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went out for a spin on my krampus this morning. nothing hard, or rough. just a gentle pootle on the canal and a few easy paths.
rode into Leeds and found myself smiling and happy with my lot. realised that it is 41 years since i bought my 1st mtb. a lovely yellow muddy fox explorer, and it was ace.
it led to me meeting, riding with and enjoying such a fantastic life with a likeminded group of people.
thank you all. it has been such a pleasure.
Muddy Fox, you posh git.... I had to make do with a Raleigh Maverick
Edit: ( and a time machine!)
I’m just a newcomer, only 31 years since my first bike as an adult here 🤪
"like"
Just got my first Leccy bike .GT EPantera dash.Funny as my first serious bike was a GT Avalanche.Hope the company survive.
Nice. It’s the simple pleasures that often return the most satisfaction
I drove the 1km up to the forest above my town (barhill woods, kirkcudbright) today and sat in the car with the windows down, watched and listened to the wind rustling the trees for an hour - spotted a red squirrel showing off with its acrobatic manoeuvres through the trees, made me smile, it’s where I used to ride all the time/take dog etc - was nice and peaceful but ultimately sorta depressing in a raging way.
I’ve not been up there for 5+years since my SPMS removed my ability to take a step/stand up unsupported etc.
Make the most of what you have peeps, it can be taken away so ****ing quick
Nice one.
I'm not sure where I count from, the Cignal Montero (probably around 1990), the Muddy Fox Explorer or the Saracen Protrax SE (1997, purple with later added Pace RC36's).
It's been a while regardless 😄
That Saracen has to be the single bike I've had with the largest number of individual parts failures not caused by crashes.
Nice one.
I'm not sure where I count from, the Cignal Montero (probably around 1990), the Muddy Fox Explorer or the Saracen Protrax SE (1997, purple with later added Pace RC36's).
It's been a while regardless 😄
That Saracen has to be the single bike I've had with the largest number of individual parts failures not caused by crashes.
I bought a Trek 830 in 1989, so a pitiful 36 years for me.
Nice. It’s the simple pleasures that often return the most satisfaction
I drove the 1km up to the forest above my town (barhill woods, kirkcudbright) today and sat in the car with the windows down, watched and listened to the wind rustling the trees for an hour - spotted a red squirrel showing off with its acrobatic manoeuvres through the trees, made me smile, it’s where I used to ride all the time/take dog etc - was nice and peaceful but ultimately sorta depressing in a raging way.
I’ve not been up there for 5+years since my SPMS removed my ability to take a step/stand up unsupported etc.
Make the most of what you have peeps, it can be taken away so ****ing quick
So very true, my late wife has SPMS & used to say to people if you can do it just keep doing it.
Sadly I've been off the bike for the last 3 years due to a raft of medical issues, I was trying to do as much walking as I could but even that is very painful at the moment due to a torn Achillies tendon!
Bought my first real mountain bike in 1989 but had been road racing since 1979 so I’ll call that 43 years actually on the bike.
Need to really sort my shite out and get things back on track or I’m going to be a wealthy corpse!
39 years for me. First bike was a Claud Butler which was soon nicked . Went into the lbs to get a new bike with the insurance money and eyed up a Saracen Tufftrax with the chain stay brake which I bought. Knowing absolutely nothing I asked the shop guy how my old one would compare and he said ‘like a stone axe’ !
My first "proper" MTB was a Muddy Fox too, in around 1992 I think. Turned 45 last month and still having just as much fun (when work/life permits).
Somewhere in the house, tucked away in a paper FujiFilm envelope, there is a single photo of my much loved, and sorely missed, Marin Eldridge, Circa 1991. Zolatone grey frame and flouro orange forks.
The most expensive thing I had ever bought with my own money, including my car.
That bike started me on the journey to adventures and fun in places near and far.
I'm still a stickler for simplicity, so Steel hardtails it still is for me.
Been riding bikes for as long as I can remember...
Anecdotally, I can remember first riding a bike without stabilisers in Luton when I was 4 years old and the moment it clicked. The following year I was living in Gloucestershire and used to ride a solid rubber tyred bike to school and back a mile or so each way down country lanes. I'm actually working near the same village (Hartpury) at the moment. Found my old school, but can't for the life of me find where I lived, even though I did find it a good few years ago when also working in the area. I'm 53 now.
Realised I wanted an MTB when my step dad had a Muddy Fox Courier and his mate had a Dawes something or other. I had a Raleigh Bomber that I used to ride along local farm tracks - early gravel! A family friend who worked at our LBS put me off buying a cheap MTB and I bought myself a Raleigh Pulsar racer instead which I kitted up with panniers - still enjoyed this most when we did a mini bikepacking trip around Whitby and rode the cinder track from Robin Hoods Bay.
Must have been around 19/20 when I bought my first MTB, a second hand gate of a Scott, then '97 bought my first decent MTB, the Kona Lava Dome that I still have.
