# Bikes that best represent the 1990s



## dd74

Yes, I know that if I ask "What's the best road bike from the 1990s," I could be requesting a tall order. But I think anything from Masi, Cinelli, Pinarello or Colnago best represent the 1980s - at least for me. 

For the '90s, I'm clueless. Tell me which bikes best represent the '90s, or at least which bike was your favorite. 

Personally, I like the Colnago Technos. It's one bike I've experienced from that time period.


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## threesportsinone

Kestrel pretty much introduced carbon in the early 90's, that was pretty momentous.


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## sokudo

1990s were the years of americans: Cannondale, Trek.


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## uzziefly

Mercx?


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## Forrest Root

Litespeed and Ti. Oh, and my Paramount OS, made by those fine lads in Waterford.


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## rlim

uzziefly said:


> Mercx?


I'm thinking around 80's ... maybe 70's


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## velomonkey

You gotta throw in Merlin - come on, we all wanted one and dare I say we even might have used some anodized purple parts?

Kestrel was all carbon and that can't be ignored

Cannondale showed it was a great crit bike and then in the mid 90s proved to everyone you could ride aluminum in a grand tour as it handily won the giro

Merckx, Colnago, Bianchi were all enviable bikes, too.

To me the coolest team of the 90s, though, was Word Perfect. Dark Blue jersey and shorts, dark blue colnagos and dark blue volvo wagons - they still look cool even all these years later.


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## Guest

rlim said:


> I'm thinking around 80's ... maybe 70's


I'm thinking your thinker needs work.


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## stevesbike

Merlin sounds right--Titanium was the big metal of the 90s. 

As for carbon, Kestrel never got traction among roadies because of their Tri groupies. Carbon for roadies was Look-more late 80s but trickled into the American market early 90s with their KG frames. 

Aluminum was also reworked by Jim Felt into a pretty slick bike (maybe called the Answer?). It was black matte and pretty cool.


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## Guest

Everything came together in the 90's.

Steels were being re-worked in wonderful ways and used to create MAX tubing as was used in the wonderful MX Leader and new steel alloys such as Neuron and other oversize tubes came to the fore.

Aluminium had moved beyond the likes of Vitus and was starting to figure prominently in high level bikes, some great examples from the likes of Pinarello or Colnago.

Titanium was a big deal and there were lots of bikes being sold under all sorts of names even though they were made by Litespeed; Merckx, Bianchi, BAsso, etc.

Carbon was starting to show, but didn't really make a splash until the close of the decade.

The 1990's were a decade for the metals, all sorts of wonderful products that are great to this day, some of the best steel bikes ever are from the 90's.


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## uzziefly

toomanybikes said:


> I'm thinking your thinker needs work.


I think Treks really were a good representation if it were based on the American market perhaps.

I dunno, I just somehow think the mercx is around for a long time and represents a long history.


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## Guest

uzziefly said:


> I think Treks really were a good representation if it were based on the American market perhaps.
> 
> I dunno, I just somehow think the mercx is around for a long time and represents a long history.


Eddy MErckx did not start making bicycles until approximately 1980.

There were many wonderful bicycles bearing his name all through the '90's as there are now. They represent a past age no more than Colnago or Trek.

Your beloved Lance Armstrong won his World Championship on a "heavy" steel bike built by Merckx. I'm pretty sure that was in the '90's??

Trek didn't become a "deal" until 1999 / 2005 era.


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## tindrum

i remember looking at litespeeds with a certain sort of awe.... i also really lusted after a klein back then. 

i was more into mtb back then, but cannondale and the head-shok designs were the height of coolness in my opinion.


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## bikemoore

*3 important bikes*

I think there were 3 bikes that stood above all others in shaping the 1990s:

1. Colnago C40. Biggest carbon racing bike of the pro peleton in the 1990s. Great bike that the riders loved. Big pedigree of race wins. Way ahead of its time. Hardly needed to be changed for years.

2. Litespeed Ultimate. Titanium really came of age in the 1990s with a lot of different makes. Litespeed really lead the way in the public's mind as the most visible and popular line.

3. Cannondale CAAD series. First aluminum bikes in the pro peleton (after Vitus' attempt at simply substituting aluminum for steel) and the first US brand to sponsor a European pro team. At first, Euro bike makers didn't believe they would be any good and expected Cannondale's sponsorship of Saeco to flop. Within two years, all would have top-drawer aluminum models and aluminum would become the predominant material in the pro peleton until replaced by carbon in the 2000s.

P.S. I'm posting icons for my son.....no message is correct without funny icons.


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## uzziefly

toomanybikes said:


> Eddy MErckx did not start making bicycles until approximately 1980.
> 
> There were many wonderful bicycles bearing his name all through the '90's as there are now. They represent a past age no more than Colnago or Trek.
> 
> Your beloved Lance Armstrong won his World Championship on a "heavy" steel bike built by Merckx. I'm pretty sure that was in the '90's??
> 
> Trek didn't become a "deal" until 1999 / 2005 era.


Yeah so I was kinda right bout Merckx being a 90's bike perhaps. 

Oh yeah, you're right, Treks are more of a 2000 onwards bike.


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## bigbill

I entered the 90's riding a Raleigh 753 with dura ace. I rode that until 1993 when I bought a polished Litespeed Classic with a kestrel fork and moved the parts over and went STI. Cannondale from 1996 to 1999. 

Cannondales were the bang for the buck choice of the 90's IMHO. 

1999 was the year I bought the Merckx MXL and went Campy. 

I never owned a bike with neon yellow, green, or orange paint but I rode with plenty of people who did.


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## Fivethumbs

Colnago C-40s ridden by Mapei.

Tri color fade Lemonds ridden by Z.

Merckx ridden by Motorola and Telekom.


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## Howzitbroke

Those tri-color Lemonds were made by Calfee. One of my innovator of the 90's picks.
Litespeed bringing ti to the masses.
Trek and the OCLV line up.

My tigged 853 Steelman single speed ruled 1999.


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## MarvinK

The 90s were all about mountain bikes--but I would say it was the decade for titanium on the road. Lightspeed was the most widely recognized name, but Merlin made better bikes. You could include either--or both.

Big tube aluminum (Cannondale 3.0, Klein Quantum) made their first big splash in the late 80s. Kestrel was also late 80s with the 4000. I think both of those should make the 80s category--but not the 90s. If you wanted aluminum to make a 90s list--I'd pick a Klein because of Seinfeld, or Cannondale for the pro sponsorship.

Colnago did seem to have the best handle on carbon with the C40, and maybe the Kestrel 200SC for early 90s. Most carbon fiber bikes were terrible--I'm sure Trek would rather be included in the 2000s for their OCLV, than the 90s for their terrible lugged carbon flex frames.

We did see a lot of creative manipulation of steel--and I'd include it because it was also the decade of steel's last hurrah (at least for the masses). I'd pick a Merckx, Pinarello, DeRosa or maybe a Lemond with Reynolds 853 or Columbus MAX or other special steel tubing.

Really, though, if I was making a timeline of bicycles--I think I'd just hang a sign that said "Gone Mountain Biking" because it reduced the road bike market spotlight for nearly the entire decade.


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## Guest

uzziefly said:


> Yeah so I was kinda right bout Merckx being a 90's bike perhaps.
> .


Clearly, I haven't explained it correctly.


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## gregwjs

My contribution:

Coors Light Lemond - Dura ace 8 speed with down tube shifters:










Merlin - Dura Ace 8 speed with STI










Lemond SLX with Campy Record/Chorus 8 speed










Trek 2300 with Ultegra 8 Speed STI - Note the ultra cool carbon fiber front triangle and aluminum rear triangle.


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## StreamerT10

1. Trek OCLV
2. CAAD
3. Litespeed - Can you say Colorado Cyclist? Used to drool over those catalogs as a kid.

Also had some bizarre, yet classic incarnations of the bike (to the delight of the tri-geeks):

Zipp 2001, Softride...


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## Fivethumbs

That Coors Light Lemond is effin sweet!!


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## cydswipe

A 90's party? I'm the life of it!


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## cpark

Ride of Indurain, Alex Zulle, Jan, Bjarnes Riis... - Pinarello.


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## Guest

cpark said:


> Ride of Indurain, Alex Zulle, Jan, Bjarnes Riis... - Pinarello.


Except that the rides of Indurain, Zulle, Ullrich and Riis were not Pinarellos.

They were Pegorettis.


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## Fivethumbs

And sometimes they were TVTs!


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## Tbirdbassist




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## Lickety Split

How about my Quattro Assi Scandium from 99.
New material then.
Ami I thinkin or stinkin?
LS


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## gregwjs

Fivethumbs said:


> That Coors Light Lemond is effin sweet!!


But wait, there's more!  There's lots of frame detail on this bike.


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## Creakyknees

oh man... that Modolo "face plant" stem... hope you're not riding that!


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## gregwjs

Creakyknees said:


> oh man... that Modolo "face plant" stem... hope you're not riding that!



I ride the Merlin. :thumbsup:


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## Fivethumbs

I wish pros still rode bikes like that Coors Light Lemond. It just looks like what I think of when I hear Tour de France ( I'm a big Lemond fan). By the way, what's with the tires? I hope that bike is not a mudder. It's too classy.


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## FatTireFred

the 90s had it all... steel, alu, ti, carbon


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## scmaddog17

i'd say that the early 90's were still steel driven. move to the middle part and while steel was still there, Ti, alu and a bit of carbon were now in the mix. by the end of the decade, steel was being pushed out by alu and carbon, and i think Ti was giving it a run too. that Coors light frame is nice, don't see many TSX frames anymore even for sale on ebay.... well at least not in my size!!


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## Henry Chinaski

bikemoore said:


> I think there were 3 bikes that stood above all others in shaping the 1990s:
> 
> 1. Colnago C40. Biggest carbon racing bike of the pro peleton in the 1990s. Great bike that the riders loved. Big pedigree of race wins. Way ahead of its time. Hardly needed to be changed for years.
> 
> 2. Litespeed Ultimate. Titanium really came of age in the 1990s with a lot of different makes. Litespeed really lead the way in the public's mind as the most visible and popular line.
> 
> 3. Cannondale CAAD series. First aluminum bikes in the pro peleton (after Vitus' attempt at simply substituting aluminum for steel) and the first US brand to sponsor a European pro team. At first, Euro bike makers didn't believe they would be any good and expected Cannondale's sponsorship of Saeco to flop. Within two years, all would have top-drawer aluminum models and aluminum would become the predominant material in the pro peleton until replaced by carbon in the 2000s.
> 
> P.S. I'm posting icons for my son.....no message is correct without funny icons.


Agree, I'd just add the OCLV.


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## kiwisimon

Giant later half of the decade with compact frames, Pinarellos or were they Lightspeeds?, Colnago C40 for upping the bar on carbon. Anything made with Colombus SLX.


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## gregwjs

Fivethumbs said:


> I wish pros still rode bikes like that Coors Light Lemond. It just looks like what I think of when I hear Tour de France ( I'm a big Lemond fan). By the way, what's with the tires? I hope that bike is not a mudder. It's too classy.



I did one dry cyclocross race on it this fall. I wanted to see what it was like to do a cross race on a road bike. It was the only one I had accesss to that would fit commuter tires, so it got the call. It's actually my dad's bike. He road it for a little bit before getting a custom steel frame made in the early 90's. I'd bet the bike has less than 2000 miles on it and not a scratch. No way I would've ridden it if there was a hint of mud on the course.


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## buck-50

gregwjs said:


> But wait, there's more!  There's lots of frame detail on this bike.


That's what I miss about bikes from that era- it's a top of the line racing bike and it'll still fit relatively fat tires. 

Fantastic. 

I always wanted one of the team zed LeMonds- that was my favorite paint scheme ever.


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## foggypeake

Don't forget this beautiful DeRosa. Team EPO, uh.., Ballan from 1994. Even Graham Watson mentioned in his book that their 1-2-3 win at Fleche Wallone was due to certain "unnatural advantages". Gorgeous bike though.


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## jolnar

Armstrong won the '93 world camp on a caloi badged ti frame that caloi had Merckx built, who in turn contracted the build to Litespeed. The frame was a modified Ultimate.


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## buck-50

I've wanted one of these since the first time I saw one... but only if I could get it with the Mavic components...


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## MIN in PDX

Any bike with this: 










:sigh:


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## mandasol

I was in college in the early 90's and had been a mountain biker and didn't have much much interest in road cycling. Then the Tour Du Pont came into town. A bar in town sponsored an even where they had a few of the pro's bikes on display, and had a meet and greet for the fans and riders. I was talking to someone in the bar when I noticed a Serotta -- it was love at first sight. While I was wiping the drool off my face, my opinion of road cycling completely changed. Soon after I bought a road bike, and my mountain bike has hardly seen use since. 

My vote goes to Serotta. While I'm not really a fan of their current bikes, in the '90's they were pretty hot.


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## CurbDestroyer

Any frame made from Carbon TVT


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## zero85ZEN

*Here you go....*



CurbDestroyer said:


> Any frame made from Carbon TVT


This bike pretty much spanned the decade...frame from around 1990 and some components from '97 or later and everything in between.



Only thing that doesn't fit the decade is the threadless headset setup and the Nokon cable housing.


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## texbike

jolnar said:


> Armstrong won the '93 world camp on a caloi badged ti frame that caloi had Merckx built, who in turn contracted the build to Litespeed. The frame was a modified Ultimate.


Actually Armstrong's bike from the Worlds in 1993 was decaled as a Merckx. Caloi didn't sponsor the Motorola team until 1995 (and 1996).

Titanium was really the "IT" material for a good portion of the 1990s. However, my favorites from the period are:

1. Merckx MX Leader (Motorola and Telekom colors)
2. Colnago Master (Master Light, Master X Light, etc)
3. Colnago C40
4. Pink Telekom Pinarellos
5. Pantani's Celeste and yellow Bianchi

Those are the bikes that made my mouth water when I first saw them. 

Cheers,

Texbike


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## CurbDestroyer

Team Crest Cannondales
Team Wheaties Schwinns


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## FatTireFred

CurbDestroyer said:


> Team Crest Cannondales
> Team Wheaties Schwinns




7-Eleven Serottas/Huffys (or whatever they finished with)
Motorola Merckxs/Calois
Mapei Colnagos
Saeco Cannondales
USPostal Treks


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## Eric_H

*Two more for me*

Lots of great replies here, but there are another two bikes that epitomize the 90s for me:

1) The PDM-issue Concorde as ridden by Sean Kelly and Erik Breukink circa 1990 and 1991. Those bikes just seemed to be the essence of European bike racing right when I was getting into the sport.

http://grahamwatson.com/dublin/kelly/image2.html

2) The yellow ONCE-issue Look KG as ridden by Laurent Jalabert and Alex Zulle circa 1994-97. Those two guys won so many races during this period, the yellow Look was synonymous with victory.

http://www.grahamwatson.com/2002/jalabert/image11.html


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## RC28

Howzitbroke said:


> *Those tri-color Lemonds were made by Calfee*. One of my innovator of the 90's picks.
> Litespeed bringing ti to the masses.
> Trek and the OCLV line up.
> 
> My tigged 853 Steelman single speed ruled 1999.


The tri-color Lemonds, along with the Coors Light version shown elsewhere in this thread were NOT Calfees. Some of the earlier Lemonds were made by Ronald Della Santa in Nevada but these (the steel ones) were actually contracted out to a builder in Italy...Billato I believe it was. They were imported at the time by Ten Speed Drive Imports. The tri-color carbons (including the one he won the '90 World Championships ) were made by TVT at the time.

The Calfees started showing up in 1991, back when they were known as CarbonFrames. They had a distinct feature compared to other CarbonFrames: horizontal titanium dropouts. At around the same time, some Ti frames were being made as well, by Clark Kent IIRC.


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## gregwjs

My red Lemond was a Della Santa bike. It's an Alpe d' Huez. It was painted by CycleArt in San Marcos California. I believe the Coors Light one came through Ten Speed Drive Imports. 

Both are neat bikes. I was convinced at the time that my red Lemond was "slower" and not a great climbing bike because of the steel and the geometry. I rode it on for fun and raced a Cannondale 3.0 bike. In retrospect, that's a 20 something year old believing the marketing hype more than likely. The more likely culprit was the gearing. It's got a 53/42 on it with a 12/21 8 speed. I'm pretty certain the 39/21 on the Cannondale is what made it the better climbing bike. 

Kids....


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## eldarko

Early 90's Serotta with silver solder lugs, and custom paint.


