History, legacy, one of those phrases is probabally more accurate than "oldschool". Oldschool is a pet peeve of mine. Kids today(damn them) use it as a derisive term, or a simple description for stuff they think is outdated or obsolete.
The past is never obsolete. Crusty old dudes are and always will be just as important to the sport as new blood.
preserving traditions, and keeping them mainstream is such an important thing to me. A sport without roots is meaningless, perspective is necessary as hell, otherwise we're all just Triatheletes.
When it comes to "Old School", my 13 year old Metalhead hasn't changed much, and the riding hasn't changed at all. I stopped riding it for a few years as I built and tested new bikes. I own a bike company. It's like doctors smoking and the shoe-less cobbler, you never have something new for long, if you have it at all.
When it comes to what "works", be it fashion or physics, I don't believe that anything ever changes.
The Metalhead established and defined a genre- Slalom/Dirtjump/thrashbikes. Back in the day Spooky sold hundreds of them a month. Several magazines have put the frame in the same category as M-Frames, Flite saddles and the original Shimano DX pedal, a "Design Classic". I just built mine back up with parts I had laying around recently as I was desperate to have a bike with wheels bigger than 20" for getting around on. Rad parts. Edge wheels w/King, a Reba, XT cranks- these modern parts are both stronger and lighter than anything that existed in 1997. They were also the only parts I had that would work. When I slapped the modern parts onto my old frame I had a stunning realization- Down to a .25 degree variation in head angle, this thing has the same geometry as one of our coming production frames. I use it for all the same stuff- dirtjumping, riding around town, riding a touch of slalom and occasionally shredding some trails. I use $3000 worth of parts on a 13 year old bike to do exactly the same thing I was doing then, except I have more fun. So I'm doing something I never thought I'd do. We're building the same damn bikes again. Same machine parts, same geometry. It's not oldschool, it's not newschool. It's just a bike for riding the way people always have.
I don't miss my toeclips, but fuck, I sure miss having to scrounge embrocation, treat my chamois so it didn't dry out and most importantly, I miss strong local cycling clubs that actually recruited kids like me to ride bikes and focused more on respect than any thing else. Cycling is supposedly more accessible now, but I'd beg to differ. Owning and riding an expensive bike is more accessible. Becoming a cyclist, learning the ropes is harder. You can't really learn to pull through on the internet, or to look forward through a corner. You are never going to have someone chide you into properly setting up your hoods or wearing your hat right. Cat1's and 2's have become a dime a dozen, certainly not the marble gods they seemed to be when I was a kid. Fuck man, having a custom bike at the top level of racing is now "old school". Your average racer would likely consider having a simpler bike that fits and handles better to be a disadvantage over aerodynamics, weight and stiffness "advantages" of a bike that fits and handles like shit.
Fucking rant.
p.s. I couldn't find a picture of my Metalhead anywhere, as I don't think I've ever felt like I needed to take a picture of it.
I did find a picture of Stevil Kinevils though. Most Metalheads were built up with 50mm stems and slammed saddles, but set up like Stevils the darn things destroy twisty trails. Your saddle is a good 5cm to low, but it doesn't really matter(notice the rare "inside of garage door 3/4 " photographic style.
Clearly, the sign of an Oldschool Madman who does it all the "old way".
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