How cool are pre-98 Kona's!
Hadge, that Lava Dome is just so right. Petty it's not still yours...I understand your plight.
Bike Forum
First 'proper' Mountain Bike - Pictures and words please
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Diamondback Outlook, uh, mid-90s I think. 1994? Maybe.
Spent two summers getting hammered and the next ten years in my front room as a handy storage place for dust, until I 'rediscovered' biking about 18 months ago and quickly realised that it wasn't up to the job.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rigid GT Timberline - bought second hand in the mid 90s for £220.
Still got it (altho has a very erratic set of Indy XCs on it rather than the original rigids - which to this day I regret binning
Still going strong
Still commute to work on it and rode John O Groats to Land's End on it in April this year. I love that bike
Posted 1 year ago # -
'92 Diamondbck Ascent which got trashed in 4 months and replaced by a Trek 9000 - a very early full susser. I wish splatter paint jobs would come back in fashion
Posted 1 year ago # -
Mine was a Raleigh Discovery, about 1989, then wished I'd bought a Kona Lavadome like my mate had, it finally died in '01 after many years of commuting. Then got a Hardrock that I still use for commuting in the winter.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Me too on the splatter paint, Diamondbacks were great bikes in the 90's.
Posted 1 year ago # -
glenh - Member
Doesn't look improved to me - make worse more likeOh yes, MUCH worse than it was in the 90s, but better than it was when that photo was taken!
Posted 1 year ago # -
My first "mountain bike" was a bright orange Falcon Nevada, this was in the early 90s, it served me well. Try as i might i've not been able to find any pictures online of it....
Posted 1 year ago # -
Started with an old 12 speed apollo Colorado, before halfords enticed me again with the then spectacular 21 speed LX sti Apollo Kiliminjaro. Many miles ridden on that 'beast'. Followed up by the fantastic Ridgeback 706RS ( would love to find a picture of it somewhere on the web), 21 speed XT with front suspension. Loved it. Orange E2 followed in 1992/3 which was full xtr but snapped on me so replaced with Orange E3 xtr, the next day fitted some mag 21's which trnsformed this beauty. Rode for years upon years before a coyote ultralite titanium back in 1998 with Judy DH's took it to another level. Airbourne lucky strike titanium followed, then turner 5 spot and then added carbon spesh stumpy.
Not alot of bikes but all gave me experiences that were amazingPosted 1 year ago # -
Good thread.
it needs referencing to...
Lots of your first bikes and first dream bikes on there too.
Posted 1 year ago # -
First "proper" MTB was for me 2007 GT Avalanche Expert, no pics though.
Posted 1 year ago # -
This pic came via Google images but it's almost exactly the same as mine:
Saracen Sahara Elite, my first MTB bought for my 16th birthday (1993). Used it for ages, did loads of great rides on that (rides where people now seem to think that you need 6" travel, 2.3" tyres and a Saint groupset for the XXXC trails...)
Note please the neat cable routing (very rare back then, it was usually a right mess!), the radical 1" travel forks and the 28/38/48 chainset coupled with a 12-28 7sp cassette. Even did a few races on it, upgraded it lovingly over the years (changing the own-brand forks on it for the super plush long travel of some RockShox Quadra 21R's!). Eventually the frame was the only original thing left. It also originally came with loads of Ritchey parts which were, without exception utterly shit. I refused to buy Ritchey parts ever again after that.
I eventually gave the bike away to a local kids cycle club.
Posted 1 year ago # -
1991 alpinestars cro-mega DX, had it from new sold it this year.
Posted 1 year ago # -
This was my first proper mountain bike circa 1987, well not this one but it was just like it.
The original Raleigh Maverick
Posted 1 year ago # -
1988 Kona Lava Dome - don't have any digi pics, they would all be on film.
19" frame. Bought from Aire Valley Cycles. Ended up with Pace RC36 EVO2 forks, hope/X517 wheels and full XT kit. Eventually frame upgraded to a Kona Kula - the only bike I really regret selling.
Sold the frame to some bloke via Bikemagic classifieds, met him in a services on M1 vaguely near Bedford in about 2001.
