[Closed] When did you get your first MTB?

Raleigh Apex in 1993. Girven flex stem and 400LX gears 🙂 then I got a paper round and steadily replaced with XT, thumb shifters and all. took a year but god I was proud of myself (and bike) when I'd done it.

I think it was a Claude Butler, resprayed black with 18 gears of wonderful friction shifting. And too big for me!

I bought a Diamondback Ascent EX ('88 model) in 1989.

My first proper one was a Trailstar I got in about 2005. Always bmx'ed before that.

1987 Marin Bear Valley

1986 when I bought a Claud Butler from Langsett Cycles which was knicked within a year and replaced with a Saracen Tufftrax.
I wasn't impressed at first. I had always cycled but had been racing off-road motorbikes which rather spoiled me for mtb. Once I realised I wasn't going to get up Peak climbs as if I had 30 bhp at hand I really got into it and have stayed so over the last 26 years.
Incidentally I was interested to see in the article about older riders in the last issue, how many came from an off road motorbike background.
How many more of you are there out there?

1992, saracen Sahara elite. Don't know what I'd of done with my spare time and cash if that hadn't happened. Christ, that's 20 years gone by!

Oh, and I think it was in about 88/89

Do £20 Honda 90s count as proper off road motorbikes? 😀

I was a walker and a roadie, MTB just seemed like a great way of combining both.

1989 Trek 830 - Biopace rings and all.

Around 1992 or there abouts and it was this Bear Valley SE:

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I always had a BMX up till that point- i played the old game of bluff with my parents to get it, saying id save up all my paper round money for an entire year to get it (yeah right! 😆 ).
Fortunately mum and dad realised there was no way that was going to happen and that i really, really, really, really wanted this bike- so they bought it for me 😀
I also became really rather good at washing up and cleaning dads car at that point.....
I've been an MTB addict ever since.

Purple Dawes, it was a low end model, 100 or 200LX gears, it was heavy, even the bars were steel. '91 or 92

2007 i think... maybe 2008.

2003, Claud Butler Stone River.

Before that, I was just a walker who tutted at mountain-bikers... 😳

shogun 1988, replaced 1989 with clockwork orange which i still have. i cant remember in what order but spds and rockshox came out a little later ( the spd's first i think ) i bought a pair of green sidi shoes they and shimano were all there was.
i had one of the first pairs of mag 20's when they were imported and when they were sold 20 years later the guy who bought them emailed for days insisting they were nt original and were really mag 21's..

1988 - a very small white Peugeot with 15 gears and 24" alloy rims and riser bars!

1992.

Here it is in its latest guise. 20 years old baby!

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1990 I think. A 'Pro Bike - Macho' in fluoro pink and white with rakishly bent top tube. Used for commuting and then bike messengering. Always wanted one of those Marin Bear Valleys...

Ridgeback S in 1986 - I still remember pretty much every inch of it 🙂

1990 - some Raleigh 'first go at a kind of MTB thing', but not really.

All my mates had Saracens in an ace yellow colour, and I was jealous 🙁

1985/6 I think, Specialized Rockhopper, yellow. Wanted a Muddy Fox Courier (Comp) but they never arrived in the LBS, bought the Spesh instead.

I believe it's still going strong (not with me though!)

1994 for me Claude Butler Zagato in retina burning neon purple
made out of scaffolding i think
brilliant fun

1987, some Peugeot 10 speed thing. It was pretty good actually.
That got nicked.
Then got a Marin Palisades from Mike Cooksons in '89.
That got nicked.
Then got a Muddy Fox Courier from a bloke at work. He might have nicked it.

1989 Raleigh Mustang. Not just any Mustang, though, it was the Mustang [b]SIS[/b] like this:

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I rode it all over the place, I broke two frames (15 year frame guarantee!) and just about every other part.

I enjoyed riding it but, as a mountain bike, it was rubbish.

Carrera Krakatoa - somewhere around 89/90. Rode it all over the welsh hills until it was absolutely knackered. RIP.

One of these, 2005 -

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1988, Raleigh Dune Dancer was my first. I was 17. Bought it on the never never from my mums Grattan catalogue! I was hoping it was going to be a BMX for grown ups but it wasn't quite. It wasn't until I borrowed a GT Timberline off a friend a few years later that I really got the bug.

When I was 30, a Claud Butler Steel HT, before then I was into BMX and road.

Wish I still had it, was a great bike.

1986 - nasty thing my Dad made me buy.

