TeamCow / The BikeGuide

Tires

2011-05-23T14:00:00.000-06:00

'The only thing that never changes, is change.'

Cliche yes, but I don't know if you could describe mountain bike tires better in one sentence.

You could probably make a coffee table book of all the different tread patterns that have existed since mountain bikes really took off in the late 80's. Scratch that - you could make a coffee table book of all the tread patterns that no longer exist since mountain biking got popular. We saw all manner of "innovations" like tires designed to roll in a certain direction, tires meant to work on the front or on the rear, different rubber compounds, different sizes, and different colors.

Now I doubt anyone - other than me - would buy such a thing, but the point being that the general design of MTB tires is changing every year.

Why is this?

Did the hardpacked trails somehow get more slippery over the winter? Did the gravel out there get upgraded? Did the roots get, I don't know... rootier??

I know that conditions on any given trail can change after years of use, but in general, we're still riding the same types of trails here in 2011 that we rode in 1990. It's still dirt, rocks, roots, sand, and grass.

So why then does the Panaracer Smoke - generally accepted as the best tire of it's time - no longer work? It must no longer work, because it's not fitted to new bikes anymore, right?

And the Onza Porcupine; did it have an expiration date that we didn't know about? Did it's designers somehow know that by 1995, it just wouldn't grip the ground anymore?

The Panaracer Timbuk II, Fisher Fattrax, Ritchey Megabite, Specialized Ground Control, Klein Death Grip - all of these tires at some point just stopped working?

Take a look at this page of Motocross tires - notice anything odd?

(hint - they're all the same!)

Now check this pic of a Yamaha from 1974;

Nearly 40 years later, and the tires are virtually identical.

How is it that Motocross tires haven't changed - at least in their tread pattern - for 40 years?

And why don't they have the dizzying array of different tread patterns like mountain bikes do?

I'll admit, I'm not immune to this. A new set of tires and grips can go a long way to making your old bike feel new. But, I just don't get why those old designs don't work anymore.

I think my Blizzard would really like a set of skinwall Ritchey Megabites.

Time for some fun!

2011-04-03T18:09:00.000-06:00

i just had to share this;

Schwinn Varsity

for starters, notice the completely bizarre pics.

rather than put the bike on the floor, the seller has elected to hang it off the edge of a metal shelf that appears to be blocking a window.

there must be a good reason for this, but, i can't think of one. and i mean BOTH hanging the bike upside down off this shelf, and blocking a window with said shelf.

and then there's the listing itself - all in caps of course;

THIS IS MY PERSONAL BIKE.

as opposed to your work bike?

I HAVE DONE TWO THINGS TO GIVE YOU THE MOST INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BIKE I CAN POSSIBLE WRITE ABOUT IT.

as it turns out, neither of those two things actually involve writing about it!

ONE, YOU CAN SEE HERE SOME PICTURES AND TWO, I AM PROVIDING YOU A LINK TO A VIDEO SHOWING THIS BIKE ON YOUTUBE.

but wait - of the two things he did, there are three things.

LASTLY I COMPILED THIRD PARTY INFO AND REVIEWS REGARDING THIS BIKE.

unfortunately, his youtube account has been closed, so no video. but he has thoughtfully included a picture of a moving truck.

which you may need to pick up the bike as it weighs 32 POUNDS.

(if you're unsure, a good road bike weighs 20 lbs or less, and most good mountain bikes will come in under 30)

i love ebay.

Gary Fisher

2011-03-22T12:44:00.000-06:00

yes, him again....

he's the character that i love to be pretty much ambivalent about.

if you're interested though, here's an interview he gave at the Handmade show in Austin recently;

http://reviews.mtbr.com/nahbs/2011/03/15/gary-fisher-interview/

i didn't even watch it. the comments made it sound like some kind of freakshow, so i passed. besides, i can't be bothered to watch an interview, because really, that's a waste of one of your senses. make it a podcast so i can look at something else while i listen. or make it text so i can listen to Deftones while i read.

yes i know i can just start it and then go to another website, but that's besides the point really.

the point is; who cares what Gary Fisher thinks about the health of the handmade bicycle industry? does he handmake bicycles anymore? is he even looking over the shoulder of the technical school trained kid at Trek, advising him where to click in his CAD/CAM program to place his signature decal? what the hell does he do anyway?

now that Trek dropped the other shoe, and has swallowed up Fisher mountain bikes, he's seemingly just a figurehead for his not-really-existing-anymore bike company, and slowing morphing into the Don Cherry of cycling.

i guess he does provide some personality for what could be the most boring bicycle company ever.

i just don't think i like that personality.

Frankenbikes

2011-03-20T23:19:00.000-06:00

i've never been one to be conventional when it comes to bikes. i strive to do things that haven't been done before. although - let's be honest here - everything's been done before. i know that Mavic doesn't make a plate to move rim brakes on an MTB frame up to match a 700c wheel just for me.

i guess that means there's some French guy building these same bikes that i build.

i knew i was on the right track when a mechanic (and artist) that i worked with at Redbike - someone i greatly respected - told me he'd never met a mechanic that could make more out of seemingly nothing then i could. i credit my experience as a triage mechanic on the battlefields of Dow Chemical where i repaired Norco cruisers, and awful Workman tricycles.

unfortunately, i've not done a good enough job or documenting some of these projects, and i have no photographic evidence, just anecdotes. like...

- the Fisher i built up as a single speed from parts that customers no longer wanted at Redbike.
-the carbon miyata road bike that was too small for me.
-the Kona Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apu’A i built with 700c wheels (someone stole this out of my backyard while it was in mid-upgrade, it had no seatpost and no front brakes. people will steal anything.).
-the single speed Moulden MTB with 700c wheels (this for a customer at Redbike after i proved the concept was sound - see the DIY hybrid below.)
- the Miyata Ridge Runner DIY Pugsly that was lost in the great purge.

thankfully, i do have some pics.

like the too big single speed Norco with moustache bars;

(yes, i do have Curt Harnett's legs.)

(no i don't...)

the DIY hybrid Kawasaki (no pics of this sadly), which became the DIY hybrid Vertex;

(this could be the most bad-ass bike i ever put together)

which later became the DIY hybrid GT;

and is now the DIY hybrid Klein. again, no pics amazingly. it's a stealth bike.

there must be more, but my mind draws a blank at the moment.

the 'just make it work' aspect of bike repair at Dow was a big factor in my ability to see these projects in my mind before picking up the wrench. but, a subconscious influence perhaps, was a factory Frankenbike from back in the day.

the Specialized RockCombo;

when i was still learning what a 'chainstay' was, the guy across the street from me had one of these. i remember thinking it was really cool. but today, i'm wondering what the hell i was thinking. the drop bars hinder it's use as a proper MTB, and it's puny 26" wheels make it fairly hopeless as a 'cross bike. so, why exactly?

of course, there was one guy who made it work;

well, sort of. the magazines at the time reported that Johnny T's 7-11 coach allowed him to race mountain bikes as long as he ran a drop bar to maintain his riding position. it made sense at the time, but honestly - is that not a completely ludicrous idea?

MTB and road racing have virtually nothing in common as far as the bicycle/rider relationship is concerned, so how does making Tomac less competitive on a drop bar - and really, we know it wasn't making him better, because nobody else did it - help him to be a better road racer?

i bet you that secretly, the 7-11 coach knew that drop bar would hinder Tomac, and hoped that it would do so so much that he'd quit MTB racing. or, he'd do what actually happened; quit road racing in 1991.

so anyway, this all leads me to pondering a drop bar on my single speed Blizzard. until i ran the idea past my brother. his reply?

"don't see the benefit of looking that ridiculous."

that takes care of that.

besides, i'm sure it breaks one of the rules.

new bikes

2011-03-11T23:14:00.001-07:00

i've found a couple of new bikes i really like for 2011.

first, the Norco Club;

it's a basic, steel road bike with double chain rings up front, and a very basic, serviceable part mix from all the names you'd expect on a $900 bike; Shimano Sora and Tiagra, Tektro, Formula, FSA, and Norco branded hard parts (bar, stem, seatpost).

it looks great; the graphics look like it was made in 1975 - well, if Norco was cool in 1975, and they were not - but i'm not sure who this will appeal to. a similarly priced aluminum bike would probably weigh 2 pounds less. so maybe it's for other retro leaning cyclists, like myself, that can't be bothered to find old frames and period correct parts on eBay.

i'd much rather have this Club, then the average cookie-cutter road bike.

it's a lot like a complete Surly Pacer, but with cheaper parts on it. which makes it a pretty cool bike.

Devinci Dixon XP;

this has all the features the kids want on their trail bikes this year; tapered headtube, 6 inches of travel, and cool split pivot suspension - the rear suspension pivot and the rear axle are one in the same. it looks like a lot of fun, and probably climbs well for it's weight.

i have to confess though, i like it most for it's looks. mountain bikes - all bikes - always look good in white.

(and now the good stuff)

Rocky Mountain Vertex t.o. 30th Anniversary Edition;

fantastic red to yellow maple leaf fade, fork painted to match - just simply beautiful. almost too nice to ride.

Rocky Mountain Blizzard 30th Anniversary Edition;

it's the negative of my 25th Anniversary Edition Blizzard (see below), and like the Vertex has the never improved upon (in my opinion) graphics style used from 1990 to 1998. clearly Rocky agrees with me, because they wouldn't have used that style for these bikes would they?

not a new bike, but good for comparison purposes;

coming soon; the Rocky's I've Owned post.

more old bikes

2011-02-12T17:11:00.004-07:00

two great old bikes found on ebay recently;

1995 Brodie Expresso. i'm not a fan of the paint job, but it's a high quality job by Toxik Harold, and both the Syncros stem and super rare Brodie Gatorblade fork are painted to match.

along with late 80's/early 90's Fishers, an old Brodie is probably one of the rarest bikes to find for sale in my experience. you could argue that 1995 is out of the handbuilt era for Brodie, but there was a limited run of the old bikes made and this is one of them. the seller states that Brodie had to dig up an old Gatorblade for this frame when he ordered it, so considering that, the threaded headset, and the Syncros stem, you've got yourself a terrific replica of a 1991 Brodie right here.

which is a great segue to this beauty;

this amazing 1991 Kona Explosif has lead a sheltered life in a Zurich shop and has seen limited use.

i can still see in my mind's eye, the Explosif that River Valley had on display at it's Whyte ave location the first time i was in there. maybe the only bike that made more of an impression on me in my formative cycling years was the '91 Blizzard. these are slightly more common than the Brodies, but not by much.

one thing i have to mention; the seller is selling a Project Track Two fork and Impact headset - both items that need to be on this frame - in a separate auction. it drives me CRAZY when people do this. from a restoration stand point, those parts are a perfect match, but the seller wants to try and squeeze a few more dollars out of his sale. douche move my friend...

TeamCow strongly frowns upon this practise.

references;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140510973650&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_1156

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200575349414&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_29809wt_1139

old bikes

2011-02-02T21:41:00.006-07:00

i love looking for old bikes on ebay, if you've read any of this blog you've already figured that out i'm sure. i love it when i find something that was extra special in it's day. usually i was never in a position to buy those bikes back then, but today, it's at least possible.
< sometimes though, when i find something really cool, i have to wonder just how good it really is.

this is a Mantis Pro-Floater - one the best suspension bikes of the early era of suspension. handmade by Richard Cunningham in the early 90's. it was lighter than most bikes at the time, and rode better as well. by all accounts, it may have been the best suspension bike there was.

in the early 90's.

it was cool to find this as they are pretty rare - in the history of the BikeGuide i only ever found one for sale - but when i saw this, i couldn't help but wonder how it rides. look at those tiny tubes, pivot points, and that noleen shock. it all looks so fragile.

it'll have great value to collectors (well maybe not this one so much, read the auction and you'll find that it's broken!) looking to get what they couldn't get back in the day, but i doubt anyone is buying this because they intend to built the best trail bike they can. or at least i hope they aren't doing that. i'd think that even an entry-level bike from Rocky or Devinci would be so much better that the Mantis would be laughable by comparison.

or would it?

would nearly 20 years of advancement in frame tube shaping and stiffness, suspension damping, and pivot bearings trump Cunnigham's innate ability to build a great bike?

i'd love to find out, so please send me an old Mantis, and a new Rocky, and i'll devise some scientific testing to come up with an answer for you.

references;

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160538045885&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2735wt_1139

Schwinn

2011-01-29T18:47:00.002-07:00

the other day when i was looking for the pics of the Schwinn Paramount MTB from 1993, i found a scan of the 1972 Schwinn catalog.

in this catalog are several gems like;

and this - the greatest salesman ever!

and this!

super groovy pants!

the Paramount track bike by the way was $224.95 with Campagnolo hubs and tubulars!!

and i had thought Willy Rey was the only reason i wish i could go back in time to 1972.

this comes from another catalog - not sure what year though;

if an old Paramount and high-waisted pants makes me interesting to bikini clad Catherine Bell look-a-likes, then i'm on eBay right now looking for a Paramount. and i'm hiking up my belt big time.

references;

http://www.schwinncruisers.com/schwinn-documentation/1972-schwinn-bicycle-catalog/

Marinoni dream

2011-01-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

ok, what about this - Marinoni Fango;

http://www.marinoni.qc.ca/Html/Fango.html

but instead of silver, i go with a metallic green called 'sabra' (that's green right?)

and instead of white, i choose the metallic 'pine'

and then do the red accent in yellow. in fact, i think the 'Marinoni' badges would be all yellow, instead of a yellow M and then white everything else.

maybe this is a little too feminine? back in the day, i recall a magazine did a feature on the 1993 Schwinn Paramount R80. i didn't actually like it that much then because of the odd colours, but now i see that it was elegant, pretty, and highly unique.

http://bikecatalogs.org/SCHWINN/1993/Paramount/Series_R80.html

so that would be the feel i'm going for. i think it would look good with mostly black parts.

