We went to the Malverns Classic Festival in August to hunt down the raddest retro tech and ponder how mountain bikes have evolved.
The Malverns Classic Retro Show ‘N’ Shine gathers the cream of retro mountain bikes, with their owners dreaming of winning some coveted prizes.
We scoured the amazing bikes on show and these are just a handful of the innovations from the past that helped to transform mountain biking – paving the way for the components we take for granted today.
There are also some innovations that, while eye-catching, failed to set new trends.
Specialized FSR & Tora’s homage
Fitting suspension to mountain bikes sparked a revolution. But is this the point at which rear suspension became properly sorted?
This is the 1995 Specialized FSR, which features 75mm of travel and was made famous by British downhill sensation Jason McRoy.
Despite its short travel, this bike was a revolution and the industry knew its effective full-suspension design was going to be hard to beat.
The FSR, which stands for Future Shock Rear, uses Horst Leitner’s design from 1985, which is known as a Horst-Link or four-bar system.
Because of bikes such as this FSR, the Horst-Link became one of the most widely used linkage designs on the market and is still used by Specialized to this day.
It was also used under licence by brands such as Intense, Norco and Transition for several years, although since Specialized’s F.S.R patent expired in 2014 anyone can use the design royalty-free.
Unfortunately, these iconic Specialized FSRs are now very rare. But if you want to experience what it was like to ride this amazing bike, fear not, because Tora Cycles has made this stunning homage to JMCs iconic bike.
It still has 75mm of travel, but uses bigger wheels – and is longer and slacker – than the original.
Dirt jump legend Steve Geall spent some time on the bike and said “It’s so fun to ride, with such short travel, it’s really poppy.”
Tioga disc wheels
The Tioga disc wheel, commonly known as the Sugino Tension-Disc or Tioga Disc-Drive, was seen throughout the 90s as a pro-only piece of kit and used famously by downhill hero John Tomac.
They were horrendously expensive as well as super-rare, so you were a big deal if you had one of these.
The wheel has no traditional steel spokes, instead replacing 32 spokes with 256 carbon kevlar-fibre strands contained within the Mylar cover that made up the discs.
Cleverly, the wheels used any normal hub and rim, bolting to the hub shell, and connected to the rim by nipple-type things.
The strands were a bit heavier than spokes, but were said to offer more compliance and therefore increased traction in corners – as well as the aero gains you might expect from a disc rear wheel.
Rear suspension, and wheel and tyre technology, eventually made the design obsolete.
You could certainly argue that the modern carbon rims and futuristic composite spokes of today owe a debt to the composite technology that makes up the Tioga Disc wheel.
The Slingshot
The Slingshot uses a wire to attach the bottom-bracket shell and the bottom of the head tube.
It was designed to give a degree of vertical compliance, making the bike more comfortable and boosting traction, in the days before full-suspension was the accepted norm.
Unfortunately, the Slingshot’s vertical compliance came with the unintended consequence of lateral compliance.
This bike was flexy and didn’t ride predictably, so despite it’s extra bump-absorbing capabilities, it wasn’t particularly confidence-inspiring for the rider. Therefore, the design never caught on.
Magura rim brakes
Magura’s hydraulic rim brakes were introduced in 1987 and proved very popular in trials until very recently.
They’re great at predictably locking a wheel and aren't particularly expensive.
The design uses hydraulic fluid within the hoses to press a pad horizontally onto the rim.
However, you don’t see many hydraulic rim brakes around these days, simply because disc brakes became so effective.
Disc brakes work better in mud and dirt, and offer more power and modulation than rim brakes. They're also impervious to buckled rims, which is very useful in mountain biking – a sport that's very hard on wheels.
Some bikes, such as tandems and trials bikes, still use Magura rim brakes, but they’re more or less extinct thanks to the amazing effectiveness of modern disc brake systems.
Zinn cable disc brakes
As riding speeds kept increasing throughout the 1980s, brake technology had a hard time keeping up, with rim brakes being the standard.
By the early-90s, mechanical disc brakes were popular for extreme riding, due to their increased power and improved wet-weather performance.
Zinn isn’t a well-known manufacturer anymore, but back in the 90s it was making some amazing bikes, such as this Zinn Centaur.
It’s equipped with early cable-operated disc brakes from 1992, which feature some really impressive tech, considering they’re 30 years old.
The calipers are one-piece, which is something we still see today on high-end brakes, promoting stiffness.
The rotors are two-piece with a lighter-weight aluminium carrier and steel pad contact area, an approach used on the highest-spec disc rotors today.
Dave’s Chain Device
Back in the day, riders and manufacturers were trying everything they could to keep the chain on over the rough stuff.
Mountain bike drivetrains were derived from road systems and most used a double or triple-chainring setup to give a wide range of gears.
This is the DCD, a rubber roller that limited how far the untensioned, lower part of the chain could travel from side to side on its way back to the chainring.
It was moderately effective and, importantly, could work with a triple or double-chainring setup, which is what most bikes had back then.
Unfortunately, it would only work with skinny, round chainstays and although it helped with the problem of dropped chains it certainly didn’t eliminate them altogether.
Many modern MTBs, particularly downhill bikes, still run a chain guide, but crucially, many trail bikes and even some enduro bikes and park bikes, don't run a chain guide anymore – thanks to clutch derailleurs and narrow-wide chainrings.
These two relatively simple pieces of tech have revolutionised keeping our chains on.
Flex stem
Back when front suspension was expensive, one way to gain some comfort and compliance on the front of your bike was a flex stem.
It used a piece of elastomer between the stem and the steerer tube to offer some movement between your hands and the bike.
This could be as sketchy as it sounds with some flex and the bars moving weirdly, which could take some getting used to.
This strange 'in-betweener' tech died out and now we have excellent suspension forks instead, which do the same job but much more effectively.
However, if you’re a gravel rider, there are modern equivalents that capitalise on the trail-buzz beating capabilities of a flex stem without the weight of a suspension fork.
Elastomer
The flex from a flex stem and many rudimentary suspension systems was something called elastomer.
This was foam-rubber that had trapped pockets of air providing the spring and the rubber providing some damping so it wasn't just a pogo stick.
It was cheap compared to an air or coil spring, but it degraded over time, stiffened up in cold weather and didn't provide much damping.
Thankfully, this 1990s 'wonder' material has died out and now manufacturers use high-tech air and coil springs instead.
High-pivot suspension systems
There has been a great surge in the popularity of high-pivot rear suspension systems recently, with brands such as Forbidden, Norco and Trek using them on their new flagship bikes.
However, high-pivots aren't new. This iconic GT RTS and the amazing Cannondale Super V 3000 both use high-pivot suspension.
A high-pivot rear suspension system not only looks impressive but functionally offers the advantage of a rearward axle path, which helps keep the bike stable and stops it hanging up on square-edged hits.
However, crucially, both these bikes are missing one ingredient – an idler wheel. These help manage the way the rear suspension responds to pedalling input. Without them, bikes would be difficult to tame – so props to the riders who rode them.
