Rich and I check out a 1984 Stumpjumper Sport and a 1987 Stumpjumper. Can you still have fun with these fully rigid, vintage mountain bikes? Music: FynestLyk-Noir Et Blanc Vie
Wow, that brought back many memories of me avoiding my college coursework while riding dirt along the American River. The mountain bike vibe those days was very much counterculture-ish, simple, lighthearted fun. I kind of lost that, whatwith all the fancy technology, but now I'm back to riding my simple 90s bikes and re-living the fun.
In the late ‘70s, my dream bike was either a Diamondback or Redline BMX. I didn’t get my first mountain bike until ‘95. In the late ‘70s I pushed my cheap Huffy until I cracked the frame. Memories 😊
No, unfortunately. It started life as a 3 speed with a rack. My parents bought it for me to ride to Junior High school. By the time I was graduating High school, the rack was gone, one of the brake levers was gone and I had glued the spaghetti label on the bike. I think that was after I had just seen "Breaking Away". :)@@Olyphoto7
No doubt they're more fatiguing, but the challenge of being smooth as possible and finessing difficult sections is a heck of a lot of fun too. And so is the thrill of being on the brink of control LOL
The price of MTB nostalgia has risen a heck of a lot recently !! Love the style of the old MTBs , way nicer than the modern ones. Modern gears on these old frames is a good match tho...
Yep- Folks are starting to discover these vintage MTBs, which will unfortunately drive up the prices. I'm still seeing some bargains on these at my local flea markets, though.
Hey, Mark! My original mountain bikes are long gone. I got rid of them in the 90's because I kept getting hurt. I took this one out for a ride and got Poison Oak for the first time in 30 years. :)
Great video at the right time for me. Thinking hard about getting a gravel bike but have mostly been considering ‘87 Hardrock and ‘95 Bontrager hardtail still in the family instead. Not optimal but either will easily accomplish a longer gravel event for me and the flat bars will give downhill confidence for this rolling relic. You bring up the most important point that riding these bikes will be a blast with a bonus of nostalgia to boot.
Absolutely! I think the only drawback to these vintage mountain bikes vs a modern gravel bike is that the gravel bike will likely be faster. Still, if you come across anything remotely technical, I think you’d be better off having one of these vintage warriors along to deal with it. :) Thanks again for watching!
Hey, Douglas! We took another ride on them today on some tough singletrack. It's quite a workout compared to a road bike or trike! Took us two hours to go eight miles. :)
Remember trying the early mountain bikes back in the 80s, they could take a beating & really scoot about, but cornering on tarmac with those knobbly tyres was sketchy af.
@@bikestrikesrazors I hung about with a bunch of London cycle couriers in the 80s, even with slicks the early mountain bikes were still nowhere near as fast as a racer. They were way tougher tho, could bash over kerbs & potholes which would bust up racers, which is why most couriers swapped over in the end, to save money on repairs.
I loved seeing you both eating up those trails. Since I am from SoCal, I am not familiar with where you were riding. What area is that series of trails?
Hey Evan! That was right along Folsom Lake a little north of Sacramento. It's been about 20 years since I had ridden a mountain bike and trails like that, so I was lucky to stay upright. :)