Irrational Dislikes

2011-01-25T21:45:00.003-07:00

for whatever reason, good or bad, there are certain bike brands that i just don't like. i'm sure the bikes are fine, but there's just something about them that i can't stand. design elements, graphics, component choices, or the kind of people that ride them - any of these things can set me off.

i don't know if i'm alone in this - i don't think i am. i'm sure there are people that just hate certain bands, or clothing lines, or whatever - but can't really say why. or at least can't give a particularly logical reason anyway.

if you've gone through the archives here at all, you probably have a pretty good idea of which bikes i don't like already. but here's the weird thing; things change! i never liked GTs much at all - i thought the 'triple-triangle' was gimmicky, and the paint jobs were garish. but now, if you can find one a clean one from the 90's - i'm tempted to buy one myself.

like this 1991 Avalanche;

save the tires (and maybe that fork), this bike is completely original. it's amazing!

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290526479330&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

i wish i could say why i've softened my stance on GT, but i really don't know why. maybe it's actually those old Shimano XT parts i like? maybe it's that Rock Shox Mag21 that was so revolutionary that i like?

or maybe it's this;

this is zzzomm's 1990 GT Tequesta. in the fall of 1990 he and i bought bikes. i got a Bridgestone MB-5 and he got this GT. just last summer he reacquired it from a friend, and I got to redo it. i scored a full XT Raleigh, and moved every part i could onto this GT. i was really happy with the way it turned out and i really like this bike now.

i still don't like Trek though.

eBay finds

2011-01-21T12:22:00.002-07:00

every time i think i've found the worst good bike ever, i find something even more jarring then the last worst one. this bike further prooves my 'certain bikes attract terrible taste' theory - check it out;

it's just wrong in so many ways; the dreaded flame job (never liked it on a bike save for the RMB special edition Hot Rod Slayer), Spinergys with the extra stickers on the spokes, a Girvin fork, and, the cherry on top of this terrible sundae; custom hand painted Maxxis Hookworms.

Hookworms are seriously cool, but taking a tiny paint brush to fill in the grooves - this is madness.

or genius?

it's madness. he did the same to the plastic spider saddle, got red jockey wheels in the rear derailleur, and has red flame grips. in fact, i bet the grips were the inspiration for the entire project. it's so over the top, i just can't imagine who would like this.

also, there's something mechanically wrong with this bike. i think the seller has swapped out the shock for an aftermarket one that has a longer eye-to-eye length. think of this bike as a big hinge, and putting that shock that's too long on it has caused it to suck in the front wheel, and steepen the head angle.

i would think riding this bike would be terrifying.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/CUSTOM-STREET-KLEIN-MANTRA-COMP-SPINERGYS-GIRVIN-FORKS-/330517473233?pt=Mountain_Bikes&hash=item4cf46067d1

next up - old timey Manitous;

in 1997, Manitou released the Shaun Palmer edition fork. this was an FS Ti in neon green. with a Shaun Palmer logo on it. otherwise, not that special. but it was green.

anyway, i bought one of these online and enjoyed it on my sky blue M2 Stumpjumper for a few years.

it wasn't bad, but was it better than the Marzocchi Z.2 i had before? probably not. but it was green. and i never saw another rider with one, so it did it's job.

i don't remember what i paid for it sadly. i think it was less that $300, but i don't know.

i'm not sure why you'd buy this to be honest. i know there's a big retro movement out there, but is 1997 really retro?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160531415194&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

and finally, i will figure out photography some day;

The Gary Fisher Collection

2010-06-19T23:37:00.002-06:00

So this fancy ad appears on the Fisher website today, touting the 'Gary Fisher Collection.'

'Literally a dream come true' it says.

I was intrigued - it sounded like had created an AMG-like brand within the Trek/Fisher empire. A special set of bikes where Gary was allowed to run wild and do whatever he wanted.

But no. It's nothing that good at all. From the press release;

Trek Bicycle and bike pioneer Gary Fisher are pleased to announce the Gary Fisher Collection, a line of Trek bikes that will replace the standalone Gary Fisher brand. The Collection will be distributed exclusively through Trek retailers.

So Gary Fisher the bike company doesn't exist any more. It's been reduced to Gary Fisher's signature on the Trek Rig, and the Trek Paragon.

It just doesn't sound right.

This just feels like a strange move for Trek. I felt like everything that was unique and cool about Fisher was simply brushed aside in '93 after Trek purchased them. Instead of bolted together CR-7s, we got Trek OCLV hardtails with Gary Fisher badges on them. They felt as much like Fishers as the Cimarron felt like a Cadillac.

But slowly, things changed. And eventually Fishers felt like Fishers again. They looked good, and they felt like unique and cool bikes again.

They felt like a company I could like and care about again.

In fact, I bought an '09 Rig recently. Because it was a 29er, because it reminded me of the old Supercaliber with the big squiggle graphic on the top tube, and because it felt like a cool bike.

But now, they're just Treks.

And it just doesn't seem to matter what Trek does, they're still dull, boring, corporate.

I swear Trek has some computer program that scans all of the most popular graphic design, and synthesizes it into the most inoffensive and vanilla thing they can come up with, and that what goes on their bikes. I'm sure you can tell from this that I'm not a fan, but consider that I've known of them since 1988, and not once have they put out a bike that I've looked at and thought; 'that looks good.'

Law of averages alone says that they should have come out with one aesthetically pleasing bike in 22 years - right?

And after this many years you'd think a company could come up with a damn logo to put on the head tube!

Fisher had a great logo...

ebay finds

2010-02-11T12:28:00.002-07:00

there's always cool vintage action on ebay, but i found a really good one today;

a Porsche Bike S. these were made by Votec, and were showcases for top-line Euro components of the time. Sachs derailleurs, cranks, and hubs, Magura hydraulic brakes, and a crazy Votec double-crown fork.

this ad caught my eye because it that first image reminded my of the only time i ever saw one in the wild. rolling down Whyte ave was this woman in a pretty sun dress, matching blue deck shoes, and i think a basket, on her $4000 Porsche mountain bike.

anyway, i'll be very interested to see what this ends up going for. it appears to be in fantastic condition - and the seller's assertion that it's never been off-road definitely looks true.

2010 excitement!

2009-12-12T21:00:00.004-07:00

cliff at redbike describes himself as an 'offroad tourist.'

i understand this completely now as i've ridden offroad 3 times in the last 3 years.

what interests me now would be buying something like this;

and then building it as a single speed commuter with a flat bar and maybe wood fenders...

anyway, that's the kind of bike i get excited about now.

and thankfully, it looks like i'm not the only one either - Rocky Mountain has the Metropolis line in addition to the RC line. i especially like the RC 50D and the Metropolis NRT with it's internally geared 8 speed Shimano hub.

but, even better than that, Norco has thrown their considerable weight at the Urban bike market. the Ceres is a steel frame, 8 speed internal hub, Gates belt drive(!!!) commuter bike.

i've been interested in the belt drive system since i saw pictures of a Lynskey from the handmade show last year. it requires a special frame design - specifically some way to get the belt through the frame since it doesn't come apart - so it's been pretty much a custom build to this point.

but Norco comes through with the flat bar 8spd commuter, a road SS (the Vesta), and a SS 29er (the Judan) - all at pretty reasonable prices.

i'm fired up about Norco building these crazy things!

i think my converted Klein hybrid is for sale...
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Now playing: Jay-Z - 99 Problems via FoxyTunes

Corratec revisted

2009-11-11T22:23:00.004-07:00

they're still out there - www.corratec.de - and they still make the Bow with it's groovy curved dual top tubes/seat stays. they also rock the continental mountain king with the white sidewalls!

i heartily endorse any effort to bring back skinwall tires - but white?? i don't know...

the pictured Grizzly above is clearly not a high-end model, but there are Ti and aluminum versions of the Bow, and - the one i want - a 700c hybrid called the Super Bow Cross.

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Now playing: Cannibal Ox - F-Word
via FoxyTunes

The Hipster bike Revolution!

2009-06-06T22:46:00.004-06:00

recently i've discovered a brilliant idea in new bikes; customizable singlespeed bikes that can be had for cheap. or relatively cheap depending on how you look at it.

they're usually fixed (more on this later), have tons of colour variations, and no graphics.

it doesn't sound like that complex of a bike, yet it's not something that is easy to come by. we talked about building something like this at redbike years ago, but we wanted to do it all canadian. unfortunately, it was just too expensive to fly.

the least expensive option for a custom build bike was a surly 1x1 or karate monkey - and that still came in around $1600 from the ground up. getting mass-produced parts, i think we should have been able to do it for $750 or less. it wouldn't have been blinglespeed at all, but that was the point.

so, along comes republic bikes, mission bicycle company, and not quite the same idea - but they claim to have invented the genre - norway's alta bikes; cheap, fully customizable 'hipster bikes'

the fixed gear roadbike as become the required mode of transport for the hipster. the only cool way to get to the gig on whyte, or roll down to the sugarbowl for coffee and cinnamon buns. which i find very odd because the fixed gear bike is not for the novice rider, and if there's one thing the hipster doesn't seem to be, it's an athlete.

and, the best of these bikes are home made by good mechanics. so most hipster's are probably on a bike built by a friend from an old japanese or euro road frames.

but now anybody with $394 can have one.

that's what republic charges for their aristotle ss. that gets you five colour choices on a hi-ten steel frame, matching colours for the chain, grips, and velocity deep-v rims (the only choice for a hipster bike). and best of all, the ability to have the website choose random colours for all of these items! most of the parts are no-name, and i have to be honest here, it's not a high quality frame. but the end result looks good.

the next step up the ladder is mission bicycle company in san francisco. it was really only a matter of time before frisco based shop started mass producing hipster bikes. the mission bike has a much higher quality frame (reynolds 4130), powder coat colours, and the option of building the bike with high end parts; chris king, thomson, nitto, brooks, and vittoria all appear on the option sheet.

of course the end product can run $1400 with all the bling, but can also go as low as $750. as always in bikes, you get what you pay for. for my money the mission is absolutely worth the extra expense.

and then there's alta. much flashier than the republic, and lighter for sure with an aluminum frame. it's got better wheels, sexy time-trial bull horn bars, and fancy euro-industrial design muscle behind it. they've only recently been available in north america, and i couldn't find a price, but a couple blogs i found seemed to agree on $1000. pricey, but again, sexy.

i personally really like the mission - good price, good parts, and SF is very cool. though me being me, i'd be more likely to piece together a fixie using an MTB frame and some leftover road wheels. but that's just me...

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Now playing: Silversun Pickups - The Royal We
via FoxyTunes

Bikes for Sale

2009-05-26T13:41:00.004-06:00

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good: Gary Fisher Sugar 3

Very custom - front triangle is from a Sugar 3, but the rear section is carbon from the Sugar 1, upgraded 120mm travel Fox Fork, Bontrager Race disc tubeless wheels, Vredestein Tiger Claw tires (new), BB7 disc brakes (new) with 203mm front rotor, Cane Creek brake levers, Deore shifters, XT deraillers, LX Cranks and Octolink BB, Easton EA 70 stem and bar, Syncros headset (new), LP Composites seatpost.

It's a 17.5 frame, meant for a 5-8 to 5-10 rider. But, because of the very long top tube, it can fit a 6 foot rider like myself with the longish stem I have on there.

Very lightly used, and that's why I'm selling it; I'm going hardtail instead.

Asking $1400

The Bad (ass) : Mosh Bagley 3 star

Dirt jumper; Mosh 14mm sealed hubs, Alex MX22 rims, Kenda tires, generic 3 piece chrome cranks, sealed BB bearings, Odyssey Modulever lever, Odyssey Evolver rear brake, Odyssey London Mod cable setup, Wellgo pedals.

May as well be brand new for as much as I rode it - no scratches, no nothing. Probably $650 replacement value - yours for $300.

The Ugly : Nishiki (?) MTB

Says Nishiki on the dropout, but who knows what it is. Converted to SS, pay no mind to the suspension fork on it, it doesn't do anything other than hold the wheel in place, genuine Rocky Mountain Bikes Hnadlebar, anodized purple bar ends, Onza ChillPill cable anchor.

It doesn't look like much, butI would ride this if it was bigger; it rolls pretty nicely. $50, or $20 and a case of Stella and it's yours.

Singlespeeds

2009-03-22T20:39:00.002-06:00

i love singlespeeds because of their simplicity; they're easier to fix (no shifters to tune), easier to spec (no money to spend on gears), and maybe even easier to ride (just pedal!). but i believe they're very personal. i don't believe that i would ever buy a singlespeed made by someone else.

because you have so much more latitude for part choice, i'd probably end up changing everything on the bike anyway. so I may as well start from scratch? i've built bikes around forks, around hubs, maybe even around saddles or handlebars. but when you do this, sometimes the rest of the bike is secondary, and that means there could be lots of parts on there that nobody else would want anything to do with.

at least for me.

for the kind of singlespeed that i most often dabble in - the poverty or near-poverty bike - it's much more about the acomplishment than the result. check out this kona i put together last summer to see what i mean;

kona humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua'a frame with a stuck bottom bracket
700c wheels
4 inch riser bar
shimano XT cranks with the spider
creaky rocky mountain hybrid fork
cantilever brakes (front only)

this bike was really pretty bad. i didn't have any cable stop for the front brakes, so i tried just looping the housing over the handlebar and zip tying it down with extreme prejudice. while terrible, this was an improvement over the internally geared 3 speed coaster brake hub that was the only brake on v1.0 of this bike.

but the crank was pure genius. because the 122mm BB wouldn't come out of the frame, and the low profile XT crank was the only 175mm crank i had, i needed to resolve an impossible chainline issue. this crank had a spider attached to the crank arm via lock ring that the chain rings attached to. i took this off, and reversed it, so that the big ring was now well inboard of the crank arm. it looked really weird, but the chainline was near perfect.

i rode this bike for about a week, then one day i needed the post out of it to put in another frame so i could work on it on my workstand. i put the kona outside the garage and forgot it there. the next time i went out to the garage, it was gone. without a seatpost, or seatpost collar mind you.

i wasn't that choked up about it though - if i was selling this bike to someone else, i wouldn't taken more than $40 for it. hell, i'd have given it to any friend that was interested. the parts on it were essentially useless, the BB was only held in place on the drive side. the idea was to ride it and hope that it destroyed itself so i could somehow cut it out, and then strip and paint the frame - make something nice out of it.

the fact that someone came into my yard to take that bike was what bothered me.

