The early 1990’s were a super fun time to be a mountain biker. The fat tired goldrush was well and truly underway with an explosion of new, cool and sometimes pretty crazy bikes, parts and accessories. A bunch of brands made it big in the early 1990’s including Syncros, based in Vancouver British Columbia.
Syncros had its heyday in the early 1990s as one of the most respected names in high end off-road bicycle parts, when its trademark black stems and seatposts were de rigueur on high end mountain bikes… Among Syncros’ most successful and well known products from their early Canadian period were the Cattleprod and Cattlehead stems, noted for their innovative used of shaped and machined aluminum and titanium at a time when most welded stems were made of steel, and the ProSeries seatpost, featuring an often-copied two-bolt micro-adjust system for saddle positioning. The seat post design, as copied by such companies as Thomson, remains popular today on high end bicycles.
For my part, I spent the early 1990’s living in Falls Creek, a ski resort in Victoria. I loved the snow but my passion wasn’t skiing – it was spending the Summers roaming the Alpine country on my mountain bike. Working at the local store part time meant there was plenty of time every day for riding, but it also meant I could purchase MTB goodies such as Powerbars and Syncros through Spektrum Sports (Australian Distributor) at wholesale cost… BONUS! Every spare cent I had went into MTB. My 1991 Specialized Stumpjumper was kitted out with:
- Syncros Pro Series Titanium Handlebar
- Syncros Cattle Prod Stem
- Syncros Pro Series Titanium Seatpost 330mm x 27.2mm
- Syncros Pro Series Titanium Bottom bracket 122.5mm
- Syncros Crank-o-matic Ti Crank Bolts
- Syncros grease, lube, shirts and waterbottles!
I loved my Syncros stuff, in fact 20 years on and the same components are still on my Stumpy! It hasn’t been an easy ride for Syncros though. Like numerous other MTB companies it found itself in financial difficulties by the late 1990’s and has since endured numerous rebirths under different owners.
Digging through my box of old mountain biking bits and pieces I came across the Syncros 1993 Catalogue. Hope you enjoy flicking through this blast from the past!
OMG I use to have a Log Cog! 😉 Those were the days….
hehe very cool Thylaxene. I’m half tempted to ride my old Stumpy more often… but I reckon I’d probably come to an unfortunate end!
Damn that Slingshot was crazy… and I half wanted one 🙂