Throwback Thursday: 22 Bikes from the First Ever EWS Race

 I’d love Greg or Steve’s Bronson, even now.

 I had a yellow Tallboy LTC the same as Chris Ball’s (minus the Enve) in 2013.

It would be fine today had I not ridden anything else for 6 years. However I have - it would feel very very short, steep, firm and nervous if I were to ride it now.

 @tobiusmaximum: I still miss mine. Probably been searching for something new for no reason the past years.... twas a good bike!

 I rode a 2010 Enduro up until last year. Around 2016 or so, I demo'ed a Yeti 5.5., and the Yeti was better, but only marginally so. That Enduro aged well. I had to ride it for a couple weeks last spring while my forks were being warrantied, and I felt the difference between it and my new bike, but it didn't take long to get used to it. All those bikes are still pretty capable.

 If that proto BMC was close to the current trailfox, then it was a bike lightyears ahead of its time. Everyone credits the Enduro 29er for being the first (non Lenz) capable long travel 29er, but that bike kinda sucked. When I switched to the BMC trailfox and put a -2 degree angleset in it, the BMC became a monster. Even now, if you angleset it to 65 degrees, it hold its own against the latest and greatest from all the major brands. 460mm reach (way back in 2014!), great suspension, etc. The only two flaws were the HTA which can be easily corrected with an angleset and the seat tube is too tall for modern, ultra long dropper posts.

 I'm still riding a Bronson like Peaty's albeit with a -1.5 headset. Still Rips.

 @tobiusmaximum: My wife is still riding the gen 1 Bronson in tennis ball yellow and loves it.

 @hamncheez: what exactly sucked about the (2014?) enduro 29? But i agree the Trailfox aged best.

 @SickEdit: First off, it had a 67.5 degree HTA with an integrated headset so you couldn't slacken it out. Combined with the 430mm chainstays (that were good on twisty, slow speed trails) the wheelbase was very, very short. Combine that with a very high BB and its a recipe for over the bars, of which I did more than any other bike I've ever owned. Everyone I know who had one (many people) put the shorter 650b shock yoke, which slackened it out a degree and dropped the BB to an ultra low 325mm. This dramatically changed the bikes handling for the better, except for rock strikes. The shock yoke design also meant side loading on the shock body, so I blew up the fox float it came with and two aftermarket debonairs. Two of my buddies blew up their CCDBairs too. Finally, it had a very flat, linear suspension curve, so I was running over 300 PSI in the monarch debonair and I couldn't ever run the compression fully open or it would just blow through all its travel, even when pumping corners (yes I ran ALL the volume spacers). Reach on the size large was also a tad short.

Granted, Specialized had to sell people on the idea of a long travel 29er, the the thinking back then was 29ers were too sluggish, slow imprecise, etc. so the goal was to make the first Enduro 29er handle "like a 26", and feel twitchy and responsive in the bike shop parking lot. That probably explains the XC steep HTA and short wheelbase. Now we know better, and 65-64 degree HTA on a 160mm travel bike is just fine for all mountain riding, regardless of the wheel size.

 @hamncheez: So everything was bad except the reach haha

 @SileTzar I rip on my 2013 Bronson. I think people these days are too focused on dropping $$$ when they should be dropping in at the trail head.

 @Abite: I found the reach on mine too short too, I’m only 6’ and the large was too short for me!

 Just sold my 2012 Strive. Moved to a N4, I’m definitely still the limiting factor when considering what I can get down on either bike. VPP vs Single pivot is a biggest difference, Nomad pedals way better. Plus it’s more confidence inspiring on steep stuff due to geo, everything else is ‘icing’. I’m faster everywhere, but the £/seconds ratio is kinda depressing!

 i still riding my GT Sanction...

 @InsaNeil024: exactly!!!! My bikes are all 2012 and I smoke chumps with brand new 4k bikes.

 @hamncheez: The Trailfox is probably the greatest bike that no one cared about. Incredibly BMC seems not to care about following up with an updated model, instead went backwards with the new Speedfox.

 @Richt2000: Still riding my first gen Tallboy now, though, over forked and with an angle headset. But defo feels short, but still good fun.

 I still have my 2014 Bronson, same one Peatey and Minaar are riding here and it doesn't feel dated at all to me.., yeah it rides quite a bit different from the newer generation Bronson but both are great bikes which are capable pretty much anywhere. I still ride my OG Bronson quite a bit despite having two newer 29ers in the stable. The 2013 Yeti SB95 I used to have, on the other hand.. I'm not sure I would call it unrideable but it definitely feels very dated and a world apart from the current SB130.

 I’m on 1873 Penny farthing (tubeless), still smoke these chumps on enduro bikes

 @TheR: Yep, I had a 2011 Enduro until 2 years ago. I still miss some of its traits and it was more capable than me.

