Find out how long Singletrack World users have been mountain biking—log in, vote in the poll, and see if your experience matches the community!
Done.
Started with a Marin Bear Valley in 1987 as an alternative to windsurfing on windless days
Still get the buzz.
Since the early '90's probably, but before that used to do what we now call gravel on whatever bike I had.
Been into bikes since I was at primary school 45 years or so ago and used to do my own maintenance learning from a book
1987/88 I think, Peugeot Ranger ATB, rode it to destruction around the Malverns and it was replaced with a Peugeot Laser 15, which want much better.
Before that was a redline BMX, but I was hit by a car which wrote that off. When the compensation money came in, I was told by the guy in mycycles that at 13 and over 6ft, I was too tall for BMX and would be better on one of these all terrain bikes.....I don't think he thought I'd actually take it over all terrain..:-)
Was having an internal dialogue about when I'd describe it as 'mountain biking' , when it was just 'owning a bike that was a mountain bike' or if years of just road biking meant the counter had to restart....
Then I opened the poll and saw the longest category was only 30 years+ so it was all irrelevant!
From the 2 recent polls, we are mostly old and have been doing what we do since the beginning of time. Will mtb and STW just die with us?
First bike I bought was a Specialized Hotrock and that would have been 1989. It was primarily acquired to reduce the long walk-in to several of the more remote Munros. After a while I realised I was actually enjoying riding it rather than it just being convenient.
As a child (young teenager) I did have a bike but we lived in the city so any off-roading would have been local parks, including Arthurs Seat.
Yep, this one perhaps?
Well I certainly learnt a lot from that book too, although I never attacked any dogs with my pump...
Bought my one & only brand new bike around 1990, a Trek 950 which I kept for 16yrs, then I found stw & my bike addiction ballooned 🤣
1985 working in St Andrews bought an imported book about ATB/MTB from JG Innes got me hooked, bought a Rockhopper frame was too big when straddling the top tube the jewels were at risk, drove up to Alves to get the frame builder to cut and lower it can't remember his name maybe Ralph
Bought a Chas Roberts white spider frame with mcmoonter behind the counter at Stockbridge and with xt group set often up the Cairngorms/Glencoe and Glentress just had trees
Still have the thumbshifters and frame
Back out on an Orbea Gain with the di2 , hydraulics and tubeless with the mojo returned so 40 years
Rode a 20" "tracker" in the local woods where there were bumps that were jumps from 11. Then got into roughstuff touring and taking my bike up mountains however little could be ridden. I observed the first few years of MTB then in 92 bought a Giant CFM 1 with XT and an awful Manitou fork. I've followed the fashions except e-bike and 29". Being in a club has been a big part of the motivation and e-bikes have created a two-speed club so I feel I'm at a crossroads.
First go on a mountain bike was when my brother bought a Saracen (Tufftrax??) in about 1989. I scoffed a bit, but was smitten by overall rideability and the rapid fire shifters.
Soon bought a Marin Eldridge once I'd found the money. Loved the Zolatone grey and fluoro orange paint. Deore LX throughout. Magic piece of kit and much missed.
Soon bought a Marin Eldridge once I'd found the money. Loved the Zolatone grey and fluoro orange paint. Deore LX throughout. Magic piece of kit and much missed.
There's a lovely one for sale on Retrobike if you want to relive your youth?
For Sale - Marin Eldridge 1990, all original except the tyres. | Retrobike
First ATB was a rigid Saracen something with one chromoly tube, the top coat of paint started falling off so Halfords replaced it with a later model -three chromoly tubes! Used and abused that bike for over 15 years, still fully rigid round the Peak District.
If it’s about when we first experienced off road, I had a three speed Coventry Eagle that I had at 9, a full adult size but as weekend rabbit monitor I used to ride it round the school grounds where there were some huge slopes. Got through a lot of front axles but I learned how to fix it myself.
1990 for me I reckon? Got the bug after having a go on my pal's Raleigh Mustang around 87/8 so started saving. Wanted a Peugeot Lazer, then an Apollo Blizzard before picking up a copy of MBUK in 89 and upping my ambitions a bit before finally deciding on a 1989 Saracen Tufftrax from the local shop. Paid a deposit but by the time I had the rest of the cash it had probably ticked over to 1990? My best friend picked up a 90 zolotone Marin Palisades on the same day. Rode the wheels off that thing before replacing it with an Orange Clockwork.