Pic from:
http://www.klassickona.com/oldgold/98bikes/lavadome.htmlPosted 1 year ago # -
Another Muddy Fox Courier rider here, then I had one of these;
Farmer John's Cousins, Tioga T-Bone, Mountain LX, Araya RX7s and possibly the best paint job EVER!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Peugeot tim gould replica (the cheap one), tried google for an image but no joy. Put a rockshox sticker from mbuk on the pogo stick forks it came with but unfortunately it did nothing for the damping lol!
Good memories of that bike, the first bike i didn't break on a weekly basis.Posted 1 year ago # -
Another Lavadome here, fully rigid. Actually started on a Muddy Fox Courier but the Lavadome was my first 'real' bike. Swapped it for a brand new Carrera of some sort - took me about two rides to regret it
So.... A few years back I started looking for another one and eventually found a Hahanna almost exactly similar on ebay. Snapped it up for £50-ish.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Saracen Tufftrax in 1995.
Bought it from a mate who had a serial bike habit so it was hardly ridden and in perfect nick for £180. Similar to the one below:
Don't remember much about it spec-wise but it had Kona P2 forks and some kind of rapid-fire shifters. I can still remember my first ride on it, from Ullapool, up Glen Achall and back by Strath Nimhe. It felt like some kind of magical conveyance with hunners of gears and would go up anything. Rode it for about 3 years, fully rigid, including some big days like Laggan to Spean Bridge via Corrieyairick Pass, Fort Augustus and Great Glen Way (before it was named so).
Sold it to a mate for £120 and he still has it, gathering dust in his garage.
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Posted 1 year ago # -
My 1991 Scott Montanna next to the new bike.
It used to have a Girvin Flex Stem now its got some Mag21 SLTi's
In the new year it will be back in the peaks for its 20th birthday ride 
Posted 1 year ago # -
Muddy Fox courier too but I had the big yellow paw wheel disc on - thought it was the bomb.
have been riding some of the old trails I used to ride the courier on recently but now on a Zesty - how did we do it????
Posted 1 year ago # -
muddy fox courier around 86/ 87 i reckon.
also had one of those squiggely painted gt karakorams a good few years later. brush painted over it in gold hammerite
saw it in my mums garage when i was there a while back, couldn't believe it's not been skipped. brought back some memories
Posted 1 year ago # -
A 2008 Trek 4500 WSD - lovely little bike, but on hindsight far too short for me. The Trekadee has gone on to a new owner, a young girl that's depressingly better than I'll ever be!
*grumble* Couldn't even ride a bike at her age *grumble*
Posted 1 year ago # -
2005 Gary Fisher GED.
Except it came with the next years Drop Offs (The decent looking all black ones) Replaced it with a Turner Rail last year, and then rebuilt it and tried to sell the Turner, then rebuilt the Turner, so now the GF is in the shed, needing some chainring bolts to be rideable.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Some beautiful bikes on here, still think the early Konas look lovely. That Scott is awesome Andy W, it's great that you're keeping it going.
Posted 1 year ago # -
another raleigh maverick.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Stu_N - That Lava Dome really does look great, I remember being after one in 97, they looked great.
Posted 12 months ago # -
My first mtb was a peugout raider like this one ...
but i crashed it and ended up getting a custom build replace frame from the factory through insurance .... even had a custom built in france sticker on it !
it got stolen years and years later.
Posted 12 months ago # -
Nothing fancy. ca. 1990 a Professional Matterhorn with a tasty red/white/blue fade paint, and then ca. 1994 a Hawk of some sort. I remember it had underbar shifters and was satin black. I even stuck some slicks on it and went TTing with it.
Posted 12 months ago # -
1995 Univega Alpina 502, this one isn't mine.
Posted 12 months ago # -
I loved that bike...it got stolen from about 6ft from where I was sitting!!Posted 12 months ago # -
My first proper MTB was a second hand Diamondback Ascent way back in 1988.
Shitty plastic exage brake levers and an under the chainstay u brake.Same as this but with a pink Cosmic Trail frame bag and matching pink cables.
Posted 12 months ago #
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