After a look back at the ads of the 1980s Road Bike Action decided to take another back but this time to the era of neon, front suspension and arrival of Lance Armstrong. Road Bike Action has complied a collection of ads from the 1990s to see what the industry looked like one short decade ago.
In 1993, Castelli used the biggest name in the sport and Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain to sell its clothing. Today, Castelli continues to sponsor many of the sports top riders and teams.
ParkPre was a successful mountain bike company that tried to crossover to the road market. They were hit hard by the decline in the mountain market that followed the 1996 Olympics and eventually faded from the US market.
The legendary Oakley M frames. First made famous by Greg LeMond, the M Frames became the industry leader in the 1990s. The Oakley M Frames continue today but have been replaced at the top of Oakley’s line by the new industry leading Radar.
PowerPar was the original energy bar. This one product launched an entire industry which has branched out from endurance sports with energy bars now available from bike shops to grocery stores and even the local 7-11.
Camelbak is another mountain bike company that tried to crossover but found limited success in the road market. Today Camelbaks are standard equipment for many mountain bike riders.
Ringlé was a highly successful mountain bike company, known for lightweight and colorfully anodized aluminum parts. They were less successful on the road scene as traditionalist didn’t take to the idea of adding anodized parts to their bikes. Ringlé eventually merged was Sunn rims and are still making high-end road wheels.
In 1994, Carnac used Tour de France riders Richard Virenque and Luc LeBlanc to sell their road shoes in America. Unfortunately for Carnac, both riders would be involved in doping scandals a few years later.
In the mid 1990’s, GT hit the road market was a vengeance coming out with a full line of steel, aluminum and titanium bicycles. GT would also sponsor the US National team, build bikes for the 1996 Olympics and sponsor the Belgian Lotto team. GT continues in the sport with their sponsorship of the successful Jelly Belly professional team.
GT was big part of Project 96, a development program for the 1996 Olympics. The project 96 program did a lot for advancing the understanding of aerodynamics in regard to bicycles and led to some of the more successful time trial and track bikes of the decade.
In the 1990’s the race for the hour record was again brought to the sports forefront with riders like Tony Rominger, Miguel Indurain, Chris Boardman and Graeme Obree all taking their turn at holding the record. Panaracer’s sponsorship of Obree shows the level interest the hour record at the time. The UCI effectively killed the public’s interest in the hour record by placing limits on bicycle design and rider positions. They even went as far a reverting the hour record back to the time set by Eddy Merckx.
After a victories in the 1993 and 1994 editions of Paris Roubaix, Rock Shox brought the Paris Roubaix Road SL and later the Ruby to the market. The forks struggled to find a niche in the market and the idea of suspension forks for road bikes has been abandoned.
Sidi introduced the Sidi Tecno, based off the Genius 2. The Tecno has evolved into the Ergo 2 and the Genius series continues with the Genius 6.6 Carbon.
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