This is vintage?!

probaly not...its more mid school. Not old enough to be vintage/retro, but too old to be current

Nice bike, but anything 29er generally wouldn't be considered vintage by most folks.

For some reason the definition of "vintage" doesn't seem to move forward every year with the passing of time, so this bike may never be labeled "vintage". Sort of like "Classic Rock", where that term always refers to music from a certain period of time, no matter how many more years pass by since people first started calling it Classic Rock.

oh wow! I used to have an old soul cycles sluggo!

Anything with disc brakes scream "not vintage" to me. Though it is an old bike. I'd love to find a old open bath Fox fork in that great of a condition.

r-rocket said:

Nice bike, but anything 29er generally wouldn't be considered vintage by most folks.

For some reason the definition of "vintage" doesn't seem to move forward every year with the passing of time, so this bike may never be labeled "vintage". Sort of like "Classic Rock", where that term always refers to music from a certain period of time, no matter how many more years pass by since people first started calling it Classic Rock.

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Actually a mid 90s Willits 29er is highly desirable and vintage

DeoreDX said:

Anything with disc brakes scream "not vintage" to me. Though it is an old bike. I'd love to find a old open bath Fox fork in that great of a condition.

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Post mount, no less.

DeoreDX said:

Anything with disc brakes scream "not vintage" to me. Though it is an old bike. I'd love to find a old open bath Fox fork in that great of a condition.

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Discs have been around a long time. I have 1999 bike with discs on it.

Ironchefjon said:

oh wow! I used to have an old soul cycles sluggo!

https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/5700992/

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Chad made the best frames.

Well, if Santa Cruz and Kona would just go out of business, I'd have myself some vintage bikes! I would have thought it would take longer for 3-7 year old bikes to gain that status.

tapered headtubes are also not vintage material..

colker1 said:

Actually a mid 90s Willits 29er is highly desirable and vintage

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You mean the ones he sold as 28'ers? Yea, 28'ers are definitely rare, valuable, and vintage.

But Wes never called them 29'ers back when he was selling them in the 90's, he called them 28'ers. While they technically use the same rim diameter as 29'ers eventually used, I still consider those 28'ers as 28'ers and not 29'ers, because that's how Wes originally sold them.

I wouldn't call OP's bike vintage, perhaps "classically inspired". Using older standards such as QR hubs doesn't make it vintage. The reason that 1998 is often used as the vintage cutoff year, is that after that, things really started to change. Suspension started to work, especially full suspension, aluminum became more widely used, the move away from rim brakes, and designs started to get away from the old cruiser influences. Think sloping top tubes, like the late 90s Konas.

.WestCoastHucker. said:

tapered headtubes are also not vintage material..

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Didn't Cannondale play with tapered headtubes for a while?

digitalayon said:

Didn't Cannondale play with tapered headtubes for a while?

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maybe. i know they used weird sized steerer tubes (compared to other forks of that era) on their forks, but i've no idea if they were tapered or not.

I think the headshock 1.5" was straight. It's been a while though.

I'm thinking a quill stem would make it vintage. But that has probably changed now.

I feel like Vintage, in spirit, should be 26'er with v-brakes AND >20 years old. (You know, removing those 4-year old Walmart bikes that are 26'ers with v-brakes.)

Seems it'd be cool for a race to have a Vintage class, requiring the bikes be 26" and v-brakes. Might get to see some cool old bikes brought out of basements.

I recently did a gravel race that had a mtb class. That would've perfect for a vintage class because an old rigid with worn out tires could've easily handled it. Or even an old hardtail with a half-blown-out fork like my '93 Cannondale could've handled it just fine.

Maybe the vintage forum needs a sub forum?, ie; pre-80's (klunkers), 80's, 90's and pre-2010. A lot of the bikes I see on the vintage forum are not what I would call vintage.