The Three Most Important Mountain Bikes

serviceguy said:
I am biased toward pro-flex / K2, hence the still functioning K2 4000 and 6 more frames in my garage (both K2 4000 / 5000 and Pro-Flex 857/957) and VM plenty of carbon swingarm a and parallelogram forks. They haven’t been built yet because of the shocks needing being rebuilt and some repairs being needed.
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I shouldn't like ProFlex but there was something about them. Maybe it was there OffRoad Bikes name or that they were based out of the north east but I always dug them although I could never ride one. I saw a lot around.

I really appreciate the design of the Girvin fork these days. Looking at it could be an interesting exercise to use them to add a 27.5" wheel and slacker head angle on an old 26" frame. I have an old Rhygin hardtail that I keep thinking of converting to 27.5 front end. It wouldn't be hard to garage make this type of fork for it and there is a bunch of adjust ability.

Agree - definitely an important bike for it's time.
 
don said:
I shouldn't like ProFlex but there was something about them. Maybe it was there OffRoad Bikes name or that they were based out of the north east but I always dug them although I could never ride one. I saw a lot around.

I really appreciate the design of the Girvin fork these days. Looking at it could be an interesting exercise to use them to add a 27.5" wheel and slacker head angle on an old 26" frame. I have an old Rhygin hardtail that I keep thinking of converting to 27.5 front end. It wouldn't be hard to garage make this type of fork for it and there is a bunch of adjust ability.

Agree - definitely an important bike for it's time.
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Lots of clearance on the fork for wider tires too. The swingarm, not so much. I need to make a disk brake adapter though, v-brake don’t cut it for me anymore.
 
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GreenMachine said:
I just meant bmx to mtb In general as an evolution - I don’t recall trek as a bmx brand . Bmx = redline . Gt, Diamondback,
Thruster , Kuwahara, Mongoose in my mind @ least!
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I agree - early BMX certainly = RedLine, GT, Diamond Back, Thruster (NJ!), Kuwahara and Mongoose.

But what was Trek's "impact on the transition from BMX to MTB"
 
serviceguy said:
Lots of clearance on the fork for wider tires too. The swingarm, not so much. I need to make a disk brake adapter though, v-brake don’t cut it for me anymore.
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Yes, exactly. That is one of the issue with the Rhygin and lack of tire width clearance.

I would need to ace the canti-mounts on the Rhygin too. I was thinking welding in some sliding disc drop outs ala Paragon. Or more correctly getting my buddy to help me with it ;)
 
serviceguy said:
I am biased toward pro-flex / K2, hence the still functioning K2 4000 and 6 more frames in my garage (both K2 4000 / 5000 and Pro-Flex 857/957) and VM plenty of carbon swingarm a and parallelogram forks. They haven’t been built yet because of the shocks needing being rebuilt and some repairs being needed.
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It so happens that I have a K2 4000 in my collection; the electronic damping still works.
 
don said:
I had a couple Turner's mid 2000's and the MTBR/Turner board was a great read with Dave posting up time to time.

Great points on the C-Dale and Trek carbon. They both brought new materials to MTN biking that are standards today. I remember seeing an early OCLV and thinking I would never ride a "plastic" bike!
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I remember telling @SmooveP (at some race in North Jersey, I think) that I thought it was crazy to make a frame out of carbon fiber. "One big rock and it's broken." I just realized that my 1000 gram S-WORKS HT frame is nearly 10 years old...
 
mfennell said:
I remember telling @SmooveP (at some race in North Jersey, I think) that I thought it was crazy to make a frame out of carbon fiber. "One big rock and it's broken." I just realized that my 1000 gram S-WORKS HT frame is nearly 10 years old...
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Lol, that was probably in the 90s and we were both on Merlins. Mine is still going strong. It's a single speed now and I gave it to Kathy. A carbon frame from that era probably WOULD break.
 
don said:
I agree - early BMX certainly = RedLine, GT, Diamond Back, Thruster (NJ!), Kuwahara and Mongoose.

But what was Trek's "impact on the transition from BMX to MTB"
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I remember this being the big upgrade to my redline mx ii - it was either pro or tuff neck.
Just a general comment that somewhere bmx died and mtb’ing became a “ thing “ .
 

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GreenMachine said:
I remember this being the big upgrade to my redline mx ii - it was either pro or tuff neck.
Just a general comment that somewhere bmx died and mtb’ing became a “ thing “ .
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ProNeck and TufNeck's were certainly nice! First decent stem I had was an ACS as they were a little cheaper. Then I ran dk from there on out.
 
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