Had a mountain bike ever since although 95-04 was fallow due to rugby with only a brief dalliance with a terrible GT full suss I-Drive thing in 2000. Bought an Orange Evo 4 in 04, packed in rugby soon after and have been MTB'ing regularly ever since.
I was riding road bikes for fun since the late 70s, a blue carlton 5 speed, until i bent it crashing into the viaduct on the old shoreham road when the brakes went at uni. Then a columbus tubed bike mid 80s - 90s and did a lot of touring on it. MTB came calling in 98 with a bit of an all round life change, and i got me a Rockhopper. It's still in the shed, just in case. I rode it in 2021 when the downcountry FS was away for a warranty claim. Strava says I got 86kmh out of it going down Balmer to the 27 (rather not think too hard about that) 
:
My takeaway from these polls is that the overlords at STW Towers need to find some young blood before it's current crop of users send it off their mortal coils.
Probs '88 or '89
An MBK which I saved up my paper round Christmas tips and bought from a place called Charlie Brown's in Kingswinford.
Mix of 200GS and 300LX. Rigid forks. 21 speed. Some kind of paint splattered neon "corner" bag so you could swing the bike over your shoulder for styles /fences.
That got stolen.
Spesh Hardrock Sport. 92 ish.
That got stolen.
GT Tequesta. 94/5.
But been riding bikes since I was old enough to swing my leg over my metallic red tricycle that had a white seat with a pink elephant on it. that would have been 81 or 82.
I'm 50 in Feb.
A Raleigh Maverick 87 or 88. Sachs Huret mechs and a BMX style stem. Richard's Bicycle Book, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Glaskin and Tor's 'Mountain Biking' books plus some issues of a US mag, MBA I think. And maybe Bicycle Action over here? Jeans and rucksacks to ride in the woods and do a loop of Peckforton Gap. Putting bits of corrugated rubber sleeve on our seatposts because Ridgeback did it and they looked cool in the Freewheel catalogue. Wanting a Muddy Fox Explorer or the red+ white Raleigh Ozark but at about 13 years old, thinking £400 was an amount of money that you'd never have for a bike.
Jumpers for goal posts and Farmer Johns for your tyres eh.
My takeaway from these polls is that the overlords at STW Towers need to find some young blood before it's current crop of users send it off their mortal coils.
Or...just embrace it and enjoy the slow ride towards god's waiting room. Mark and Chipps are no spring chickens and will have shuffled off too so the longevity of the mag/website is not 'that' much of a concern.
Semi seriously.....
Articles on prostrate related issues generally and anything cycling specific
Articles on keeping old bodies that have been at this a while going as we enter our dotage
You've got a mostly male, pale and stale but loyal following that have got old alongside you, riding bikes along the way. It's not the target market you started with (well, probably just as male and pale - but not quite so stale), but it's the one that 'matured' with you.
First, a Claud Butler in1986 replaced when stolen in 1988 by a Saracen Tuff Trax which according to the salesman would make the CB look like a ‘stone axe’.
Disappointed that the greatest option was 30 years
I'm slightly traumatised that I'm now old enough (pale and stale enough??) to fit that category!
1993 for me, a Saracen Sahara Elite for my birthday. A mate at school had got himself a Trek something or other and, while I'd always had bikes I'd never had a mountain bike. So after reading some MBUK, I learnt that I could ride a mountain bike out of a plane and parachute down, that I could go scuba diving on a bike and also that Saracen seemed to be a cool brand.
So I bought one and what started as riding around the local woods soon became joining a local cycle club which had an active and growing MTB section, doing a few races (because back then XC racing was huge) and then going from there!
Off-road on a bike, 50+ years now 🙂
Earliest I remember being on a proper MTB, I used to hire for a day from places like Parsley Hay in the early 1990s, one of the best I remember is a snowy Sunday in around Jan '93, a loop north towards Monsal Dale and back again, lovely powdery snow on bridleways and tracks, great fun but cold!
88 Peugeot Ranger
89 Marin Palistrade Trail
90 Nishiki Ariel (cheaper version of the Alien).
Was riding all sorts of unsuitable bikes off road round the old brickyards here in the early 80s (including a Halfords road bike - did I invent Gravel?).
