THE BEST WAY TO GET FIT... FAST !
II got my first mountain bike in 1988, when I was 15. It was a Diamondback Ascent EX with a funky purple smoke effect over light grey paint, a typical midrange bike of that era: steel frame and rigid steel fork, thumb shifters, cantilever brakes. It was far from top-of-the-line, but at that time the difference wasn’t huge. Almost every mountain bike was rigid, with 26-inch wheels.
I spent a lot of my time on that Diamondback in the hills near our home. But I hadn’t ridden those trails since I left for varsity in 1991. Late last year, during a visit home, I was able to ride them again, this time on a Yeti SB130, a top-of-the line, carbon, fullsuspension 29er with the most up-todate technology, features, and geometry.
My old trails never were and never became a highly ridden area, so the trails hadn’t changed much since I’d experienced them on that primitive bike. Of course, the comparison between then and now was a revelation – but not for the reason I expected.
The Yeti was, naturally, almost incomparably faster and smoother than that Diamondback. But it wasn’t the
highly evolved frame or suspension that provided the most significant and satisfying improvements. It was the stuff I hadn’t even considered.
Like, clothing. Back then, even bundled up like Randy in A Christmas Story, I wasn’t nearly as warm as I was this time. Wearing only a few lightweight layers on a below-freezing day, I stayed warm, dry, and comfortable for hours. Fabrics today are designed to wick sweat, block wind, and let vapour escape, things older materials couldn’t do as well, if at all.
Three decades ago, chains were always bouncing off chainrings or sucking into the chainstays or skipping and grinding up cassettes. Shifting had to be intricately choreographed over great distances of trail, working out the timing of your pedal stroke, your power output, your
grip, the thumb levers, and the front and rear derailleurs. With today’s 1x11 and 1x12 drivetrains, you just click and shift – wherever, whenever, however you want.
Modern chain lube lasts for more than 10 minutes and isn’t a nasty mess. Tyre compounds are sticky and roll fast. Tubeless tyres let us use way lower pressures, and we flat much – MUCH! – less often. Grips don’t slip off the handlebar on wet rides. Brakes work now. Seat bags don’t chuck their guts on the first downhill. Water bottles provide a flow bigger than a cocktail straw. Knee pads are comfortable enough to wear all day. Wheel-holder hitch racks are a thing of beauty. Smartphones and GPS units let us find trails without bushwhacking or getting lost.
I know a lot of old-timers say it was better when things were simpler. That everything’s too complicated and expensive now. That new gear and technologies don’t force riders to learn fundamental skills.
Screw that. Mountain biking is radder today because the equipment has made it a more accessible and enjoyable sport. And – in a way we all tend to overlook, because so much of our focus is on the bikes themselves – a large part of why everything is so much better is not because of the bikes, but because of all the little things that have improved so much. We can focus more on the best part of riding a bike – the riding.
Looking back 30 years made me think about looking forward 30 years. I will be 75, and still riding a mountain bike. I won’t try to guess what that mountain bike will look like. But I’m sure that it will not be improvements to suspension or a new wheel size that will have me high-fiving riders on the trail.
It will be the things that chipped away at the little barriers that we don’t even think about today.