Posts
24
Joined
1/10/2021
Location
Englewood, CO
US
Fantasy
68th
A safe space for us old guys to talk about how much cooler everything was “back in the day” while we slowly become our parents.
LOVE THIS THREAD!
Bars are a little wide on that setup.
Let's see, wasn't '97, but I think it was around '92 or '94 when I was racing Sport DH at Big Bear and passing the 30/60 second guys in front of me riding Intense M1's on my little Manitou HT with a massive 63 mm of front travel. Good memories!
@sspomer you have any copies of Clappin Yo Dome left?
What-aaah...what brand chainring is that??- The gold piece. I must have it
Also does anyone else mockup all their for-sale items just for funsies??
I have a new steel coil for the rear shock in a closet somewhere...an before anyone asks YES I HAD a pristine Girvin fork, also with a new coil spring I bought separate to go with the frame but decided on selling everything. Still got the vintage Raceface riser bars with Avid brake levers + wolftooth grips!
My old 1997 Barracuda XXXC, I bought this new when I was 16, Mowed lawns for an eternity to afford it. There was no Cuda distro in Aus back then so I had to fax my order in to Barracuda directly and wire transfer money lol. Very daunting to do with your life savings.
I did everything on that bike, raced XC, Dual Slalom, State DH Rounds etc. The suspension design was a URT which works the exact opposite of bikes now (it was plush seated and firmed up standing) but it didn't matter one bit to me back then, I rode the wheels off it and gave me years of service. The rear shock is still never serviced and works like new lol.
Yes to the mocking up spare parts...
My first DH race was down near the Mexican border in about '96. I had gotten a sport class license, but I forgot it for that trip, so I raced beginner and won my first race. At the top of the course, the local Sherrif was burning piles of confiscated weed and it was strange how the warm up loop kept moving with the changes in the wind. My first DH bike was my 22" polished Santa Cruz Heckler with OG Z1 Bombers and gold Pro Tapers. I had some good sport class results culminating in a second place at the Snowqualmie National. From there I was dead center (Within three places.) in the Expert class until the end of my racing career.
And YES to those old Fox shocks holding up forever. My first ever air shock, never serviced, is still working great on a loaner DH bike that I built up out of spare parts. The engineers at Fox should really look back at those old things and figure out what they stopped doing right.
Still waiting for mine
My 1997 Zaskar
Mt Snow NORBA National 1998. Best DH course I've ever ridden to this date. Forest Service shut it down after this year. 3 lines wide through the woods. Worst drought they'd have in decades so deep loam.
Snapped chain on the 2nd grass straight under the lift with a rag doll. Was so broke I stuffed my chain in my Intense Grassroots Team Issue XC jersey pocket & kept going.
Assumed it was over but like everyone else, passed 4 or 5 guys.
Big giant 44 tooth. 4" White Bros DH 110 fork w/ bent stanchions and motor oil from the White Brothers team truck
Hydraulic rim brakes. Brake booster. Ti White Brothers handlebars.
Such a brutal week. Such and awesome week. So many things then that just don't exist now.
Did NOT use the lockout on my Stratos rear coil shock.
I'm an old guy that wants to play!
2004 Sea Otter. Too Tech for it's Time!
And.....the palatial 630sqft OG PUSH Industries facility in Irvine where we built them while be taunted by Sven. Oh, those were the days!
i pulled the lawwill pic from this bike check
https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/Pippin-Cvg,52576/setup,41727
@mickey and @Ahab - sorry, i don't. i have an empty DVD sleeve. i thought i put it online at some point, but it was probably a Real Player 7 file hosted on geocities or something.
@PUSH Industries - post the red boxxer tubes!
@bizutch i found the orig photo of your race run.
My favorite race ever was at the Norba National in Crystal Mountain, Washingtonian 2000. I road tripped it in a loop with the Park City National. The first thousand feet of elevation drop was a Freeride zone. You just left the start and made your way through a gate way down there before the taped course started. A fast line burned in pretty quick. The track was pretty duffy and by the bottom there were BB deep ruts with pedal ruts in the turns. It took two chair lifts to get to the top, so you could practice whichever zone was the least crowded. There were so many people camping in the woods that they ended up opening up the employee quarters for people to stay in. It was quite the party at night.
I didn't start racing until 02, but as a bike nerd and now solidly into resto-mods after my BB7 and Rocky Switch builds, here's some current basement projects spanning from 93-02
1. 1996 GT LTS
2. 93? 94? Stumpjumper FS
3. 1999 Rocky Team issue XC
4 2002 Brodie Holeshot I'm trying to make a Slalom bike
96 I think, at Killington. Riding a Gary Fisher, wearing Dyno pants and Specialized jersey!
Then 98 on my Spooky Metalhead at Seven Springs.
This perhaps qualifies for #toosoon, but remember when slideshows...
@sspomer the #TractionStrategy still needs an update I feel.
For those who use instagram there’s a great page for the purists.
https://instagram.com/retro_downhill_mtb?igshid=YWJhMjlhZTc=
Not so long ago, and probably not enough for this thread.
Intense Uzzi (with Z1), Spe P2 (with Sherman), Giant AC (with Junior T), Spe Pitch, Demo 8 (with dorado), NS Bitch, Intense Soccom(with 888).
I'll dig older one...
The other day I had to explain the Avid Bassworm to somebody. #getoffmylawn
The first World Cups/NORBA nationals I attended were in 1993 (I think Mt. Snow used to be a dual NORBA/UCI event?). I was 13/14 at the time, so I "raced", but it was mostly about the spectating. Seeing the riders who I saw in magazines in person was surreal to a kid.
I have such fond memories of the travel, the rising and racing, and the whole scene.
Was it Seven Springs 1998 when Shaums March collected money from the crowd to boost the DS course jump and snapped his crank on the landing? That may have been 1997.
Shaums was my hero. I learned to bunny hop my Super 8 onto picnic tables just like him.
I wish Peddle4life was still with us. He would have loved this thread. Sadly he passed away from multiple myeloma recently.
I don't want to admit I'm old, but I am writing this just to subscribe to this thread.
THIS!
No thanks for the memories. #kidsthesedaysdontknowhowgoodtheygotit
Pedal4life from these forums? He was active up through November. I'm sorry to hear that.
More of us than not here probably crossed paths at those 90s races.
Yep. The name was no joke.
I kind of feel like the only West Coaster around here.
Speaking of the Mt. Snow Norba race series, they were soo badass back in the day that all the top riders traveled out there to race, granted there weren't as many pros as there are today but you still got all the big guns out there racing. Sobe beverages even sponsored the event so you were constantly encouraged to get a free dose of orange or green sugar while you watch some bike racing. I wonder what ever happened to that company btw.
The "yard sale" section was the place to be, just a nice 1.5 mile hike from the finish line and you could see pure greatness, like this guy. Cedric won the 4 cross and the DH that day I think and even if he didn't do either, he still won everyone's favorite rider award for being a total badass and pulling suicide no handers on the 4 cross course.
2002 Mt Snow Sport Course - Roxy's Rock.
2003 I was onto the Balfa BB7 and racing from the top.
2005 Giant DH Comp from the top.
2007 on a sinister r9 and racing on Sundays !
Post a reply to: Get Off My Lawn!