First 'proper' mountain bikes were early 90s Police auction klunkers for riding round Cambridge and fenland bridleways, then I moved to Barnsley for a bit, had a uni mate with a Cannondale and the world changed forever...
First mtb I owned was in 1990 I believe, a Specialized Rockhopper Comp.
The year before I’d had a go on a friend of a friend’s Specialized Stumpjumper. It felt great. She’d popped in one day and had spent the previous summer riding around South America on it.
1986/age 13
I used to walk past the bike shop in Oban everyday as we wandered down the street from the high school to get our lunch/head to the arcade/nick stuff from John Menzies etc.
In the window was a white muddy fox explorer and I can remember it was around £350 which was a fortune back then to a 13yr old but it was the ideal looking bike for Dalavich, Loch Awe where I lived, perfect for the forest roads and paths/hills in the area as our bmx bikes were not up to the hills/ground.
Dad worked in the woods at the time so I worked weekends with him as I had my own 19cc mini chainsaw, brashing/binging/marking logs and i then started supplying cut/split pulp/softwood to the 30 houses in the village and after a summer of this I had enough saved for the Explorer which was a size too big as my balls rested on the top tube but I didn’t care - best bike ever in the perfect environment to experience the beginning of my mtb journey.
I’ll see if mum can dig out a pic when I bought it.
Haven’t been on a bike for 5 years and will be never be on one with what’s left of my life but I was there at the beginning 😉 , we kids in the 80’s with our Walkmans and mtbs were exploring the world (or in my case within a 20mile radius of Dalavich….if the midges allowed)
Done.
Started with a Marin Bear Valley in 1987 as an alternative to windsurfing on windless days
Still get the buzz.
Much the same here, living inland and not able to get to windsurf or surf every weekend bought a Raleigh MTB complete with Weinmann rims, u brake and Biopace chainrings in 1988.
I was thinking early 90's but actually must have been 89 I got a Raleigh Lizard for my birthday. My dad was looking at the Peugeot for £20 less (£180 from memory) and asking what's wrong with that. Mum said "just get him the one he wants". It was the best and worst of bikes: best because it was mine, and an MTB (actually an ATB - All Terrain Bike - by the frame sticker) but worst because it was really shit. But it got me down the woods in the mud and into the Peak District and had me instantly hooked.
I got a Raleigh yukon in 1991 for my birthday. My folks were skint at the time so 300 quid on a bike was a small fortune. It was an awesome bike, 21 gears, anodised rims, underbar shifters..
Best birthday present ever
was around £350 which was a fortune back then to a 13yr old
It was a fortune to an eighteen year old too back then, a year of working washing up in a wine bar in Coventry got me that much and I bought my first car with it, mini 850 K reg, yes that's 1972, total rust bucket but I loved it...
That's why I never could have bought a decent bike as well 😂
Just registered my vote @Mark
I do worry, that by the very nature of the poll might come across as the opportunity for those of us who have been riding a long time to be viewed as a humble brag by those who haven't, so they're less likely to register their own vote, which might skew the results...?
Certainly amongst my riding groups, there's very few people who've been riding anywhere near as long as I have (35yrs), most would come into the 10-14 and 14-19yr categories, though many would come below that...
Either way... Hope that my vote has helped in any way...
1989 Trek 830, then an Eldridge Grade when the Trek was stolen.
Senior moment. After the 830 was stolen, I got a Raleigh Peak, which was written off by a Post Office van and replaced by an Eldridge Grade, which was in turn replaced by a Mount Vision in 1999 but still being used today by my 30-year old son to get around London.
1989 when I first rode one - my BIL's Marin Eldridge Grade and then I bought my own, a Cannondale M600 Beast of the East in 1991 which was £650 from memory as I had it upgraded with a Girvin Flexstem.
Bought my first mtb in 87 an Emmelle Cougar then what I consider my first proper mtb in 88 a Kona Cindercone.
I started cycling aged 9 in 1975! Joined my first club and started racing in 1976: TTS and then schoolboy crits.
First MTB bought in 1989 - it was a tange prestige tubed Pacific with full XT - I got it from a shop in Sheffield on finance and it got stolen after the first ride - no insurance - I was paying it off for two years!!! Never bought anything, apart from a house of course, on finance again!!!
