The tires are called Rip (front) and Rail (rear) by Onza. They were a Cross Country tire that would not have been used on a DH bike. I had them on my Trek hardtail bike in 1995 (maybe 1994) and thought they were narrow and not very versatile.

I just remembered sachs used to make the best parts in 1997 when they were bought by sram esp I forgot about it but when sram eagle was released I understood SACHS Spirit lives on, everything Eagle was designed and made by former SACHS in Germany. That's why it's that good 😂

Anybody else remember tucking in to try and get a bit more speed? Great video. Those Magura hydro rim brakes, on dry, true rims, are still some of the strongest I've ever used.

For anyone who doesn't know; that course the Don is riding would have passed for an early World Cup DH course.

I mean the sport itself changed a lot since then too, you didnt see people going down RB Rampage-like terrain or going through narly rockgardens

@driftertank

3 ай бұрын

Could you imagine going back to 1991 and showing a DH racer of the period some videos from Rampage? It would be like showing the Wright Brothers an F-22 Raptor...

Love the retro episodes!

Great stuff,Neil! We need more of the retro bike features. If you ever come to Northern California, I'd be glad to have you ride my late 90's Mountain Cycle Moho CXS and put it through it's paces. lol

This takes me back to my good old days .. mid 90s, racing around PORC... A bike like that was cutting edge, we used to full send much less capable bikes than this. I remember the metal on metal clanking and the forks bottoming out on every bump. Good good times.

Love learning mtb history!

omdsss killed it again just like before, what a video that is worth leaving your food to get cold lol appreciate you all @gmbn killed it once again!!

Brilliant show. Be interesting to see a young pro on that historic bike? Brave man Mr D - as always.

My first bike was a diamond back that I got in 1993 which had a cheaper version of those marzocchi forks, at the time I loved it as it was my first proper mountain bike

Donny, you're in your element here, love it 🔥 💪

The rear hub is almost an old version of Classified hub

This takes me back to 1975 riding a Schwinn Stingray with a banana seat on the local fire trails thinking how cool it would be to have suspension like a motorcycle…oh, how far we’ve come since then.

OMG, I had the exact same frame as my first MTB when I was ten years old. Can't believe it was that iconic. When we bought it, it seemed as if this was some old scrap our local bike shop wanted to get rid off.

Remember a guy in the group rocking up on a Mantis ProFloater back in early 91/92 while we were all on rigid Konas and DiamondBacks. Like a spaceship haha

@MikeTheYokel

7 ай бұрын

Was it mantis who made a carbon/composite x-shaped bike with hub steering? Or is my brain playing tricks on me. I swear i saw it in an old MBUK in the late 90s/early 2000s….

I want you to do this: gathering of old DH riders in a £400 old school DH challenge. No bikes or components post 96.

@samblenkharn8099

7 ай бұрын

Yes! Warner, Peaty, Page, Mosely, let's 'ave it!

@floydblandston108

7 ай бұрын

As someone physically and mentally 30 years older than then, I'd say you're daft. It took half a keg to get us to do it even then!😄

@samblenkharn8099

7 ай бұрын

How about down a nice tame sterile blue trail in a bike park though?! And you get a full keg at the bottom!

@floydblandston108

7 ай бұрын

@@samblenkharn8099 - the closest I've got left to something from those epic days is a Proflex 857 with a Risse shock, sporting a coil fitted Rockshox Judy. 80mm on both ends, and still eminently credible on a blue trail. The Don rode a factory version without the gnarly DH kit and thought it pretty fair going.

@floydblandston108

7 ай бұрын

@@samblenkharn8099 - something about early 'downhilling' I don't think younger riders know about; we mostly rode at ski areas or state parks, where we'd shuttle up the service roads then ride down. These weren't 'jeep trails'- most of them were smooth enough for a chained dual wheel farm truck to go up in granny gear- but they were steep, long, stony, washboard riots on little to no brakes. About 1/2 of us were motorcycle raised, and actually saw bikes as a nice way to have fun in a way *less* likely to kill us! All the jumping and boulder field runs only came in after 2000 or so, once things like the Turner DHR, the big Intense, Balfa, or V10 Santa Cruz showed up.

Great video. Fascinating to see those early DH specific bikes. I wonder how much better (if any!) the ride quality would be if the suspension was serviced and not pissing oil. Hub gears was not what I was expecting to see either! Btw Neil dont think the Man Utd top went unnoticed! 😅🧐

@simonm1447

7 ай бұрын

A company called classified just brought out a new 2speed hub for derailleur systems not long ago. I didn't know too this already existed in the 90s

Great video, really interesting

I was waiting for this since you announced it yesterday. My first competitive DH run (on a very short fireroad, that was it back then) I finished mid pack, was on my 1993 Moongoose iboc comp hardtail with a judy something, the grey one I think it was the XC version. I was sure I'd die that day 😂 brakes were non existent seconds in ...

