Same Same, But Different | MTB tech We've seen before
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Mountain Bikes are constantly progressing, and as a result we will always see older ideas and concepts revisited.
Doddy checks out Dakotah Norton's handlebar set up and goes down memory lane looking at Jason McRoy's old bikes; compares old Avid Codes to the new SRAM Maven, and even looks at a few old lugged bikes.
Typical rabbit hole chat from the mountain biking super fan.
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Awesome video Doddy! It's so cool to see you on own your own channel now and more free too talk about lots more of MTB tech and retro tech. 💪
Wait, Doddy back on a tech channel. That’s great news and happy to see you back!
I have never cut any bars I bought so they were always wide.
I never knew I was supposed to cut them like shoulder width until I saw it on TH-cam LOL.
Your knowledge is a treasure to all MTBikers😊
Thanks ✌️
Jason was such a huge figure in Mountain Biking and an inspiration to many !!!RIP
Your enthusiasm and knowledge of MTB history is infectious. Made me smile, my first MTB in 1989 was an Offroad with a Girven Flex Stem!
Jason’s personal bikes are on display at the Specialized HQ in London... they’re iconic bikes, especially the slalom hard tail
Great to see you back in your niche. Your talents were being wasted. And it shows in your renewed enthusiasm.
I missed Doddy's lovely rambling 😄
Hey Doddy, love your videos. But I was hoping that you can do one but major tweak to the videos.
When you show a picture or article don't slowly move in. If you want to highlight a particular part of a bike...don't show the whole bike and then slowly move in. Same with the article. Just show the photo itself. there is no need for the zoom in effect. It would be a lot more pleasing when watching. Thanks buddy.
90s bike enthusiast here those component f****** cool
Speaking of new things that remind of old things.
When dropper posts first showed up, i thought they were pointless. They made me think of the Hite-rite seat post from the 80s or early 90s. This was a spring that attached to your post, and you could lower it, then it would return to the right height.
So when i saw the first modern dropper posts, i was against them, because it brought back the memories of Hite-Rite. I mocked my friend for riding one. I used a quick release on my seat clamp. If i wanted a lower seat, i would stop, drop it, then stop,put it back up.
I worked at a bike shop and used a demo bike with a modern dropper and from that first ride i all in.
I think the dropper post is one of the more important technologies developed for mountain bikes. I dont know if I could ride without one now.
I've still got a couple of Hite Rites somewhere. I was thinking of getting an old knackered Specialized Command Post and fitting a Hite Rite to it! Just for a laugh.
Actually super happy you've finally done a bit of a deep dive on that bike, it's such a legendary machine!
The bicycle industry has done a GREAT job of marketing gravel bikes - effectively convincing us to repurchase bicycles we owned 25 years ago.
I always loved the lugged design on the Raleigh Dyna Tech bikes from the early 90's!
Ive been riding 30+ years and i have seen all kinds of technology come and go. I love riser bars, and have been riding them for years. Some, more of a rise than others. But i like having my weight back over the rear wheel and off the front wheel. I dont know why more people dont use riser bars.
Hi Doddy!
I still have those code brakes, working as good as ever in the original 2008 specialized demo. One of the best brakes ever made.
Dakota's bike position is under youtuber's scrutiny as all those we who have a "not slammed" down position in their bikes, no matter if XC, Enduro, Road, etc. I have been using all my life (45 now) 2.5cm shims under all stems plus 1.5/2.5 mm raise bars even the XC bikes and every where I go, I got "the big question": are you going to cut that hadtube off? LOL
always nice to see and hear you, with all the old tech from that 90s that from time to time comes back and the rational that no many others have on the internet. Cheers!
Lugged bikes: I had an STS DH back in the day, they were thermoplastic rather than carbon so apparently they got heavier in the rain! Another retro lugged bike worth a mention is the Specialised Ultimate, machined titanium lugs and carbon tubes, it was the lightest ridable MTB frame ever made, very rare!
When I think about carbon lugged bikes, I can hear the creaking in my head. 😅
@@JubeProductions When I think of lugged carbon bikes I think of Vitus, Look, and Cadex frames from the 1990s, along with broken glue joints and terrifying failures.
Thermoplastic frames were carbon... or rather carbon strands impregnated with plastic rather than epoxy. The term thermoplastic just means it's malleable with heat, unlike thermoset plastics which are more like resin in the way they are irreversibly cured
@@Metal-Possum yeah, they were just a terrible idea all around. But not as bad as the Cannondale Raven that was an aluminum skeleton with carbon fiber shell.
