Wow, you jumped a massive tree

FAKE! I can see the wires 🙂

Munqe-chick

Am I right in saying the second photo is the race Simon @ Simon cycles put on in Cowbridge? If so I did that too!

Love the picture of you heading to the church. Really sweet. 😀

G

Who needs suspension?

Check out the handlebars as well. It’s not actually me but someone else off here. Maybe they’ll drop by and ‘fess up if they can drag themselves away from chopping stuff down 🙂

First bike…

..back in ’86 but I think I got the bike about a year before. One of the shifters is still in use daily on my commuter. Always makes me smile.

and finally, practicing for the blindfold race at D-Day, Aboyne

Marin No 8 yes some “MTB race” along the high st, those were the days though a few fields and obstacles made it a right laugh! think it was one of the first races nicole Cooke ever did(being from Cowbridge and all taht).

Aren’t those Malvern pics from 1994? 1993 it stopped raining but was super muddy 1994 wsa a corker of a summer, I have LOADS of pics from 1994 Malverns. 1995 year of stabbing racing got cancelled and didnt’ go back until 24 hour race in 2005. will have to dig some more out now I’ve started this thread 😉

Man vs Horse, 1990 I think…

Awesome thread. Will dig some out when I’m at parents next. I like all the old Raleighs.

Loving the old monster bar ends we all had! When I got a new bike after my Kona I inherited Mr MC’s old GT i-drive and I INSISTED he put bar ends on! After a year in the Alps I realised maybe they looked a bit gash with riser bars!!

best thread i’ve ever seen on here, love the old piccies! Tony, that one of you on the rostrum looks like someone cut your legs off at the knees LOL!

Great pictures.

MC where was the wedding? Great shot BTW, the light is lovely.

lining up for my first race way back when with two mates..

im the one in the middle with the wonky helmet due to having lost the side pad..!

Old School.. by spodhopper, on Flickr

jumping a bit too high whilst at uni..

Old doubles by spodhopper, on Flickr

North Wales Winter MTB Series – early 90’s

Thats near Llyn Crafnant / Trefriw isn’t it? I think I came 4th in the Junior race – was some sort of time trial wasn’t it?
My mate Sam is on the bike on the left 😀

Brilliant – really cheered my Friday up

I’ll dig out some dayglo cycling gear photos when i get home!

Wales, sometime in ’91 I think:

Kona Explosif, with Syncros and CookBros

Maybe they’ll drop by and ‘fess up if they can drag themselves away from chopping stuff down

Twas me back in about ’87

Here are a group of pics starting from the mid eighties. Italspark, Cynical, Kev and Stuart Dangerous (The Dangerous Brothers) are among the riders. Wearing rose tinted factory pilots is not going to keep your feet warm after a February Cairngorm river crossing. Dan & