[“Get it, you gotta get it ‘fore it’s gone…“]*
*{Song lyrics by Pokey LaFarge}
{Photos: Flow Mountain Bike}
I’m sat, muddy, on the side of the trail contemplating my misfortune. A very last millisecond release of my red Ritchey clipless {clip-in} pedals, the fresh ‘dint’ in my helmet, and the in-progress delamination of my base-model Nike shoes. My dark blue, rigid forked, Iron Horse* is upside down, off to the side of the trail. From a few feet away, I can see that the drivetrain is askew. Ass-skewered, even. The STX-RC derailleur has proven bombproof, so that probably means nodding my way through yet another ‘This is probably the last time we can straighten this derailleur hanger before it snaps off‘ spiel from the local mechanics. Steel. It’s real?!
I had just hit up my mom for money to replace the front wheel after a multi-mechanic-tears-of-laughter-inducing “Do you think this is trueable?” shop visit. The hanger I could almost see myself trying to fix at home, but I’ve been warned away from trying to straighten my own hanger with my pop’s biggest crescent wrench. When there’s a specific tool for a job, there’s usually a reason for that.
“All good?”
I look up towards the rider who has stopped to check in, but my eyes dawdle on the polished aluminum Zaskar LE he’s straddling. A Yellow RockShox Judy up front. Green Michelin WildGripper tires. Can-only-be-XTR grey v-brake upgrade. No, it’s full XTR. Woah, that’s a sweet bike!
“Ha, I guess you’re fine then!”
What a rig. And in the thirty years since I can’t see a ’90s Zaskar LE – anodized blue, anodized purple, ball burnished – in person or online without taking a moment to linger on it. One of the very few times in my riding life where I’ve genuinely coveted another person’s bicycle. In fact, the only other machine that comes to mind is Tay’s just-right coaster-brake Kona Klunker that should have been mine instead of selling it to whomever**.
*{A cheap(er) pseudo-GT almost-copy/rip-off down to the externalized triple-triangle}
**{I hope they’re happy together. I would have given it such a loving home, but, clearly, I’m not bitter at all}
{Photo: Flow Mountain Bike}
[I’m gonna live life just like a butterfly
It’s here today, then kiss the world goodbye
Noon is breaking, I’m making my way, ay-ay-ay
Don’t throw shade on my sunny day]
[What do I know?] I can understand why so many folks didn’t share my lament for GT Bicycles’ years of irrelevance under and eventual shuttering by PON. Wyn Masters, to his credit, was the most interesting thing happening there over the last decade. And, honestly, what do I know? But the return to a Horst Link suspension layout was such an opportunity for a boost of retro energy. That flat-top-tube aesthetic, ball burnished frames, anodized frames, all with chonky aluminum welds. Classic names – LTS, Lobo DH, Zaskar. Maybe even a steel Timberline?
With Santa Cruz fully focused on frames made of fantastic-plastic, and Cannondale doing Cannondale things in whichever material, GT could have stood alone as an aluminum-first mountain, gravel, and BMX brand. Focus on the old way, selling a pile of good looking, current geo, low-to-middle-end rigs with some bright polished metal at the peak of the mountain.
Yes, okay, I recognize fully the struggles the industry is going through. Not just in trying to build-box-ship-sell new bicycles but also in the massive monetary risks involved in chasing that e-MTB dragon. Holding onto that thrashing tail while avoiding a toothy gnashing; being mauled by elevated, design, shipping, and inventory costs, margin-eating after-sales-support, turbo-speed obsolescence, and a coquettish but capricious customer base flirting ever closer to straight-up throttle-twaddling whilst clinging to their cycling story.
So maybe a nostalgia rooted return to their cycling culture driving peak wouldn’t have been a difference maker. But I would have loved to see them try.[/What do I know?]
{Photo: Flow Mountain Bike}
[You spend too much time locked up in that room
Worried about what you was gonna do
People are dying, friends are far away, ay-ay-ay
Later is always too late, later is always too late
Later is always too late]
I’ve been thinking a lot about GT All Terra since the sudden announcement, after 43-years in business, of PMW’s closing. In life, and online, for every rider generally sad or even shell shocked there seem to be three who simply can’t bring themselves to dig deeper than to remark ad nauseum that one little machine shop going out of business isn’t a bit deal. Anyone with a CNC machine can make that stuff if there’s really demand for it. Additive manufacturing is replacing reductive manufacturing anyway. There’s plenty of places in Asia making equivalent parts and it’s way cheaper to buy a production-line frame.
Maybe it’s all true. But, Paragon’s been around for some very cool mountain bike moments, and their parts have appeared on a lot of super sweet small batch and custom rigs, including a couple of ours chez MEAT. In fact, I have some sweet PMW dropouts put aside for my eventual V3 build. I have no doubt that the small builders will survive – thrive even if we don’t count paying themselves a living wage – but that’s not actually the point. For four decades PNW’s chief contribution was to cycling culture, not componentry. And impressively, in different ways, they were a driver for their whole history. That’s unlike so many companies that live on forever in name only.
{Photo: Flow Mountain Bike}
[You better get it ‘fore it’s gone
Get it ‘fore it’s gone, oh-yeah
Get it ‘fore it’s gone
Get it now
Gone, gone, they get gone
Get it, you gotta get it ‘fore it’s gone
Get it ‘fore it’s gone]
What’s in a name? I can’t look at any Ibis without seeing the sweet steel Mojo that Sandra Walter lapped me on in nineteen ninety whatever. At least, I think it was her. I was vision-quest-done at that point in whatever event I’d foolishly entered. Every time I think about closed companies I can’t help but do a quick flip through the buy-and-sell to see if there’s a size-long Balfa Minuteman listed. The other day I wondered who owns the best-ever model name ‘Sovereign’, still Brodie? Paul had the best slogan too, ‘hand-built racing art.‘
Yeah, so. For a myriad of reasons, the creative culture of cycling is changing faster than ever. The classic brand names and history don’t carry nearly the cache, or monetary value, they once did. I know in-the-know folks who were shocked that Rocky Mountain – bikes.com – wasn’t picked up straight away off waivers. And, I think the end of PMW is a peak event.
Anywho, if you have the means and there’s a small builder you’ve been thinking about supporting with a project. Maybe you’re thinking of a curvy classic Retrotec, or crafty new-age Calgary-Kruch, a decadent Dekerf, nice Naked, a well thought out Waltworks, a sweet Schön, consummate Canadian Chromag, nifty True North, money Monē, original Oddity, wicked WZRD, some persnickety Paul Components, or etc. Or maybe a micro-batch production brand – Stooge, Cotic, Starling, Reeb, etc. Or even a specific sexy machine from one of the larger players, say the freshest flex-pivot sag wagon from Transition, Kona, Rocky, etc. Well, they could be around a decade, or two, or off the market next week, so get it ‘fore it’s gone.
And, if mountain bicycles are just another commodity to you, well, that’s okay. But don’t throw shade on my sunny day.
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