(by the way, if you're out there, and there's a hell, you're headed there buddy. you better have given away a couple working bikes in your day to make up for that karma cap hit.)

I guess for me, it's more important to put the bike together than to ride it.

Hampsten

2009-02-22T19:02:00.004-07:00

Andy Hampsten was one of the first american cyclists to achieve success in the european theatre of professional cycling. most famous for his win in the 1988 Giro d'Italia - and his second place on the Passo di Gavia, a legendary performance in some of the worst weather conditions ever in a road race - he also won the Tour de Suisee twice and won the Alpe d'Huez stage of the 1992 Tour de France. and in 1999, he started his own bike company with his brother.

commence to drooling!

i've only been aware of Hampsten for a couple years, but everything i've seen has been gorgeous. there's a very good reason for that though; he has some of the best builders in the world putting these bikes together. the steel bikes are made by Independent Fabrications. the titanium bikes by Moots and Kent Eriksen - he started Moots by the way. carbon frames are made by Bob Parlee.

those are the builders of dreams my friends!

this is just the aluminum Gran Paradiso! i prefer compact geometry myself, but this is beautiful.

"Compounding the obvious lack of a ‘70s style road bike..." i'm sold right there - how cool is that? i'm not sure that i could ever ride a road bike as the riding position just kills me, but maybe YOU buying it for me is what would finally put me at ease...

I want YOU.... to buy me a COLNAGO

2009-02-21T23:02:00.004-07:00

the other day i was thinking about a couple of the more famous 'warm and fuzzy' internet stories. warm and fuzzy is maybe not the best descriptor; they're the Internet Cool Thing of the day kinda thing.

one of them was 'One Red Paperclip.' in this one, some guy decided he'd try trading his red paperclip for something bigger and better, until he got to his ultimate goal of getting a house. it took him a year, but he did it. now the house he got is in kipling, saskatchewan so maybe i'm not that impressed, but still, it's pretty rediculous to think of it.

the other one i was thinking of was the million dollar website. this is a website with one million pixels on it, and each pixel was for sale for one dollar. you could (obviously) buy more than one pixel at a time, so the guy that thought it up didn't need one million takers, but he still needed a lot. look at the page source on that site and marvel and the gigantic list of URLs.

let's be honest though about what these two things are; they're scams. not malicious ones - everybody that got involved got what they were promised - but still scams. good ideas that got a lot of good press, and that press pushed them on to success. (although i gotta say, the guy running that paper clip deal is pretty charismatic...)

so i figured; why not me? everybody is getting all these free houses and money from the internet and all i get is russian cracks of Left 4 Dead that only have sound - russian sound - and offers like this for the bikes i try to sell on craigslist;

goodday seller, am interested in buying this item posted, but firstly i will like you to tell me in details the present condition and the last price before making any purchase and also my means of my payment is through a valid cashier's checks. So if this means of payment could be convinient for you, just let me know by sending me a mail now.
Hope to hear from you soon.

where's my million dollars?

well, i'm not asking for a million dollars, i want a colnago. not even a bititanio, just a nice steel one.

of course, my scam got as far as changing my facebook status to 'i want YOU... t buy me a Colnago.' none of my 12 friends knows what that is. so it didn't go very far. but, maybe the power of the blog can get me that finely crafted italian craftsmanshipness.

(i hear people talk about twitter though, maybe i need the power of the twit? sadly, i have no idea what twitter is, and i can't be bothered to find out. when you stay home and play lego star wars most of the time, social networking doesn't count for much.)

so here's the deal, the colnago fund starts here - with YOU. for $2, you can have your personal bicycle rated on this website. it'll get it's just deserts believe you me. i have tons of cynicism, anger, and carcasm available. and tons of exposure too. this website has one follower! and i might ask redbike to mention me - that'll drum up two or three more.

just send me some pics, and we'll get this done. everybody wins. mostly me though.

I'M DONE

2009-02-16T19:22:00.002-07:00

i'm not done blogging of course, just done posting the old bikes.

after three years!

kinda sad actually, but there were a lot of them.

in fact, i found a bunch more in a folder that i never got to. i might post them in the future, but i wanted to get this done so i could talk about other stuff.

i've been buying cycling magazines, reading mountain bike forums online; adding fuel to the fire as it were. and i'll pick up a few of the bike companies that have popped up since i stopped the old bikeguide.

so, as a great man once said; 'let's get started shall we?'

Yeti pt. 2

2009-02-15T19:46:00.003-07:00

Ultimate - Another excellent rare Yeti Ultimate - this one with the original Yeti/Answer Accutrax rigid forks, and Magura Hydraulic brakes.

Softail - This was Yeti's first attempt at a full suspension bike. Travel was minimal, two inches or less, and I don't really know if it was called "Softail" or not, , but that's the information I have. This was the bike to own if you wanted to win the Kamikazi at Mammoth mountain in 1992.

Softail - This is the second evolution of the bike above. This one has Pace forks and a pretty freeride-ish high stem and riser bar. My thanks to Johannes from Germany for this pic of a great bike.

Lawwill - I have to kinda laugh at this bike. You probably recognize the design, it's the Lawwill rear end from the Yeti/Schwinn Straight six/eight (Schwinn owned Yeti at this point). Except it only has 4 inches of travel, which is nowhere near adequate for DH racing today. It's probably a great bike to ride though - except for the fork.

Lawwill - This one has 6 inches or rear wheel travel. And a pretty serious Foes fork. Probably a pretty decent DH bike.

Yeti

2009-02-15T19:38:00.004-07:00

Yeti has had a long life in the world of mountain bikes. Their history includes; holding on to straight-gauge steel tubes longer than anybody else, the first box van at NORBA nationals, the first downhill-only race team, moving from California to Colorado, several ownership changes, and a bunch of other stuff I'm sure.

A.R.C. - I really liked this "second generation" Yeti that had Troy Lee pin-striping. Would have fit in nicely with the low-rider crowd.

A.R.C. - This looks like one of the first Advanced Racing Composites that Yeti made. It was apparently a big time fire-road bike. Or in other words - a downhill machine. Yeti's were always built more for open spaces than the woods.

A.R.C. - These used to be classic Yeti colors. But I guess it's black and yellow now... Anyway, cool bike.

AS3 - Yeti's second attempt at a fully suspended bike. Pretty nice design, though most people who consider themselves experts (bike magazine editors) feel that 'strut' bikes are out-dated. Excellent Troy Lee paint details on this frame.

Ultimate - This is the Yeti Ultimate, originally designed (in 1989 or so) with input from Zapata Espinoza, then of MBA magazine. The idea was to build the ultimate mountain bike, something that wasn't too heavy to race, but had some "all-mountain" characteristics - like tire clearance, and no chain suck. Another old bike I'd love to own.

Wilderness Trail Bikes

2009-02-15T19:29:00.002-07:00

You've surely heard of WTB. Their saddles, tires, and headsets are quite popular. But, you might not know that they made bikes as well. They're one of those cult companies - not very popular, but with fiercely loyal customers.

Phoenix - I think WTB is just the type of company that attracts the kind of rider that likes Noleen forks. Surely not TeamCow's first choice.

Phoenix - I like this bike. Steel frame, RaceFace, Magura hydraulics, and a White Brothers fork. Well done!

Voodoo pt. 2

2009-02-15T19:26:00.002-07:00

Nzumbi - Don't you wish you had enough money to afford not just a dedicated single-speed frame, but one with a RaceFace stem and a fancy boutique crank like this MRC Steely Dan? Maybe you're one of those nut-jobs that has a bike like this as your first bike. Now that's weird - the kinda weird that TeamCow likes...

Bizango - This bike is fabulous. Reynolds 853 frame, XTR everything, polished Marzocchi Atom Bomb - nothing but the best.

Voodoo

2009-02-15T19:05:00.003-07:00

Voodoo was started by Joe Murray. Murray was the first guy to really dominate NORBA racing in the States. He eventually started consulting with Kona, and then started his own company. You can see a lot of similarities between Konas and Voodoos. I think they're out of business now, which is too bad - they were nice bikes. [edit] voodoo lives on, they have a pretty complete line, a couple really cool bikes, and they're pretty cheap. it all sounds good to me.

D - Jab - Titanium is very cool. And titanium with XTR and Arch Supremes is very expensive...

Erzulie - A solid looking steel hardtail here. Good fork, I loved those Answer barends, but a Kore stem? You'll lose points for that...

Canzo - This is a beautifully finished bike. A titanium Canzo with a long-travel SID and those crazy green Micheins. Of course, the Canzo has the stigma of being a URT bike, which because of it's characteristics, somehow makes it less worthy. I'm willing to bet there are thousands of people enjoying bikes like this, and they either have no problems, or they just deal with it's idiosyncrasies.

Bizango - An excellent setup on this steel Voodoo. That, by the way is one of the reasons I liked Voodo - they held onto steel right to the end. Anyway, it looks like a great singletrack bike.

Bokor - Was this a calculated attempt to put together a bike that doesn't attract attention? Or just somebody who doesn't mind a plain looking bike...

Vicious

2009-02-15T18:31:00.002-07:00

I think Vicious is one of those "retro" companies. Mostly making single speeds and oddball bikes out of steel. They're also making an effort to revive the rigid fork. We'll see about that.

Motivator - Is this the future of mountain biking?

You can't really tell, but the Motivator runs on 29" wheels. Apparently the big wheels roll faster and smoother over bumps - which sounds great to me. Of course, nobody makes suspension forks for these bikes yet, that's why this one is still rigid. I bet the build quality is excellent, and the paint is super cool, but I'll stick my neck out and say that we won't all be changing over to big wheels for a while. [edit] haha! sometimes these entries i've written are hilarious. of course now, 29 inch bikes are on like michelle kwan. and this bike - this kind of bike - is right at the top of my wanted list. and i'm building a rocky mountain blizzard singlespeed with a vicious cycles fork on it. funny how people change...

Ventana

2009-02-15T18:00:00.003-07:00

Ventana is a California company that dates back to the early 90's. Really nice bikes - great welds, nice colors, and names that are fun to say.

El Toro - This is a hardcore single speed. Aluminum frame and no suspension. It hurts my arms just to look at this bike. Sure doesn't hurt my eyes though.

El Habanero - The Ventana El Habanero uses a very common suspension design, you can find it on entry-level Rocky Mountains, yet is regularly hailed as a truly great bike. How come nobody ever raves about the RMB Spice like that?

El Matador - If there was a beauty contest for mountain bikes, the El Matador would not win. But it looks light. I wonder if DH racers care about that...

El Saltamontes - I just have to chuckle at this one. I guess this is a freeride bike, it's got a double-crown fork. But it's got a Fox air shock, and as good as it is, it's not a freeride shock. And those rear link plates look incredibly spindly. And while I'm critiquing - I've never liked that WTB saddle - looks stupid.

El Saltamontes - Can you say money? Marzocchi SuperFly, Avid Arch Supreme, Syncros Ti seatpost, Titus Ti stem, and the ultimate expense - Morati titanium cranks. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how much those are worth. Not suprisingly, the seller of this bike was not including the cranks and brakes.

Turner pt. 2

2009-02-15T17:39:00.003-07:00

I have to say some more about Turner;

A couple years ago he brought out his 29" bike, the Sultan. But before he did, he made comments indicating that he didn't like 29" wheels and thought the whole thing was dumb.

But not too dumb to make money off of. I'm OK with people making money, but I'm not really impressed with someone doing something they don't like to make money. Especially when you're talking bikes - something that people have tremendous passion for. Riders scrimp and save for years to afford that custom frame, the name on it, the guy who built it - it matters. So are you really wanting to drop $2K on a frame made by a guy who didn't really want to make it?

DHR - This new DHR - belonging to Paul in England - thanks Paul! - is a fabulous bike. Notice the mixed Hope brakes and titanic Mr. Dirt fork. I can't imagine riding a bike like that, but I'll bet it's a good time.

O2 - Turner's latest XC type bike. Looks great to me, and I love that the rider hasn't sacrificed ride for weight and went with a Marzocchi.

Turner

2009-02-15T17:21:00.004-07:00

Dave Turner has been involved in suspension bike design since 1990. He apparently helped Horst Leitner develop the "Horst Link", which now, in a somewhat bizarre twist, he must license from Specialized. His bikes have always impressed me, and they seem to impress everybody else in the mountain bike world too.

Burner - I think the Burner has now been replaced by the XCE. Given this bike is decked out with the finest in air shocks, it must be intended for some XC action.

Afterburner - The first true DH bike from Turner. Those are some pretty serious looking forks right there.

Stinger - A really crappy pic of a really awesome bike. That tells you alot about what I think of Turner that I'm willing to post this pic.

Turner - I'm not really sure what this bike is, though it does look a bit like the RFX. Anyway, it's ready for DH action with a chain guide, 8 inch front rotor, XVert Ti, and that huge head tube junction gusset.