I've had breaks from it, but to this day it's still the thing (riding MTB's) that gives me the most enjoyment. Dreading the day when I can no longer do it and feel for the guys that can't do it now
Only 28 years me. Specialized Rockhopper that I crashed leaving me needing shoulder surgery and a legacy of limited mobility and discomfort. New friends (that are now old friends) adventures, races, trips away, multiple sheds, several bikes, cars bought to accommodate bikes, a son who is stronger and quicker than I ever was (he's a mincer on anything technical though). Wouldn't change it for the world.
My only regret... sold the Rock hopper for £50 to an idiot who ruined it.
Trek 850 in 1991 was my first MTB. Despite one or two lapse over the years, i have mostly kept at it. Best thing ever.
I almost feel sorry for those who have never discovered riding bikes. The burn of the climbs, the thrill of the downs and the joys of everything in between.
1990 and this chap called Lester Noble made the sails for the dinghy I was racing. He had a few of these new fangled mountain bikes which he had been selling for a couple of years. He had a prototype that he lent to me a few times at Ullswater yacht club - so my first rides were on Askham Common and around Ullswater. Hooked. Lester and Steve were founders of Orange, and the bike I borrowed was the Prestige prototype, and later that summer the Elite
1991 all I could afford as a student in Liverpool was a hand painted second hans Raleigh Maverick...but it was a bike.
35ish years for me from being on a Raleigh Amazon for my first MTB frolics and even a race or two. Hooked, I bought a 1995 Kona Lava Dome at the end of 1994 from Northwest Mountain Bike Centre (I can still remember the smell of the catalogue!).
Biking in any form still puts the same *huge* smile on my face.
Nice one Ton, ATBs forever 👍 😊
Only 40 years on an MTB for me but have been riding and racing off road for 50+ years.
Had my first MX bike at 5 and was racing it before I was 6.
Was always around offroad racing before that though as my dad used to race.
First MTB was a second hand Diamond Back for £300.
That was a lot of money for a push bike to me back then.
Not as long for me, been road biking forever and dabbled in BMX, but first time MTB was around 2006, invited to Afan for a dirty weekend with members of a long defunct forum. Borrowed a full sus Trek something from a mate, quick blast round Epping forest to get used to dirt, great time was had but what would I need an MTB for as a non car owner living in London?
Moved to the Basque Country the following year and first purchase here was a Commençal hardtail.
Haven't ridden off road for a while, the "not far" part of lockdown made things too repetitive and my bike is sitting on flat tyres with dried up sealant. But to make a neat circle, it was while trail running last week and accidently straying onto a black run at a different Welsh bike park (Llandegla) that got me thinking about starting up again, something reinforced by a lot of posts here...
Only 33 years for me, I’m SO young! I think my Ridgeback 603gs was stolen in 1992 and was replaced with this beauty.
It was 40 years since my first road club run this easter. CTC easyriders. 7 years later for my first MTB.
I can completely agree with your sentiments ton, whatever would we do without bikes?
As a kid growing up, whenever I was asked by my Mom what I was doing, the answer would most likely be playing out on my bike.
This could mean exploring a little further a field, riding around the local woods or canal towpaths, jumping off home made ramps or racing each other round the local cycle speedway track. Bikes have been in my life since childhood, transitioning from BMX in the eighties to MTB and then finally Road when I moved to Norfolk.
I can’t ever remember regretting a bike ride and always feel better when I return than before I left. I think that we’re all addicted to the endorphins, it’s just a shame that more people can’t realise it and join in!
30-something years, probably 35, though I can't remember dates exactly. Started with a cheap Hi-Ten steel BSO in the very early 90s that I rode around some routes that it was patently unsuitable for, including the full Skiddaw round, getting RSI in both wrists after descending the Dash Falls track. Eventually upgraded to a second-hand Marin Palisades when the BSO finally fell apart, then an Indian Fire Trail with Manitou 2 elastomer-sprung forks - the luxury!
While the other lads in the village I grew up in were kicking a football around and poking at bits of cars, I was putting in 10-15 mile rides (seemed like a lot at the time) to head two villages along because there was a lass I fancied lived there. Never did get anywhere with her, but it kept me in shape...
I think I got my first proper MTB (if you can call out that - a British Eagle "Inferno") in my last year of secondary school, about 35 years ago. Riding has been off and on since then, but always had a bike of some description.
I used to go roughstuffing back in the 70s on a 10 spd "racer" following in the wheeltracks of my dad who amongst othe exploits took his single speed over black sail pass in the 50s
I used to go roughstuffing back in the 70s on a 10 spd "racer" following in the wheeltracks of my dad who amongst othe exploits took his single speed over black sail pass in the 50sRough stuff in the 80's on my 18-23 framed steel raleigh. That was what eventually persuaded me to get an MTB. (And a load of better road bikes too.)
