Comment by SECProto | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SECProto | Hacker News Reader

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> That may be the case in road bikes, but mountain bikes have gone through a huge transformation in the past decade. The new mountain bikes are night and day different than mountain bikes from a decade ago.

You can still ride track on an old mountain bike. The specific technologies listed have all been part of the changes for road bikes as well (disc brakes, better derailleurs, tubeless tires, suspension (mountain) and frame materials (carbon for road bikes)). And in both cases the outcome is the same - better performance at the cost of more expensive purchase and maintenance.

And the snobbery from "elites" who think they own the road or trail are damn similar, and the same across other sports I've done (skiing, snowboarding, surfing, sailing...) too. All I'm saying is that the peak performance isn't really relevant to having a good time, and other considerations may be different for different users.

Edit: in good faith I'd guess your argument may come more from a competitive view of mountain biking? Even if competing with friends via strava segments etc?

The snobbery from the "anti-elites" is just as obnoxious. At the end of the day we're all out there to have fun, and I have more fun on a bike with modern geometry. I'm not going to judge if you want to ride an old bike, but if you're going around telling people their modern bikes are unecessary and silly, you're just as much of a bike snob as anybody else.

Cheers, I'll agree that snobbery from anti-elites would be just as obnoxious, I just haven't experienced it personally. I've only been bothered by people who criticize me for riding the gear I can afford, and people who don't ring their bells when passing.

You can definitely ride offroad on the old style mountain bikes. I used to ride a department store bike ($200 job) on the tracks in a national park and had a blast, and it teaches you good riding habits as well. On a full suspension bike you can make all kinds of mistakes and they will be covered but on a rigid or hardtail you pay for those mistakes more dearly.

I ride a full suspension trail bike these days. It's really comfortable and I can go on much longer rides and hit all kinds of gnarly terrain. But I still like to get scrappy on my old hardtail sometimes :)

It's not just about competition riding, but simply the terrain and trails have changed. Modern MTBs allow you ride down steeper and rougher terrain with confidence and open up the possibility of riding more trails.

All the commenters here have been talking about how new geometry has changed the game. But unfortunately, you cannot find "modern" geometry on older MTBs built before ~2013 unless the frame was an odd custom. Even the king of retrogrouches Grant Petersen of Rivendell has been tweaking his frames to offer longer chainstays for off-road riding.

On the otherhand, road bikes haven't changed their frontend geometry since the 80s (72º~73º HTA, ~60mm of trail). For the most part roads haven't changed, but wider tires help with the lack of investment in infrastructure.

It really depends on your local trails. I used to ride a hardtail with 100mm up front, and it just was not fun at all on my local trails, which are mostly very rough rock. Paint shaker.

I see a few guys riding full rigid, but they are generally either exceptionally talented or relish Type 2 fun.

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