True North

2009-02-15T17:10:00.002-07:00

They're Canadian. You don't need to know anymore. Actually, I don't know anymore than that...

Hardtail - Marzocchi, Race Face, looks like a winner to me.

Trimble

2009-02-05T10:11:00.002-07:00

Trimble was one of the first carbon bikes out there. And it was out there. The "boom tube" (i'd love to smack whoever coined that term) design was really exotic at the time - trivia question; name the two other frames that looked virtually the same - as was the frame material. [edit] alpinestars t-24, and the grove innovations X trimble is back by the way, as a 29er of course....

Carbon Cross - This bike is especially special because it has a Mountain Cycles Suspenders inverted fork and the Mountain Cycles Pro-Stop disc brake. Both well ahead of their time. And some might say not very good either.

Trek pt. 3

2009-02-05T10:04:00.003-07:00

ok, i don't know if this is the case for other people, but it's pretty obvious that i don't like trek. and i don't mean that other people don't like trek, but don't like any company for no real good reason. i imagine the bikes work well and are made well, but i've never seen one that i thought 'that looks good, i'd like to ride that bike.' i certainly have softened over the years - i'm riding a GT right now, and i have a trek 8700 carbon frame that i'm going to build as a singlespeed and sell - but still, i don't like trek. i'd buy a giant or even a specialized before i'd buy a trek.

DH - Custom Troy Lee stickers won't save this piece of crap. I think a cable operated Rock Shox disc on the front, and a hydraulic 8 inch Hayes on the rear, could be the worst brake set up I've ever seen.

VRX 400 - This has to be a joke right? Somebody that's really good at PhotoShop? This bike can't exsist in real life - it just can't. I refuse to believe it...

Trek pt. 2

2009-02-05T09:47:00.006-07:00

8900 - A crappy Trek sitting in front of a Porsche Boxster? A yellow rim on the front, and a black one on the rear?? Specialized cranks??? A SID????? I'm laughing hard now...

Y-22 - Well this is just... It's so... Wrong? Dumb? Both?

Ysl-20 - Fox sticker = cool. That seems to be a theme amongst the joke bikes...

9000 - A crappy Trek sitting in front of a Porsche 911 turbo? This could be the worst suspension bike ever made. This particular example had two inches of travel, but no damping at all. I guess at times it was like riding a mechanical bull. Why does this person have a Porsche 911 turbo, and a Trek 9000?

DH - Wow - this bike is so ugly. I don't know what to say here - it looks like a triathalon bike modified for DH. And this guy probably thought those Fox stickers were sooo cool. That's not gonna save you here buddy.

Trek

2009-02-05T09:05:00.004-07:00

One of the giants of the American bicycle industry. One of the few remaining giants I should say. Of course these days, Trek is Lance. Which is ironic, because for the longest time in the 90's, Trek did not race. Nobody could figure out why. I still can't. [edit] trek was/is also travis brown. he was the trek MTB racing team before there was a trek MTB racing team. and you have to like him because he races CX on a 69er singlespeed and won the 1999 and 2002 SSWC. i think he also won the 2005 race, but that only got him pole position for the go-kart race that actually decided the title that year.

8700 - The S-Works bikes are the top-of-the-line light-weight race bikes in Specialized's lineup. This one is fairly nice, with Kooka cranks and a Selle Italia Flite saddle. It needs a new fork though. [edit] yeah, no idea what i'm talking about here. i mean it's true, but this is not a trek... i think i may have accidentally deleted part of what i had written. this is actually a bonded aluminum and carbon trek from about 1990.

6500 - If this bike gets used for what it seems to be built for, I give it 2 months...

9900 - I wish I had more pics of this one. Could be one of the the ugliest bikes ever. You can't quite see it, but the other side of the bike is purple. I really don't know what kind of look they were trying for...

Y-bike - I personally blame Trek for the URT suspension bike. I know they didn't invent it, but they proliferated it better than anybody else. Anyway, I guess this one was a special promotion in Europe. Get an Alfa and they'll throw in a Trek with big Alfa stickers on it. Pretty sad...

Y-bike - This is sooo Trek. What appears to be a serious off-road bike, with a ultra-adjustable SID rear shock and a Manitou XVert up front, has a very non offroad super hi-rise stem, rise bars, and barends reaching for the sky. Only on a Trek... Or possibly a GT.

Tomac

2009-02-05T08:48:00.004-07:00

If you know anything about mountain bike racing, you know who John Tomac. America's second MTB superstar, one of only two people to win a XC and DH World Championship, and the guy every mountain biker wanted to be in 1993. Now he's teamed up with Manitou's former head man Doug Bradbury to build some pretty cool bikes.

165 - Tomac's latest ride, the 165 DH bike. Designed by Johnny T and Doug bradbury. So by rights, this bike should at least have an XVert Carbon on it. Doesn't that Boxxer look a little spindly?

204 Magnum - Jonnhy T's latest DH creation - the 204 Magnum. This one has a very tasty Stratos Super Star fork. TeamCow really likes Stratos forks.

00 Buckshot - Too bad this wasn't a slightly better picture, this one doesn't show the frame details at the seatstay/seatpost junction and at the BB area. I guess if you really wanted a Manitou HT, but didn't want to be stuck with an 1 1/4" heattube, this is what you should get.

78 Special - This looks like a beauty. Great fork and great brakes - looks very fast.

00 Buckshot - A super nice hardtail that's got the single speed treatment. Very nice bike...

Titus

2009-02-05T08:42:00.003-07:00

Titus is another one of those cult companies - moderately popular, the people the own them swear by 'em, and they cost an arm and a leg. For some reason I can't put my finger on, I don't like them that much, but that's based entirely on looks.

HCR - Titus provides titanium frames for the shorter rider as well. Great fork...

Evolution - Who doesn't make a softail these days? You almost forget who invented them. Well I haven't anyway. [edit] it's moots!

QuasiMoto - Well you can't screw up a freeride bike right? Just get lots of travel, nobody really cares if it's heavy, or how it climbs, just so long as it carves turns going down. However, this bike just doesn't look right.

QuasiMoto - This is an outstandingly well set-up bike. Hope discs and a Hanebrink fork color-matched to the frame - looks great. But still a pretty strange frame.

Ti Cycles

2009-02-05T08:39:00.002-07:00

I can't tell you anything about these guys. They got a bike with a weird name, and a weird design. And they paint titanium - not many people do that.

Skookum - Like the Kona U'Hu, the Skookum is one of those crazy, hybrid/URT designs. The bottom bracket is part of the rear section - but - there's a Horst link back there. So how does it ride? I have no idea. And those wheels, I don't know, they remind me of the Skyway wheels on my old Raleigh BMX bike in 1983. And if you've been around the site, you already know what I think of that fork

Surly

2009-02-03T11:37:00.003-07:00

Surly is a very cool Minneapolis-based company that makes singlespeeds. And nothing but. What are you lookin at? OK, I had to be Surly for a bit there - actually, they also make a cross bike and now, a huckin' bike. [edit] having worked at a shop that sold them, i now know the truth; surly is one of the best bike companies in the world. the bikes are simple, inexpensive, work incredibly well, and cover just about every bike need you can think of. and a couple you didn't think of; fixie MTB with 3 inch flame tread slicks = yes. snow bike with 3.7 inch balloon tires and two rear hubs = yes. off-road unicycle = yes. a modular cargo bike with a 400lb payload = hells yea! quit wasting your time and just go to surlyville now.

1 x 1 - There's not much you can say about singlespeeds is there? Nice chainguard..

CrossCheck - Firstly, as a Canadian, and a hockey fan, I love that name. But beoynd that, you've gotta be kidding me. As if CX isn't hard enough, you have take all the gears off... (although, look closely, and you'll see a derailleur hanger) I guess you're already carrying the bike most of the time anyway...

CrossCheck - The first Surly I've ever seen with a derailleur on it. Seems a little odd. Very nice bike though.

Sunn

2009-02-03T11:24:00.003-07:00

Sunn is a French company that made a half-assed effort to sell bikes here in 1998. I heard they went out of business, but I think they still have a website for their French operation. Their most well known for owning World Cup DH races several years. [edit] i remember steel, softtails, weird paintjobs, plastic/rubber 'buttons' on the frames, and that dude that won every DH race for like 4 years in a row...

Radical + - This is the bike that took Nicolas Vouillez to so many World Championahips and World Cup wins. Doesn't really look that special does it? I think that's a clear sign of his talent.

Revolt - This is Sunn's racin' hardtail. And I really like it, apart from those Obsys forks. Those things really suck.

Steelman

2009-02-03T10:53:00.003-07:00

Steelman makes mostly cross bikes, but there's one beautiful mountain bike in the lineup. All I can say about Steelman is that former NORBA racer Don Myrah raced one when he was being too difficult for any other factory to pick him up. [edit] now did this story go? myrah was a hot in norba racing for a year or so, on a ritchey. then he signed a deal with campagnolo. this mean he had to ride a klein, yeti, or fat chance.. he wouldn't ride aluminum, and fat couldn't or wouldn't build a bike to his geometry specs, so he rode his old ritchey repainted with fat decals on it. but according to me, he rode a steelman with fat chance decals on it. so there you go. because i know you care.

Eurocross - I like this bike - Syncros, XTR, and V-brakes, which require special adapters to work with non-V road bike brake levers.

Spot

2009-02-03T10:40:00.004-07:00

Spot of Vancouver got on the single-speed bus early. And they make some of the coolest single-speed hubs around. If you want a cool single-speed and you're poor - you get a Surly - if you're rich - you get a Spot. [edit] spot is no longer canadian; they're now in colorado. what i really like is that they make frames to fit the gates belt drive system.

Spot brand - There's some really cool parts here - Arch Rivals, a Manitou fork, and only one speed...

Spooky pt. 2

2009-02-03T10:09:00.003-07:00

it would seem that spooky was - and still is - a company running on t-shirt sales! wonders will never cease. though a scan of reviews at that MTB site i love to hate (mtbr.com) makes you wonder if resurrecting this name was a good idea...

Project X - This bike screams downhill. Profile BMX cranks, Marzocchi Monster-T, Nokian Gazzalodis. It looks like it weighs 100 pounds.

Project X - A little bit of refinement to the frame here - which is good. Still looks huge and heavy though.

Spooky

2009-02-03T09:36:00.005-07:00

Spooky came roaring out of the gate with some serious attitude. Their website took some very unsubtle shots at other companies - Santa Cruz especially. They made East coast hardcore-style designs in hardtail and full suspension. The end came in a pretty ugly way too - I have a favorite saying from wrestling that fits nicely - Spooky founder Chris Cotroneo's mouth wrote cheques his ass could not cash. Literally... [edit] it would appear that spooky lives. with a really lame website that you've seen a hundred times before - you know; 'we sell bikes?! oh yeah, we sell bikes! sorry i forgot, i was too busy posting cool stuff i found that's so much cooler than the cool stuff that everyone else is posting.' looks like crazy-ass graphics unique to each frame is a priority though - that's alright.

Darkside - Spooky's XC bike. Very light, made from Easton Elite tubing, and definitely with an East Coast bias. Meaning it would make a great woods bike. Just the kind I like.

Metalhead - This is clearly not an XC racer; single chain ring, Z.1 Bomber, short stem, riser bar, and check that moto-style gusset on the headtube/downtube junction.

Metalhead - A pink Metalhead that seems to have been photographed in the same spot as this Brooklyn Machine Works TMX. [edit] link removed because it wouldn't have worked and i'm too lazy to link to that bike again. search for BMW bikes at the top of the screen if you really care about

Motorhead - How many DH bikes does one small Eastern company need? I guess when you think of using the name 'Motorhead' - you'd better use it. And using the Stratos MX-6 in this application is also a good idea.

Pit Boss - Spooky's Pit Boss, the aluminum version of their 'North Shore' design hardtail. Custom painted here, with weird color combinations. By the way, I don't think you should mention the North Shore around these guys - they'll probably flip out and start goin' off about the East Coast.

Specialized pt. 3

2009-02-03T09:30:00.002-07:00

FSR - I wouldn't normally post a pic this small, but this is special - a prototype FSR DH frame. You can see that Specialized made a pretty big change to the frame design before the FSR made it to production. Or was it that they just had to have a DH bike out there on the race circuit, and didn't have the M.A.X. backbone chassis sorted yet?

FSR - One of many lessons in building a DS bike you'll find on the BikeGide. Short stem, small frame, no seatpost, chain guide, beefy fork. It might make a decent downhill bike too, but it doesn't really have the right stuff for moderm DH courses.

FSR - This is one of Specialized's original FSRs from 1995 or so. Not a great bike by today's standards, and certainly not along the lines of a typical TeamCow ride (we prefer coil springs to air springs), but a nice bike nonetheless.

Stumpjumper - This old-skool steel beauty belongs to Dario of Italy. He upgraded only what really needed upgrading (the brakes), and kept it light and simple. Nice ride Dario!

Specialized pt. 2

2009-02-03T09:17:00.006-07:00

FSR XC - I'm not sure how much I like the yellow they used on this bike. And I'm not a big fan of the SID, but this still looks like a good bike. It looks fast.

FSR XC - This FSR XC looks just like the two below, but it's different. It's the M4 bike, which means it has the more exotic, manipulated M4 tubeset. Meaning it's lighter, and more expensive.

FSR - This is one of the nicest FSR's I've seen. Magura hydaulics, Marzocchi Z.1, and note the skull-and-crossbones valve caps. Very solid.

FSR Enduro - Specialized tried something interesting for 2000 - this is the XC front end, with an adjustable FSR rear end. It gets 3.8 or 4.6 inches of travel. Which means that it's got a little too much travel for the XC-weenies, and not quite enough travel for the freeriders. Which means that it's a pretty good all-round trail bike.

