Have mountain bikes changed substantially in 11 years?

[imschur]

I have a 2002 Gary Fisher Sugar. It's full suspension, a lot of carbon fiber, XTR in all the important areas, Hayed hydraulic disk brakes. Basically an $1800 bike with the same $$$ in upgrades in 2004.

So have the bikes improved enough to justify an upgrade? 29'ers? 650b's?

Im afraid to try one

[Tripledeuce]

    Thats like asking if cars have changed.

  I live in Durango, Colo.  Some say the mountain bike capitol of the world.  I have a good friend who works for  one of the bike mfgs.  He says things are changing all the time.  He made 5 trips to China  last year  to oversee changes to some of the parts.

  Respectfully

  Terry

[blue109]

Im not into 29ers but I know plenty of people who will never ride anything else. I guess if you are on xc trails its a good option...but I prefer the meaty stuff so ill keep it 26. 650 be seems pointless and generally unsupported by the industry. If you are riding a hardtail, things havent changed too much but the components have. 2004 XTR is probably equal to modern LX stuff.  I personally prefer sram components to shimano. New brakes will blow those old Hayes out of the water.

If you want a suspension bike than theres no co mparison. Suspension Components (shocks/forks) are lightyears ahead. Materials and tube strenght/design are better..and the suspension designs and geometry are much more efficient. To be honest I feel like my 2009 bikes are dinosaurs even though they retailed around 4 grand each.

[imschur]

ahh crap this is just as I figured. I need a new mountain bike  <lmao>

Below is a picture from when my sugar was new

[blue109]

depends on what you want. that bike is still plenty ridable.  if i didnt want to spend a ton of money and just wanted to hit trails than dont sweat it. if you need something a little more efficient to get you up a tough climb you have trouble with....or to bomb down a rocky section a little faster...  if you are a toy junky and want cool stuff (yea, i know you are) than start shopping. if i was going to rock that bike...id buy a nice fork..upgrade the components to some fresh sram x9 (maybe find some NOS 2010ish stuff for cheap) get some nice avid brakes (juicy would do) and maybe a nice strong wheelset.  you could probably do it for under a grand...and then you can keep an eye out for someone selling a nice newer frame on the cheap. swap your old stuff back onto the old frame and sell it to cover the cost of the new frame. i hustled my way up the bike food chain that way. there was a 2 year period where i was riding something different every month lol.

[imschur]

Thanks, the bike does have a few shortcomings despite my upgrades. There was a geometry issue with this and they were a little prone to chainsuck. Upgrading to the XTR drive train reduced but did not eliminate sudden death at the worst times. The trails here are narrow, very rocky with lots of trees and roots. The bike is horrible at hopping over stuff. My old Cannondale M800 would have been 4 feet in the air with the effort I put into hopping over a 8" fallen tree with the sugar. It's also not a great climber. It does digest well the rocks in dried up streams.

[Madhouse]

My Gary Fisher Joshua X0 hangs from hooks in my garage, so sad.  I'm cleared now to ride again, maybe I can take it down and get motivated.