90’s Mountain Bike / ATB – pros and cons

Bike mechanic Paul takes his early 90’s Cinelli ATB on his local XC rides.
Will this retro mountain bike be able to handle modern trails? @CinelliBicyclesOfficial

Most of the parts on this bike are original 90’s Shimano @RideShimano

You can find more out about this bike here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM7-zJeG6L4&t=314s

Check out this beautiful GT Zaskar : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Z2JT7KR7A&list=PLfYdb7ReeNlfNeY2OEw_ZuctHuNYUMD-c&index=9

We are Velo Works. A small independent bicycle business specialising in hand built wheels, vintage bike restorations, servicing and repair as well as running an online shop for components and groupsets. Find out more about us here: https://www.veloworkshop.co.uk/

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We are Sarah and Paul and love all things cycling including retro and vintage bikes, bike touring, mountain biking and much more.

hi I’m Paul from Valex and everywhere I look here in the UK it’s like we’ve gone back to the ’90s everyone’s dressed as they’re from the 90s you can listen to Nostalgia music from the ’90s so I thought it was really appropriate that I dig out my lovely chanelli 98b and see how it copes on today’s Trails come join me so we’re here at the Ashton Court trails in Bristol I believe we’re on the Supernova Trail at the moment and when I was a lad when me and Sarah were growing up the bikes for mountain biking were very different these days big Wheels Motors suspension hydraulic seat posts dropper posts that are not hydraulic it’s very much when I look at a modern mountain bike they’re very different even in stature they’re just so much bigger so this is the type of bike that we would have ridden when we were younger this is exact bike that Sarah has ridden for 20 years and what she was riding when she first got into mountain biking so it’s got like 100 to 120 mil travel on the front you got disc brakes no droper post if you wanted the seat down you just undid the quick release pushed it down at the start of the trail and pulled it back up at the end very basic 26 in Wheels kind of 2.1 2.2 wide tires good to go it’s lasted Sarah 20 years just she loves it absolutely loves it she’s been so happy going through these Trails again she haven’t been here probably for a good over 10 years it’s been really nice to come back here now if we go back to the 90s which is what we’re focusing on this is more your traditional kind of what they call ATB so allterrain bike we have done a separate video on this bike in particular but just to give you a brief history I found it a few years ago and it had never been used in 30 years I think it’s like 1994 maybe 93 or 92 but it’s almost 30 years old and it had never been used so I was the first to do the marks on the rims and I absolutely love it it makes a really good bike and they’re really super cost effective if you want tock pick one of these up you’re looking at maybe like two or 300 quid which I know can be a lot of money for someone but actually in terms of getting a really all round usable bike they’re perfect good a little bit good at everything but what we’re going to do today is push it and see if it’s still good on the trails I’ve just done a lovely bit of red track it’s a bit swooping and it was really good what I would say about the trails here is even though something’s red oh here’s a biker let’s have a look oh loves it so that bike that was I think Santa Cruz but that had like 180 mil travel I think 29 in Wheels rear travel it was carbon fiber just a very different look and also the rider himself is very much back which obviously is better if you want to take the trails whereas this you’re very steeped over but again I love it so I want to see what this bike can do talk about the trails this is a red Trail and there’s blue Trails if you go up to places like Wales or Scotland the trails are a bit more intense we’re going to see what it does on this kind of country Park Red Trail um so far the swooping stuff it’s been brilliant it’s going to have its limitations it’s got V brakes but I’m ready to go the 90s were a glorious time for mountain biking it was the time when you actually went to a bike shop to make a purchase you saw adverts in the back of magazines that were get you all excited you bought magazines with the likes of Hans Ray who GT paay to do stupid stuff on their Zaskar it was just a sweet time so the bike feels great especially at the flowing single track but what are the pros and the cons of having a bike like this let’s start with the cons because I want to end with the positive because I love this bike so cons we don’t have any suspension not great on the wrists not great I would say in very routy terrain still does it really well but yeah it’s nice to have that forgiveness uh when you got loads of roots and loads of rocks but it’s still perfectly manageable you don’t have a load a wide loads of Tire Choice usually on all these atbs around by the chain say they’re always quite thin so this bike would really really struggle with a 2.2 I have a feeling that these are actually like a 1.95 so you’re a little bit limited on Tire Choice and then because everyone’s gone towards 650b 27.5 and 29s manufacturers don’t offer loads um so there’s a little bit of a limitation there the angle is quite steep so obviously that’s really good maybe a bit more racer angle depends what type of trails you’re doing um you might want to be a little bit more relaxed or you want a little bit less pressure on your hands for me it’s a really nice riding position I guess the big one is the brakes now my personal view is you can’t be a strong set of Rim brakes of a mountain bike these are can levers where there’s a lot of cable that operates them and you also get V brakes I’ve got V brakes on my Touring bike and they are amazing I think generally breaking on here at this angle away from the Hub is is a stronger place to break but obviously disc braks are better they just they just are so that is a bit of the downside breaking in the wet I haven’t noticed much breaking difference today it’s nice and dry breaking in the wet very squeaky and you have to make sure that you kind of almost dry the rim before you do a full-on break so yeah definitely the brakes are a bit of the downside you also need Wheels a lot so if I took this bike on these Trails all the time the fine grit would just eat and eat away the pads and they would also eat and eat away the alloy rim for me I’m really happy to take that disadvantage with the brakes I don’t do the same kind of mountain biking that I used to do so for me having some nice braks some really nice old school can levers isn’t a bother for me so I think I’ve covered it let me know if that you feel as there are any more cons we’ll go on to the pros so Pros as you probably gathered and I’ve mentioned I love this bike what are the pros I think the main Pro for me is the price you can pick one of these up I reckon from anywhere between 200 to 400 in relatively good condition for me that is a great Buy in this current market where it’s really expensive to buy a bike to get something that’s such a versatile bike it’s not going to win any downhill races it’s not going to win any gravel races it’s not a folding bike it’s not a brilliant commuter but what it is is it’s good at every little bit of those bikes of every genre and it still makes a really good mountain bike for a very nice flowy Trail I just did a drop off and it’s not too bad I wouldn’t go out and do that all the time and I’m not really looking for that type of riding but it is wonderful I think that all the components on these bikes this is Shimano Dior DX and as mentioned there is a video where we go into the bike a little bit more they’re proper components they last years and years and years another thing with these bikes is you’ve got 21 gears I think 21 on this one 21 I mean that was like when I was younger oh let’s have a look this won’t go as fast as that so that is a little con of this one he was he was really giving it some then and I guess that is what is brilliant about modern mountain bikes but going back to the gears when Shimano sis came out as a 21 speed wooo it was off the chart you know we’re only 20 30 years on from that you know and these bikes are still super usable there’s a huge fway culture I know that there’s loads of these sat in people’s sheds not being used I reckon they should come out and be use because they were in lockdown 26inch Wheels came back in lockdown we couldn’t even find an inner tube anywhere because everyone was gravitating back to these bikes that they had when they were younger so won’t waffle on anymore Pros super comfortable bike good at everything still really good at very entrylevel swooping mountain biking great load of gears and just a beautiful statement piece so super happy so thanks for joining us hope you enjoyed the video going back to the 90s with this lovely chanelli ATB and Sarah’s Kona pooy Hoy I love this bike I think it’s great I think this has a real purpose as I’ve mentioned in today’s world let us know what you ride or what you have ridden in the past and let us know your experience of riding 90s mountain bikes see you next time