Pinkbike Poll: What Was the Greatest Advancement In Mountain Bike Technology?
This 1989 Mantis Valkyrie is equipped with a Hite Rite, a primitive dropper post that came into existence before suspension or disc brakes. Why did it take so long for someone to marry an office chair hydraulic cartridge and a seat post?
I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this topic, but I was recently reminiscing about the bike I owned twenty years ago, which had me thinking about how far mountain bike technology has come and what is now considered the norm on bikes in 2021, if you can find one.
It all began for me with a 1999 Kona Muni-Mula that I was lucky to get my hands on after my parents agreed to match my funds collected from yard work. I won't get too nostalgic, but even for a 14-year old kid, weighing 45 kg soaking wet, things broke; rims and cranks bent, chains bounced into unimaginable places, head angles were scary steep and stems were obnoxiously long, not to mention the terrible control points like cast pedals, slip-on grips, and plastic tires. I loved that blue bike, despite over-riding it. I know other veteran readers are scoffing about the troubles they faced further back in history, but a steady stream of mechanical mountain bike tech has started to plateau.
In case you haven't caught on by now, mountain biking is a mainstream sport and it's been an imperative step for the demand in technology at a base level. There are knee-high kids bouncing down bike parks after school, YouTube stars are rocketing 30-meter gaps on a daily basis, and downcountry bikes are as capable as some freeride machines from 2005. World Cup downhill races are now consistently decided by hundredths of a second, heck, even qualifying is an achievement for a privateer because the equipment is top notch. The top pros are barely keeping a leg up on the field as developments are prototyped so rapidly.
Bikes like the 2001 Norco Shore were built for the growing freeride scene, but were actually enduro bikes in disguise with a clunky 1x drivetrain, telescopic post, and hydraulic disc brakes governed by large rotors. There was still some refinement needed to say the least.
Now we were getting somewhere - my favorite bike I've owned. This custom built 2006 Intense Uzzi was reliable, albeit heavy, allowed me to do almost any type of riding with confidence. It featured a dual crown fork, platform shock, wider range 11-36-tooth cassette, UST rims and tires, and although it had a full length seat tube for climbing, reliable dropper posts were just out of sight.
New enduro bikes are available for $3,000 that don't disintegrate over a weekend of riding and have all the fixings: dropper posts, lock-on grips, air suspension, hydraulic brakes, tubeless tires, and wide-rang 1x drivetrains that hold the chain in place without a guide. Even bottom brackets and hub bearings are tremendously more reliable than before. Modern geometry lets beginners feel like heroes tackling local trail networks that used to be reserved exclusively for a diehards, all on budget. Sure, things still break, but for the number of riders pushing bicycles to the upper limits it's incredible when you stand back and observe from the outside. To cast a parallel, it's like when the whole ski industry moved to parabolic skis. Everything clicked and the masses caught up. We as mountain bikers have it very, very good right now.
RockShox's wireless electronically controlled suspension, Flight Attendant, adjusts compression circuits based on the bike's inclination.
All of that trickle-down technology seems to be drying up though. So, where do we go from here? The next chapter, electronic integrated. In our digital era, it's the next logical step - like it or not. We've seen small gains in the last few years with Shimano's Di2 drivetrain, then small odds and ends appeared like the ShockWiz suspension app, but RockShox's new wireless electronically controlled suspension, Flight Attendant, is soaring into the future of premium bike technology. The system gives the best performance downhill while seamlessly monitoring the dampers based on inclination, free of any wires.
Battery powered, wireless motor-controlled components are the furthest advancement to date, but do they edge out something as simple as soft compound, tubeless tires, the only point of contact between the bike and the ground, or is there a more polarizing part that changed the game for you?
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I’d rather have a dropper than suspension on either end.
Granted, I have suspension on both ends and a dropper, but if I were given some kind of ultimatum…
Seriously? “Dude, step away from the glass pipe.. But I guess now you can take it with you!”
I think that says a lot about how much of a subsequent influence they’ve had on mtb. I ride stuff on my “short travel” trail bike that would have been next to unrideable on DH bikes of the rim brake era.
I still have some first gen xtr V brakes on a hard tail commuter bike (it also has carumba cranks, first gen dmr V8’s, purple ringle qr’s, kore stem, azonic bars and a 98 z1 bomber) and they work beautifully but do take more work to maintain than discs. When I run out of pads or rims I will probably retire the bike and hang it on the workshop wall.
Since suspension isn’t in the list but better air suspension is, I’m assuming in this thought experiment that suspension is available. If you had to go back to riding a bike and parts that were available the moment decent disc brakes were, geo is less of a thing unless you’re 6’2” or taller. You could get a hard tail that’s an XL designed for a 2” fork and put a 4” fork on it, put the shortest stem you could find in the day which was about 50-60mm and you could get riser bars then too, so most of your geo problems are solved. The rest of the things on the list I could live without as long as I had discs; although I’d miss the dropper.