Team Marin. Second hand in early 90's. I still have it, and use it for commuting duties. Still on the original shifters and derailleurs.

GT Outpost, 1990, aged 35. I thought, 'wow, 21 gears, I should be able to climb up anything on that'. I couldn't.

bout 90ish, was a regular motorbike trail rider and the writing was on the wall for access back then, a bloke in the club ran a bike shop so Giant Terrago DX, and off I went. (Still used by a mates missus as a stable bike). However being a country boy every bike I ever had was a mountain bike, including my tricycle.

Wow, I'm impressed. With the usual STW willy waving I'm surprised no one said they bought their first MTB/invented MTBing in 1967 😛

3rd September 1986 - Red Specialized Rockhopper from Rayment's in Brighton.

1990 Claud Butler Pagan (I think), mine had pink cables, biopace cranks and looked a bit like this:

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1990 I think. Raleigh Amazon, 100GS and Biopace rings. Had been borrowing my brothers' Raleigh Eurotech prior to that. When I got my 1993 Kona it was a revalation, it must have been 10lbs lighter!

1987 Raleigh Maverick (Burgundy) with 15 (yes, count them, FIFTEEN!) gears. 😀 Sachs Rival mechs, Lee Chi Shifters, Cheng Shin centre ridge tyres, risers bars and a stubby stem before such things came into fashion (again) - happy days. I got it for my birthday from Halfords in Renfield St in Glasgow. It was a great bike...until the frame cracked which is something of a theme with me!

After that, I got an Orange Prestige from my folks (again , a birthday present). It was ace too.....until the frame cracked. Replaced by two Hecklers....which cracked. A Turner 5 Spot....which cracked. A Cove Hummer....which cracked. Hmmmm, perhaps I need to buy burlier bikes or not ride up and down mountains? That might do it!

Cheers

Sanny

87/88 and it was a Townsend from the bike shop in Shrewsbury - replaced with my current Kona Cindercone (well current frame anyway) a year later.

Super basic but still managed the Wrekin, Peaks, borders and the Long Minge.

All up IIRC it was about £99.00.

EDIT: Dave Mellor Cycles - cheers Dave, that's 25 years of fun you got me into.

my dad was a roadie and a bit of a mtb'er without really knowing it so we always had reasonably off road capable bikes. my first 26inch wheeled bike was some apollo thing he got me when i was about 12/13 and i rode that till i saved enough money from odd jobs till i got a raleigh rsp with stx-rc spec and indy c's. good bike but weighed about the same as a neutron star... before that i rode a 24inch raleigh mustang mtb which was a bomb!!! probably still doing the rounds on a council estate somewhere

1987 - Giant Super Sierra....no pics unfortunately ....got nicked from outside my front door! gutted.....

91, Alpinestars cro-mega DX. Sold it last year.

Mid 2003, a Norco Storm. Had that for about 6 months before getting a Giant XTC3, great bike.

2005 bought an old early 90's GT timberline for £30 and rode it into the ground....gave the frame away last year to a recycling project

1986 Muddy Fox Courier after years of BMX's

Loved it !!!!!!

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Fitting nicely with that other thread, mine was in 1994, a Tim Gould "replica" Peugeot thing. Loved it for years, took me all over, then bought a 2nd hand Cannondale Beast of the East which was a full stone lighter!

rogerthecat - Member
Dave Mellor Cycles - cheers Dave, that's 25 years of fun you got me into.

There's a blast from the past - gotta be 16+ years since i've been there. I used to go most weekends and salivate over the bikes I couldn't afford.

September 1991. GT Karakoram

Ny the time Id finished upgrading only the frame and forks were original, and even the forks had been modified by Dave Yates...

[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3268/2350150387_34b4235eda.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3268/2350150387_34b4235eda.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickw3216/2350150387/ ]GT, early 1993[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/nickw3216/ ]nick3216[/url], on Flickr

This actual bike. Ex-demo from Rock 'n' Road cycles, Portsmouth.
Had borrowed stuff from my dad and mates until I could afford this. £1000! (1995, I think)
[IMG] [/IMG]

(snapped the frame just a few months ago)

1987 Raleigh Avanti. Blue / white. Biopace, U brake, Reynolds 531 (i think), toeclips, weinmann rims.

Wow, I'm impressed. With the usual STW willy waving I'm surprised no one said they bought their first MTB/invented MTBing in 1967

😆

Around late 1980-early 90 Got a 1987 specialiazed hardrock off of my uncle who owned a bike shop at the time (and the specialized agency, which I'm sure he's since regretted giving up). Rode that for about 3-4 years and then bought a 1992 Bridgestone MB-2 whilst on holidays in the US with my parents. That bike was a thing of beauty. It got stolen a few years later but I managed to get it back after one of my riding buddies at the time spotted it. Was quite lucky as it had been resprayed but it was so unique it was still quite recognizable. After I got it back I rode it for many years till the chainstay gave out. Still have the frame in the garage and often consider getting it fixed and returning it to it's former glory frame colour and all.