@@Metal-Possum Took my 93 Cadex CFM-2 out for a ride today. Still going strong - with a disc mount rear dropout too...
I only got into mountain biking a year ago, but switched careers to bike mech this year. Suuuper cool to see these old products, gonna pass a picture of that wild carbon rail seat post around the shop tomorrow
Nice to see you back in so well known bike cave talking about retro tech.
Jason McRoy and Earthquake Jake, downhill bars and the Pro Goatee (amongst many other things). Mankind will never be able to reach the same height of coolness and style again.
The Flexstem was actually great, it took the chatter out. People don't realize how much more we worked with our elbows and knees back then.
Regarding the lugged frames, Ibis and Specialized, for sure. But coming a bit more to modern times, not many people realize that OCLV frames were also lugged and bonded, they weren't monocoque or continuous strand. And Cadex frames are, at least in spirit, quite close to the Atherton frames
Great shout on both the OCLV and Cadex frames. Completely forgot about the Cadex stuff!
Jake the snake! I remember him and was saddened when he passed.
My first GT was a dark green 1992 GT Timberline, upgraded virtually everything including a Girvin Flex Stem, which was really cool at the time. Great content Doddy!
I still have my Otis Guy beam bike! It was great at the time, but it only gets ridden now as my beater winter bike with studded road tires.
Just got to know you started an mtb nerd channel. Well, I’m on board I suppose. - Djing? Sure! 24 years true vinyl. - something different: I think we all love good quality tools, don’t we? You could put them on the list too if that fits in here. - Some time ago I needed a new torque wrench and had an eureka moment I’ll never regret. There’s a German company which under car mechanics is known as the Ferrari of wrenches, low tolerance, certificated, the real deal… and if you don’t wanna pride yourself with the 90 tooth variant, or these with oled display (crazy), the casual 10-60 3/8 comes even slightly cheaper than the ones from bike brands, which kinda shocked me, to be honest… I’m in torque heaven now. Check out Hazet if you don’t have them on your list already.
Thanks for watching, and thanks for commenting! I'll check out Hazet tools now - thanks for the tip! Always love looking at tools!
My pleasure :) Awesome! Yeah, I know. 😅 Thats why I felt so tempted to mention it. Actually I was receiving the tool and 3 nuts that I ordered and while using it for the first time I kinda though sh!t, that’s just too satisfying. On occasion you probably should tell doddy about it. So there we go. - Another time I’ll tell you why you’re one of the reasons my city‘s people will most probably get some very legal trails. - sry for my English. I’m just a silly German.
Doddys hairstyle has gotten even wilder😂🔥
Ha ha, just need a haircut that’s all 😆
@@DoddyMTBtech Loving it anyways! 🤩
Concerning Flexstem. Back in 1995 i used a Flexstem on my touring bike i rode usa coast to coast. Great device!
I was just thinking about not seeing you anymore. Great to have you back.
Brake Therapy floating caliper resurface from time to time. I think Santa Cruz used it first around 2002-2004, then Kona used it between 2005-2010 and integrated it with widely available hubs in the latter version of the D.O.P.E. Then in 2019 (as far as I remember) Saracen played with it, and lately Cube (with these awful bolts). Cubes version is similar to Santa's. So, we should expect the Kona's (Fabie Barel's) version to resurface soon. The earlier version of Stab's had only the mount that was working opposite to the original idea, increasing the influence of the brake on the suspension. For the production Stab's they introduced two options. Original idea and Barel's one. Other Kona bikes (as well as late Stab's) had just the basic (original) version of Brake Therapy's idea.
Yep I remember all of that well, including the two settings on Fabien's bike - he used the brake to compress the suspension to keep the bike level under braking on some tracks, even though it would have firmed it up! Pretty cool! I had a brake arm on a Morewood DH bike I rode for a while, an Izimu I think? Loved that bike at the time!
So happy to find ya since GMBN. Lookin' forward to getting caught up w/ your channel... after I get out of the memory haze from this video. I'm gonna dream about Kooka cranks, KORE Elite Stems, Odessey Black Widow flats, My Schwinn Homegrown frame (painted in "bass boat" orange), I had a pair of those Avids too (wonderful levers)...but also had me some Paul Love Levers and set of MachineTech canti's that worked great. I must say the new tech and specs of today come together to create some tough stuff... keep 'em coming, Doddy!
O yeah! Doddy is back doing these awesome videos. Thanks for these always a good watch!
