The 1990s were an exciting time for mountain bike parts. It was a decade when cottage industry manufacturers were pushing the boundaries of CNC machining with riotous exuberance. It was the era that spawned Kooka’s splatter-annodised cranks and Ringle’s 3DV parts (a colour so vivid you could detach a retina by staring at it too hard). It was an era of peacocking in milled billet.
In those days, you could pick up a magazine and see any number of new companies sporting bizarre, hollowed-out pieces of aluminium built more by feel rather than FEA analyses. It was a special time to be a bike nerd.
These days, when a small player jumps into the market it’s usually with a small but useful widget that makes your bike work slightly better. If successful, those companies go
