Dented Yeti ARC down tube

At least it is not a crack!

Grafton Mag lite Cantilever brakes

Ultra cool and rare Grafton Mag lite cantilever brakes.

Camo colored Chris King rear hub

This is not a custom job but an authentic piece IIRC. But I have never found any info on it.

Yeti Ultimate

A Yeti Ultimate frameset can go for more than 1000 euro. The picture above reminds us it is still just a bike anyway.

Gnarly dude with facemask looks cool with his Mountain Cycle San Andreas

He just needs a 72t front chainring to make the setup complete

Pimped Dura Ace rear derailleur

Sehr Schön!

GT Tachyon

One of the newest trends is the "gravel grinding bike" - it is a mix of a racer and cyclocross bike with emphasis on the road bike but having discs and slightly fatter tires than a CX bike.

It is a bike that is totally unnecessary but if there where no new stuff to buy the industry would fall over and die so you need to have a gravel grinder besides your snow bike in the future (you read it here first).

Just to prove a point, everyting old is new again, check out this vintage Tachyon.

Scott Scale

This is a nice lightweight build based on the Scott Scale frame. The Scott Scale frame was designed by Peter Denk who then went on and designed the Cannondale Flash frames.

I think the bike in the pic weights around 16-18 pounds considering the fork weights 1 pound and it has some wicked weight weenie parts on it.

Evil jump bike with Shimano Airshift

This is an Evil dirtjump frame having a Mavic wheelset and Shimano airlines system.

Mountain Cycle DNA San Andreas

This is the latest version of the San Andreas by Mountain Cycle.

Industry Nine wheels in rasta

If you have dreamt of wheels with spokes in rasta anodization, you can special order them from Industry Nine.

Industry nine wheelset in purple

If you have dreamt about purple anodized wheels all your life you can get them now from Industry nine.

Santa Cruz in Root beer

I forgot the name of this Santa Cruz model, but the paint is "root beer".

Grafton mountain bike

I think I posted the Grafton bike already, but in case any visitor missed it here it is again. I wonder who made the frame but I think it is just a typical of the time Easton Program frame equipped with every Grafton and Ringle component available with XTR derailleurs. I think it was only released in Europe and yes if you wonder, it is super rare (or not).

The difference between good and bad Grafton Joystix cranks

Grafton Joysticks where the most badass cranks available once upon a time. They where the stuff of legends standing up to rigorous CC and DH racing.

And then there was a recall and a second edition came out. Check it out, the blue pair is the old revision, the red the new revision.

It is the non drive side that has problems with crackings

Mardi Gras paint job on a Klein Adroit

The paint job was called "Mardi Gras" and it was offered on high end Klein framsets (sorry, fuselages). I think it was awesome.

Arrow Racing 24" wheel MTB

Arrow racing was (is? the site is still up) a very innovative manufacturer of frames, tires and parts for go carts that had a really cool logo. They are most famous for their line of 24" wheeled mountain bikes which I guess they really believed in (they even had tires available in 24"). Today the future is bigger wheels (please join my future federation against 29:ers movement) but back in 1994 the future was not set and many believed 24" was going to be the new standard because it offered faster acceleration and more space around the back of the bike which was needed when rear suspension became more complex.

The above bike is shamefully scanned in from an old MBA and it is a full suspension 24" wheeled frame. It has a Scott Unishock front suspension fork adapted to 24" wheels. The rear shock is a dual shock elastomer stack and the component group is Suntour XC Pro.

To bad 24" never caught on (maybe next year).

Superco

Everyone has already seen this picture, but in case you missed it. Here is the new company from a guy who made the Brooklyn Machine Works bikes. I guess you can see the similarities in the design.

Marzocchi Z1 QR20

Sorry for the small picture, Marzocchi used to be the best brand in suspension forks for a brief time around the new millennium. Their receipt for success was easy, they made motorcycle suspension for bicycles. But that also meant heavy forks. Not a problem when industry tried to sell 35 pound 5" travel freeriding bikes as CC bikes. Not everyone want to run a 4 pound suspension fork anymore, but do not argue that the old school Marzocchi forks still looks totally badass!

The Z1 QR20 fork was the top of the line fork offering 5" suspension in a single crown design requiring special QR20 front hub for stiffness. Polished it looked wicked!

Manitou suspension forks with cool graphics

These Manitou suspension forks where showed at an industry show sometimes around 2005. They where made to show off a new technique in printing graphics on the forks. I think a Manitou 1 looks better.

FTW stem

This is a vintage FTW stem. It was probably used on a vintage Yeti frame. If you have one, you can sell it for 500 dollars on ebay.

Bridgestone singlespeed mountain bike

This is another classic Bridgestone model, IMHO MB0/1/2/3 are the high end Bridgestone frames. They where famous for being a bit retro when suspension was the "big thing". Ironically they are most famous for having a radical geometry and having very nervous handling because they had a 72 degree head angle.

These days, if the head angle is 1 degree steeper than normal nobody will care but back in 1992 this was radical.

Bridgestone MB0 frame

 The Bridgestone MB-0 was the top of the line model in 1991. The MB-0 was famous for its cream white color, Ritchey components, rigid Ritchey fork, Mavic crankset and light weight. A true classic!