1987 Saracen TuffTrax. Xmas 2011 my lads first MTB... Saracen TuffTrax!

87 i think.

Diamondback ascent with a shitty plastic U brake under the chainstays that kept clogging up every time it got a bit wet.

1990?? It was a black Spesh Hard Rock and it was the first year thumb shifters sat under your bar rather than on top. It's still in the shed at the in-laws and gets ridden from time to time. It's got bright yellow bar ends and a Shark Fin chain stay protector on it 🙂

twas 1988 (was either for my 13th birthday/crimbo).it was a lovely dawes ascent (in white/yellow/pinky red) 15 speed of loveliness,fully rigid,reynolds 501 tubing,thummies,grips harder than a glaswegian bouncer 😯 i even did my first 100 miles on it when i was 15 (those days are long gone now though 🙁

trb - Member
Purple Dawes, it was a low end model, 100 or 200LX gears, it was heavy, even the bars were steel. '91 or 92

Same here! Dawes One track by any chance? Awesome bike - loved it. Had it for 4 years and then snapped the frame at Thetford but Dawes replaced it and that got stolen 🙁

Happy days though when everything was simple - by that I mean 1 bike did everything!

Happy days though when everything was simple - by that I mean 1 bike did everything!

[b]*Rose-tinted spectacles alert*[/b] 😆

I got my first mountain bike in '85. The first Rockhopper in the country.

When I went to Art College in '82 I picked up the first Madison Freewheel catalogue and saw a couple of Ridgebacks in it. I had no idea what they were, but they looked fun. I couldnt work out why they were more expensive than the touring and racing bikes. I rented a demo one from Recycles before they became the Edinburgh Bike Co-Op, and went up into the Pentlands and loved it.

Designs were constantly changing, so I didnt want to buy an immediatly outdated bike. Sounds familiar? I was all set for a Saracen 531 Conquest, the type the Crane's took up Kilimanjaro, when the Rockhopper appeared at a trade show. I had a summer job at Robin Williamson Cycles, my Colnago had been stolen, and I had a wad of cash.

It was a great bike, until I thought an upgrade to roller cam brakes would make it perfect. A local bike shop with a mechanic who had aspirations as a frame builder agreed to fit new bosses. They ended up misaligned, which resulted in a near death crash on the Devils Staircase fire road switch backs. The brake cam pulled clear through the rollers and I headed now brakeless towards a precipice. I caught a tree to save my skin.

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Wow, I'm impressed. With the usual STW willy waving I'm surprised no one said they bought their first MTB/invented MTBing in 1967

I started backflipping 160 foot doubles on my hand built fillet brazed, carbon lugged, titanium framed, fat front, 700c rear, rigid lefty forked, front wheel hub geared belt driven rear suspension recumbent down the Fort William DH track around the time of the crusades.

This one ride when I was in the middle of popping this massive sick huck, Gary Fisher and Joe Breeze came up to me, both obviously just itches in their ancestor's pants, and they said to me [i]"That looks totally sweet dude. When we are eventually born we're going to take credit for inventing that"[/i] and I just said [i]"whatevs"[/i] before landing no handed and going off to kiss my numerous supermodel girlfriends.

I am therefore considerably more old school, gnar core and nichetastic than all yous.

(In reality, a Gary Fisher something or other in about 1994).

"First" mtb? I have only ever had one. 5 year old Trek HT with a massive 100mm!! Keep toying with buying a fancy bike but wimp out at the last minute - imo, bikes are currently crazy prices for something to race occassionally but normally thrash about on the trails/mountains. Love riding my old faithful even if it needs a better/braver rider on top. I can just about get over the bike envy at the start of races/car parks especially when you pass the same bikes later on 😉

But still recall childhood when my old raleigh did everything - road, riding in the woods, jumps etc. A monstrous set of three gears driven by my old friend sturmey archer. Never failed, rarely needed servicing and I can only recall one puncture and I thrashed it. If only they made them like they used to....!!!

