when did MTBing get 'split' up into distinct rider groups?When it started, you had the 'clunker' era which was just rich hippies riding beach cruisers with bigger tires down gravel roads. Then you had the MTB era which was basically road geo with knobby tires. During this era there really weren't any specific types of riders, people just went out and road what they could, they'd pedal up, they'd ride down. Everyone was basically a XC rider. This lasted through the 90s. When did the 'MTB bro' phase start of riders hating climbing and being completely focused on downhill, hating spandex, gotta have a Tacoma with a DAKINE tailgate pad, flat brim hat, etc?
>>2022445in the 90s people bought mtbs to ride them. they were the "do everything" bikethen SUVs took off and mtbing became a thing for obese suburban fucks to put their mtb into the urban assault vehicle and drive it to the ski lift a couple of weekends a year. it became a thing to buy to show you were an outdoorsy type. coincided with the period where these pickup trucks started coming in "eddie bauer edition" and "GI Joe edition" and so on. basically you bought shit to signal your tribe, because you were no longer buying it as a thing to usenowadays mtb people don't even bother driving their shit to the MTB park, they just buy it to throw in the garage because if they want to virtue signal about cycling they can just hack their zwift account to upload fake videos of themselves riding in a virtual reality path, as if the special separated "bike paths" weren't already fake enough
so much wrong posting the UCI basically followed the Skiing model so downhill/cross-country and then later slalom the first downhill world championship was in 1990https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ugEflI7VY3c
>>2022450Are the cars in the room with us right now?
>>2022445There was this MTB music lifestyle video in the mid 00s that went viral. It was pretty simple by today's standards, just a bunch of dudes riding berms and singletrack at a big bike park but the production value and time into making it was like no other at the time. I couldn't for the life of me find the video this morning and deleted this post but I think that was the iconic moment MTBing went from something weirdos did to something 'cool' dudebros did. The popularity of such video took off so hard and not too long after social media took over the internet and that's how I believe the social media MTBro arose in the modern era
>>2022453This was just XC guys though, not a separate demographicXC guys would race a XC course one day then do downhill later, they even used the same bikes for both
>>2022482I'm on the 6th floor so that would be rather difficult don't you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM33UBVfO6Uholy fuggthey used to run downhill with 2 people at a time
>>2022491You dumb retard look at that bike and tell me they road uphill
>>2022522Other than the oversize chainring which is specifically for downhill, yes that bike would have been used for xc whch includes being rode uphill
>>2022551nope this is the same year XC was hardtails
>>2022445>When did the 'MTB bro' phase start of riders hating climbing and being completely focused on downhillI work in insurance and can give you a boring answer.In the 00s insurance companies reevaluated risk in underwriting playgrounds, skate parks, mtb downhill parks. They found the risk to insure not as great as they once thought.So they lowered the rates. This allowed lots of private citizens to open downhill curated mtb parks. This led to the rise in downhill mtb culture
>>2022571Bretty interesting
>>2022571As usual, insurance companies ruin everything. (Interesting info though thanks anon)
>>2022445>When did the 'MTB bro' phase start of riders hating climbing and being completely focused on downhill, hating spandex, gotta have a Tacoma with a DAKINE tailgate pad, flat brim hat, etc?it became an offshoot of bmx culture with heavy PNW snowboarder influence instead of 'cliff-jumping psycho living alone in the desert' like it should have.notice all the flatbrim hat guys in contrast to the actual guy they're talking about.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMTvzu4ojcUthats not meant to be a slight against wade simmons or cam zink or any of those dudes, its just how OUT THERE bender was.
>>2022499Looks far superior imo. All the thrills of downhill and cyclocross combined. Wow!
>>2022499fuck that looks slippery
>>2022482the cagie is in the thread with us
>>2022499Looks fun for riders and spectators, why did everything turn so gay?
>>2022450There is some truth to this, plenty of people roll up to the simplest trails with $4000+ full sus from this decade. However you're a goon if all you have to say about evolving geometry is "people are fat and lazy". As mountainbiking itself approached more advanced terrain the bikes evolved to suit needs. Even for XC a vintage MTB suchs dick, I'd rather have a modern gravel bike than a vintage MTB for trail riding
>>2023246That would be an interesting comparison. I think my 90's bontrager privateer might win just because it has a nice marzocchi fork and I can mount a disk brake on it. Admittedly 26 tires aren't what they used to be but I have a decent stash and could set it up tubeless for racing. I think the seat tube is too smol for a dropper, but I can get off the back just like I used to. OTOH the gravel bike might have 68 or slacker head tube angle and a longer wheelbase and a dropper, but rigid is just a mess going down tech even with a smooth line.I actually think most of the mtb industry has just shifted to more DH focus so modern xc is like old all mountain stuff, thus making half the old bikes really XC/gravel optimized in 2024.otoh old bikes are just more underbiked, so most ez trails can be "exciting"
>>2023246>Even for XC a vintage MTB suchs dickif it's -really- nice then they can be good , ie, logic / prestige concept tubing, xt, fully rebuilt, good bearings, gravelking or racekang, kool stop etc. Stumpjumpers are the bottom end of niceand that's a fair comparison because you can easily buy and restore a high end vintage bike for well under 1k, and 1k doesn't get you much gravel bike new.
>>2023231Does it? I could take this trail on my gravel bike
>>2023270My bad I was looking at the womens (juvenile?) courses
>>2023250I meant to say a vintage MTB sucks dick at being a MTB, even for XC. They are lovely bikes in their own right for gravel and all-road use.
>>2022445I used to 'mtb' on a steel 10 speed
To sell more bikes. The result is dentists with full sus carbon rutting up blue lines.