I love this type show/ technology, old vs new 🧐 you get so excited 😆
Doddy you are the best as usual. Love seeing you with Mondraker! Your videos have helped my son and I on so many MTB maintenance and purchases. ❤
I raced on a Softride back in the 90s and loved it. There were alot of haters. But if you road it for what it was. A suspension seat post and a hardtail frame. It was great. People that were expecting full suspension type rides hated it. The suspension stem if you kept up with bushing adjustments functioned well enough for its day. Ive been around the industry long enough to were everytime i see new tech. I see it as old tech. I had a paralellogram dropper post way back in 1994/5 with a remote lever on my Mongoose 3 inch travel downhill bike. lol And i still ride a 93 Trek 330 road bike converted to single speed. I love the look of old school steel. And now with Gravel bikes being so popular im seeing suspension seatposts and suspension stems around and it reminds me of the old days.
How is the algorithm JUST showing me this channel?! Been missing Doddy insight since your departure. Glad to have found this!
Talking about MTB tech we've seen before, I saw Jack Moir was testing out a steering damper recently, it was an Aussie brand called Pademelon. They never really caught on before and much like flex stems I doubt they will this time. Flex stems made sense for longer distance riding where you're mostly leaning on the bars but they're really disconcerting when the bars move relative to your BB (not to mention the top-out) when you pulled up on the bars.
Yeah Flexstems would be perfect for gravel. Vibration comfort. Was never sure about steering dampers - I remember the Hopey ones from way back. Would like to try one to understand them more though, always keen to try different stuff.
@@DoddyMTBtech I agree about gravel bikes, that would be a good application for the flex stem. I'm sure I remember seeing pics of a DH steering damper in the late 90s (probably in MBUK) which was all external and had a piston that attached to the top tube?
@@DoddyMTBtechIn those years we called them wrist breakers, a real danger, we bought them because we didn't have money for a suspension, and in Spain in '91 or so a motorcycle suspension brand Betor that works for Ossa, Montesa...made a suspension Much cheaper oil from foreign countries, and we stopped using wrist breakers. Greetings from Spain.
Cracking vid, thanks Doddy, some great throwbacks to the tech I used to drool over.
This is awesome. I love the mix of old and new tech chat.
Love this..Dirt and Jason was the thing that opened my eyes to the fun that can be had on mountain bikes. Found it on a stall at a car boot sale when I was just a kid. Think I payed £1.50. Took it home watched it and I was HOOKED!!!
We saw bell bottoms too! Goes round and round... Avid levers from the time that Avid was Avid. Hugi, the whole country knew you were riding your bike!
Great video Doddy keep it up
Great video, love the history of MTB i turned 41 this yeah and rode and raced drom about 19, now it's just for fun on my Levo SL but do miss the radom things from back in the day and would love to be back on a Sunday!
I’ve got that same clipping from that day.
Doty, I've missed you over at GMBN. I was cruising TH-cam today and re-discovered you. I'm glad I did!! I didn't know where you had gone, almost as if you vaporized! That log deck looks familiar. Wasn't that in a picture a year or so ago over at GMBN.
Another good video doddy 👌I had the gt sts and gt lobo. Loved them both. Cracked one of the lugs on the sts unfortunately.
Hey, good to see you again!
Protect this man! ❤
Another great segment, thank you.
Such a knowledgeable guy! 🙌 Respect Doddy!
Can't wait to see more of these when you find the time to make them!
Amazing thanks for the great memory flashback Dodds!
I was more the Rob warner day's I remember when he relised them pedals of his I had to have them! Think I pulled them thing's out my shins everyday 😂 then they got banned or something I'm sure? I still have a pair on the ATX two Rob had a red n yellow atx one at the time
I have BMX style bars made for a small dirtbike (they are literally pitbike branded) with a BMX stem so they are wider than BMX bars on my hardtail and it's the best. Not sure why mtb's come with bars that may as well be roadie drop bars. I don't need, care or want to be more aero on my mtb. If you have never tried BMX bars or super high rise bars, you don't know the amount of control you are missing. My hardtail with a rigid fork is basically an adult size BMX with a 1x10 drivetrain and is everything I could ever want in a bike honestly. I've owned exactly 2 mtb's in my lifetime, both bikes hard tails and both bikes my first mod was to get rid of suspension forks..all that weight and energy loss climbing...no thanks. I was an 80's kid, we managed some gnarly jumps using our knees and elbows as suspension on our BMX bikes just fine (learn to land a jump). Note: I also think clipless pedals are stupid.