 @CantClimb:Same here. C Creek headset made a big diff, plus aftermarket shock and better fork internals. Took it to the French Alps last year and rode my legs and arms off

 @cypress-mtb-club: imagine who you will smoke with a brand new 4k bike then.

New bikes are much faster and better. Fact. I'm on my third bike since 2008 with the last one bought this winter and the previous one bought in the summer of 2015. The difference between that and 2008 bike is insane. The difference between the current one and 2015 is still massive.

 @Primoz: always makes me chuckle when people are like ‘I’ve got a lesser bike and I’m faster’. Reminds me of the George Carlin sketch about dick waving. Learn some humility, nobody cares about people patting themselves on the back lol.

 @InsaNeil024: Me too! 7th year on the bike and faster than ever. She sees all 4 seasons and keeps rollin'.

 @jimmythehat: the original mullet bike

 @tobiusmaximum: who in their right mind would run a high roller II front and ardent rear for enduro now though?

 @tobiusmaximum: Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing. I might be the guy who gets smoked here, BUT... Getting a new bike every once in a while is part of the fun. And for me it was almost 10 seasons between bikes. I don't think I'm better than anyone because I have a new, expensive bike, and I don't care if a guy "smokes" me.

 @TheRoadWarrior: What about the £/ smiles ratio? Remember "whom ever is having the most fun wins!"

 @tobiusmaximum: I just sold mine a few months ago. Still was bad ass.

 Sorry boys for the boastful comment...... Twas the wine talking. I would love to have a new bike but it's just not in the cards right now.

 @cypress-mtb-club: but what about the badasses with $10k bikes?

 @CantClimb: I second the old bike with slacker head angle. I'm riding a tallboy lt with a -2 headset. Seeing as my kids won't stop eating food and wearing clothes, I'm probably gonna be riding it for a long time to come.

 Unrideable ? Seriously ?

Do you also need a BMW or a Dolci Gabana purse to have fun ?

 @InsaNeil024: Spending time on bikes makes you faster than spending money on bikes! Works every time it's been tried.

 @JohnTheWrench: I have gotten much faster by buying a new bike compared to the three years of riding the old bike. There's just something about finally buying a properly fitting bike and a longer dropper post plus 29er wheels that makes it much faster

 ...“completely unreliable by todays standards”....lol, what standards are you talking about?...lmao

 @NikolaiB: don't wanna be that guy, but he said unrideable. (and he's being tongue-in-cheek, i suspect.)

 They didn't design a bike, they designed two. The ICB 2.0 is (was) a ripper.

 Friday!

 Notice that the internet forum designed bike is the only one with proper racing geometry. Hmmmmm

 Such thing as forum designed bike cannot exist in this universe. Most demands of most people who never even bothered to draw what they say they want, are mutually exclusive and can be summed up into climbs like a goat and descents a DH bike. They look at some suspension graphs and say this and that is good or bad but if they were given an empty piece of paper they wouldn’t do sht. They are like a fat prick on a couch with beer in his hand, watching a match where an elite athlete misses the goal and they shout: you pathetic loser.

 Struggling to understand the timeline...was the forum bike somehow designed after the internet was invented but before water bottles?

 @Sardine: it was a time before big water bottle and it's fake news infiltrated the internet.

 Here's a free article idea for Pinkbike, as a follow-up to the "We Went To Taiwan & Started A Bike Company" article. Let the comments section design a bike, get it built in Taiwan and then let the pros ride it on the next season of Pinkbike Hot Lap.

 @Rusettipasta: well according to lunatics praising 26” wheels, old Marzocchi Shiver and alu frames this almost happened. Just take this Brodie Levy, Walker and Masters rode, wel a second headtube to it, to make the reach 15cm longer and head angle 10 degrees slacker and according to PB comment board, this would win any race

 @WAKIdesigns: You forgot a mino rdetail Waki, this wasn't just any forum, it was a German forum. This stiffs have rules about these things and they follow them.

 I was wondering that too. Anyone have some more info on the bike? It looks super cool!

I found the geometry here, which other than the super short reach, looks pretty impressive for the time:
geometrygeeks.bike/bike/carver-icb-2013-2015

 @WAKIdesigns:
It seems in this case you have no idea what you are talking about. Did you follow the "designing" in mtbnews as it was happening??

 @gibspaulding: www.mtb-news.de/news/category/magazin/produkte/icb

 @gibspaulding: Basically, they made a huge set of votes, where every forum member could vote for a certain range of measurements, design principles, geometry, etc.

 @WAKIdesigns: oh Waki, where have been? Actually I don't care. Just go back there.

 @Rusettipasta: I'd like to see the world burn. Make three frames with identical geometries (as far as it's possible), but make them 26, 27.5 and 29 inch each. And use identical components as well if possible. Let's kill the wheel size debate forever!