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## galanz

Anything with purple anodized parts.


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## Cheers!

The 90s was the era of Aluminum Alloys. 

Kleins, Cannondales... you name it. Aluminum back then is what is carbon fibre to today. 

Near the end of the 90s I remember seeing carbon tubes bonded to aluminum lugs.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

LeMond V2 Boomerang:









I remember in 1996 passing up some fat guy riding on one of those bikes, and I was wondering to myself, “WTF is wrong with this picture???” as I sped past on my $1000 1993 Trek 2100.


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## Forrest Root

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> LeMond V2 Boomerang:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I remember in 1996 passing up some fat guy riding on one of those bikes, and I was wondering to myself, “WTF is wrong with this picture???” as I sped past on my $1000 1993 Trek 2100.


Dunno. What was wrong with the picture? Do you need to go a certain speed to be allowed to buy what you like?


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## scmaddog17

i've got a Concorde painted in PDM colors!! this one's not mine, i'll have to get a pic of it and post.


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## goldsbar

MarvinK said:


> Really, though, if I was making a timeline of bicycles--I think I'd just hang a sign that said "Gone Mountain Biking" because it reduced the road bike market spotlight for nearly the entire decade.


I started riding in the early/mid 90's - on a mountain bike of course - and have to agree with this statement. Nearly everyone I knew from our local shop, including former hardcore roadies, spent the majority of their time on a mountain bike. Mountain biking introduced and reintroduced a lot of people into the sport. Now it seems to be more of an even split.


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## LetsGoOutside

Caad + Litespeed = 1990's


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## aptivaboy

Kestrel. There was a time when that's all I saw on the road. 
LOUD colored Serottas, all neon and flashy.
Team Z Lemond.
Motorola Merckx MXL/MAX. 
Merlins. 

Just my list. I have the Lemond and the Serotta in the stable.


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## bradkay

In 1994 Gery Klein introduced the apex of the aluminum road bike: the Quantum Pro. I remember the buzz going around the '94 Seattle Bike Show: "Did you see that 14 1/2 pound bike Klein has?" It was displayed hanging from a scale in a display that had ten 100 watt floodlights focused on it - highlighting a gorgeous multi-color paint job. 

The bike was made with a new aluminum alloy that Klein called "Gradient" (and Trek renamed ZR900 a few years later). Gary had worked with Alcoa to come up with a new alloy that had a higher fatigue strength than standard 6061, allowing him to taper the tube walls much thinner, shaving off weight without sacrificing strength. Unfortunately the stuff was enormously expensive and difficult to work with, resulting in delayed production and a need to sell the company. 

The bike had many advances that are now prevalent in the industry twenty years later: tapered headtube, press fit headset and bottom bracket, wide ovalized downtube by the bottom bracket resulting in reduced lateral flex, internal cable routing... truly a quantum leap forward in bicycle technology.

Admittedly, Gary cheated a little to bring the weight of that DuraAce equipped bike down to 14.5lbs. I recall that he did not glue the tubular tires onto the rims, he changed every bolt that he possibly could to a titanium bolt and he cut a couple of inches off the bottom of the seatpost.


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## crossracer

The 1989-1999 was a fantastic time to be in bikes. Some things where just showing up, others hadn't arrived yet. Here are a few I like. 

Trek and cannondale brought aluminum to the masses. 

Merlin and later light speed brought Ti to those who could afford it. 

Shimano blew up huge

Suntour died 

Campy almost died, then recovered . But it was close. Campy has never really recovered in the us. IMHO

Aerobars. 

Power bars. Lordy those where the original power food ugh. 

Sti. Huge game changer.

Most bikes in 1989 had 7 speeds, by 1999 it was 9

Wheels went from super custom to more off the shelf. A trend that accelerated rapidly after that. 

Clipless went from simple clunky look pedals and exploded with quite a few failures. 

But the bike of the decade was the trek oclv series. These bikes brought real carbon to the masses. Carbon that was both functional and beautiful. These bikes may not be genesis of carbon bikes, but they really showed what could be done. 

Bill


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## Bridgestone

threesportsinone said:


> Kestrel pretty much introduced carbon in the early 90's, that was pretty momentous.


No, Kestrel introduced carbon in the late eighties.


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