MTB and riding good gravel on a road bike like they do on the Strade Bianche presently. Even on my Graveur loop in Seattle proper I'm riding a mix of tarmac, gravel roads/paths, and singletrack. No way would a road bike handle it. Its fast enough to merit a true road position but technical enough to require wider tires with at least some nobs.
To that end these bikes we're seeing here in this thread are much closer to where we're landing now, with super wide tires but still trying to mimic a road bike position somewhat.
As a point of fact, cornering on these in gravel is an interesting experience; when you go in you start to drift until you've leaned it over enough that the nobs catch. Then you're on rails.
Can I say a few words about Tomac? I'll admit that as a pedalwan in the late 80's I wasn't too interested in mountain biking and the ex-BMX'ers in its pro ranks. I was too focused on LeMond, Kelly, Roche, Anderson, et. al.
Then Donald Trump (or someone high up in his apparatus) made the astounding decision to sponsor a fairly-high level stage race in the northeastern United States. 7-11, Panasonic, and PDM were there as well as the national teams of Russia and Germany. I was living in Poughkeepsie, NY, at the time, and the finish of the first stage was just over the Hudson River in New Paltz, NY. The pros rode south from Albany and went over Mohonk "Mountain" before descending into New Paltz for the finish. Mohonk was a big deal, locally, and featured prominently in the USCF District Championship circuit race course. American fans who were hoping for a strong showing from either LeMond (returning to racing after his hunting accident) or the slurpee boys were instead introduced to none other than Viatcheslav Ekimov take a sprint from his breakaway companions. Why do I say all of this? One of the tidbits that passed around the finish line amongst local racers was the fact that Tomac had descended Mohonk on a flat front tire. A flat front clincher tire. Finishing in the pack, yes, but that was some serious skill right there.
Tomac was riding for 7-11 because he won the National Criterium championship the previous year riding basically alone. He went on to ride in Paris-Roubaix, Ronde van Vlaanderen, and the Giro d'Italia. A very reputable career on the roads even if we ignore all of his success in the dirt.
@frank
I could have used those in the Dirty40 last year. There was a downhill sweeping corner with a huge crown, and I found myself on the wrong side of it 1/2 way through it. Quite a scary moment, knowing any brisk ,movement would send me into the ditch. (I was using small block 8s)
@frank Fair enough. If for no other reason, the sport abandoned the tires and bike geometries of the gravel mountain roads for decades before we started looking at re-modifying 'cross bikes or road bikes to ride things like D2R2 and Almanzo without killing ourselves. I still see them as the spiritual predecessors, though.
And hey -- post your Seattle graveur loop sometime, hey? I'm on the wrong side of the city for it, but I'd be interested and I bet some others would as well. I'm just trying to connect the John Wayne Pioneer Trail with the crappy roads that link the Denny Creek campground to Snoqualmie Pass. Haven't worked it out yet, though...
...and if we're even remotely talking about skinsuits in mountain biking, why hasn't anyone brought up Paola Pezzo yet?
@cognition I love the fact that skinsuits were officially banned by the UCI in downhill mountain biking because they gave riders too much of an aerodynamic advantage.
In other words, the current outfits worn in DH MTB are more for style than performance.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/From-beyond-the-grave-Cairns-Downhill-video-2013.html
@cognition
Massive stud for sure. This shot is already in Brett's main article, but it is worth looking at again; note the single right-side bar-end shifter and standard DT shifter.
This is another great shot I don't think has been posted yet in this thread; I love the combination of STI and bar-end shifter. There was nothing he wouldn't try if he thought it might make him even just a little bit more badass.