Had one of these frames branded diamond back, the flex in the swing arm was insane, the rear wheel got to 14deg past the seat tube vertical 😂almost rear steer! Ended up being our “lake jumper”

Very nice bike. I Love the 90's downhill stile. Downhill Kamikaze was great. I love speed 😊

I had my 1994 Mongoose AMP B-3 set up like a freeride bike (for the time) with a Azonic 2" riser bar, short stem with a 15 deg. up angle, biggest fattest knobby tires I could find (specialized ground control 2.1's w/ the cool grey-walls), platform pedals, and wheels with mavic 231 double wall rims and 14g spokes triple crossed....When Rockshox first generation Judy was released, I threw one on for an instant improvement in handling and bump eating ability (the AMP fork was horrible), the Judy was ultimately replaced for a 'Shawn Palmer' edition Manitou FS-Ti 80mm travel fork which was a beast of a fork at the time, the next bike was a 1998 Turner Burner (another quantum leap forward in everything)......utter rubbish nowadays, but we did the best we could with what we had at the time.....y'all have no idea how good you have it now, as bikes have never ever ever been as good right now.....I'm just glad I've been in the game long enough to FINALLY be able to ride the bike I always hoped to ride (one that actually handled!!!!). Modern geometry is perhaps the greatest improvement in my almost 40 years of doing this sport.

The first shop I worked at had one of these Verlicchis on the wall, unbranded. It was an Iron Horse dealer. It was already getting a bit dated, then they got a THS-1, the ‘Iron Horse’ made by Foes for Toby Henderson. That thing looked properly ready to rip! I bought it and built it with the first Boxxer, MRP, etc, and it was sikk. Until it broken into three pieces two months into the season at…wait for it… Bromont. Probably 200m from the bridge Cullinan cleared. That was a sad day. Thankfully Verlicchi knew how to build out of aluminum better than Foes did; those gussets are open on the sides as they should be. Hence there are still some of these around in one piece!

Had a semi sponsored DH season (bunch of free kit, and a new bike when I snapped one at a Nationals round) with Specialized in 94 on the first Stumpjumper FSR, it worked better than that rig (had a horst link etc.), a bit more rear travel and the Specialized version of the RS Mag 21 up front but geometry wise we hadn't progressed much in 3 years. Got it to the podium once, raced it again in 95 with an RST Mozo Pro up front (100mm!) and the coil shock out of a GT LTS1 in the rear, great days

@dotadojardiner8893

7 ай бұрын

You must have been teammates with Jason McCroy then?

@mranderson3927

7 ай бұрын

@@dotadojardiner8893 Same bike, same team jersey (I still have it somewhere) but a different country, NZ

a fairer comparison to the saracen would've been a san andreas mountain cycle, first produced in '92

Brent Foes had the 1st & best production DH bike in 1992 with 150mm of travel.

I have the Sintesi version named after the Bromont win awesome bike. Looks better in gold and titanium colour. Rob Warner was on you bet with one, if anyone's old enough to remember that.

You know the sketch is real when Neil is wearing the full face 😮

those brake braces were part of HS33 brakes. not a bodge haha. i had some those on mavic x618 ceramic rims before swapping to hope m4's back in the early 2000s

@floydblandston108

7 ай бұрын

Under rated set up still, especially with those linkage Shimano calipers and soft pads.

Would be cool to see Neil do a ongoing series on slowly modding his dh bike and do reviews on how he likes the new parts or setup tweaks etc etc. Kind like how a ex pro racer approaches dh and bikepark life after racing is behind them.

@alexh.4068

7 ай бұрын

Kind of like the Blake builds series. More intimate and get more of Neil's thoughts and dialog out to viewers.

I remember having to cut a chunk out of the bottom back of my riding tops so they wouldn't get caught on the seat, because of having to hang so far off the back of the bike going over dropoffs with those footlong stems lol! I've seen that setup with the hub gears before somewhere but at the time thought someone just stuck an old junk wheel in as a temp fix or something! I suppose weight was a contributing factor in that not taking off. Saracen was the brand that gave me a way into downhill on a budget, shame to see that their cheapest full sus is over a grand now!

There are quite a few DH races from the 1990's here on YT to give you a perspective.

This one is identical to the diamond back Racing full suspension (DBR) of those days...

