prj71

I'm still trying to figure out why there are skinny jeans and why actually anyone wants to wear them. I get a feminine vibe from guys that wear skinny jeans.

Rolla

You probably should have followed that impulse.

I still have no idea what skinny jeans have to do with any of this. It seems like you've invented a persona, imposed it on the author, and then used that to critique his bike opinion. Or maybe I just lack the patience to unpack your word salad responses. Regardless, I'll leave you to it.

Cheers.

Rolla

That probably says more about you than them.

PeteHski

Yeah I just chose skis as an example from my personal experience. Whether bikes, skis, or whatever else, there is now a massive array of genre and subsets with something out there to suit anyone's taste. The naming of each genre is simply down to the target marketing and sometimes influenced by individual brands and their fans who perhaps pioneered a particular style of bike, ski, whatever. Generic terms like MTB are now only enough to denote that we are talking about some form of off-road bike. ATB sounds even more generic to me. Road and Gravel are also fairly broad-brush terms. Overlap between genres is also inevitable as there are now so many of them.

prj71

Nah.

Just turns them into lady-boys.

Talking to a girl once at a bar and she says..."I have to say, I've never seen a guy in skinny jeans and thought...hey that looks good"

They remind me of jeggings.

Rolla

Need a towel?

prj71

Only when I'm done sweating after my bike ride.

You can cycle in jeggings if you want to though.

SkinGriz

The bike in the pic just looks like a mountain bike from 30 years ago to me.

Rolla

Dunno which bike you're referring to, but some of the ones pictured in the article are 30-year-old mountain bikes. Or ATBs. Or whatever they're called.

venturi95

The first XTR and late 1980s XT groups were hardly crap. Back then, bikes that didn't pedal efficiently and had to be driven to the dirt would have (and did) got you laughed at.

ColonelSanders

As an owner of a Surly Troll, all I have to say is . . . .

cyclezen

That's the point
Whether you mean the 1st bike image of the article or the one I chose to highlight again.
Point is - ATB is so general it can be applied to a huge array of bike types, from my Opa's 1939 bike (which he often rode onto forest trails to meet friends at a forest 'Gasthaus' or gather mushrooms, pine cones, or just check out his wood stocks) to the latest MTB enduro bikes. They can be ridden on roads as well as off-road. How effective for either is the choice/decision of the rider.
So 30+ year old MTB is certainly appropriate as ATB.
A Manifesto and wanting to have a 'category' all his very own, is hardly needed. Riders will make their own decisions on what they need or want for their riding needs.
Not saying that a bike manu isn;t going to give 'ATB' a go and target some design to that and see of it flies or crashes...
Did we need 'Gravel Bikes' ? That's a whole other topic...
Is he, are we beating a Dead Horse ??? YES !!! LOL ! It is Winter for many on the forum ! LOL !
I'm just enjoying the counterpoint of this... LOL!
I'm riding everyday ... what in prior days/times was prolly 98% 'road', but now 60/40 road/off-road.
Every day I stand in front of my bike rack and need to decide 'road-mtb-ATB' - Spec Tarmac, Spec StumpJumper FS, My NEW 'Gravel Bike', or my ATB/CX Roubaix...
LOL!
an embarrassment of riches...
Ride On
Yuri

ofajen

Watch this and get back to me…

https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schw...ce?language=en

Otto

cyclezen

Great Fun! Very enjoyable, thanks for the link!
We can apply this idea to bikes (of course, anything...) and all the choice available... or maybe we don't...
I had a nagging something which came up when Barry spoke about creating freedom, thru maximizing choice (which he later ties to the modern affluent society).
I didn't want to lose his train of presentation/thought, so I let the nagging something float... while I tried to listen and understand clearly, his presentation
But then the floating nagging something insisted... it wanted out.
So here it is... His issues, the paralysis of choice, the decreased satisfaction because our expectations can't be met and all that follows, eventual dissatisfaction, nagging doubt- is because he (and many others ...) bring that to the situation.
It's the window on world and that person's life which creates that.
If one brings a different way to look, the window and resulting 'view' are different - from what he states. He has thoroughly, carefully and deeply thought out this train of expectation, choice, satisfaction; BECAUSE HE"S EXPERIENCED IT OFTEN! (AT times we all have...)
This IS really involved and although very pertinent to this thread, it's prolly beyond the scope of a short, friendly. bike forum thread...
... as I was thinking further on Barry's 'Talk', the Ted Talk 'auto play next up' thing started Ruth Chang's Talk - How to Make Hard Choices. (which I liked a lot !)
This talk hits directly on some major components of what happens with the paradoxes which Barry has outlined.
Our whole 'Fishbowl' changes when we define the real substance of 'Value' and don;t try to 'Quantify' it. There's more...
Not to infer that Barry isn't correct in defining the pitfalls of 'choice'. They are very easy pitfalls to fall into - we all do at times.
But thanks for the Link! Liked Barry's a lot. Loved Ruth's - serendipitous.
Ride On
Yuri

EDIT: and I really don;t stand in front of the bike rack and ponder "Which Bike, what ride". Long before I'm in front of the bike rack, the day, the value of the ride and time spent doing it are well defined. The bike choice becomes/is obvious.

Rolla

Wait, wut?

montclairbobbyb 

I totally DIG the Ziploc pannier!!!

staehpj1

Some were some weren't. I still have and still love my 1990 rigid cannondale with all deore xt stuff. It isn't my daily go to ride, but it still has it's place. Sometimes it has drop bars and some times flat. It is decent for some types of trail riding and a good choice for some mixed surface touring.

I tend to agree that the full suspension bikes from that era might best be relegated to the junk pile though.

t2p

agree current / modern off road bikes are light years ahead of the old bikes - in terms of ride ability

but the 90’s mountain bikes were not (all) junk

a number of great mountain bikes were made in the 90’s - too many to mention ... from large manufacturers to the small ‘boutique’ companies

the quality of those bikes - especially some of the frames and also some of the components - compare well or even favorably with the stuff that is out now

PeteHski

Yeah, I really meant “junk” in terms of geometry, suspension design, dampers etc. Not so much build quality of components. The latter was obviously variable depending on cost etc. There was nothing available back then that I would swap my modern medium travel trail bike for. For me the biggest gains in mtb bikes have come in the last decade.