I'll just leave this here. German downhill racing circa 1993. "Schadenfreude"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzZkKE9Z35g
Tubeless tires is important, but on the sideline when you consider the above. I would say dropper posts are way more important than tubeless tires. The trails I ride I can ride with tubes or without - it doesn't change the enjoyment of the ride, but take away the dropper, some of the trails would be miserable if I didn't have one.
Same result. So dropper was more a convenience than a technology.
If you are thinking dirtbikes then no. I dont just consider low, slack and long but also modern leverage curves, anti squat and anti rise. Those values are unique to mtb because a bicycle is a human propelled device.
They really did absolutely nothing.
I'd take a 26" bike with no dropper post all day, over a rigid bike with a dropper and rim brakes.
Exactly, the only reason why I didn’t choose hydraulic disc brakes is because do you see that shit on bmx or dirt jumpers? Like until someone makes a gyro that works with hydraulic disc brakes, dropper post will still be the most revolutionary to me.
Almost didn't see 1988!
Front suspension made riders 200% faster. Rear suspension made riders 50% faster.
Is this a poll for what "other than front suspension" was the best advancement? Are you guys just so young that you can't remember what it was like to bash around on a rigid fork?
And get off of my lawn!!!
I love my dropper, and when I recently broke the cable I was pretty miserable riding a 170mm bike with the post up. But my XC bike is rigid post and I still enjoy that bike too, so I can't vote dropper.
Tubeless is great, but I almost NEVER puncture the tires on my trail bike with DD tires. My XC bike with EXO, sure. I could be just fine running tubes with DD tires. Not as enjoyable, but still plenty fine.
No electronic anything makes my ride better.
I have enjoyed every wheel size I have ridden. I prefer 29, but I like them all.
I converted a bike to 1x without a clutch or narrow-wide. A home made chain guide saved me a lot of headache.
I have enjoyed bikes with 1x 10, 11, and 12. 1x I liked, the 12 on back is a minor improvement.
I never use a climb switch.
My E29 is has a coil front/rear. I don't need air.
Carbon is just an incremental improvement, but not necessary. I saved my aluminum E29 frame as a backup.
My favorite XC bike so far had a QR rear.
Part of the reason I upgraded my E29 from Al to carbon was for the storage, but that was just a convenience, I still had great rides with stuff strapped to the frame.
In desperate times I have had people give me some crap tires. Soft compound is nice, but maybe it is my local, but the knob shape made the bigger difference.
I vote for geo.
You now have a machine that can instantly adapt to going downhill or uphill. It keeps the human in the right position to maintain their flow.
Mine is currently knackered (because Reverb) and while I still ride everything (with a QR), it's a royal pain in the arse.
Some may point to examples like Isak Leivsson racing a homemade welded steel bike at WC as CAD not being important. But I would still argue that computer aided design is what helped speed up the advancements in geometry and suspension design with more rapid design and prototyping. Now that we have the knowledge of what geometries and suspension pivot systems work well, they can be replicated without it.
I'd take fixing a pictured tube over the grip going all 'twist-throttle' on me any day.
But I voted for disc brakes. I can’t believe roadies are complaining about having disc brakes.
Tubeless - Used to spend half the ride changing flats
1x drivetrains and clutched derailleurs - No more dropped chains and trying to figure out which chainring you’re in.
Disc brakes - Hey, I can stop when it’s wet now!
Dropper - No longer have to wear hot pants to not catch the nose of the saddle on your crotch.
1- Better traction both up and down means more power and control
2- First line of defense/ suspension. Contact and feedback from the trail
3- Rarely do flats occur allowing longer rides on sharper terrain without interruption
Next would be hydraulic disc brakes
1-Wet weather riding became not only safer but possible
2-No more flats from heating up the rim
3rd would 29" wheels. Physics don't lie
The rest don't matter
What else would you like to know
Threaded crap and quill stems were a disaster for mountain biking!
How about allen headed bolts?
Cartridge bearings?
Aluminum rims?
Cassette type freehub bodies?
The xtr v brakes worked ridiculously well. more power than many disc brakes
the geometry was weird (shit) but I adapted and went fast.
the shocks were pretty crap, the tires were too small too hard and of course I pinch flatted. even at 40 psi.
The 3 x gearing was pretty nice for the road ride to the trail head. . 24 36 48 T up front 11-28 in the rear.
