The bar end for all of us of a certain age was a must-have accessory for adding to your best mountain bike bars. For those who have no idea what bar ends are, they're a 90-degree-ish angled extension secured to the ends of your bars that helped with climbing and allowed you to vary your body position. They came in all sorts of lengths, shapes, and materials and featured somewhat garish anodized coloring. My X-Lite bar ends were proud additions to my Marin Indian Firetrail abnd were purple (if my memory serves me) matching the purple forks and branding of my beloved MTB.
As the '90s came and went, bar ends' popularity fell quicker than the Berlin Wall. The introduction of riser bars, a different style of riding as the best full suspension mountain bikes meant spinning on hard climbs was far more efficient, rather than hammering away standing out the saddle with bar ends.