First MTB was a Diamondback Ascent in 1985/1986.
Previous to that I'd been racing MX bikes from the age on 5 in 1973 and also the first wave of BMX during the 80's.
Stopped racing the MX/Enduro bikes in 1989 so I could do more on the MTB's.
Mrs NBT got me into MTB riding in 2000. I've voted 24 years as it took a few months for me to decide that I enjoyed i. Haven't actually ridden my MTB since May 2023 though...
Another Diamond Back Ascent rider from around 1990(ish) - the grey marbled one. I was more of a road rider, but we all bought MTB's. One of our first rides was up Snowdon ! I still have the bike, but it's been upgraded a bit to period XT where needed and I use it for commuting.
I put down the date of the first bike one could call a mountain bike (or ATB), but for sure I was using Raleigh Grifter for stunts and jumps in what some people might call mountain biking now. And my Raleigh Winner also got used on the farm, off-road.
Was a roadie between the first proper bike after the above and the Scott MTB in the mid-90's with its whopping 50mm suspension (XC version, rather than the massive 64mm downhill version). Still got both of those bikes.
Early to mid-90's here, on an Emmelle initially, before moving to a GT Karakoram and a Trek 920. The later had a pair of Indy SL's on it too!
I found out my Dad still has a bike with a pair of my cold Marzocchi Z3 Coil 100's on it from circa 2001. Never been serviced and they move surprisingly well.
Just registered my vote @Mark
I do worry, that by the very nature of the poll might come across as the opportunity for those of us who have been riding a long time to be viewed as a humble brag by those who haven't, so they're less likely to register their own vote, which might skew the results...?
Yeah. Reading all these posts and looking at the poll, which are pretty much as I expected, I do have massive imposter syndrome! It did make me very hesitant to post my own rookie numbers. I'm 61 and fell into the 10-14 yr category. Definitely a late bloomer!
I cycled sporadically before that, but was never really a keen cyclist. A little cycle commuting on a BSO for a couple of years here and there. A brief flicker of interest whilst teaching my kids to ride. A little taste of mtb in the late 90s in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus as part of an organised "adventure training" trip whilst I was posted there. None of these fired me up enough to "get into it".
It wasn't until around 2014 that I tried it properly, really enjoyed it and it "clicked". A mate convinced me to do a charity race event in the Brecons which included a road/off road cycle, run/hike around the horseshoe and a team raft row. I borrowed a Whyte hard tail for the mtb bit and absolutely loved it. I bought my own soon after and I have never stopped since.
Taking it up so late in life does mean my skills and appetite for risk are mediocre at best, so I'll never be any good at it. But maybe somewhat erroneously reading all the above, I still consider myself to be "a mountain biker".
Hope my subscription isn't going to be revoked after this confessional 😳🙏😄
I found out my Dad still has a bike with a pair of my cold Marzocchi Z3 Coil 100's on it from circa 2001. Never been serviced and they move surprisingly well.
I have a set of Manitou X-Vert Supers from 2000 that still work surprisingly well - maybe thanks to the grease port on the back of the legs that you popped a couple of squirts in every now and then
Riding off-road, from about 1990 on my Raleigh Mustang. I caught the bug so started saving my paper round money, emptied my post office savings, and bought a 1992 GT Tequesta.
the opportunity for those of us who have been riding a long time to be viewed as a humble brag by those who haven't,
Good point - could also be an opportunity to post how fresh to it all you are, coming into it when FS was the norm and learning to ride at BPW, wondering why the old giffers who should have had more experience were slow or avoiding the big jumps.
Being part of the new school is a good thing. Maybe just me.. but so many of the younger lads who got into it in the 2000s quite quickly became much faster than me and 95% of the older guys I know.
i dont think our 80's mtbs were designed for speed. i did a fair few big races back then and even the top boys were not that fast..... the events were more about endurance.
karrimor 50 mile thing was such a event.