Back in the glory days of BIKE magazine they had on the back page “ the shit bike challenge “ with the soft beam. I’d pick up the mag and it would be the first thing I would look at. Too funny.
My bike: GT LTS MK1 with Lawwill Leader 3 forks, Azonic 75mm stem, Azonic 50mm rise bars, Panaracer Magic DH tyres on MA40 rims. Mostly bought from Stif. I miss that bike.
JMR’s “shrine” on woodhead still there and in good shape keep those memories of “the day” and I’d picked up on the return of hirise bars this year
Yeah it was 14in when Saracen brought the 14in Xile frame out black one we all had them and stripped them down added all this stuff to them with tripple JUDY XLC and the amazing DCD chain tensioner! I still have one with all the old stuff on it and an old kona stinky and Giant atx two wotht he MRP bash gaurds! Looked the dogs back then! Crud mud gards and the small motor style fork one lol the gloves were from GT Dyno I had a few pairs! Bmx gloves more than moto
Nice one Doddy! xx
Thanks for watching!
I think he ran his suspension soft because of elastomer only suspension? Those things ramp up in stiffness pretty quickly. BTW Drew, WELCOME BACK! Your enthusiasm is infectious!
Im 195cm, I found it always difficult to find the right handlebar and stem combination. Now it’s pretty cool that more and more manufacturers have wide and high rise bars in there product range.
Btw: Doddy, your retro tech Videos are awesome. Plz more of them.👍
i ride that code brake in 2010.... a good one!
The original " clunker" mountain bikes of the late 70's and 80's used wide bars , but for some odd reason the industry thought putting narrow bars was a great idea.
Doddy - with Atherton frames and lugs its 3D printing of the titanium components. I do a lot of stuff in the printing area and its sooooo good to see this tech being used in a practical way
Love my AM.130 best bike I've had so far. Took me a while to get over the weight before ordering though but at least it's built for purpose.
Just found your channel Lfg glad to see you making videos ❤
Remember when we started running the Ano bolt on cross bars to the higher rised bars the flex was nuts without it! 😂 I had to get one I think from my old KTM for my DH at the time it fixed that flex though! Next thing everyone was doing it amd bikes were coming out with them welded on the the 20mm rise bars so funny but was a trend at the time!
Bikes, Djing, BBQ’s. Dude we could be best friends lol
Doddy, have you ever done a video about IRD (Interloc Racing Design)? As a fan of their stuff since the late 80's I'd love to see them get more recognition for all their product designs and developments that were often copied by other companies. Love the RetroTech series.
Great Vid Doddy, I thought exactly the same when I saw Dakota's bike at Fort William, oh hello....a bit of a JMC feel about all of this, but I feel that they would take too much weight off the front wheel for the less steep tracks, but hay like you say Dak knows his setup and his style so fair play to him.
Seeing the pics of JMC's bikes brings back so many memories.....I must have spent SO MUCH money back then to have all of the same kit as him (but not the style or the skill). Do you think "Spin" style wheels will make a comeback? perhaps not trispoke but maybe more.
Great to meet you at The Bill and "cheers" for the fan boy moment 🤣🤣👍
Always good Doddy 🤜
i still got a code 9. lever exploded but plan to use the caliper ona different brake once i buy a bleed kit
I think mtb-tech historian would be a fitting title for you
HA, I like that - but think I have a lot to learn before I can earn that name!
Cheers Doddy, loved the vid. I feel that the dropper post will probably get a slight tweak to provide some suspension travel for a hard tail revival at some point.
20:18: Master Doddy, you are the best and the wisest. so Please make more, more videos, more live events, more Q&A sessions, just more :)
Great video Doddy looks like things are on the up for you…including your hair👍
My buddy was telling me about a new suspension stem for his gravel bike..... I said it's all been done before 😂. I also dropped him a link of John Tomac riding drops on his MTB in the early 90's. RIP JMC ❤
Kinda funny to think they were so worried about “messing up” the geometry of their “perfectly dialed” ‘80s frames.
I know right! 😂
Seeing those Softride bikes made me really nostalgic for print Bike magazine. I loved the Shitbike segments, taking that old Softride and torturing it with pro riders. Printed Bike Magazine was the best.
Always came in a pair with the Slingshot „brakecable bike“ in those segments.
I remember all this stuff. My good friend had a Proflex with a pair of Rock Shocks. Everyone would make fun of his “fancy bike”.
Didn’t know you had your own channel! Subscribed 🫡
Great content as always!