😄That impromptu shock repair after the first 'jump' perfectly describes how MTB tech progressed. It's like how Calvin's Dad explained those "Maximum Bridge Loading" signs- you just keep driving heavier and heavier trucks over it until it collapses, then you rebuild the bridge.🤣😂😉

I'm about halfway with an 2003 Astrix Solo full sus DH

If I remember correctly Sachs was bought out by sram in the late 90s very early 2000s, so technically they are still around if I am correct on that.

Just now am I realized MS Mondraker and Madison Saracen race teams are not in fact the same race team. In the US saracen doesn’t get any promo at all so this video is the first time I’m seeing them as an actual bike company haha

So I didn't race mountain bikes or even ride mountain bikes in the early nineties but I was a BMX kid and Brian Lopes was my favorite BMX racer so when he went to mountain biking and some of those early races were on television I did watch and I think it was Durango that they had the racist off the top of the mountain on the fire roads and with those wide shots where it was just the silhouette of a rider against the sky as they came down the mountain ridge it just looks so fast

Wonder if you could correct the pedal kickback with an ochain and a freehub with a lot of backlash.

Verlicchi used to make motorcycle frames, specially for Ducati.

@floydblandston108

7 ай бұрын

That's where I remember them from! Swear I had a Gilera from them....

3:18 Dear God! How long this thing was in garage??? And why left some spiders without thier home? o_O

02:09 that saddle must weight as much as the rest of the bike ;)

Is that bike qualify in megavalanch? 😁 mr. Blake Samson 💪😄

Anyone else see the modern dh is basically a lightweight 90s dirtbike chassis, and the 90s dh is closer to Leonardo DaVinci scribbles?

Still got my giwnt atx 1 dh on my wall

11:34 well said 😂

Geared hubs been about for long long time. IMO Reason keep disappearing / not becoming widespread? No money for big players in maintenance free, similar to spread of Kevlar drive belts.

@floydblandston108

7 ай бұрын

If memory serves, they disappeared for being unrepairable at a decent cost, and less than reliable under hard use. Shimano made them cheap, things like Sturmey Archers only go to show how expensive and annoying derailleurs used to be.

Y'all should compare that bike to a modern Walmart bike

Now let’s take that ride down rampage or Hardline 😂 and let’s see who survives

Hub gears would make it hard to change a flat tyre...

I thought the DH fork was double clamp. Am I wrong?

Which bike park is that?

What is the highest selling DH bike?

@raycoleman1724

7 ай бұрын

i am putting it out there and saying intense m1 or giant atx dh

@bigshnitzeljesse

7 ай бұрын

Saracen sproingy boingy wiggle wobble endo deatho

Tres are onza rip and Rail

Are ya'll going to keep using Nukeproof as the example for everything even after the company goes broke? Maybe get a bit of variety in there...

The new bike is heavier. Nuff said.

We have come a long way for sure. However, things have got absolutely ridiculous. The Mountain Bike industry has totally run out of any genuine innovation a few years back. Now it's full of fads and stuff we do not need. E-Bikes, Mullet Bikes, Electric Gears, Mullet Bikes Electric Suspension, Mullet Bikes, Electric droppers, Mullet Bikes, Looonnnngggggg Looooowwwww Slaaaaacccccxkkk Geometry, Mullet Bikes, Carbon Fiber, Mullet Bikes. No wonder the industry is in dire straits!

@powerkraut007

7 ай бұрын

29ers... for a 5 feet and 9 inch dwarf like me not optimal 😂 Where are the comfortable and indestructible steel frames?

@myrants5836

7 ай бұрын

@@powerkraut007 The best mountain bikes I ever had ran on 26" wheels. I'm 5.9 myself and a 29er was ridiculous. They should never have forced people to move to bigger wheels as the vast majority of riders were not asking for it.

@powerkraut007

7 ай бұрын

​@@myrants5836True words.

@samblenkharn8099

7 ай бұрын

​@@powerkraut007my mate's about 5'6 and he's enjoying his recently-purchased Orange steel hardtail with 27.5 inch wheels. I'm still riding a 2005 Kinesis maxlite and when I have a go on his it feels like an indestructible tractor!

@myrants5836

7 ай бұрын

@@samblenkharn8099 Nice bikes. I've got a great 27.5 hardtail myself. Infuriatingly the brand went and changed the spec the following year to a 29er. So glad I got it when it was still a 27.5.

Please sir, is it poppy and playful? Please sir, say its poppy and playful.

First Again

@Yes_Jeff

7 ай бұрын

nice

@powerkraut007

7 ай бұрын

Great

This is RAD and I wanna see more 🤌