Well back when Cadel Evans was an awesome XC racer I thought Disc Brakes were just a fad, actually I was pretty happy I brought my Hardrock the year before they changed the frame to look beefy and added the disc brakes, but as you would have it one of my main reasons for upgrading about 5 years later was to go to dual suspension and I didn't think the frame was worth upgrading because it didn't have disc brake tabs
But way before then I thought I could simplify / modify / lighten up my Dunlop MTB to look or become a bit more like the bikes in the Magazines! Ha ha, what a person does when they get the "upgradeitis" bug but has next to no money!
I was trying to figure out how all the riders in the magazines could run their saddles so high.
Slogging it along singletrack going up some hill in Canberra this guy on a decent bike flies past me, I thought he was just super fit, never realized how much easier it would have been riding a lighter bike .....my Dunlop was about 18kg.
My bike got stolen during a "film night" at the college, I replaced it with the same thing but the new Dunlops had front suspension and a friend of mine thought it was so cool.