FSR DH - This is one of Shaun Palmer's DH team bikes. Can't you just feel the extreme vibes coming off this bike?

Let's talk about Palmer for a second shall we? Is he not the most overrated racer in history? How does a guy with one - one - World Cup victory get so much press? He is an amazing athlete - he literally got up off the couch to win a boarder-cross meet at the X-Games one year - but he is not an amazing DH racer. [edit] i can't believe i actually cared about this. it was more about slamming the 'media' than it was slamming palmer.

Specialized

2009-02-03T09:03:00.003-07:00

What can I say about Specialized that you don't already know? The Stumpjumper - the first mass-produced mountain bike. The FSR - a legendary full-suspension bike. And of course Ned Overend - a legendary mountain bike racer. There's a general attitude out there that Specialized's are not "cool", like say a Santa Cruz or an Intense, but that doesn't mean they're bad.

S-Works - The S-Works bikes are the top-of-the-line light-weight race bikes in Specialized's lineup. This one is fairly nice, with Kooka cranks and a Selle Italia Flite saddle. It needs a new fork though

S-Works - This is a special edition of the S-Works frame painted gold to commemorate Bart Brentjens winning the gold medal in Atlanta in 1996. Except for the fork (Bart had a Manitou) and the brakes (Bart used Maggies), this is the same bike he rode. [edit] maggies?! what the hell? did i become english for this post and feel the need to make up a cutesy short form name for everything? thank goodness i didn't continue to do this.

Stumpjumper - This is a kick-ass hardtail right here. I always liked the mango color Specialized had on this bike and that brand new Marzocchi Z.2 looks great on this frame.

Rockhopper - There's nothing particularly exciting about this little Rockhopper, but it's a nice bike, and I like to be complete.

P3 - The P3 is Specialized's dirt jumping/DS/Shore bike. Hugely overbuilt, and really heavy. Think of a BMX bike with 26 inch wheels and a derailleur.

Soulcraft

2009-02-03T08:58:00.001-07:00

I recently got an email from the good folks at Soulcraft, informing me that they are not just another mountainbike start-up, and they have in fact been building bikes for some 10 years now. In the words of the immortal Eek the Cat, "I was not aware." Thanks guys, I appreciate the info and the updated Soulcraft URL.

Go check them out - any company that still uses lugs is a very cool company in my books.

Option 3 - If I raced, I'd want to race on a bike like this. Why? Because it's steel - I like that. And I love the color.

Plowboy - This is the coolest bike I have a pic of. Why? It's got streamers on it...

Slingshot

2009-02-03T08:54:00.003-07:00

The story of Slingshot goes like this; some guy in Michigan, breaks the down tube on his BMX bike. He rides it around a bit and discovers that it rides really smoothly. He then goes on to fame and fortune. Well, not really, the advent of good suspension bikes kinda made slingshot obsolete. [edit] and yet, they live! which is good, i always thought they made cool bikes.

Hardtail - Nicely finished, weird bike. Marzocchi, Race Face, Syncros, all the good stuff.

Hardtail - Another old-skool mountain bike. A rigid Ritchey fork would be perfect on this bike.

Seven

2009-02-03T08:48:00.002-07:00

Seven is the result of some disgruntled Merlin workers. Now they've taken up the gauntlet and make some of the nicest bikes in the world. And some of the most expensive too.

Sola - This could be the nicest bike I have a pic of. A Seven Sola HT with Magura discs, and a very stout looking Rond/Magura fork - the only one I have a pic of. I'd put a riser bar on this bike though...

Taras - Sevens are some of the most beautiful bikes in the world. Any mountain biker that doesn't lust after one of these probably doesn't know about them.

Serotta

2009-02-03T08:43:00.002-07:00

Serotta is a New York based builder that makes excellent road bikes, and decided to get into the mountain bike game early. I don't know if he makes mountain bikes anymore though.

Hardtail - Pretty swanky color scheme on this Serotta. I like that Manitou SX Carbon.

Softtail - No disputing the build quality of his bikes, but I don't know about the whole softtail thing. Especially when you use a fully-adjustable shock. Why not just put a pivot in there and make it a rear suspension bike?

Scott

2009-02-03T08:34:00.004-07:00

Scott is another sports empire type company that got into the mountain bike game pretty early. They made goggles and probably skis and stuff like that. At the moment, they only sell bikes in Europe, but they ones they have there are pretty well-liked by the press here. [edit] scott has themselves into the north american market in a big way now. i don't see too many around town here, but what i've seen looks pretty good. although i don't know about an $11,000 hardtail...

Nevasport - This was one of the last bikes that Scott sold in the U.S. markeplace. I never understood why it had that pivot up by the headtube, but it looks like a nice bike.

Pro Racing - This is Scott's premier racing hardtail, made from carbon, it of course featured chainstays that offered some degree of flex, smoothing out the ride. Did it work? No idea. Looks good though.

Schwinn pt. 4

2009-02-01T13:17:00.003-07:00

Straight 8 - This is a beautiful DH bike. The ultra-beefy Marzocchi Monster T, Race Face cranks, and a great color.

Homegrown Limited - All the XC goodies on this beauty. A superlight, fully loaded XC bike a very cool thing.

Schwinn pt. 3

2009-02-01T13:02:00.004-07:00

KOM - This Schwinn dates back to when Ned Overend raced for them, which is a long time ago. It's got one of the original Rock Shox forks on it, maybe the only pic I have of that fork.

Hardtail - This is supposedly a carbon frame that was made only for Schwinn team racers. It's also a sad case of somebody choosing weight over decent fork performance. [edit] i think i was probably a little too critical of the old RS forks. This higher end Indy wasn't that bad, and I think you could put an englund total air cartridge in it.

S 30 - Schwinn went big on the URT thing. And more specifically, John Castellano's high pivot URT frames. Check out the Ibis Szazbo for another example. This one is extra spicy with it's carbon monocoque front section. Your basic URT bike has some characteristics that TeamCow doesn't like so much - like not working so great when you stand up. We need a bike that works all the time. All plush, all the time. That's TeamCow...

Rocket 88 - The Rocket 88 looks like a great idea on paper, but the bushings on the BB mounted lower pivot proved to be very difficult to line-up right. Luckily, Schwinn wised up and revised the design for '01.

4 Banger - This looks like a great trailbike - good brakes, great suspension action, good bike.

Schwinn pt. 2

2009-02-01T12:25:00.007-07:00

some more about schwinn; it's really unfortunate that they had dug themselves such a deep hole, because once they realized that mountain bikes were profitable, they made some really good ones. people still maintain that the homegrown hardtails were some of the best ever. and you better be strong willed and deep of pocket if you're trying to buy a 4 banger frame off ebay.

Paramount - This is an all old-skool, pre-bankruptcy, steel frame, Schwinn Paramount. The Paramounts used to be a separate entity from the rest of Schwinn, but I don't know what happened to them. [edit] i really like these old steel schwinn mtbs. they made some kinda crazy ones in the mid 90's with steel lugged frames (before this became cool again), euro suspension forks, and weird colors.

Paramount - I love those old-skool bike that haven't been upgraded - cantilever brakes, no suspenion, and the SunTour Microdrive group. SunTour invented compact chainrings by the way...

Paramount - The Paramount was a frame worthy of upgrading to modern standards. And this one is part of the way there, still needs to work on that 6 year old fork.

Paramount - Another one stuck in 1993. Manitou 2 forks, flat bars with bar ends, and 3D violet cranks. Cool bike.

Paramount - This Paramount has an artifact on it. The Scott Unishock. One of the first coil spring shocks on the market, it lacked any kind of proper damping. Damping in this fork consisted of a urethane sleeve that surrounded the spring. It was prone to popping out apparently.

Schwinn

2009-02-01T11:21:00.004-07:00

Schwinn is the quint-essential American bike company. Most of the first mountain bikes were modified Schwinns. They've had an interesting corporate history - started in 1896, bankrupt in 1995, restarted by Scott in 1996, and now married to GT. Now they have a complete line of very nice aluminum bikes. [edit] and then they went bankrupt again... now schwinn is pretty much a canadian tire bike; heavy and awful. their website does have $5000 road bikes, but nothing over $1000 for mountain. i'd recommend the book no hands: the rise and fall of the schwinn bicycle company holy damn! $300?! i'll sell you mine...

Homegrown - A good, solid hardtail here; Manitou fork, XTR cranks and brakes. Nice color too.

Homegrown - A pretty nice fully suspended bike here, for a URT that is... I like the Syncros Revolution cranks, but those green Michelins just do not work.

Homegrown - This is one of the official race team bikes supposedly. It looks nice whatever it is.

Homegrown - I'm one bike away from having a pic of every type of Schwinn hardtail there could be. I've got the XC racer, the regular trail bike, and now the slalom bike. I only need the hardtail freerider to complete the set.

Homegrown - This looks like the perfect hardtail. Hydraulic discs, quality aluminum frame, great components, and I love that color. I don't have to tell you what's missing...

Santa Cruz pt. 3

2009-02-01T11:08:00.004-07:00

Super 8 - Another serious DH machine. If you have a bike with Stratos forks, chances are very good I'll put it on this website. Stratos rules.

Heckler - I've looked at this bike long and hard, and I just can't figure it out. It's a very well spec-ed Heckler, with a great fork, and for some reason, the rider has some 5 inches of spacers - including what looks like a cut-off stem - under the stem. A 15 degree stem and a 2 inch riser bar would do the same thing...

Bullit - This is a really nice bike - double-crown Marzocchi, XT drivetrain, Thomson post. Nothing but quality here.

Roadster - Everybody makes a road bike nowadays, and Santa Cruz's is really nice. I love to pick up road bikes in the shop, they feel like toys compared to our mountain bikes.

Chameleon - This is Jack's bike - really well finished with Hope discs, Thompson post, RaceFace cranks and stem.

Santa Cruz pt. 2

2009-02-01T10:54:00.004-07:00

Superlight - This one is pretty different... Yellow Spox, SID-blue stem, cranks, headset, and rims. But for some reason, the SID, is black. Scratchin' my head...

Tazmon - The Tazmon is the ancestor to the Superlight. Check the swingarm. This one has a '00 Atom 80 - very nice. But why yellow cranks? [edit] the tazmon was a very interesting design. almost an anti-suspension suspension bike. it's hard to see, but the shock was attached to the frame in two spots, so it couldn't move at all, just compress (i believe there was a little swing link in the fork/swingarm mount to make this work). this made it a very stiff laterally - something that was rare back in the early days of suspension.

Tazmon - An almost all-old skool Tazmon - original XTR cranks, original Judy XC, crazy long stem, onZa pedals, and the exception - Avid Arch rival brakes.

Bullit - A beautiful, black, Bullit. Maybe the ultimate freeride bike, in this case with what might be the ultimate freeride fork, the beefy Stratos FR-4.

Bullit - TeamCow encountered some major hardware at the Canmore World Cup. Among them was this fantastic Santa Cruz Bullit - most notable for the fork; a Manitou Millennium (for 2001, called the Supernova). Jack took this pic, and I think the owner thought he was going to get into the picture too.

Santa Cruz

2009-02-01T10:06:00.005-07:00

Santa Cruz is an all-inclusive extreme activities company. Mountain bikes, snowboards, surfboards, skateboards, they've got it all. Oddly, I really didn't like them the first time I saw them, but now I think they're a very cool company - and that's not just because I have a Superlight - because their bikes are simple and they work really well.

Chameleon - There's nothing really exciting or outstanding about this Santa Cruz Chameleon, but it's still a really nice bike.

Chameleon - Here, finally, is what this bike is supposed to be all about. If you look closely at the dropouts on a chameleon, you'll notice they look really odd. This is so you can make it a singlespeed, or adjust the wheelbase for fine-tuning it as a DS bike. This is the first Chameleon I've ever seen that takes advantage of this feature. [edit] i love singlespeeds, and i spend a lot of time looking at forums and such, and i've very few chameleon SS bikes.

Heckler - Another excellent Santa Cruz. This time a Heckler. Check the matching Bomber stanchions and Manitou riser bar. I'd like to know why SC riders always get Hayes though. There are alternatives...

Heckler - This bike had better get HBO with all the wires on it. Seriously though - I feel kinda bad for people who bought those RockShox/AMP discs - I'm sure those hubs are not 6 bolt compatible, so you're kinda stuck with them...

Superlight - TeamCow found this Superlight in the Shimano tent at Canmore this past season. Pretty simple, except for those swank Shimano XT wheels.

Salsa

2009-02-01T09:59:00.002-07:00

Ross Shafer's Salsa was a contemporary of Keith Bontrager in Norther California. He held out longer than good old Keith, but now I think all Salsa makes is grips and V-brake boosters. They had some pretty cool looking frames back in the day though. [edit] salsa is now part of the qulity bicycle parts empire (i think) and they still make some very cool bikes. i find it surprising i don't have any pics of the classic salsa a la carte. i will attempt to recifiy that situation in the future.

El Kaboing - When FS was new, a lot of companies just stuck an AMP rear end on their front triangles, and then went over to the pub, satisfied with a hard day's work. I don't think this is an AMP rear end, but it's pretty much the same idea. A cute name, but not a really great bike I don't think.

Rotec

2009-02-01T08:53:00.003-07:00

Rotec started out making DH bikes, and eventually had a complete line of XC, DS and everything. I don't know if they still make XC-type bikes, but they still make Cadillac-like DH frames.

DH - Rotec's DH bike. Looks like an incredibly simple frame. There's some trickery in the suspension pivot, but it's hidden behind the chainring, so let's just pretend it's really cool.

DH - How many DH bikes actually see true DH action? This one has a front derailleur - what's up with that? I seriously doubt you could pass this of as a freeride bike - that Hanebrink fork is DH all the way.