I have a set of Manitou X-Vert Supers from 2000 that still work surprisingly well - maybe thanks to the grease port on the back of the legs that you popped a couple of squirts in every now and then
Same here, I still have the same tube of Manitou grease that I picked up around 2000ish from either Westend Cycles in Conwy or Beics Betws. It usually gets an infrequent outing if I can't find my usual grease. 😆
I voted 20-24 years even though I actually had a MTB (townsend peice of crap) in about 1991, but it got nicked a few months later and I only rode it to school. I did use my GF bike for the odd ride off road around Halifax sometimes mid 90's. I then had a Raleigh Dyna-Tech, between 1998 and 2000 I think, which was my GF's brothers and all I did was ride it to work.
I bought a GT Avalache in 2003 and actually used it to start MTBing, so thats where my MTB journey started really.
i dont think our 80's mtbs were designed for speed.
No. MTB bikes and culture might have started on the Repack Run but I think it was the all-round ATB idea that really took off in the 80s.
been on and off mtb since the mid 80's, racing a lot of the early north wales series with my older brother but then had a stint of sex drugs and rock and roll where bikes were out ( I even sold my lovely Dave Lloyd as a student to keep the drugs and rock n roll bit going) then got back into bikes after giving up the lifestyle that was killing me.
First MTB was an Emmelle Cheetah that I got for Xmas in 89. I'd seen some guys on MTBs riding the West Highland way the year before when I was walking it with the scouts and thought it looked cool. A friend's older brother and his mates were into mountain biking, riding muddy fox's and an orange clockwork if I remember correctly. I'd been riding round Mabie Forrest with my mate on the bike my dad used for riding to work, a Raleigh Merlin, which was a flat bar roadster type bike before I my Emmelle. Started reading MBUK and inevitably wanted to upgrade, so the Emmelle was part exchange with a bit of cash for a Diamond Back Topanga the following Xmas. A 1990 Stumpjumper followed that (discounted as it was the previous years model). Held on to that for nearly 10 years. Love mountain biking even more than I did back then. We may all be getting older, but as long as I can ride my bike I'll always be that 13 year old on Xmas day in 1989.
Started in 1991 on my uncle and his mate's spare bikes (Claud Butler Pagan and Marin Palisades Trail), then got myself a Muddy Fox Alu Lazer in 1992ish.
Had a break for a good while (was still riding BMX and DJs) from around 1995 until I bought a Demo 8 in around 2007 and have stuck with it since then.
Late 80's for me with a Stumpjumper but there wasn't much to do with it back then with no mates riding them! Swapped it for a Vitus 979 road bike then got back into MTBs early 90's with an Alpinestars Cro-Mega
It was either a Muddy fox courier or Rockhopper that seemed to be the bikes to have back then, if you had a few more pounds to spend a Stumpjumper
If you were a bit tight or maybe skint an Emelly/Diamondback
If you were more of a land rover bumpkin type of person a Raleigh maverick might be your choice although I had a Road Ace back then and it was a cracking road bike
I had a Road Ace back then and it was a cracking road bike
I had a Raleigh Pulsar. I was all set to buy my first (Raleigh) MTB and a family friend called Aidan Leheup (Iditarod/Polaris accomplished competitor) who worked in my LBS talked me out of it, saying they were rubbish (he wasn't wrong), so I bought the Pulsar with panniers.
A trip down memory lane... First MTB was a Dawes something in yellow/white that I stupidly left alone for a couple of minutes against the window of the fishing tackle shop while I popped in to buy bait. After getting told off for allowing it to be stolen and a suitably long wait until I could persuade my parents I could be trusted with another bike, they got me an Emmelle Cortina XL in purple/blue/white that I managed to keep for ages. Yes, it got stolen a couple of times, but I got it back both times. I think I gave it to my sister's boyfriend in something like '98 or '99 so he had a bike.
Mucked around riding bikes offroad throughout secondary school in early/mid-90s. Proper MTBing from around 2002, the same time I first logged on to STW in the uni computer lab. Still riding the same trails now.
2003:
23 years later:
Started riding around the woods on a Raleigh Strika, then BMX. First MTB was a Raleigh Dunedancer bought in 1988 from my mums Grattan Catalogue.
Rather depends on what a mountain bike is. Off roaded a lot on a tricycle (with mum on her Raleigh shopper) during adventures and visiting granny in about 1965, progressed to a Raleigh single speed, which went everywhere, big gap when I discovered off road motorbikes then rediscovered bikes via a giant terrago in maybe 1990 or so and constantly since then.