Old school gear that should stay old school

[BroDeal]

Lots of crazy ideas should stay in the past.

These were pretty cool.

 

[analo69]

What is that wire from the belly to the frame on the Italian time tralist?

 

[JayKosta]

The TT wire is to hold the rider's hips in place and to provide a pseudo 'back support' to allow increased pedel force.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

 

[lostintime]

Fairings for your face ..... friggin' huuuge !

 

[BroDeal]

Fairings for your face ..... friggin' huuuge !

I actually think those are retro cool.

I wish I could find a pic of that water bottle bladder that attached behind a saddle and had a tube that ran to the bars. You would pump it up to pressurize it.

These things rotated your saddle a little when you used them. Very annoying.

 

[ElChingon]

Anyone riding a retro bike should be required to have those on their bike/body.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Shimano BioPace? Except that gets re-invented about once a decade or so...

Early bonded alloy/carbon frames and forks. Alan's come to mind. A few others like that are just plain hazardous to ride.

Tioga Tension Disk.

Shimano U-Brake

Onza clipless pedals were fiddley, but controversial for some.

There was a company that did some plastic discs that clipped onto your spoke wheels for a more aero profile. Those were a pain.

Slightly off topic, the one I miss the most are the little wire tire sweepers. No room in the average frame for them any more. Very controversial to show up at a local competitive ride with those things back in the day.

They used to sell a tear-off kit for those Oakleys. Worked for me. Dusty NORBA racing was far better with the tear-offs. Not enough people racing for them to be relevant now.

 

[BroDeal]

There was a company that did some plastic discs that clipped onto your spoke wheels for a more aero profile. Those were a pain.

Unidisk. I had one of those. Most of the actual disks were flat sided, so I don't think they were any more aero than the wheel covers.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Lever-operated FD:

Shifting as demonstated by dude on right:

 

[BroDeal]

I didn't realize that they brought back the Thudbuster. I cannot remember seeing one for a long time.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

I didn't realize that they brought back the Thudbuster. I cannot remember seeing one for a long time.

See a lot on ridged 29'rs and adventure bikes.

 

[Boeing]

See a lot on ridged 29'rs and adventure bikes.

I use the roadie version shown here on a rigid 29 ss. All the bouncing when spinning out on flats etc.

Bro I dont think it ever went anywhere.

I like the RockShox post years ago

Soft ride or Garvin suspension stems are old cool

VIVA shimano XT sharkfin chainstay/suck protectors

 

[Boeing]

Panaracer Smoke and Dart Rear and front specific tires!

 

[marathon marke]

LOL Oh, yeah.

 

[marathon marke]

I wish I could find a pic of that water bottle bladder that attached behind a saddle and had a tube that ran to the bars. You would pump it up to pressurize it.

I don't remember those, but there was a water-filled saddle cushion around for a while (for race saddles, yet). I would hate to think how you might have to explain a "leak".

These things rotated your saddle a little when you used them. Very annoying.

I had one of those on my first mtn bike. It was called the "Rite-Hite", if I remember correctly. You could slam your seat down for long downhills, and slam it back up when climbing. Yeah, "rite"!

 

[BroDeal]

The worst MTB suspension ever.

 

[Parera]

The worst MTB suspension ever.

Damn. Was the designer drunk when they came up with that design?

 

[FignonLeGrand]

Damn. Was the designer drunk when they came up with that design?

Whether suspension or not, it didnt work. Is the pic of an original orange mtn bike v cool. I had a tushingham which was same colour.

My mate had a cannondale with a 24inch back wheel, that didnt hand around for long either.