WTB Throwback Thursdays

Throwback Thursdays: 2007 Riddler... Ahhhem... Vulpine 2.1

The 2007 Riddler, inspired by WTB professional athlete Nathan Riddle, boasted... Fast rolling micro center tread combined with cornering side knobs: Was lightweight, a new breed of tire, neve...

Throwback Thursdays: Before Enduro Was Cool

Once upon a time in a faraway land, the man referred to as the Godfather of All Mountain went racing.  It was real.  Super real.  The time is thought to be 2004ish, the place France, and the man ...

Throwback Thursdays: Sea Otter - 95 til Infinity

Sea Otter Classic turns 25 years old today.  Old enough to rent a car.  So it only seems fitting that we do a throwback post in the whoa it's been a ride style of Sea Otter's past in a tribute to...

Throwback Thursdays: 96 Mountain Bike Germany New Paradigm Hubs Review

1996 in Germany must have been amazing, I find nothing but stoke gracing the covers of magazine clippings we have dating back to then.  Perhaps the long sleeve adorned rider was particularly enth...

Throwback Thursdays: More 1993 Derby Shots

The 93 Derby shoot was a chance to get all WTB friends, family, racers, and employees together to do one massive photo shoot.  Hipsters on Instagram today refer to this as their past weekend.  Th...

Throwback Thursdays: More 1985 NORBA Nats Santa Barbara

So much of WTB's history and product development is tied to racing.  You can see WTB riders in white jerseys with SunTour across the chest (and WTB atop) in the right corner of this photo and the...

Throwback Thursdays: 1993 Interbike

Pony tails, purple and turquoise lettering, rainbows, and sunset silhouettes.  Yep, feels like early to mid 90s to me.  Interbike comes, it goes, and in the process, we lose years of our lives.  ...

Throwback Thursdays: 5 Questions for a Beautiful Phoenix

Photo: Otis Smith Every once in a while, we're lucky enough to spy a Phoenix frame out in the wild, happily devouring the trails it was designed to inhale.  Sometimes, we're even lucky enough to...

Throwback Thursdays: 1996 Speedmaster Ad in Dirt Rag

When I first saw this ad, touting lovely Speedmaster brakes and GripMaster pads I'd happily repurpose to my cross bike today, I was captured by the beautiful landscape and marveled that there mus...

Throwback Thursdays: '89 Ground Control Extreme Drawings

Obviously bigger is better.  I came across this lovely illustration while digging for material.  In August of 1989, it was certainly known that a larger contact patch is superior to a smaller con...

Throwback Thursdays: The Return of Drop Bars?

Todd DeAngelis leading Joey Peterson, roughly 1985. I recently went on a singletrack fest group ride and encountered a curious situation.  Strewn about were different people's takes on appropria...

Flashback Fridays: Early 90s Dirt Touring & Bikepacking

It's no secret that people have been loading their bikes with overnight gear and heading into the wilderness for quite some time.  Just take a look at this Pearl Pass post here and you see that b...

Throwback Thursdays: '96 Mountain Bike Germany Pad Review

Elevated chainstays, a nice an taut elasticized cinch strap flowing in the breeze of what looks to be an epic skid... Vans sneakers - what's not to like?  In 1996, people were getting pitted, soo...

Throwback Thursdays: Long Term Advocacy

Effective bicycle advocacy isn't something you do in the short term.  It takes time.  You win some, you lose some, you don't lose sight of focus nor goal.  In 2000ish, Deb Hubsmith, executive dir...

Throwback Thursdays: 1987 Price List & Mailer

I stumbled across this today, totally intact, haggard staple still holding pieces together along with another added to cobble more now to it.  The pages have an oh so nice aging color to them, I ...

Throwback Thursdays: 1979 Appetite Seminar

 1979 illustration by Pete Barrett, from Chalie Kelly's Hubsite, the BEST website you will ever find. This Thursday marks yet another Appetite Seminar as throngs of mountain bikers will congrega...

Throwback Thursdays: Wilderness... It's Our First Name After All...

Adventure isn't exactly something new to WTB.  Getting out, exploring, taking the path less traveled, finding your own way, thinking differently... that's what WTB is all about.  I found these ph...

Throwback Thursdays: Biopace... Ewwww

It happened.  I can't believe it actually happened.  I swore it wouldn't.  It couldn't.  It shouldn't.  By what stroke of misunderstanding... by the Hammer of Thor. BioPace is back, da na nun nun ...

Throwback Thursdays: Weir's 95-96 Race Results

Even the legendary Mark Weir had to start somewhere and in the awesome race resume above (big thank you to Anthony Medaglia for rounding it up) you can see that even in the beginning, Weir starte...

Throwback Thursdays: 2003 Interwolf 38/38

Many people clung to remaining InterWolfs with a sense of worth akin to cigarettes within prison - one's wealth could be measured in hoarded InterWolfs.  They were a tire before their time.  Fast r...