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I had this
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Handbuilt Bromwich Cyclone 2, mostly Suntour XC Pro, Aereator seatpost, Ringle bits and bobs, it got nicked and I cried.
something quite like this (pic nicked from a stw'er on an old thread)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67409546@N05/6139332491/
Also was nicked - from my garage. Little shit stood on my kit car to get to it as well 👿
20 years since my first student loan went on a Kona Lave Dome, complete with 150mm stem - loved it!
thought hmmm there is a interesting thread and low and behold Captainflasheart photo is the same bike i bought but in 1990 i think ?? so thats what i was riding 22yrs ago, my brother had one of the very first Kona
cindercones that were imported. oh the joys of simplistic mtbs
One of these.
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1993 specialized rockhopper fs.
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One of these (although not this one). Gonna be riding it next week too.
[edit] I think mine is older than the one in the picture as it has a rollercam on the rear rather than the cantilever brakes.
Ohhh a classics thread..
Niiiiice
A Campag equipped, Wicked Fat Chance. Ace bike...
Specialized Stumpjumper Team with cr@ppy Suntour XC Pro kit, then an Orange Prestige with Kona P2 forks and Ritchey Logic Prestige tubes. This had XT kit including thumb shifters.
I later went on to a Kona Explosif (the black one) in 1993 ish.
I was riding one of these (not my photo, borrowed from Retrobike)
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Exciting time though as was very close to getting one of these (again, not my photo)
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Still ride this bike nearly every day, currently in singlespeed commuter guise. Best bike I have ever owned and, in the event of a fire, would be the bike I would grab first from a burning garage.
the bike I would grab first from a burning garage.
New thread idea, I reckon! 🙂
I love that Merlin, used to lust over them so much in the magazines. I seem to remember that being used when one of the magazines built a sub 20lb bike. It was quite a challenge at the time.
One of these, a retro halfords special:
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Loved it, shimano SIS 15 speed and everything. Upgraded the centre ridge rear tyre to a farmer john for more gnarly trails...
an 18 year old..
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My first MTB was still 2 years off!
Black and white Raleigh mustang with floro cables from mbuk
A 'Dale, dude.
On the left of the pic, after Snowdon up and down..
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BEST THREAD PRIZE ! Big Up The Captain !
20 years ago ?
I rode a Muddy Fox Aluminium, first MTB, after an array of BMX's eg;
Pro-lite, Mongoose,Haro and my favorite GT's.
Had a spesh hard rock with a florescent rear wheel disc for a bit 😆
Can remember wanting a Kuwahara mtb, they had awsome paintjobs, then lusting over the fat tubes on Cannondales in the LBS.
Ended up with a Claud Butler Cape Wrath.........then got my Driving Licence !
A 92 Marin Pine Mountain like this. My first mtb!
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I sold the frame and fork in 94 to buy a Kona Kilauea frame which would take the mighty 43mm travel of the Mag10s I'd bought. I still have the Kilauea.
Trek 8000
One of these:
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Mine had wheels and other parts...
Loved the paint job at the time, it rode pretty well too...
Had a 1992 Diamondback Axis like this one on Retrobikes:
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Looking at the classifieds on RB makes me think maybe I could sell my 1995 Marin Pine Mountain. I was going to donate it to recykeabike....
Mad gold crackle paint job.
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For all those with the marins - i was lusting after one. Any marin would do. My mate had one as well as a catalogue featuring all the top of the line marin mtb's and i lusted after every single on of them.
In the meantime i was hitting the swinley and old dean common fireroads on my knackered saracen tufftrax. Must have been circa 1988 vintage a bit like this one (same colour anyway):
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One of these (pic from Retrobike) , ace bike.
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Still got the frame and forks. Was my commuter until fairly recently.
Thinking of doing it up.
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one of these in purple 🙂
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Spesh Rock Hopper Comp and a Hoffman Condor.
One of these(not my pic):
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Mine had Pace RC 35 forks, XT thumbies and a flite saddle
only thing I went off road on was a Raleigh Randoneur touring bike.