 Did i miss something!? When/who has done that?

 wow I didn't know "doping" could suddenly make you a better rider many years before you doped. Or is there a better explanation?

 @mountaincross: Wow, some downvotes? Prospective downvoters who just so happened to read the word "doping" and were about to do a kneejerk downvote - he's saying Maes was always good at riding bikes.

 @mountaincross: His mother doped while she breast fed him. Duh!

 @headshot: hadn't thought of that, now I'm pissed at my mom!

 @mountaincross: Don't pretend to know what really happened. The fact is that series winner and 2nd overall did not win any race this season, most of them were won by riders suspended for a part of the season because of doping issues, and it is a really bad com for our sport.

 @pasteque51: except that Martin wasn't doping and was tested many races before. Even UCI said that, monkey!

 I think it's not unfair to say that a lot of inspiration for today's 29 Enduro bikes came from the early success of that little 29er trail bike that won a whole lot of races in the first few years of the ews

 Hahaha. Trek Remedy. Pretty boring no frills bike to date.

 Its the bike and rider that brought the world Boost

 I have to celebrate you, baby I have to praise you like I should

 i think we need to consult the Ukrainian government to investigate how much fun theyre actually having.

 Wheel debate is endless. Mother F a front derr though. Too many messes during Enduro races with them.

 Apart from Lopes, who looks like he's about to shank the photographer...

 I had a sanction and the cube stereo and if i was made to chose one to ride today it would have to be the cube lol. Sanction was only good in a strait line when you didn't need to peddle. Tank of a bike.

 It’s effectively just a single pivot. But it did have the best geo of this bunch for a production bike

 Man the Kona process has a 66 degree HTA and 450mm reach (size L), other than the 26" wheels it is still a totally capable bike.

 @michaelasnider: Ugly as sin, though.

 @Ttimer: Yeah not the best looking bike. I had the orange one, thing was a blast.

 I bet Mr Vouiloz customized all angles and whatnot on that hunchback ugly Lapierre? He for sure knew what to ride, to go fast.

 and the most annoying dog bone link ever made. Bushes needed changing every month...

 @klerric: never had to change mine over 3 years of owning it

 Yeah and hell was it good to ride. The DH and Meta V3 frames were one of the most beautiful frames ever built.

 You should’ve been around when we got the V-brake... oh my days!

 @tobiusmaximum: on my first dh race i had cantilever brakes and a 47 mm rs mag21

 @tobiusmaximum: ... and clipless pedals... and forks that really worked...

 @optimumnotmaximum: Mag 21s were sick! Damn, remember when NOTHING was bolt thru?!

 @tobiusmaximum: I thought the V brake was the most amazing thing. I couldn't imagine more power at that time.

 My Univega predated V-brakes, I wanted some Paul's or Onza brakes so badly but at 15 years old I was stuck with Shimanos. I remember watching my seatstays flex when I grabbed a hand full of V-brake on my Caloi and I thought it couldn't get any better. Put my old brake bridge on to keep everything firm. My buddy had Maguras and everyone was envious. I went from full rigid, to a Specialized Future Shock, with 50mm of elastomer travel and was so terrified by the unpredictable handling that I sold it to a buddy and bought a Kenesis Maxlight 7075 rigid Al fork. Combine that with a 100mm stem, some 660 bars and rattle your teeth out. In 2005 I finally upgraded to a Gary Fisher something-or-other with Genesis geometry, a Manitou Axle and Hayes MX2 mech discs. I literally thought it couldn't get better, until I bent the Manitou and put a Fox 32 on it. That thing had a long reach but slack seat tube and a fragile frame I broke four in five years. Trek made me one hell of a deal on a Paragon 29er and then I thought things couldn't get any better again. Now I'm on a Chromag Rootdown with a 150mm Ribbon on it. I can say with certainty that things cannot get any better.

 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: Oh man the Future Shock..........horrifically flexy thing. I remember watching my wheel flop from side to side on that fork

 @optimumnotmaximum: Those were the days. And if you tell young people now they won't believe you!

 @tobiusmaximum: oh boy let me tell you about the pennyfarthing though. No chain, no suspension, steep ass head angle, but the mixed wheel size was way ahead of it's time.

 @cuban-b:

www.unicycle.co.uk//54-udc-mk4-penny-farthing-black.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjww7HsBRDkARIsAARsIT4ubCaEHpnwdyZeAAF5TM68dSQZbJ1TRg8VsCWQSwtqdjxPV58QH5UaAgiIEALw_wcB


i will if you will..

 @optimumnotmaximum: And there was the "long travel kit" @ 2.3".