£200 Ridgeback from the 1986 Freewheel catalogue, after seeing my then BIL riding his up a really steep hill with ease 🙂

back in the late 80's

some kind of Peugeot (got nicked)
some kind of Raleigh (got nicked)
then a Raleigh strata (cant remember what happened)

Around 1991 I think. A Raleigh Dune Dancer from Halfords in Croydon. Still got the frame and forks in the shed somewhere.

Cheers

Andy

Ps Well done to DezB for breaking a Principia. I've got 3 of their road frames and I reckon they'll outlive me.

1995 raleigh max was my first full sized (26" wheel bike) i was so happy when my parents got it. had some catalogue orange thing that i'd outgrown for ages before that. at some point it got yellow planet x downhill bars!

1986 Ridgeback. I loved it at the time but lusted after an Overbury's Pioneer (which I didn't get) and later a Roberts White Spider (which I did).....

1987, Marin palisades trail from my windsurfing shop in barrow in Furness....

1996 a specialized rockhopper, which got up graded pretty quickly to a Kona Cindercone.
The cindercone was the first proper bike that I actually rode 'off road' on, around the Peak District mostly, until it broke on an epic ride in the Lake District in 1999. I loved that bike.

a Roberts White Spider

Chris Shaw the guy in the red jersey worked for Chas Roberts. His pink White Spider was a thing of beauty. He was sadly killed in a RTA when out training for a world cup race.

Chris's White Spider is still in service in Marin, now as a singlespeed. Amazingly the guy who replaced Chris at Roberts brazed the new drop outs on. He's working as a frame builder in the Bay Area.

A random ride on Ben Lomond about March '88 with Chris Shaw and Josie Dew.
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Crappy MTBSO in about 89/90-ish after riding BMXs for a fair while.
First 'proper' MTB was a second-hand Marin Palisades in about 92/93. It was the grey supposedly chip-proof paint with yellow bars and fork.

89/90 i think... some sort of British Eagle. 1st 'proper' mtb was early 93..

First 'proper' bike was a '97 steel Rockhopper which I got in April, haveing saved a load of cash and added it to my birthday money. A few quick upgrades followed... Sachs wavey shifters in yellow, LX v brakes and an ano red Azonic riser bar. Unfortunately whilst riding in Burnham Beeches, some pikey decided to liberate it from my ownership (along with my mates Orange). Two gutted fourteen year olds.

A Kona Koa soon replaced it - I thought this was ace because it was aluminium and mega light (rigid forks!).

I have also inherited the bike that first sparked my interest - my uncle's early nineties Beast of the East complete with purple USE stuff, cable hope disc, more purple bolts etc and Pace forks. Needs a new BB and headset. One day I may get it back up and running.

94 I think, I had a cheap s/h hardtail by Hi-Gear with 24" wheels bought from Cheltenham Road in Brizzle. Had it a few weeks and had painted it up and added all kinds of random stuff - sharksfin, bullet bros tensioner etc. Had it for a fair few years I think before my first proper bike

A peugeot thing with a bright green paint job it lasted 2 rides around clent hills, halfords told my old man when he took it back that it wasn't really meant for real off road haha

so i guess my first real mtb was my diamond back topanga , loved that bike. gave up track racing and cyclo cross shortly after getting that bike, i was well and truely hooked. I was 14 at the time, im now 34 🙂

1989 Raleigh Mirage with Exage Trail group on it, 21" frame and it was waay too big for me.(I'm only 5'6") Anyway I whacked my nuts on the first test ride down the road on the oh so powerfull canti brakes!

I quickly got the bug and luckily I won a Rockhopper in a competition in 1990. It came with Shimano 400LX on it. Now not many people nowadays will remember that groupset era 😆

87 Tufftrax.

Oh and has Charlie Kelly shown up yet? He seems to have some searhc set up for threads like this 😀

Mine was a 1991 Saracen Sahara, in bright yellow; bought brand new after saving up my paper round money.

Loved that bike and I still have the odd look on Ebay and Retrobike just incase a mint condition one turns up 8)

Oh and has Charlie Kelly shown up yet? He seems to have some searhc set up for threads like this

Meantime, back in Crested Butte in 1980

A black Giant Acapulco in 1992. Bought for me by my grandmother as a birthday present...I was pretty chuffed. I can remember a lot of the bikes in this thread from the bike sheds at school.

Marin Pine Mountain in 1993