You wouldn’t have any spare onoff stoic stems laying around? Been trying to source one for ever 😅😅
Hey Doddy, in light of the recent death of Rob Reisinger how about a video on him and his brand Mountain Cycle?
I love this idea. I'll dog through old photos and stuff to see what I have
@@DoddyMTBtech awesome! I’m hoping Parcelforce man will be delivering me a Moho hardtail tomorrow, can’t wait to get it built up
Doddy is like the David Attenborough of mountain bikes .
Awesome interesting stuff👍
I still have one of those Girvins on an early 90's RB-3.
I’ve got one of Jason’s hats given to me by Jim, same as the one in dirt just a different colour, and a Chicago bulls pin badge that Jason was given by Michael Jordan, my prised possessions 😢
Talking about lugged carbon frames, the Giant Cadex has to be mentioned. A guy at our school had one of those and boy did I find it cool. My question would be: How did the tests in the magazines work back in the day? Could you choose what to test? Could you choose the frame size? Or would random bikes in random sizes appear and you grab what fits you?
Have that specialized frame in my shop, unfortunately that carbon fork tube came out. Also sets next to my 95 S Works FSR that I'm restoring ❤
Dakota is super cool…we raced dual slalom with him for a couple years while he lived in Michigan going to school (he smoked all of us every week)
I have a 97 trek 8200 and a 2008 trek 7500 frames with the original parts. Granted the parts on them where pretty gobbled. Plus have my 2019 trek marlin 5 and the one I ride the most is my 2022-2023 marlin 7 with the nukeproof horizon v2s with hyperglide with adjustable ends for different dropouts sizes and qr and thru axle. Trek has become a bigger bike brand because it thinks of the little guy that can't afford a 12,000 dollar bike. The marlin 7 is my bike I use for everything. Commuting, trail riding, and pulling a bike trailer if I don't feel like driving. Which I prefer the bike over driving. Keeps you healthy and strong. The roads here are gravel and mix stone and uneven.
Almost bought the pro flex but the specialized AIM full suspension came out and I got it which I believe would be their first FS bike 🧐
I wanna see doddy on the ride companion!!
They mentioned it a while back, but not sure I'll make the cut!
@@DoddyMTBtech what! You’re part of mtb history and an absolute legend!
Can we have a bike tour every old and new would be super interesting
Redshift stem maybe, with its pucks of different stiffnesses on a pivot design? Girvin?
Top vid Dodds!! Did I spy a Peatys Holdfast on your bike during one shot of the Mavens? I'm seriously considering getting one for new RM Altitude A50 (no in frame storage) would really like your input and a bit of a nerd-dive on them before I pull the C$60 trigger 😂
Cheers lad!
I had two girvin flexstems I've still got a damper for one knocking about in my garage
Home from home! Spot on, Doddy! I have a question about steel bikes. I absolutely love steel frames! My love for steel goes back to the late 90's and I still own my first 'proper' MTB (A '98 Orange Clockwork). Part of my love is the aesthetic, but the other part is (was) ride quality. With most modern steel frames I've ridden however, that classic 'springy' damped feeling you used to get seems to have been lost. I have a custom Marino frame, which is incredibly stiff for example. I've read on the internet that this could be because of changes in steel alloy manufacturing standards (i.e. steel is literally not made how it was and now has a different composition), is this true? Or are they just over built now? What's your take on steel frames, have you owned many? Cheers✌
I always wonder about the longevity of those mixed carbon and metal frames?
Especially with what happened to Bernard on that landing!
If we think about it, the Titan submersible that imploded was a combination of carbon fibre tubing with titanium ends! The big thing there was that the continued stressing of the hull (tube) from the deep dives produced failure points within the fibre that couldn't be seen until the finality of what happened!
Could continued stressing from jumping on these bikes produce unseen cracks in the tubing and weaken them for a sudden crash later on in its life!?
The other thing is the potential weak point where the tube is bonded/glued to the titanium parts, could this be a point of failure further down the line with potentially catastrophic results!?
Doddy! Great vid. My question? It could be a technique or set up thing? I’m not sure? I go through grips quite quickly. Particularly I wear them out on the ends where my little finger to palm sits. What do you think is wrong? Is it the bike or am I just death gripping and need to relax? Luv to hear your thoughts?
Nice video
You missed the Specialized carbon tubed lugged bikes from 1988.
Interesting choice for your hair
My god, makes me feel old knowing its 30 years since JMC moved over to the trails in the sky