My Way-Back MTB Machine

[Karate Chicken Industries]

I've been around mountain bikes and mountain biking since March 1986, when I bought a new Schwinn Sierra. Some of the bikes, people and places remain indelible through memories mostly, though being a camera bug at an early age made it easy to photographically document a good portion of it. This thread's intent is to share some of that on occasion, without creating a bunch of threads that clutter up the forum.

2001 custom Titus RX-100, badged Edge Cycles Icarus. The model name came from the Flight of Icarus, a trail off of Douglas Pass that dropped like Icarus' flight path after his wings melted. It was a fun bike that was retired in 2011, when the creaks warned me that it had enough. It resides hanging up in my garage, Freak side out.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

1999 Team Marin, main triangle = Columbus Cyber.

Those '99 XT V-Brakes had to go almost immediately, being notoriously squeaky. They were replaced with '97 XT parallel push, which are still in service on the AB along with a bunch of XT and other bits and pieces from this bike. I also replaced whatever the OE fork was on it with a Marzocchi X-Fly and later replaced that with a Surly suspension corrected rigid steel. The frame was listed at 20.5" and was a a bit small for me, but the tubeset and modern geo made it easy to overlook. The dropouts were not really well designed and I broke the drive-side of the dropout just off of the chain stay twice before Marin sent me a different frame altogether (which did not last very long at all). I let my brother ride it once in the high country here in CO and he wanted to buy it off me right then and there. It was one of the few occasions where he kept up, which did not surprise me. If only they had put Breezer dropouts on those frames...

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Before GoPoo cameras were around:

Pete is an interesting character and one of the smartest people I've ever met. He claimed to have been pedaling his butt off in the big ring to keep close and that I was hardly pedaling at all. After my first trip into The Fruita Bookcliffs in the Fall of 1995, I only rode there for about six months and dialed it all in as much as my Trek 850 would allow. Pete and I still keep in touch and ride bikes on occasion when our proverbial paths cross. Good people and one helluva Rider.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Currently owned by my youngest brother, 1994 Trek 850. The paint is not stock, but was repainted at Trek in 2002 or so after a warrantied repair. He replaced the WTB saddle with an OWG cruiserish saddle, but almost all of it is what I gave to him in 2005. It's his campground cruiser and occasional townie. He sent me this pic on Saturday.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Is that a Mag 21 Rockshok? Or whatever they called their air oil shock? I'd love to see that thing's innards.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Yes, it's a Mag 21 that I put on it after moving to Fruita, CO in 1995. It still works properly. He said he has to put air in it about once a year, but that was standard for me as well. Not a lot of travel, but really nice for its time.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Yeah it's the Rockshok version of what Specialized made for Stumpjumpers, I have one on my RockRat, wondering how much parts interchange there is.

I mangled a couple of pieces in there trying to rebuild, I think I lost damping adjustment, would love to find replacements. And the flat black brace looks better than the yellowed aluminum one on mine. I scraped and sanded and painted mine flat black, but it looks like... Ummm, it looks like I scraped and sanded and painted mine flat black

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

I know a little bit about 18 Road.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

My 1986 Black Chrome Schwinn Sierra. It was far from OE by this point. That was one tough frame. I still have the owner's manual and receipt from Anaheim Schwinn.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Slingshot, thumbies, and cool cantis. Classic.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

That Black Chrome was so cool. I thought I had a line on an '87 Black Chrome Sierra recently, but it did not pan out.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

The first non-OE tire I ever ran on the Schwinn Sierra was one of these.

Too bad the sidewalls on this one were disintegrated. Nostalgic garbage...

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Lol I've got an old grey pair of Specialized Ground Controls, sidewalls battered and shredded... I loved those tires

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Lol I've got an old grey pair of Specialized Ground Controls, sidewalls battered and shredded... I loved those tires

This is on a recent acquisition:

I ran SpecialEd tires one time in Western CO during the late 90's and within a few weeks, the knobs started peeling. They did not like sandstone at all. Fool me once...

The best tire to use out there for a while during that period was the Japanese made IRC Mythos XC 2.1s. After cases started widening, the selection of dependable treads increased exponentially.

 

[Captain Awesome]

This is on a recent acquisition:
View attachment 158716

I ran SpecialEd tires one time in Western CO during the late 90's and within a few weeks, the knobs started peeling. They did not like sandstone at all. Fool me once...

The best tire to use out there for a while during that period was the Japanese made IRC Mythos XC 2.1s. After cases started widening, the selection of dependable treads increased exponentially.

Those old IRC are all I used to run before switching to Continental and Maxxis

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Mine were the Umma Gummas. So much grip on rocks, so soft. The best setup I had for RockRat.

I haven't seen them in a while. I wonder if she would toss them and not mention it...

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Those old IRC are all I used to run before switching to Continental and Maxxis

We have a similar MTB tire exodus. If Continental did not stop making the Diesel (and progressed from that design), I probably would have never made it to Maxxis. I still have Trail Kings on my FS MTB, but they ride very differently than the rounded profile tires that transition hardpan turns so effortlessly. They do handle the chunk rather well though and that's what FS MTBs are for, IMO.

Funny, the trail this tire is named after is the antithesis of the terrain it was designed for: https://teravail.com/products/kessel-tire#/ In speaking with one of the Terravail people a couple of years ago, he said they were trying to come up with a name for the tire and someone suggested naming it after the majority's favorite trail ever and The Kessel Run in Fruita, CO was almost unanimous. Cool Story, Bro

 

[Captain Awesome]

We have a similar MTB tire exodus. If Continental did not stop making the Diesel (and progressed from that design), I probably would have never made it to Maxxis. I still have Trail Kings on my FS MTB, but they ride very differently than the rounded profile tires that transition hardpan turns so effortlessly. They do handle the chunk rather well though and that's what FS MTBs are for, IMO.

Funny, the trail this tire is named after is the antithesis of the terrain it was designed for: https://teravail.com/products/kessel-tire#/ In speaking with one of the Terravail people a couple of years ago, he said they were trying to come up with a name for the tire and someone suggested naming it after the majority's favorite trail ever and The Kessel Run in Fruita, CO was almost unanimous. Cool Story, Bro

The Race King is still one of my favorite all time tires. I wish they made it in a comparable size for my gravel bike. A fat 650b in that fast roller would be awesome

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I used to love these for dry. Until one day at the lbs, they mentioned that they were going to refer to me as Dirt Baldy. Because I bought Dirt, Baldy tires, per their ordering system. I might be a bald dirtbag, but let's not make it official, 'mkay?

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Funny, any riding around Mt. Baldy would be better handled with a heavy knobby tire instead of a semi-slick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_San_Antonio