Great article. I relate to the thoughts, mainly because I bought my first nice mountain bike in 1994. It was a Stumpjumper from 1993, what I believe to be the last year they came without a suspension fork. I rode that bike until around 2003. During that time literally everybody I knew who rode moved to full suspension. Most of my rides on that bike involved spending some time out in the woods fixing something that broke... not on my bike but that of one of my friends.
When I eventually donated that bike to someone it still had the original drivetrain, and it still worked pretty well. I think over the years it went through maybe 3 chains and cassettes.
The bike news that most excited me this year was Shimano releasing a group of components built to last again. Sram can take their transmission or whatever the hell they want to call this stuff. Give me a robust drivetrain that will last, even if it requires some thought before shifting. Ohh and give me Shimano brakes while you are at it. I am a hard pass on brakes that use nasty fluid and put modulation above power. Wandering bite points are way better than non-existent ones.
March 27, 2023, 5:47 a.m. - Allen Lloyd
Great article. I relate to the thoughts, mainly because I bought my first nice mountain bike in 1994. It was a Stumpjumper from 1993, what I believe to be the last year they came without a suspension fork. I rode that bike until around 2003. During that time literally everybody I knew who rode moved to full suspension. Most of my rides on that bike involved spending some time out in the woods fixing something that broke... not on my bike but that of one of my friends. When I eventually donated that bike to someone it still had the original drivetrain, and it still worked pretty well. I think over the years it went through maybe 3 chains and cassettes. The bike news that most excited me this year was Shimano releasing a group of components built to last again. Sram can take their transmission or whatever the hell they want to call this stuff. Give me a robust drivetrain that will last, even if it requires some thought before shifting. Ohh and give me Shimano brakes while you are at it. I am a hard pass on brakes that use nasty fluid and put modulation above power. Wandering bite points are way better than non-existent ones.