 @dans160: thing is, i grew up being told about "three speed, Sturmey Archer.. all you need" (northern accent) and kids never really know how lucky they are. its just what they know.

the amount of ranting i did while trying to hairspray my grips on or set my cantis up with two bloody spanners. omg. i had no idea how lucky i was. i also had no idea what bikes would be like now.

 Kona, cube, transition and even canyon are really ugly by nowaday standards imo

 Those times made for some bloody good bike mechanics too. Nothing was easy about working on bikes then, IE Hayes brakes... BB cup mounted chainguides.... Ghetto tubeless.......

 @Lurch420: sram stuff is much harder to work on nowadays versus the old 7/8 speed stuff, but i definitely agree with you regarding Hayes and ghetto tubeless.

 @tobiusmaximum: And then you had to cut your old grips off if you wanted new ones. Stopping to lower your saddle for the fun stuff. Punctures every five yards.

Those were the days

 Lol from this? Just wait until you've had an account with pb for 20 years. Then you'll feel old lol

 @makripper: yup!

 i think nowadays 50-100mm longer wheelbases "fixed" the 29er look and I am so used to it that everything else looks small

 As always, it depends. Bikes which are designed well and adhere to classic rules of aesthetics age very well (lines, FtG, proportion, contrast and complimentarity in color and/or shape.....). Bikes which are designed around "this seasons colors" or "radical looks" tend to age badly.

The Lapierre, the Bronson and the Transition still look great, as they did back then. The Canyon and Kona are horrible, although i suspect that the Canyon wasn't considered a looker even back then.

There are just as many good or bad looking bikes today and in a few years time we will look back at the Foxy with awe and at the Trance with disgust.

 Loved the way the old Niner's and Enduro's looked with the 2 tone paint.

 A horizontal/near horizontal shock placement will almost always make a bike look better to me than vertical/near vertical. It just makes it look like it's faster

 @SickEdit: true -- if I look at pictures of myself riding my previous (long and slack) 26"-bike, it looks like I was riding a BMX...

(I'm 192cm tall)

 I had an alloy Covert and then a black carbon Covert ...loved those bikes.

 @bman33: I had a Alloy one too

 @Darknut @bman33: still riding my AL Covert fr 2010. Too cheap to buy a new bike

 While I do agree, I had that 2013 process DL and it was my favorite damn bike. I still haven’t found something that makes me smile as much as that bike did

 Looking back, Al Stock's Kona was actually well ahead of it's time. Also crazy to see how XC-friendly the tyres people chose were - don't see many Maxxis Ardents at the EWS these days! The sport's become way more DH-biased. Or maybe people were naive to how gnarly it was going to be!

 @seb-stott: Back then the "endurance" part of Enduro racing extended to cardio and climbing. It was supposed to be a mix of both. Enduro today is much closer to DH racing and endurance basically means the ability to sustain extended high-speed DH runs.
Also todays athletes are much fitter so no one cares about tire drag on transfers anymore.

 @Ttimer: you only go up in Enduro to prove you aren't using a DH bike on the way down.

 Even more so for minaar, bmxing enduro sounds fun

 I demoed the first gen 650b Jekyll with the pull shock, and it was an amazing bike. I rode it at a bike park, so I didn't get to pedal it around, but I assume it pedaled great. The next gen 650b Jekyll was worse, in my opinion. That first one was way ahead of its time.

 Jekyll is surprisingly one of the few where it doesn't look like it has a reach/top tube for ants.

 I still ride a Jekyll with 26" wheels and the pull shock, and I love every second of it. Mine is the next year I think with the white/black paint job and I think it looks and rides great!

 I was thinking the same. An old Ripley in the EWS...

 I was gonna say the same about the commencal. I’m sure numbers are outdated, but it’s the only one that actually kind of looks like a modern day bike.

 @Longroadtonowhere: My thoughts exactly. The commencal stands out here. The other frames are pretty damn ugly, everyone has these wavy top tubes and super long seat tubes, makes the bikes look odd.

 @Longroadtonowhere: The Meta V3 was a killer bike, a bit heavy, but so fun to ride.

 The commencal is the best design

 Kona ftw!

 Yeah, I assume it's the short wheelbase. They do look weird as hell to me too.

 That Juliana prototype Anka was riding is a painted Nomad....

 maes still rides a nobby nic so it cant be that bad

 @SickEdit: It's pretty bad. I'm sure he's using a cush-core or some sort of insert with it now. Also I think he had some prototype super gravity Nobby Nic this year that didn't exist 5 years ago. Nobby Nic is a good trail tire for the average Joe, same with Ardent (I run one on the rear of my XC bike). Just crazy to see them out there surviving EWS back in the day.

 It's almost as if the downtubes were scared of the front wheel back then(Covert, Remedy, Ibis, etc).

 are you talking about my schlong?

 @makripper: our backs were sweaty and we liked it dammit!

 It's where you put the PED's.