At 22, anything i could get my hands on 😉
Wheels wise: BMX, Alpinestars cro-mega DX mtb, some crappy road bike, Yamaha TDR 250, Mk1 XR2.
no pics sadly, but if you google image it you will see how fugly it was.
a nice green raleigh amazon which I had bought of a mate cos he bought a 6th hand white ford fiesta, I had it for another 3 years before leaving it at Faslane for a mate of another boat. Must have weighed about the same as a submarine, and it was probably worse than a sub at going uphill.
I loved it.
EDIT: just clicked on another google image and it directed me to this thread!! another lucky owner
ah it was good times for me back in 92.i had just bought a lovely marin eldridge grade bike (from riding an 1988 dawes ascent up to that point).
it was like night had suddenly turned into day 😯 😀
by the gods i wish that marin/kona e.t.c would bring back their classic steel bikes again (obviously adjusted for today's suspension/discs e.t.c)
good times 😀
edit if i have already replied to this,my apologies (my memory isn't what it used to be 😉
This would have been about '92
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8473/8087481536_3b33a0a49a.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikes_and_stuff/8087481536/ ]holmo bike chop[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/bikes_and_stuff/ ]bmclynskey1[/url], on Flickr
More like 18 years ago, but my first 'proper' MTB was A Raliegh M-Trax Ti-3000 - purple with Ti main tubes.
Loved it!
Stupidly sold it to pay the insurance on my first car 🙁
Regretted it ever since............
A Marin Palisades Trail. I'd crashed at full tilt downhill within weeks of buying it, so the headtube had been repaired by Chas Roberts and it had Project 2s fitted (in a slightly mismatched yellow...).
I think I was riding a British Eagle K1 (?) it weighed a ton, but didn't break like the bikes I'd had previously (snapped handlebars on an Apollo Blizzard, and snapped the bottom bracket axle too)
Only had it 2 years before I got a Kona.
20 years? is it really? Jesus this is making me feel old.
At the time I was riding a raleigh peak like that pictured earlier, but with rock shox mag 21s (always broken).
Don't the Konas from the period look way ahead?
Crikey, I was kicking around on one of these.... Had to dig up an image on-line, amazing how I remember it looking the bees knees at the time??? A bit gash by today's standards but lots of great rides.
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Mine was a 15" black gt karakoram which i purchased for £399 in 1993
What a hoot that bike was.
May not have been quite 20 years ago but it was one of these (just not as nice as this one!)
[URL= http://thumbnails101.imagebam.com/21963/9f9a55219626340.jp g" target="_blank">
In 1992 it was a Peugeot job from halfords.
but in 1994 i got my first 'proper' bike 2nd hand.
It was a black Gary fisher, I'm not sure what model it was but it had a oversized head tube 1 1/4" (funny how things come round).
Alpine star stem and bars
Selle flight saddle
Sugino cranks
8 speed XT mechs
Panaracer smoke lights
Spds
Pace RC 30 forks
Suntour thumbies
Shimano canti brakes (upgraded to STX RCs Vs)
Don't think I have pictures of it :cry:.
I was riding my first mtb, the formidable Peugeot Flame (not my pic):
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/36342454@N02/7003942041/ ]Peugeot Flame[/url]
Flourescent yellow, 24 inch wheels. Was a clunking but tough old thing and enough to get me hooked.
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Specialised Stumpjumper. Mate of mine decided to go round the world, bought a new bike (smaller frame), transferre all the kit off the Stumpie onto the new bike, all brand new kit onto the Stumpie (he wanted stuff that could be fixed by the side of the road in China or something) and flogged the Stumpy to me. Great bike. Spent most of its time hacking around Hampstead Heath, but did some good runs up North in later years before being nicked 5 years ago. On the plus side, it being nicked got me back into (properly into) MTBing as its replacement had a suspension fork!
28years ago I was riding one of these babies ( not my pic or bike that's long gone)
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Shark grey with ovalised chromoly Reynolds tubing- cost me about £300 in 1985 when I was earning about £60 a week
Twenty years ago it was a bright yellow Townsend 10 speed bag of nails. Eighteen years ago I got my first proper mountain bike, a GT Talera which my mum brought and I paid her back at 5 pound per week. In no time it was dripping in purple anodised bits.
Kona Cinder Cone. Ace bike that did lots of Dales miles + got me hooked on MTBing.
The bike that got me into mountain biking. My mam bought it for herself but I "borrowed" it. Went everywhere, did everything on that thing. Great times.
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Not sure about the geometry but it worked for me.
