>>1863274>needing the bike to be entirely stock/period correct partsPeople obsess about such things, there are show and shine competitions where the right bottle might make the difference, some people are just completionists
>worshiping 90's mtbs as a holy grail of purity and practicalityThere has been a lot written on these forums about 90s mtb, some of it is bullshit, some is hyperbole, but much is true. MTB did come out of nowhere, and there was a brief period where the major manufacturers were caught off guard and were forced to play catch up, there were people out there who were already producing trail tested frames and components, some of them would go on to overtake the behemoths in this corner of the cycling market, names like Ritchey, Brodie, Fat Chance, Yeti, Klein for frames and Paul, Middleburn, RaceFace, cook Bors etc for parts, some would become the mainstream brands, others absorbed by the giants over time.
But for a short period there was an actual arms race between these small race proven manufacturers and the giant multinational corporations. The results weren't always great, Campag for example fucked up royally, Suntour hit the ground running but stalled before being snapped up, Mavic showed glimpses of brilliance before stepping away from the components side of things. There were some insanely overpowered parts out there, Henry Ford would have had a fucking heart attack at DX for example, DX was a mistake Shoimnano never repeated, XT functionality but cheaper and over time it proved to outlast XT, it was literally bomb proof.
Bang for buck if you find stuff in the right condition you will get much more for your money with some 90s tech. And quality steel frames well with the best tubing will always be sought after, not all 90s mtb's are great but those Taiwanese and American factories were churning out a lot of superb frames for consumers back then, that's just a fact, and Italians, Frogs and Brits were doing the same on smaller scales.
