GEOMETRY WAS DREADFUL BUT STICKY TYRES MADE THINGS MORE MANAGEABLE

on a par with more extreme riding. That started changing pretty fast as DH tech started to trickle down to trail bikes. The original Rockshox RS-1 caused a stir when it launched in 1990, but it was still a spindly, minimalist fork designed to appease altitude hunters as much as satisfy hooligans. Enter Marzocchi’s squelchily smooth and swaggeringly confident Z1 Bomber in 1997 and grams suddenly mattered less than big grins. I can still remember being blown away riding a Kona Kula hardtail that came with that fork as standard and big wide riser bars (the original hardcore hardtail?). And in 2001 Fox dropped its game-changing Float fork. About that time hydraulic disc brakes with ‘open systems’ started appearing and we didn’t have to twist a dial on the reservoir mid-run to stop the brakes, or your arms, blowing up. While geometry was still dreadful, sticky tyres made things more mbr mbr

Off-road Proflex is the first production full-suspension bike. Confusingly, it has a rigid fork SPD pedals come out and riders around the world topple over at traffic lights. Rockshox introduced the airsprung, oil-damped, RS-1 suspension fork Mountain Cycles San Andreas unveiled and becomes, arguably, the first freeride bike Intense launches the M1. Every brand with a crappy suspension bike buys one and puts their sticker on it to go racing The first bike of the year winner is the wonky £500 Univega DS 800. Marzocchi’s Z1 Bomber redfines suspension by actually absorbing bumps GT spends trillions on the complex I-drive. First call for ‘wider bars and shorter stems’ in Cannondale comes out with the exotic Raven. Cannondale loses gazillions building a motocross bike Shimano Airlines shifting answers a problem that doesn’t exist

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