Throwback Thursday: 7 Bikes Turning 30 in 2022
As we make our way through 2022 and await all of the exciting new product developments let's take a look back through the archives at some of the bikes turning 30 this year.
1. Cannondale Delta V 1000
![photo]()
1992 saw Cannondale launch one of its first proper full suspension mountain bikes with the Delta V 1000. Using Cannondale's Delta V fork this bike offered 2"/50mm of travel with an enlarged headtube to house the inner components for the forks.
2. IRD FS
![photo]()
Another early full suspension bike released in 1992 was the IRD FS. With a more conventional front fork, the IRD used an elastomer stack attached to the bottom bracket by a braided cable. Coming before its time, the IRD also featured adjustable geometry. IRD's product catalog said: "Adjustment is accomplished by elastomer durometer and threaded ends of the cable which terminate in the swing arm cavity. By tightening the cable ends several interesting things happen. The chain stay dimension shortens, the bottom bracket raises, and the head angle gets steeper. Of course, the opposite happens when the cable in lengthened, permitting you to fine tune the handling to your own preference."
![photo]()
3. Mountain Goat Whiskeytown Racer FS
![photo]()
Touted as a rear suspension version of Mountain Goat's Whiskeytown Racer, this bike could put some recent bikes to shame with its very high pivot design. The rear suspension was made using a stack of elastomers and by changing the type and strength of these you could adjust the ride feel.
4. Trek 9000
![photo]()
One of Trek's first-generation full suspension bikes, the 9000 was running a Trek DDS3 fork made by Showa in Japan. Trek only made these forks for a few years before they started using third-party brands of suspension.
5. Mountain Cycles San Andreas
![Mountain Cycle San Andreas from the collection of Sky Boyer Velo Cult]()
After working with the Kawasaki motorcycle racing team as a test rider, Robert Reisinger decided he wanted to start working on his own mountain bike and with that came the Mountain Cycles San Andreas. Available in just one size it was possible to adjust the seat tube angle using the built-in adjustable assembly. Just like other bikes at the time, the suspension used elastomers and by swapping these out you could make the shock stiffer or more supple.
You can read our 'Now That Was a Bike' on the San Andreas here
6. Schwinn Paramount S.A.S.S.
![photo]()
While most bikes of this period had around 2" of rear travel, the Schwinn Paramount S.A.S.S. had a massive 4" of bounce. The S.A.S.S. (Schwinn Active Suspension System) was even piloted by Glen Adams to a bronze medal at the 1991 World Champs in Italy before it was revised slightly and publicly released in 1992. For just the frame, fork and rear brake you would be set back $1800 or $3,607 in todays money.
![photo]()
![ringle]()
7. MBS Clark-Kent Fatbike
![Early 90s Clark-Kent fat bike. Yes perhaps the very first fat bike Only two were ever made and it is believed this is the only surviving frame.]()
With riders wanting to go on rides and take part in events on more extreme terrain there became a need for something slightly different to a normal mountain bike. Fatbikes were born. While bikes similar to what we imagine when thinking of Fatbikes were a while in 1992 that didn't stop frame makers from improvising. Enter the MBS Clark-Kent Fatbike.
Clark-Kent's fatbike used two rims welded together front and rear with both laced to a single hub. Four tires were mounted to the bike with each tire having its own inner tube. One bike, four rims, four tires, and four tubes.
You can read our 'Now That Was a Bike' on the MBS Clark-Kent Fat Bike here
1. Cannondale Delta V 1000
1992 saw Cannondale launch one of its first proper full suspension mountain bikes with the Delta V 1000. Using Cannondale's Delta V fork this bike offered 2"/50mm of travel with an enlarged headtube to house the inner components for the forks.
2. IRD FS
Photo: MOMBAT
Another early full suspension bike released in 1992 was the IRD FS. With a more conventional front fork, the IRD used an elastomer stack attached to the bottom bracket by a braided cable. Coming before its time, the IRD also featured adjustable geometry. IRD's product catalog said: "Adjustment is accomplished by elastomer durometer and threaded ends of the cable which terminate in the swing arm cavity. By tightening the cable ends several interesting things happen. The chain stay dimension shortens, the bottom bracket raises, and the head angle gets steeper. Of course, the opposite happens when the cable in lengthened, permitting you to fine tune the handling to your own preference."
Photo: MOMBAT
3. Mountain Goat Whiskeytown Racer FS
Photo: MOMBAT
Touted as a rear suspension version of Mountain Goat's Whiskeytown Racer, this bike could put some recent bikes to shame with its very high pivot design. The rear suspension was made using a stack of elastomers and by changing the type and strength of these you could adjust the ride feel.
4. Trek 9000
Photo: MOMBAT
One of Trek's first-generation full suspension bikes, the 9000 was running a Trek DDS3 fork made by Showa in Japan. Trek only made these forks for a few years before they started using third-party brands of suspension.