DH - I like the finish on those White Brothers forks. Metallic colors always look cool on mountain bikes.

DS - Rotec has made a name for themselves making some really extreme DH bikes. This particular bike is intended for dual slaloms. Why they would copy GT's triple triangle thing is beyond me.

Rocky Mountain pt. 80.2

2009-01-30T08:55:00.006-07:00

Altitude. i bought this mysterious rocky on ebay for $200. the seller said it was a 1995 something. i forget what model he thought it was - but i knew he had the year wrong because rocky dropped the wishbone rear end in 1993. i thought it was a 1991, and figured i had confirmed that by the yellow paint i found inside the headtube. (someone had repainted it red, and it had no decals on it at all.) just now i've confimed it was a 1992 because they had that little cable stop attached to the wishbone. the 1991 had a cable noodle that wrapped around the seattube/toptube junction.

besides the fact that pretty much any rocky from 1990 to 1993 is on my 'buy that now!' list, i had to buy it because of this;

that's right. RM666. i never looked into this fully. i may have tried to post on mtbr.com - but i probably didn't because i don't really like those forums. i don't really like any web forum for that matter.

i pulled all the parts off this bike and put them on this kawasaki frame i had, and sold that. then i repainted and rebuilt this bike with my singlespeed gear;

this one came out fantastic. but it was sort of an extra bike, so i traded it for a custom fisher sugar frame and fork.

Vertex. this is where the singlespeed kit came from. a white industries eno rear wheel, superlight kinesis fork, and eventually race face 180mm cranks, carbon post, flite saddle, and a mary handlebar. was this the hottest singlespeed in town? probably. in the top five anyway.

i turned this bike into the hottest hybrid in town;

road wheels + mtb frame + mavic brake adapter = awesome city bike. can't put fenders on it because of that adapter, but it's still awesome. i'm holding on to this frame.

Blizzard. this is a 2005, 20th anniversary edition blizzard. this frame i will never sell. i rode it like this for a year, but now it's waiting to become a singlespeed, and i will regain my Hottest Singlespeed in Town award. you probably didn't even know there was such an honour. nobody else does either, but it's there, and i'm taking it back.

vicious cycles fork, non-low profile race face 180mm cranks, avid discs with nokon/full metal jacket cable routing, avid SAAGO stem, titec titanium flattracker handlebar, thomson post, chris king headset, and it will have a white industries eno disc rear wheel.

so there you have it, all brilliant bikes, and i have a feeling i'm not done buying rockys...

Rocky Mountain pt. 80

2009-01-30T07:50:00.010-07:00

at some point i will do a post about all the bikes i've owned, but this seemed like a good place for a post on all the rocky mountains i've owned.

Nimbus. i bought this bike in about 1994 - i think - and i was excited to get it because i knew how rare and special it was. one of the very first aluminum bikes to use butted easton tubes. i believe only 200 were made. it had a first generation manitou, grafton 3d violet front hub, ritchey cranks, and that super cool white syncros stem. the bike came stock with a white syncros fork, which i'm thinking must be one of the most rare bike parts out there.

now it has a marzocchi xc500 - i fork i never liked; it never worked the way it supposed to. or didn't work the way i had read it was supposed to. it just didn't seem to have any rebound damping at all. and i'm a big guy so i needed pretty heavy spring rates. anyway, i took care of that after a bit.

that is a manitou sx. or an sx-r? i can't remember. i do remember that i had to buy the more expensive one because it was the only one the shop had with a cable stop on the brake brace. why didn't I just buy v-brakes? good question. changing the fork is pretty much all i did to this bike. i swapped out the ritchey cantilevers for shimano xt, but never changed the cranks, wheels, or anything else but tires.

anyway, i left it out in the yard one day between school and leaving for work, and it wasn't there when it was time to go to work.

Avalanche. i figured since i had a rocky stolen from me, then it was ok for me to buy what was probably a stolen rocky. i got it from a pawn shop, which doesn't guarantee that it was stolen, but from the stories i've heard, i wouldn't be surprised at all. it was probably a '86, purple and orange with chainstay U-brakes. it was tange steel, came with a set of the original syncros barends (one of which had been broken and repaired, poorly), mismatched wheels, and that sloping top tube, long seat tube geometry which to me, always looked better than the flat top tube look that so many other old timey bikes had.

one of my biggest regrets was what i did to this bike;

i first had jim molden (local bike builder) move the brakes up to the seatstays, then i stripped the paint, and painted it like a 1991 blizzard - maybe my all-time favorite bike. i found a 1" threaded judy to fit it, and painted that too. where those period correct frame decals came from, i can't remember. i sure don't regret what i ended up with, because it looked fantastic, but right now, i really wish i still had the orange and purple avalanche.

anyway, after this, i built a brand new wheelset for it, and then sold it on ebay. i did make it clear it was not a real blizzard. i'm not sure why i did that either. i should probably take a bit more time to consider whether or not i really want to sell my rockys, because i regret another one a little bit too...

Rocky Mountain pt. 7

2009-01-29T10:01:00.004-07:00

Switch - This is Rocky's all-new all-mountain bike. This one has the truly sick Marzocchi Shiver SC fork. Heavy as hell. Nice bike though.

Vertex Ltd. - Another cool Euro Rocky. The 1998 Element with a sweet navy/white fade, a great fork, and I love those Syncros forks. I am in love. Thanks to Vinni for this great bike!

Pipeline - Joel let me use this pic of his terrific Pipeline. It's got a wicked Marzocchi on it, Shimano discs, and a very nice red paint job and matching Michelin tires. Thanks Joel!

Altitude - This is one of my all time favorite bikes. I always liked that paint job, and that Allison Sydor used to race this bike.

Rocky Mountain pt. 6

2009-01-29T09:53:00.004-07:00

Element Team SC - This is Rocky's absolute top-of-the-line Element Team SC. The SC meaning Scandium, Easton's superlight aluminum tubeset. Rocky will sell this as a complete bike for the first time, for the 2001 model year.

Element t.o. - The 2000 model Rocky Element t.o. An awesome bike, check out those RaceFace Next cranks, and the Z.2 X-Fly. Very solid. I'd prefer a riser bar of course, but then, I'm not a racer.

Element t.o. - A 1999 model Rocky Element t.o. What's odd about this bike is that it came originally with a Marzocchi Superfly - this one has an Atom Bomb. Electing to go with coil springs over air springs is the TeamCow way to go, but it would make for a heavier bike.

Altitude - This gorgeous t.o. comes from Mark in Ontario - thanks Mark! What a difference the details can make - custom painting the fork and stem to match the frame. And of course the parts - Chris King wheels, Grimeca discs, Kooka cranks - all kick-ass stuff.

Blizzard - James sent me an excellent pic of his fabulous 1990 Blizzard. It's a fantastic bike with a Chris King wheelset, Easton bar, Avid brakes, and best of all, a Syncros fork. I want one of those forks - if you've got one for sale - let me know.

Rocky Mountain pt. 5

2009-01-29T09:45:00.004-07:00

RM9 - The RM 9 was somewhat revolutionary at it's introduction because there were very few bikes with 9 inches of wheel travel at the time. I remember reading the review in Mountain Bike, and they didn't seem to like it too much. I think they were such girlie-men that they couldn't handle the Marzocchi Monster-T. At least they admitted it.

Turbo - A rare road bike on the BikeGuide. This '99 Turbo weighs the same as the RM-9 DH frame the Rocky introduced that same year.

Turbo t.o. - A slightly better version of the Turbo. With that great paint again.

Element Race - This is exactly what I like to see happen to an Element. Get some RaceFace parts on it - cranks, seatpost, stem - and then get an Atom Bomb. My idea of a perfect full suspension bike. Poor picture composition though...

Element Ltd. - This pic was sent by a faithful BikeGuide reader, and my thanks to Dennis for sending me one of the nicest bikes I have on the site. If TeamCow raced, this is the bike we'd want - Hope Enduro discs, Syncros cranks, and a terrific, European model Element Ltd. frame.

Rocky Mountain pt. 4

2009-01-29T09:27:00.004-07:00

Slayer - You saw it here first - the 2001 Rocky Slayer. This is a prototype that TeamCow saw at the Rocky tent in Canmore. I thought originally that it would replace the aging and less-fashionable Pipeline, but that URT bike will still be available for 2001. The Slayer is mostly an Element, but with Easton RAD tubing, and a different link providing 4.75 inches of travel, instead of 3.9.

Slayer - This is a pretty crappy pic of the production Slayer - with Magura Clara brakes and Race Face Prodigy stuff. I like this bike, but I wish it was a bit lighter. They need to make an Element with the Slayer's travel.

Pipeline - The Pipeline was one of the first freeride bikes. It debuted in 1998 and is somehow still in the lineup, even though URT style bikes are not that fashionable anymore. I've heard they can be great, but they demand sitting-down style of riding.

RM6 - One of the regular, three-chainring RM6's set-up for DH use with a Monster-T. This bike has a pretty poor reputation amongst the DH/freeride set. I guess a lot of the original ones broke, which is not good.

RM6 - If you ever see an RM-6 in your LBS, pick it up. If you ride any XC-type bike, I guarantee that you will never think it heavy again after hefting this beast.

Rocky Mountain pt. 3

2009-01-29T08:57:00.006-07:00

Element Ltd. - I hate this bike. I know it really doesn't matter that what color a bike is, but I really hate this paintjob. I don't like that Rocky would agree to do this. If I was rich, I'd buy this and paint it black with Krylon...

Instinct - A pretty good guess this bike wasn't used too hard - it still has reflectors. It's a '99, you can tell by the cable-operated Dia-Tech disc brakes, and of course the ugly graphics. The '00 Instinct has Sram V-brakes.

Instinct - Somebody has done the right thing here and picked up some hydraulic brakes instead of those cable operated discs. Avid and Hayes seem to have perfected the cable disc now, but in 1999, the Dia-Tech Spiral stop was really no better than V-brakes.

DH Race - The DH Race was Rocky's first attempt at a dedicated downhill race bike. Essentially an Element frame with a longer swing link and moto-style gusset on the headtube. Six inches of rear wheel travel. Today, this would make a nice freeride bike, and word is Rocky is bringing it back (sort of) as the Slayer.

DH Race - Something about this bike doesn't look right... Maybe it's that link, it looks funny. Or it could just be a big bike. I know, it must be the fork - yup, that's it.

Rocky Mountain pt. 2

2009-01-29T08:42:00.007-07:00

Spice - This Spice is a happy little bike. Nice colors, nothing really flashy, but everything perfectly capable. But that Girvin fork sure doesn't work for me. To each his own, eh?

Oxygen Race - I really like the 1998 bikes because it was the last year for the really good graphics that they used right from 1991. And I like all Rocky's because they come with Marzocchi's. [edit] this one belongs to a friend of mine. purchased in 1998, it's still stock, still awesome.

Reaper - The Reaper is one of those bikes that you rarely see. Partly because they probably didn't make that many of them, but also because they were all spoken for before they ever got to the bike shops.

Blizzard - The Blizzard is my all-time favorite bike of all time. And it's great to see the 2001 model go back to the maple-leaf fade paint for it's 20th birthday. This 2000 model is a great bike too.

Solid.

Blizzard - The Blizzard is the Porsche 911 of mountain bikes. It's been around since 1984, virtually unchanged. Still made of steel, and still black and white. This particular bike is quite sad though. Putting a Rock Shox Jett and a Truvativ crank on a Blizzard is like putting Canadian Tire white-walls on a Porsche. That stuff belongs on a Trek.

Rocky Mountain

2009-01-29T08:24:00.004-07:00

Rocky has been building some very excellent bikes in Delta, B.C. for 20 years. For me, nobody makes a better mass-produced bike. They started out making their version of Tom Ritchey's bike and have turned into an all-encompassing company, with a line of accessories (that eventually went out on it's own) called Race Face, clothes, and of course, bikes to cover every market niche. They've also been the best looking bikes in the world (except for 1999). [edit] i've been looking forward to posting these one right from when i started this. my favorite company by far. if resources allowed it, i'd spend all my time tracking down old rockys and then i'd restore them.

Vertex t.o. - This could be my all-time favorite hardtail. That red and white maple leaf fade paint job was easily my favorite. And they put the right fork on it right from the factory. Maybe that's why I like Rocky so much.

Thin Air - I always thought that if you had an old bike lying around, that it would make a good single-speed project. If it's old, and the parts are kinda weak, it doesn't matter because you're taking most of them off anyway. It would never occur to me to make a single-speed out of a brand new aluminum hardtail. But, as SS's go, this is a pretty nice one.

Thin Air - A 1999 Thin Air. The way a hardtail should be. Except for that fork, and I never liked the '99 graphics much. Otherwise nice tough... [edit] i'm at peace with the '99s now. still their least attractive graphics style, but they're ok.

Thin Air - The 1996 Thin Air was a beauty - no doubt.

Stratos - I would collect old Rocky's if I had any money. But this one (from around 1993) looks a little weird with a suspension fork and a riser bar. Maybe it's just bigger than the average bike - but I think the long stem/riser combo is somewhat unfashionable.