I'll pull my seatpost QR if things get really gnarly.
stem too long bars too narrow whatever....I still ripped.
but i didn't have spds on it...as the old time pedals didnt work with any shoes I had.
this made my ride shitty. For me it's clipless pedals. the amount I have adapted. to riding with those is ridiculous. with spds I can ride smoothly over a picnic table. without, I'm smashing on every 2nd log with a miss timed heave hoe of the bike that requires far too much body positioning change for small hops.
I grew up rigid steel bike with cantilever brakes and thumbshifters.
spd pedals were and still are the single biggest improvement in mountain biking for me
without that single item my ride sucks
1. Suspension Forks
2. Dropper Posts
3. Aheadsets
Tires will dictate what you’re able to ride imo, everything else can be compensated with either skill or a little adjustment (disc brakes are a close second but *good* rim brakes can be manageable, needing perfectly true wheels still sucks for mtb though)
My 2c
Marzocchi stepping into the ring with effective front suspension turned the industry.
Glad hydraulic brakes made the list at least, considering some of the other inane nonsense included.
The change in stopping power from cantis to v-brakes was way more consequential than v-brakes to disc brakes.
Totally agree with the dropper post, but I'm surprised more didn't answer tire compound. I think tire construction across every industry has come leaps and bounds other than still being round, well Maxxis is struggling a bit with that lately
I believe I first start riding "Mountain Bikes in 1983....." on a Miyata Ride Runner, MEC crew bike of choice at the time.
And that was in real mountain terrain, poaching Parks Canada Trails, though it wasn't considered a poach at that time.
The Hite Rite was a minimal advancement, challenging to get it right on the fly.
One day travelling through the States I saw a Rock Shock fork in a bike shop. It was on my Rocky Mountain in an hour.
Front supspension was definitely the most progressive advancement of the early times.
I look back at the old ophotos and shake my head. So stoked to still be part of the Mountain Biking evolution
So I have a clunky 70's department store cruiser (Coast King is the brand), and it has a Shimano disc brake in the rear (also Positron shifting). I don't know exactly when Hite Rite came out, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the 70's. Also didn't old Schwinn choppers have primitive suspension forks?
I got my first mountain bike in 1991, and the main thing that held me back, and all the other kids back, was the lack of good brakes. No matter what situation we put ourselves into, the cantilever or V brakes would fail long before we could reach the limits of our control or our bravery.
The fastest riding we could do was down forest access tracks, and we’d hug the inside corners, knowing that if anything went wrong we’d have to whole other side of the double track as space before we hit a tree.
Every aspect of riding was dictated by how bad our brakes were.
The first 15 years of my riding was in Teesdale, and this summer, after 15 years of living in Germany I returned to Hamsterley Forest with my 2021 Orbea Occam… and the difference was night and day! Now Hamsterley Forest is full of community-built trails and has a downhill bike park, none of which would be even remotely safe enough for the public to ride without reliable brake technology.
Without good brakes, nobody will reach their highest level of skill or enjoyment. Lack of confidence in stopping power will hold everyone back. Trust me, I rode mountain bikes in the 90’s, and I was an idiot kid who would huck to flat from any height… as long as their was a long enough runout area.
So tubeless tires it is, for me. I can stop fine with rim brakes, I have bikes with no suspension that are still very fun, and I can live without a dropper or 29" wheels. The tubeless you can pry from my cold, dead hands.
-Walt
We have finally reached a point where I think a progressive bikes in a size XL is actually a size XL. I remember how short and steep the 90s and 00s bikes were. Someone that used the size XL had a incredibly awkward time just trying to fit the bike and balancing it between not going over the bars and not wheeling everywhere. For the first time in MTB I actually feel like bikes fit me, that's why I personally think geometry is the most important advancement.
Yes the geometry is also dependent on things such as droppers, good hydraulic brakes and good suspension, but those things are also dependent on the geometry, since you wouldn't be nearly as confident or fast with 90s geo and those things. I see why people would vote for them though and they have all contributed a lot to the modern mtb.
And to all the folks discussing the move from cantis to Vs to discs....I switched to Maguras in about 1991 and enjoyed 15 years of great rim braking until moving to discs in about 2006.
Hey Shimano brake users: your bite point wouldn't wander if you had cable-actuated brakes.
I'll take wandering bite point over having to stop mid-descent and adjust my brake pads, any day. But I don't have too (buys Hopes).
Any of the items listed are secondary to suspension.
I don’t think many would prefer a full rigid bike with one of the options listed.
When I got my 1st disk brake in 1998, the game changed!
2) Dropper. Puts the seat out of the way when it needs to be. Beats getting (another) nasty sternum punch on steep descents.
3) Tires holding up, seat out of the way-having brakes that actually work (and don’t slowly weaken your rim from use) makes carrying a LOT more speed possible.
Being able to flow and ride a trail without having to compromise in saddle height or stopping to adjust it, that just can’t be beat.