LASH-UPS OF IMPROBABLE COMPONENTS PUSHED LIMITS TO NEW EXTREMES
manageable, and while dropper posts were still a way off, dirt jumpers and DH racers made it cool to cruise round with saddles slammed (and inclined for take-off).
FEELING GRAVITY’S PULL
So far wheels had not yet veered away from 26in, but at the turn of the century, the first of Gary Fisher’s 29er prototypes were available to ride at Trek’s European press camp. It was the only turn their initially ponderous handling was interested in, and the wagon wheelers proved a huge turn-off for most journalists. On the other hand, a fleet of Trek Session freeride bikes and a fledgling Whistler bike park in 2003 was a far more appealing prospect. It soon became clear that endorphins were easier to market and capture in a jawdropping photo than the XC images people had been flicking past since Tomac retired. Plus, though it probably put more people into hospital, adrenalin was a much healthier drug to peddle than the performance-enhancing substances threatening to seep in via the road scene.
This created a real new frontier feel not seen since the very start of the sport, where weird lash-ups of improbable components were used to push limits to new extremes by lunatics wearing flannels and baggy shorts – not a stitch of Lycra in sight. That’s not to suggest Karpeil’s twin-shock monsters – that
Josh Bender sent off seemingly suicidal drops in
Utah – or the hot rod-flamed Rocky Mountain
RM7S of Canadian Froriders, had direct relevance to regular bike design, but those bikes and their riders fundamentally changed the focus of the mtb industry. So although Specialized tried to ban the first Freeride film they funded for fear of safety implications and an environmental backlash, the brand’s new Enduro FSR model was a real sign of things to come. Having fun became the new goingfast-with-a-race-number-on.
The influence of DH racing was also having an impact on more everyday bikes. Freaks like the Honda RN01 and Cannondale Fulcrum might have stolen the limelight, but it was bikes like the sky-high Orange 222 becoming the Patriot, and Santa Cruz V10 shrinking its suspension into the Blur platform that really moved the game on for ‘real’ riders. Rocky Mountain launching the 120mm-travel Slayer, which packaged all the same ‘can do’ attitude of its beam suspension freerider into a pedallable platform. Marin’s designers took cues from its iconic B-17 single-pivot rig to create Whyte’s family of adjustable 4 to 6in travel bikes, and Giant brought out the stabilised shock. Suddenly you could ride uphill OK, but go downhill outrageously fast, and this meant the trails we rode changed too – read more about how our trails have evolved on p48.
As a result, where we rode and how we rode became more of a focus than what we were riding. I mean, the ’00s undoubtedly had some classic bikes and there seemed to be a lot of innovation going on at the time, but most of it was on the fringes as far as real mountain bikers were concerned.
LONG, LOW AND SLACK
The trails were full of Commençal Meta 5s, Cannondale Prophets, Intense Tazers, Ellsworths and Orange Fives, while the armoured brigade were riding Orange Patriots, Santa Cruz Bullits and Iron Horse Sundays down increasingly tech local runs to prepare for annual Alpine invasions. The Lapierre Spicy/zesty twins brought some of that French magic back home to our trails too, and of course there was the evergreen string of Specialized Stumpjumper and Enduro FSR suspension bikes which were so well-rounded, so easy to ride and scored so consistently well that online forums (a new thing back then) were full of conspiracy theories that we’d actually become under-the-table Specialized employees (ironically, Specialized has recently invested money through Zone5ventures into Outside Inc, which owns Pinkbike).
Out on the edges though, the next big things were brewing. Scott had finally left the trauma
of its cracking Endorphin frames and boiled-noodle Intoxica bikes behind and translated the composite tech of its unbelievably light G-zero Strike and hardtail frames into the radical Ransom enduro model. Santa Cruz had also copied the curved spine ‘sh**ting dog’ silhouette of its alloy Nomad into a carbon version, and together with various DH frames, plastic proved it could be fantastic in the rowdiest environments. More significantly for the way we ride today, Fabien Barel and Cesar Rojo were doing some radical cut-and-shut surgery at Mondraker. These Frankenstein machines would eventually become the Spanish brand’s Forward Geometry range and with it ‘long, low and slack’ entered the mountain biker’s lexicon. This revolutionary fit and handling is the foundation on which all modern mountain bikes are built.
SWITCHED ON BY E-BIKES
As we rolled towards the 2010s, Mondraker wasn’t the only European brand becoming more significant.
Canyon was rapidly growing from ‘rad dad’ Roman Arnold selling spares out of a car trailer to fund his son’s racing, to being a direct-sales superpower. YT rocked up in 2014 with its damn near perfect Capra enduro bike for a shockingly economical price. And while it wasn’t obvious this side of the channel until later, brands like Haibike, Cube, Focus and Lapierre were literally motoring towards massive growth as Europe caught the e-bike bug.
The status quo was rocked as early pioneers like Turner and Ellsworth vanished and unapologetically rowdy newcomers emerged, such as Evil, laughing its way into the black hearts of radical riders along with PNW neighbour, Transition. Yeti reinvented itself with ‘exotic but worth it’ SB bikes, Ibis got a lift from rad geometry in affordable frames while Cove sank and Gary Fisher’s collection finally got fully absorbed into the sprawling mass of Trek.
WHEELY CONFUSED
Fisher’s early evangelism for 29ers was taken over by Specialized, which eventually made them work for longer-travel applications and set about trying to convince a sceptical audience of their benefits. At this point the wheels almost completely came off the industry wagon as it jumped from 26in to 29in to 27.5in wheels, from 23mm to 30mm rims, and from 2.3in to 3.0in tyres.
This not only created chaos and confusion for consumers (and bike reviewers alike), but it was hell for shops to try and stock. In the end we resorted to splitting up our Bike of the Year tests by wheel size as manufacturers jumped from one bandwagon to the next. Then as more and more direct-sales