Ritchey pt. 2

2009-01-28T09:40:00.004-07:00

before i continue with more bikes, i have to relate a couple stories about a bike shop in town here. i won't name it, but if you live in edmonton, you'll probably figure it out. they relocated from whyte ave, after a fire, to a former grocery store on 109st.

in teamcow, we used to refer to it as the edmonton ritchey museum - this is because one day my brother went in and asked about a very nice ritchey swiss cross that was on display. he was told it wasn't for sale, it was going back to the rep soon. I can tell you it's not totally unusual for a shop to have a bike that's not for sale, but displaying it on a pedestal is not normal. and if anyone shows any interest, i would think at least a half-assed effort would have been made to let that person know that they could get another one if you wanted.

but no, not at the ERM.

the name also comes from this story; at their old location they had a few ritchey comps on display with the brakes not hooked up. again, not completely unusual for a mechanic to do this; if space is a problem, and something more important comes up, you might put a bike you're building out on the floor for a few minutes. But as soon as you're done whatever you needed to do, you go back for that bike and finish it.

but no, not at the ERM.

i liked to think that the ritcheys were so popular that they had to be on the floor. 'i don't care if they're not done, we need to have them out there - we're losing customers!!'

i swear these same incomplete ritcheys were moved to their new location, still incomplete...

but i can top that; one day, i needed a tube, but i just didn't feel like making the trip to a shop i liked. or my car was dead. or something. so walking six blocks to the ERM seemed the best idea. i figured it was closer than united cycle, who i didn't like at the time anyway.

(if you know me, you must be asking yourself how the hell i didn't have another bike to ride. i don't know either, must have been a tough time in my life...)

so i walked to ERM, to buy one $5 tube. when i get there i find that they don't take interac. this was about six years ago by the way, not 26 years ago. so i'm directed to the bank four blocks up - which is my bank, and it's a nice day, so that's cool. on my way back, the owner pulls up in his car, rolls down his window and tells me he needs to go somewhere, my tube is stuck to the door, and i can just slide $5 in under the door. and off he drives.

i swear i am not making this up.

i get back to the shop and sure enough, the tube is stuck to the door with a rubber band. i believe that i did stick a $5 bill under the door (though i just came from an ATM with a $20 bill, so i don't know how i came to have a $5 bill) and off i went - making a mental note to remind my friends that the ERM had gone back to the barter system, and should they need a 1" threaded headset, that they should bring in live chickens and goats to trade.

so that's the ERM. i don't think they sell mountain bikes anymore.

Plexus - This is one of the nicer racing hardtals I have on the site. Check out those curved seattubes for some softtail action. The owner even went to the trouble of getting a Bomber instead of a SID - very cool.

Plexus - This is exactly the way I'd expect to see a Plexus set up. With XTR stuff and a SID.

Ritchey

2009-01-28T09:33:00.005-07:00

Ritchey is of course one of the pioneers of mountain bikes. He's always been steel, always been light. One cool thing about Ritcheys is that they still all get some attention from him. Even the ones made in Japan are finished by the man himself. That's really cool.

Hardtail - This is an old Ritchey. You can tell by the long chainstays with brakes on them, and the incredibly slack angles. It must be one of Tom's original custom frames.

Hardtail - Another old one - this one has the Bull-Moose bars that Ritchey invented and you can find on every crappy department store bike from 1989-1992.

Timber Comp - This might be the oldest bike I have a pic of. From 1986 with a Hite-Rite seatpost adjuster and Power-cam brakes. So old-skool, there was no skool yet.

Lite Beam - Ritchey's attempt at full-suspension. Thank goodnes people realized that full-suspension was not that evil, and gave up on the ridiculous and dangerous Softride system.

P-22 - Ritchey started out at 23 pounds, and slowly pushed the weight of his team race bikes down to 20 pounds. Of course, that's without a suspension fork. This is a nice one with the old Manitou forks that were among the lightest of the time.

Raleigh

2009-01-28T09:11:00.004-07:00

Raleigh is as old as the hills. I don't know the relationship between the English Raleigh and the U.S. Raleigh, but they've been in the mountain bike game for some time as well. And they've typically been pretty innovative - bonded steel/aluminum frames, cheap Russian made titanium frames, and of course, the John Tomac years. Though that was the past, they've been pretty low-end and dull for a while. [edit] i didn't mention that the canada raleigh is different again from the american raleigh. weird company man...

John Tomac Edition - The customer edition of John Tomac's Raleigh circa '92. John had just finished a year of riding under a gentleman's agreement with Yeti on their Easton C-9 tubed prototype. When he was ready for some factory support, he went to the company with the best bike in the world - Raleigh.

Ha! Thought I was on glue for a second didn't you?

This bike is actually a main triangle of the aforementioned Easton carbon wrapped C-9 tubes bonded to Merlin titanium lugs and rear section. It's very unlikely that Raleigh had anything to do with the construction of this frame. Johnny rode most of the time on this frame with a Tioga-labeled fork made by Showa that was never made available to the public.

John Tomac Edition - I was pretty excited to have found this pic. This is an original John Tomac titanium/carbon hardtail from 1992 or so. And it seems to be totally stock - Tioga disc wheel, Dia-Compe cantilevers, Rock Shox Mag 21 (not the fork that John used, but that Showa-made, Tioga-labelled fork was never made available to the public), three piece Tioga cranks/BB, and the blue anodized Tioga stem/seatpost/barends.
Very cool vintage mountain bike.

** TeamCow Joke Bike **

Hardtail - Well, this is quite obviously a race bike. It says so right on it. The Biopace chainrings, fender mounts at the rear dropout, and hi-rise stem are dead give-aways too.

Titanium - In about '93 or '94, everybody was buzzing about Russian titanium. We were told those crafty ruskies had been using Ti since the 50's, and that Russian farmers dug their potatoes with spades made from titanium.

In short, the West was (supposedly) way behind.

Somehow, Raleigh of England worked out a deal to use this 'cheap' tubing. The bikes, while not technically bad, were not up to the quality standards set by Merlin and Litespeed. Although, neither were the prices. Anyway, I figure they must not have been that good, because they only sold them for two years at the most.

By the way, it took me longer than I care to admit to figure out what a 'Leigh' was...

Psycle Works

2009-01-28T09:08:00.002-07:00

I know virutally nothing about Psycle Werks. What I've heard is that people that own them, really like them. That's about it.

Wild Hare - Wild Hare are highly respected amongst the knowledgeable hard core. But the Judy on this one lets it down a bit.

Wild Hare - This Hare is done up much better - Manitous and Maguras. TeamCow favs.

Porsche

2009-01-28T08:16:00.004-07:00

I shouldn't have to tell you who Porsche is. The frames are actually made by Votec, which is a company I know nothing about. Given how amazingly expensive this bike is, I'm really surprised how many I've found for sale out there. [edit] one day, rolling down whyte avenue, i saw a formerly pretty girl - that sounds bad, but what i mean is she was probably in her 40's and not a cute, perky college coed anymore - wearing a dress and deck shoes, riding a porsche mountain bike. i think that tells you everything right there; not a bike that serious off-roaders bought. but to be honest, that was more about price than capability.

Hardtail - A really nice hardtail with Porsche's own 4 inch, double crown fork and Magura hydraulic brakes. Nice, but not really all that special. The car on the other hand, is one of the last air-cooled 911s that Porsche made. I really want one... [edit] i've actually spent a lot of time deciding what 911 i'd like. being honest with myself about what i could actually afford some day, it would have to be a late 70's to early 80's 911sc. no whale tail, no wide body kit, black fuchs wheels = pure function. but i also like the 996 series cars; the last air-cooled ones. and of course, the first 930 would be awesome - but honestly, that car frightens me a bit.

FS - This Porsche, with reflectors and Shimano flat pedal inserts, is set up just like I saw once in Edmonton. It was being ridden by a girl down the sidewalks. She was wearing a skirt, and no helmet. I wish I could spend six grand on a bike to run errands on.

FS - Careful examination of all the pics I have leads me to believe this frame is the oldest. I don't know what that counts for really...

FS - This bike looks like it gets a little bit more offroad use than the previous one. Witness the Formula hyrdaulic discs. The fork looks exceptionally burley - and like it doesn't have 4 inches of travel..

FS Evo - From the "Evo" name, I'll assume this one is the newest. The main difference I see is that the fork is inverted. And that it has older Hope discs.

Planet X

2009-01-28T08:07:00.003-07:00

Planet X is an English company, and they seem to get name-checked a lot when it comes to a "what DS frame should I buy?" question. I don't really know much about them, but they look very capable. [edit] what is 'ds' ? i'm not sure what i meant back then, but the dirt jumper/urban/park bike realm is so specialized and split into little factions that i don't really know what these bikes are called anymore. i don't spend a lot of time worrying about it though.

Jack Flash - It's kinda cool how mountain bikes have gotten so specialized. This Planet X is obviously not going to get you up many hills. Notice the beefy dropouts, big gusset on the headtube, the huge Risse DH fork, and the lack of front brakes...

Dactari - I had to laugh at the goofy paint on this Planet X dirt jumping/DS bike. Then I found out they're an English company and it all made sense. I don't know what you do with a bike like this - but it looks pretty serious.

Phil Wood pt. 2

2009-01-27T10:59:00.011-07:00

doing the phil wood post got me thinking about the phil independant single speed off road series, and i decided it was worth my time to look for some images and put them up here.

the main reason being you have one of the finest frame manufacturers in the work teaming up with one of the finest hub and bottom bracket manufacturers in the world. this results in some of the finest bikes i have ever seen.

this mind-blowing PISS off i found on singlespeed pimp's flickr set; http://www.flickr.com/photos/singlespeed-pimp/

few things annoy me more than the casual use of the word 'pimp' but that aside, the bikes and the pics on his set are fantastic.

anyway, this bike is quite simply the most beautiful bicycle I have ever seen. everything on it is perfect.

here's another beauty from flickr - P*H*A*T*Y's stream this time; http://www.flickr.com/photos/phaty/

another singlespeed, another CX bike, another work of art. i especially like the moustache bar.

this one comes from the late sheldon brown's website; http://www.sheldonbrown.com/ - so much terrific info there. it's pretty much where i learned to build wheels.

it's got a rohloff internally geared 14 speed hub - one of the coolest bicycle part out there. however, it's got a bit of a bizarre front end - i think a pretty mid-level psylo, and three stems worth of headset spacers in order to run a long flat stem and flat bar. i can't figure people that use this setup instead of a hi-rise stem and riser bar. actually, looking at that setup, makes me think this frame is way too small for the rider.

Phil Wood

2009-01-27T10:24:00.003-07:00

I thought Phil Wood only made grease and chain oil. But it seems that they make some really expensive hubs, headsets, and really nice frames. It's cool to learn stuff. [edit] i have further learned that the phil wood frames are made by other high-end manufacturers. there was a run of 32 'phil independant single speed off road' frames made back in '02 by independant fabrications in titanium. these are some of the nicest bicycles ever made.

i have even further learned (see comments on this post) that phil wood never made headsets. i'm sure i knew that, so i must have been drunk when i made this post. i've also found out that the frames on this post were made by fabulous san fran builders http://www.sycip.com

Singlespeed - I think the singlespeed think is really cool, but I can't see myself buying a SS-only frame and then putting really expensive parts on it. That being said, this is a very nice bike.

Hardtail - This gorgeous hardtail may just be so nice because everything on it is brand new. Like the Panaracer Fire tires (in black finally), the Marzocchi Atom Race fork, and the Thomson stem. Notice the lack of canti brakes bosses. And this bike is especially rare because it's not a single speed. Beautiful.

Parkpre

2009-01-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

ParkPre popped up as one of those companies that said they made stuff for other companies, then suddenly decided they could do it themselves. Well I hope they didn't quit their day jobs, because they didn't last long in the North American marketplace.

825 - 825 means "eight to five", or, the steel tubes in the frame go from .8mm thick at the joints to .5mm in the middle of the tube. It was a pretty cool steel bike actually. This one has a cool newer Manitou fork too.

Pace

2009-01-27T10:20:00.002-07:00

Pace is an English company, and they make unusual square tube hardtails, and weird backwards forks. I remember them being the first European company to make a bike that MBA magazine liked. It was cool for American magazines to make fun or Euros back then - it doesn't happen anymore.

RC 100 - The RC-100 was "out there" for a couple reasons - brakes on the back of the fork, a threadless headset, and "butted" square tubes. Looks like a pretty cool bike to me. [edit] the butting was actually areas on the outside faces of the tubes where the aluminum was machined away.

Outland

2009-01-27T10:15:00.002-07:00

I believe that Outland was a Canadian company, I know the concept originated with Canadian designers anyway. The Outland was based around the Virtual Pivot Point concept, which promised to isolate chain and brake forces from suspension action. Outland didn't last long, and to add insult to injury, Mountain Bike magazine recently named them one of the worst bikes ever. [edit] what i didn't mention is that the reason for that was the poor pivots and bearings used in the system. fast forward to 2004 (roughly, i can't remember) and santa cruz buys the outland patents and the blur is born. and oh yeah, everybody and their dog builds a bike with a 'virtual pivot point'

VPP5 - It's a poor pic, but a rare bike, so deal with it. I guess one of the downsides to this bike was the frame weight, but it's hard to keep the weight down on anything with 5 inches of travel.

VPP5 - This one has more of a XC feel for sure. It looks like a pretty good bike, though apparently one of the bad things about it is weak pivots. Bad news for a bike that has zero support.

Oryx

2009-01-27T10:10:00.002-07:00

Oryx is a Canadian company, out of Quebec actually, that I really don't know much about. But being Canadian is good enough to get them on the BikeGuide. [edit] oryx is part of the procycle group which includes rocky mountain, ccm, and miele. their corporate website doesn't include oryx though, but there is an oryx site with nothing on it, so i don't know what their deal is.

HTA 750 - This looks like a full-on race bike - XTR everywhere, Marzocchi X-Fly fork, aluminum frame - very nice.

Nuke Proof

2009-01-27T10:05:00.002-07:00

Nuke Proof started out making carbon shell hubs, and then moved one to titanium frames and even their own headtube mounted suspension forks. I'm not sure if they're still in the frame business though.

