This top 10 is not in a particular order,..just a top 10
so here is number 9 -> The Mountain cycle San Andreas.....
In the late eighties Robert Reisinger, A engineering student at Cal Poly State University, knew there had to be a better way.
Robert was taking a beating riding his fully rigid mountain bike around San Luis Obispo. Drawing on his experience as a motorcross racer and Team Kawasaki R&D grunt, Robert created the first inverted mountain bike fork (The Suspenders)
The original fork had superior rigidity and about 2 inches of travel. Many of today’s current forks are based on this original Mountain Cycle design.
In 2000, Robert, along with four others, received an award from Mountain Bike magazine for contributions to the Bicycle industry. This award was the Mountain Bike 15th year Anniversary Award for the “Most Significant Product” in Mountain Biking.
The ProStop Disc Brake speaks for itself, after years of uphill battle in which Mountain Cycle/ProStop was not only the leader, but the founder of this technology, the disc brake has found a home in the cycling industry. A good case could be made that many present day companies would not exist in the form they do, without the influence of ProStop.
In 1991, Mountain Cycle introduced the San Andreas, the first production monocoque in the bicycle industry. A revolution ensued. A look around at today’s bicycles shows that there are few companies that have escaped the design influence of Robert Reisinger and Mountain Cycle. Monocoque frames abound. The movable sub frame, a Mountain Cycle innovation is one of the most copied features in the industry.
The sub frame was introduced by Mountain Cycle on the San Andreas in 1991 and it was 4 years before it started showing up on competitor’s bikes, now this feature is everywhere. This innovation alone is worth the price of his admission to the Hall of Fame, both as an innovative way to size a frame and as a beneficial solution to production issue.
The ShockWave DH frame was one of the first 8-inch travel frames on the market. Taking monocoque technology to a new level, it introduced an integrated chainguide, a detachable BashGuard (still the only one in the industry), replaceable dropouts and the steerer stop on the front end. This steerer stop is another masterful innovation. With the advent of triple crown forks, many frames incur damage in the area behind the head tube. The steerer stop ends this issue. Integrated into the frame and with a detachable donut type device with rubber ring, it’s simple, elegant, and effective.
Mountain Cycle was the first and is still the only company in the bicycle industry to produce a complete line of monocoque frames. With the introduction of it’s new, 2001, Tremor FR-1 it keeps this tradition going.
Mountain cycle still makes the best of the best and can be found here: Mountaincycle San Andreas
The top 10 -> MIMTBE
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2 comments:
I thought it was overkill at the time - but that bike was way ahead of its time.
overkill for sure but absolutely a bike i looked for in the early 90's,..but did not have the money.
I think it is to heavy btw
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