Dad was a top tester back in his teens and 20's, still holds a small handful of odd/non-standard distance records (and some course records for courses that no longer exist, pretty sure that doing an out and back on the M40 would be frowned upon these days.)
Some inspiring stuff here (only about 15 years into my own MTB career, but my wee brother had a Rockhopper of similar vintage to @Harry_the_Spider. It was purple I think…)
1986 Peugeot Ranger was my first ATB, it was shyte, but so much better than the three-speed gas pipe bikes from jumble sales that I had been riding in the woods!
I used to go roughstuffing back in the 70s on a 10 spd "racer" following in the wheeltracks of my dad who amongst othe exploits took his single speed over black sail pass in the 50s
same here, though mine was a 3-speed SA, went anywhere and everywhere on it, as a youngster...
later 'upgraded' to 5-speed.
many years later (1990s) I picked up a 10-speed from an Oxfam shop in Pangbourne and went all over the Downs on it, lots of punctures!
never had a proper MTB, always rented (Parsley Hay etc), I couldn't afford the £££ MTBs cost, so made do with second-hand and just rode wherever.
I still don't have a 'proper' MTB, just a cheapo 3x8 Mongoose but it gets me out and where I want to go:
a Saracen Tufftrax with the chain stay brake
Was it the banana yellow one? I had a 1988 model withe chain stay brake made of plastic that flexed everytime you braked. As it was down by the bottom bracket it collected mud really well 🙂
Other than that it was bombproof, I gave it to a mate who used it for commuting for years.
A newbie compared to some, 37 yrs ago, bought a Giant Excaper. £400. A small fortune. (As a kid in the 70s me and a mate had put the knobbliest tyres we could find on our sit up and beg 1spd (mine - a Raleigh Jeep...so the name had the off road pedigree...) and 5 speed (his) bikes and rode on tracks and stuff)
My first proper MTB was a Marin Bear Valley - exactly like the one in the photo earlier in the thread (thanks for posting, it was good to see one again).
I’ve ridden on and off since then - road, gravel and MTB and now at 57 I’m mainly riding trails on either my Trek Rail E-bike or Epic Evo 8.
Possibly my least favourite riding is on my gravel bike - bumpy AF and I always seem to think I should have taken my Spark 900RC.
I think I'm at 36 years - Raleigh Lizard for my ~13th birthday. I remember the first ride round Linacre woods getting soaked and caked on a wet November day. Hooked from there.
Started sometime around 1985, me dad hired me a 24" wheeled Muddy Fox Bigfoot from Peter Darke's in Fulwell. Turned out it was his wife's bike, which was a demonstrator from Ari & Drew and possibly shouldn't have been sold. Little did I know that the scruffy oik assisting him in the shop was Jez Avery. We went riding up the Wear valley to Cox Green, dad was on a huge Diamond Back that he later bought from Peter. The smell of wild garlic still takes me back to that day bouncing down the narrow track next to the river, me grinning like a loon.
I got my first MTB at 24 in 1993. A Sunn Vertik2 for those who remember them.
I haven't stopped riding but I have a question. I am 56 and never felt so fit on the bike. I am probably NOT as fit as I was so perhaps placebo or selective memory but I genuinely do not feel any loss in speed or skill or courage. I am lighter now and the bike far more capable up and down (self build Revel Rascal).
The question is: how many more years have I got left of riding off road? I have stopped riding in the winter as tennis replaced that but at what point does it become too hard or dangerous or unpleasant to ride?
One year behind you @ton but nothing as glamorous as your first MTB. Mine was a two sizes too large Halfords Apollo BSO that got swapped to a Raleigh Peak within 6 months and was actually the right size!
The old knees are feeling the pressure lately and I don't like to think that I've got a lot fewer rides to go than I've done up to now.
Well, that all got a bit depressing didn't it.
@hot_fiat that takes me back!
I grew up in South Hylton but my first house was just few streets away from Darke's first shop. He was a Cannondale dealer at one point and can remember being in his shop after he moved to the town centre and lusting after a blue M800 Beast of the East.
My first proper MTB was a 1991 Saracen Tufftrax (black with coloured splatter paint) that I bought from Darke's rivals CycleWorld. It was £350 and my parents couldn't comprehend me spending that much on a push bike - still the same today actually!
I'm still relatively local (unfortunately 😄) and often still play in the same woods around Cox Green that I used to ride forty(!) years ago.
I had a 1992 Raleigh Montana bought it off a mate who had bought it from his mam's catalogue, took it up to Faslane when I moved up there. Back in Gateshead it was the mutts nuts (as far as I was concerned) then it discovered some proper hills around that area and it was like pedalling a skip. Ton weight of steel and grip shift gears. Talking about cutting your teeth.
It lasted a few years before bits just fell off and then somebody stole my seat post and saddle whilst I was at sea.
Then I went proper in 2000 and got myself Rockhopper from Hardisty's in Byker.