Hardtail - This is a titanium bike, but I don't understand the handlebar arrangement. It's got 3/4 of an inch of headset spacers to move the bars up, then the stem is upside-down to move the bars down, then it's got riser bars too... Get a hacksaw, lose the spacers, turn that stem around - learn to work on your bike, trust me, it's worth it.

Northstar

2009-01-27T09:49:00.001-07:00

Northstar was an aluminum pioneer back in the day. But I guess they just weren't able to convince the masses that they made the bike to own, because I think they went out of business some time ago.

Hardtail - I can't remember at all what the Northstar bike was called. This is a fairly crude looking frame, but remember that few people had used aluminum in a welded application at this time.

100th post!

2009-01-27T09:27:00.003-07:00

I just noticed that this will be my 100th post, and I thought that putting in a one bike post for a company that nobody remembers would be a lame 100th post.

So instead, a quick recap of what all this is;

All these bike pics I have are from a site I used to run where I'd post bike pics. [A blog is not the best format for this to be honest, but it's just easier to let someone else do the coding.] I used to look for used bikes and a lot of times without a picture, it was hard to know what was being sold. So I thought it would be cool to have a database of bikes so that you could see what they were.

I don't think I ever meant it to be comprehensive - I don't have time for that, it would be a full-time job trying to get pics of every bike ever. [check out http://www.bikepedia.com for an example of what that would look like; sorry, but it's not good] So instead I grabbed pics of bikes I liked, or bikes that were rare, or bikes that I didn't like.

The bikes I didn't like, I made fun of, and that is what made it go. it was my need to trash bad bikes that drove the site.

The cool thing is, in 2009, a lot of these pics are of bikes that are 'vintage.' Or near vintage anyway. And lots of parts that don't exist anymore; Rock Shox Judy, weird carbon Spinergy and Spyn wheels, AMP forks, AMP rear ends, cantilever brakes...

I'm close to getting all of the old pics posted - and once that's done, then I can start posting new stuff. What exactly I'll post, I don't know, but hopefully it'll be something good.

Norco

2009-01-26T09:38:00.004-07:00

Norco is a Canadian company that we Canadians used to make fun of because they made so many cheap, department-store type bikes. Things have changed though, and since 1993, they've made plenty of really good bikes. And now, they have one of the most compelte line of North Shore style bikes on the market. [edit] norco has the market covered like few other bike companies. each micro-niche has a bike, and most of them have three price points. you need a 4 inch travel single speed park bike? sure, we have three!

Team Issue - Textbook trials set-up - a steel frame, Maguras, small frame, short stem, wide bars. And outstanding color matching between the brakes, tires and grips.

Torrent - I really like Norco's spec - Marzocchi forks, Formula hydraulic discs, RaceFace and Panaracer Fires. This is an older one, and now the Torrent is Norco's "Shore" hardtail. I'm not sure that they make any other type of bike anymore. My apologies for the weak pic, but I like Canadian bikes.

Nitro - There was a time when the only bike Norco made was a steel hardtail with a plain, metallic paint job. That was about 1995. [edit] seriously, i swear that there was one year they had a steel hardtail at each component level, with a marzocchi fork, and they were all the same colour. just like this bike.

VPS 1 - This would seem to the bike to own if you ride super technical, North Shore style trails. At least in Canada anyway. This is one bike where that fork doesn't look out of place.

TNT - Another excellent Norco hardtail. This is probably the first time I've ever seen yellow RaceFace cranks look good on a bike.

Nishiki

2009-01-26T09:33:00.003-07:00

Nishiki started out pretty early in the game, and had a moment in the sun when they were the cheap way to get your hands on the technological advancements made by Richard Cunningham at Mantis. Though I guess this wasn't enough to keep them in business for too long.

FS2 - This FS2 was the poor man's way to get their hands on a Mantis Profloater. And this one is authentic 1993 right down to it's Rock Shox Mag 21 and the original XTR group.

Alien - The Alien came in two forms; the exotic bolted together steel and aluminum frame, and the less expensive, all-aluminum welded one like this one here. I like this bike because it has both the new forks and V-brakes, and the old SunTour cranks that were OEM in 1991.

Alien - What I said for the previous Alien; forget it. Here's the third Alien - a steel frame. This one is all original too, just like the last ten years never happened.

Mountain Goat

2009-01-26T09:24:00.001-07:00

Mountain Goat was another one of the first custom mountain bikes that everybody wanted. They had crazy paint jobs and were named for some of the first mountain bike races. They eventually went out of business, but not before taking a shot at the Easton tubed aluminum race bike that everybody made in 1996.

Whiskeytown - This is pretty neat bike actually. It's got the old skool geometry and paint job, but modern brakes and derailleurs.

Whiskeytown - The same bike as the one about, but a better picture. Stare at that paint and be transported back to the 80's!!

Mountain Cycles

2009-01-26T09:11:00.005-07:00

Mountain Cycles was somewhat ahead of their time - building long travel freeride and trail bikes way before everybody realized how cool they were. And well before anybody made a half decent rear shock too. They were also way out there with disc brakes and inverted forks. They're still in business, still making some very nice bikes.

San Andreas - The San Andreas looked like it came from another planet compared to everything else when it came out in the early 90's. Now it's simply a very solid trail bike.

San Andreas - This bike has it all; Shimano discs, Fox shock, Raceface cranks, Marzocchi fork. Very nice.

Moho STS - Nice fork, nice cranks, great brakes, but those Spin wheels again...

Moho CXS - A little four bar action turns the Moho hardtail into a pretty cool XC suspension bike. Though not the most attractive color, and possibly the only RST fork on the entire BikeGuide, are points against it.

Shockwave - Mountain Cycle's DH bike - a little ungainly I'd say, but bikes always look cool in the snow.

Mrazek

2009-01-26T08:59:00.004-07:00

Bohumil Mrazek is a Czech metal worker who used to make sabres. The story goes that he visited the United States in 1993 and swept up in the mountainbike movement. He then turns his talents to making one of the most graceful bikes you can buy. That's the story anyway. [edit] i was and still am a huge fan of this bike. recently i discovered that the son has taken over the operation and you can still buy a new mrazek. just please ask them to stop putting headshoks in them.

Boh - There's some pretty cool stuff on this bike - Marzocchi forks, Panaracer Fires, and maybe even carbon cranks.

Boh - Mrazek's probably make pretty good race bikes, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see a SID on one, but it wouldn't be my choice.

Boh - Some advice for the newbies out there; do not buy a used bike that looks like this - low seat, wide, high bars, flat pedals. All sure signs of trials useage - a hard life for any bike.

Boh - No company is immune from the spell of the singlespeed. This is a gorgeous bike, it looks really fast.

Moots

2009-01-26T08:52:00.003-07:00

Moots is a pretty cool little cult outfit that invented the softtail concept. And until recently, still implemented it in what I thought was the best way. But now they've got a SID shock option, which is really pretty dumb. [edit] moots must be awesome, because they got rid of the SID shock on the softtails and wenrt back to the simple shock they had before. could they be the best bikes in the world? yes they could...

Psychlo X - Imagine the ride this bike has; titanium frame and inch of travel in the back. It must be nice to be rich.

YBBeat - If this isn't one of the nicest bikes I've even seen...

Mongoose

2009-01-26T08:38:00.002-07:00

Mongoose is a company that went from having John Tomac race their titanium (actually a Merlin) bike, to selling bikes at Costco. Now I guess they're not all that bad, they still have titanium bikes, and still have superhero XC racers (Steve Larsen), but they'll always be tarnished by that somewhat.

NX 8.1 - I don't know what it is about Mongoose, but they haven't made a good looking bike in about 5 years. Sure there's more effort put into the finish on this bike than most, but it still looks like a department store bike. The Kore stem, goofy Tioga saddle, and really cheap cranks don't help much either.

NX 9.5 - This could well be a good bike. But it sure doesn't look like one.

Miyata

2009-01-26T08:32:00.001-07:00

Miyata was a big player back in the day. They made their own tubesets, had the first DH world champion in Greg Herbold, and some fairly cool bikes. However, I think they just fell behind the times - never really got modern like pretty much everybody else did. And for some reason, I could never find any of the top-end ones here in Edmonton.

Elevation 12,000 - This bike really doesn't look all that different from a Jamis or a Rocky, but it must not have ridden as well. I think weight was a problem for starters, also, the pivot on the seat stays was never as active as the "Horst" pivot. And finally, I just don't think bonding carbon tubes to aluminum lugs was all that great an idea.

Merlin

2009-01-26T08:26:00.003-07:00

Merlin was one of the first companies to really make titanium work as a frame material. Most titanium bikes from 1988 to 1992 were either Merlins or Litespeeds. They had a tremdous aura of mystery about them too, bike magazine would do stories about all the test projects they had, most of which were the product of Rob Vandermark's imagination. Rob's work can now be had from Seven Cycles.

Mountain - This looks like a fairly old frame, but titanium is pretty ageless, so expect to see them changing hands for lots on money well into the future.

XLM - A very nice Extra-Light Mountain that TeamCow spotted down in Canmore. I wouldn't be surprised if this bike was 21 pounds. And it's painfully expensive too.

Fat Beat - A couple of East Coast companies have tried Cannondale's HeadShok system, to poor results. This bike really looks wrong.

McMahon

2009-01-26T08:20:00.002-07:00

McMahon is another titanium pioneer that made impossible expensive frames back in the day. They were also making their own suspension forks well after Rock Shox and Manitou made it rather pointless to do so.

Titanium - I got this great pic from a guy on MTBR, but I've lost his address, so he'll probably never see this. Oh well, it's a damn nice bike...

Marin

2009-01-25T22:41:00.003-07:00

Marin is named for the county where mountain biking supposedly started. They've been in the production game for a long time, and seem to be still going strong today. [edit] after all these years, i'm quite surprised how sparse my marin entry was. they made some very nice steel and some of the first titanium bikes. but like old fishers, you just don't see any of them around.

Juniper Trail - This is a nice looking hardtail - white is always a good color choice.

Team - Marin has been quietly building some pretty nice bikes. I really like their new FS frame, and this hardtail is very nice. It's got that really cool Columbus tube set with some really weird tube shapes.

Mantis

2009-01-25T22:36:00.002-07:00

At one time, Mantis was the ultimate cult bike. It had all the ingredients; eccentric founder that made bikes sporadically, cutting edge designs, mythical performace. MBA editor Richard Cunningham started Mantis, but eventually sold the operation. Now I think they're out of business.

Pro-Floater - This Pro-Floater is from the post Cunnigham Mantis, and you can tell by the square section tubing in the rear section. An excellent bike with minimal travel (by today's standards).

Valkyrie - I only vaguely recognize this name. But it sure is a beauty hey? Gotta love those 80's bikes!!

Manitou

2009-01-25T22:14:00.003-07:00

Manitou's Doug Bradbury is a pioneer. One of the first to make aluminum work, and to push against the standards inherited from the roadbike world. He also was right behind Paul Turner's Rock Shox. Manitou frames are no longer made, though Bradbury works with John Tomac, so the Tomac hardtail is probably the modern equivalent of the Manitou hardtail.

HT - This pre-Answer Manitou is an important bike in the mountain bike world. This bike was most likely the inspiration for Easton's Elite tubeset, and therefore, the ancestor for nearly all current aluminum bikes. This frame (circa 1992) was way ahead of it's time - externally worked headtube, gussets on the top and down tube, square section rear-end, and the rear triangle was offset such that the rear wheel had no dish - Something that is now accomplished with offset rims.

And of course the fork; if you have an SX on your bike, this is it's great, great, great grand-daddy.

HT - A very nice, late-model Answer/Manitou Hardtail. Outstanding bike. It has a Jack-in-the-Box head attached to the seatstays somehow. Seems like a strange place for a mojo.

HT - This Manitou hardtail could sure use a better fork. Though it probably wouldn't climb so great with even an 80mm fork on it - the downside to so many great, older frames.

DH - This is what passed for a DH bike in about 1992. How do I know that? Because it says so right on the chainstay. About 2 inches of travel up front, and supposedly the same in the rear - but look at the wear on the rear stanchions, it could be even less. Right now, 2 inches isn't even an XC full suspension bike, but remember that a DH bike two years before this was a rigid hardtail with a Tioga disc wheel on the rear.

FS - This is the fully suspended Answer/Manitou frame. Just slap a fork on the back, you'll be fine! I'll bet it's on par with today's softtail bikes, for ride quality, but a bit heavier - probably make a decent race bike.

Litespeed

2009-01-25T22:01:00.005-07:00

Litespeed is out of Tennessee and go way back in the history of titanium mountain bikes. Back in the day, probably 80% of the titanium frames out there were either made by Litespeed or Merlin - what it took to build one was pretty different from steel and aluminum, so only a couple companies could make them. Of course now, their much more common, but Litespeeds are still some of the best.

Obed - Litespeed has tried so many different rear suspension designs it would make your head spin. And none of them has really been good. Going with the AMP strut-style rear end seemed like a good idea, but it's so out of fashion now...

Ocoee - This is indeed a bizarre machine. The fork is weird enough on it's own, but then there's blue chainrings, and those cranks, I have no idea what they are. Or what they used to be before somebody with a drill-press got to them.

Unicoi - You can put Panaracers on anything and I'll like it... Seriously though, this Unicoi is outstanding, Marzocchi, Dean stem and I think Rhino cranks - very nice.

Tellico - As is having a CX bike isn't cool enough, imagine having a Litespeed CX bike. Top marks for the unusual set-up - XT brake/shifter pods instead of road STI levers. The road levers are damn expensive, plus the XT's are V-brake compatible. Serfas grips are a good choice too. [edit] after all these years, i see the truth; this is goofy. lose the WTB dirt drops and get some proper STI levers please.

Tanasi - Another Litespeed hardtail from their bewildering array of names. Whatever they're called, they're amazing bikes.