Kona Explosif ..black, rigid with a 150mm Flexstem. It was awzum 🙂
20 years ago I was riding these. Still have them both I might add.
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Think it was an old hand me down Raleigh Burner and a Raleigh Marauder (15 speed). Both still in the barn somewhere. The GF reckons she was probably riding a little pink plastic tricycle or a Pink Barbie bike with basket and tassels as she was about 4-5.
!988 Kona Eplosif - I still have it and it still gets ridden.
20 years ago it would have been a steel frame Dawes road/touring bike - a Galaxy I seem to recall
+1 for an Orange Aluminium O. Survived just about everything that I threw at but sadly it didn’t survive the baggage handlers during a flight back from Iceland. Still every cloud has silver lining - replaced it with a Bontrager OR. 😀
One of these:
[img] http://www.vehibase.com/muddy-fox-explorer/photo-1.htm [/img]
Did loads of singletrack and riding around Snowdonia. How I wished for some front suspension.....
i had an Apollo Avalanche purple/green thing bought as my first mtb for my 12/13th christmas.
parents bought what i think was a 20" and i was 5'4 ish then and said i would grow into it lol
im 5'10 now and still sure it would be to big again!!
its amazing when you think back to what you did ride on those rigids.
Orange Clockwork LX
Not the best photo but I tended not to take many photos back then.
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20 years ago I think I would have just about progressed to something a lot like this;
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I'd still take one of those today over any of your ugly, obsolete mountain bikes.
One of these badboys
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Townsend Montezooma, a truly horrible beast of a 'mountain bike', forks were a particular highlight - inside was just two big grease covered springs!
Giant Escaper
A Raleigh something or other, can't really remember as I just used it to do my paper round
i was 6 back then so was a 24 inch universal sierra 5speed
5 speed Raleigh racer, non indexed shifter on the down tube, awesome!
Those orange and grey Marin Pine Mountains sure were a popular choice!
1992? <casts mind back> oh yes - offroad: Marin Bear Valley, commuting: an old Tom Board road frame hybridised/bastard thing, for fun: a Cannondale tandem and a Linear recumbent.
Another Marin Bear Valley, I had that bike for about ten years, then made the mistake of loaning it to one of my more random mates who promptly managed to get it nicked. He didn't have a lot of common sense and probably actually just left it propped against the front door overnight... All that bike for less than the price of a decent modern suspension fork.. 🙂
And, about then, a Kawasaki ZXR750J with the top end from a 750R, Maxton suspension, and a tuning job by Track Record. Proper missile...
Oooohh 750 Kwacker, top of my 'to buy' list if I ever win the lottery! (Of course, I would never be able to ride it on account of being a shortarse who can't reach the ground). Love that 2 stroke. Love those unpredictable powerbands. Love that acid green!
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8481/8175617024_aea2019f44.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/88059154@N02/8175617024/ ]image[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/88059154@N02/ ]R17anm[/url], on Flickr
Not quite 20 years ago fat chance shockabilly i consider my new rocket the modern day equivalent
Paramount Series 20 like this one for sale on eBay
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Probably :
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I also have one of these..
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However I still have mine and it is on the turbo at the moment.
Probably the lingerie pages from the Argos catalogue...
Not had a chance to look through the thread yet so not sure if anyone else rode a trek 930 singletrack too.
Got me into this malarkey it did. 🙂
Only ever had two Mountain Bikes, I got the Scott Montana in 1991 and that got put into semi retirement in 2009 when I got the Five ..after that it did get used on the road a bit before i went all gay and got a road bike....now the Scott lives on the Turbo.
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My old Supercal - died from a cracked head tube sadly. Still have the frame though.
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[IMG] http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h373/scary_carey/Bike2.jp g" target="_blank">
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h373/scary_carey/Bike2.jp g"/> [/IMG]
Found these beauties the other day. Think they might just be twenty yeras old. The klein was one of the harshest bikes I've ever ridden - but bloody quick. Sold it to buy some decks and feed my ever growing recreational drug habit 🙂
The Rocky Mountain got robbed from the shed, my dad nearly caught the theieving gits as well. The image of him running down the street in his gruds, screaming and waving a claw hammer is one that'll I'll never forget. Almost worth loosing the bike for the comedy of my old man going all caveman