5. Mountain Cycles San Andreas
After working with the Kawasaki motorcycle racing team as a test rider, Robert Reisinger decided he wanted to start working on his own mountain bike and with that came the Mountain Cycles San Andreas. Available in just one size it was possible to adjust the seat tube angle using the built-in adjustable assembly. Just like other bikes at the time, the suspension used elastomers and by swapping these out you could make the shock stiffer or more supple.
 | I started Mountain Cycle right after I graduated. I had a good idea of what I wanted, but before I got started, I went to bike shows, checked out prototypes, and asked questions. Brent Trimble's carbon X-bike, the Kestral Nitro and the Mantis Flying V were very influential. |
You can read our 'Now That Was a Bike' on the San Andreas here
6. Schwinn Paramount S.A.S.S.
While most bikes of this period had around 2" of rear travel, the Schwinn Paramount S.A.S.S. had a massive 4" of bounce. The S.A.S.S. (Schwinn Active Suspension System) was even piloted by Glen Adams to a bronze medal at the 1991 World Champs in Italy before it was revised slightly and publicly released in 1992. For just the frame, fork and rear brake you would be set back $1800 or $3,607 in todays money.
7. MBS Clark-Kent Fatbike
With riders wanting to go on rides and take part in events on more extreme terrain there became a need for something slightly different to a normal mountain bike. Fatbikes were born. While bikes similar to what we imagine when thinking of Fatbikes were a while in 1992 that didn't stop frame makers from improvising. Enter the MBS Clark-Kent Fatbike.
Clark-Kent's fatbike used two rims welded together front and rear with both laced to a single hub. Four tires were mounted to the bike with each tire having its own inner tube. One bike, four rims, four tires, and four tubes.
You can read our 'Now That Was a Bike' on the MBS Clark-Kent Fat Bike here
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Maybe that's what the lower 50 should be renamed.
Definitely made in the USA, definitely a great story behind it, and I still vividly remember my jaw hitting the floor when I opened up a issue of MBA and got smacked in the face by the full page ad for this thing. Full suspension, disc brakes, inverted fork, the memory still gives me goosebumps.
So I don't think it is historically so bad to call them french fries even though Belgium and the northest part of France are the two places where frites are so culturally big and Belgium might be more easily defined by its consumption of "frites".
Everything except paint was done in house, even had a heat treat oven out back. The oven was actually sold to Intense when Kinesis bought Mountain Cycle.
Fun place to work, except in the summer as it was an old paint factory with a steel roof and no insulation!
Built it up with a 170mm Mz 66SL and 1x9 drivetrain with megadrive cassette and a chain device to be able to climb up and ride like a DH bike down. Sounds familiar?
I thought it looked pretty cool. Still does.....
When Intense first started doing monocoque frames, they would just line up the edges and butt weld them, no rolled bead. And they would crack like crazy! I think they got some MC frames and cut them apart to see what we were doing...
Chips.
The internet also says I can fit 73 hot dogs in my rectal cavity. There are even pictures of it. I can tell you for a fact that it is not happening.
Those were a game changer back in the day for us BC kids. The "Beast" even had early Ohlins on it I think. The original red one with the Girvin Vector fork was wild at the time. I even have one hanging in my rafters.
Weren't they a little later than 92? I think the last number was the year i.e. 856 - 1996. Could be massively wrong there.
Available in the UK from 91.
I've started a rebuild project on it, but want to get a bit more rear wheel travel than the 1.5" I had. It was the small (14") frame, so only a half-elastomer in the back.
Likes a stiff drink- check
Goes to races- check
I’ll be using the MGWtR handle from now on.
But look in the mirror and challenge yourself over that post reflector!
:'D
That bike was the definition of 'pogo stick'
I’ve ridden one.
They should all be burned with fire.
Was there a coil damper upgrade or is my memory playing tricks?
I haven't seen a huge number of issues with their current offerings aside from the thru-shaft damper.
Here’s my old San Andreas www.pinkbike.com/u/jakeguthrie/album/1993-Mountain-Cycle-San-Andreas
And my old Trek pogo stick www.pinkbike.com/photo/13482353
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZhSLXAUtRI
The bar ends that came with that Delta V
Also do note the rear brake on the IRD... that's one of the designs shimano ripped off three years later when they "invented" V-brakes.
XYZ bar ends were freekn enormous (I still have then somewhere).
The Gripshifter 1:1 X-ray shifters were fantastic only with fresh cables.
The cantilever brakes were so weak (unless you put coke on your rims) and wore through the rims.
The cables were always filling up with grit so things got sooooo hard at the end of a long ride.
Servicing the fork was a freekn nightmare.
Big 1.5 head sets!
I was simply making stuff out in my mind
Cripes……realizes problems…..anybody want some bikes?
Me in '22: 140mm or 160mm for general trail riding?
"So, what about brake rub if one of the piston is completely still?" I hear you ask. Well, the rotor was 'floating'. It was mounted on bushing that allowed lateral play (a small cylinder with a washer on the end that stopped the rotor coming off. When you squeezed the brakes, the rotor would self-centre.
"That sounds like a shitty set of brakes." Oh yes, but about the best you could get until Magura Gustav and Hayes came along with the first disc brakes. Edit: Sachs? No.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrUQr7BAyLA
Since the influx of dirt dentists manufacturers are happy to ream our wallets of far more than that now and that does not include a fork or brakes, admittedly shit works now, which is nice I guess.
www.mtbr.com/attachments/uglybik2-jpg.677
I don't like road bike frame geometry, so i always built my pavement bikes using mountain bike frames. Of course fast forward twenty years and now gravel bikes use the geometry that XC mountain bikes were using thirty plus years ago. Same that a lot of urban/jump frames went to using in the early 2000s. Even this year's Norco Rampage Team DJ frame isn't that far removed from many XC trail hardtails of the early 90s.