Yeti Proto full suspension - now and then

 Today: What where they thinking lol

Yesterday: Back in 1992 this was the most badass thing seen.

Some interesting details:

• Proto Rock Shox rear shock (or just a dummy)
• 3D racing sticker (maybe it was made by 3D racing)
• I forgot what it was called but the front crankset was a proto Shimano internal shifting system IIRC
• Manitou 1 with Pro stop disc brake

Weird BMX bike

This is a weird looking BMX bike. It is a large size BMX but the wheels are still 20".

Masciarelli hardtail with Lefty fork

This pic blog is not full of 29:ers, and that is with a purpose if you understand what I am saying. But even so this bike looks rad and I guess it is from Italy. 

Ge-pimped schnee fahrräder

Here is a gold plated fat bike

Moots with sweet titanium welds

Stop the press - A sweet titanium Moots roadbike was parked outside a store in Stockholm.

Rumors heard in Stockholm that evening and for the rest of the month mentioned that the ti welds where awesome on the bike!

Weird Rocky Mountain frameset is weird

This Rocky Mountain frame makes no sense

Proto Ringle crankset

This is an unreleased prototype Sun/Ringle crankset. I thought if Ringle ever released a crank it would have holes drilled in the arms, but we all know that only idiots run cranks with holes drilled in them.

Nice vintage Yeti FRO

This is a nice classic Yeti FRO (For Racing Only) in turquoise.

Ultra rare collection of pewter anodized CNC components

This is an ultra rare collection of pewter anodized (dark gray) CNC vintage MTB components.
Original Grafton first gen cranks, Grafton Speed Controllers and brake levers. Rare Grafton Speedcase bottom bracket and not pewter but silver Grafton crank arm caps (good luck finding them).

Super rare pewter anodized 1.25 high rise Zooka stem, quick releases and Moby post. F"n awesome!

Orange Ms Isle

Here is one of my favorite frames, the UK made Orange Ms Isle (Missile get it?). It was supposed to be a 4x, dirt jump kind of frame I think. This particular frame has been used quite a lot (probably raced) and is the first generation Ms Isle, there is later version with beefier seatstays - I think the original version looks best though.

Early Mountain Goat Whiskeytown Racer

Here is an early Mountain Goat Whiskeytown racer. These pictures are interesting because this is the paint job I think most people recognize Mountain Goat frames by. Also, check out the mountain goat on the top of the crown of the fork, how nice.

 

 

Tomac 204 Magnum

The Tomac 204 Magnum is an interesting frame. It was designed/developed/made? by Doug Bradbury who did the original Manitou forks and frames. His bikes and early forks where always heavy on CNC machining and you can see DNA from those times in the linkage parts of the frame. The suspension was licensed from Lawwill and the frame was a specific DH frame and supposedly rode like a tank (with soft suspension).

The Lawwill rear suspension seems to live on forever. Originally used on the Gary Fisher full suspension frame, then Lawwill released his own frames, it then went to Yeti, then Schwinn/Yeti then to Tomac and then it went to Rotec and now maybe some obscure garage company is planning to take over the DH world with a new version of the infamous Lawwill rear suspension.

To make a long story short, the interesting details in all this is that essentially the suspension works the same way as the original Gary Fisher prototype worked back in 1991. Back then it was called the ultimate suspension frame, so why hide it now?!

You would think these old school Tomac frames are collectors items these days but they are not, as with the original Intense M1 SL, you can pick up a used Tomac 204 Magnum quite cheap.

Boone chainrings and cogs

Boone made some of the most gorgeus titanium chainrings and cogs on the market (and titanium wedding rings too), apparently, they are back?

If you are more "form follows function" than "function follows form" then these might not be for you.

Yeti 24" prototype

If you had the pleasure of inspecting a genuine (pre sellout) Yeti hardtail frame in detail you will probably instantly see a lot of connections to the BMX world. The rear end is a looptail, just like quite a lot of vintage BMX frames where made, the early Yeti frames did not use 1" headset but BMX size, just like the bottom bracket on early Yeti frames. You can also see shades of BMX in the ovalization of tubes and in the Accu Trax fork. So to find out a 24" wheeled Yeti might not come as a big surprise. It was probably made for some racing application such as dual slalom. I am quite curious how it rides.

Merlin Full suspension

Here is a cool vintage Merlin full suspension. It has a Rock Shox Mag 21 front suspension fork and a rear suspension shock by Pro Flex.
Depending how you view things this frameset is either horribly outdated or still just as cool and functional as it was back in 1992.

Foes Fly

Here is a classic Freeride mountain bike by Foes. Just like modern computers and cars, a modern mountain bike becomes obsolete and old quite fast. Or maybe you just grow older faster the older you get?!

Totally awesome Mountain Goat Road Goat road bike

Here is an awesome period correct road bike from Mountain Goat - the Road goat. Just like the mountain bike it has the same kind of wishbone seatstays and goat head badge. Take notice of the super cool Mavic Zap electronic road group (just do not ride the bike in the rain ktnx), also check out Topline cranks, American Classic seatpost and King titanium bottlecage (I think).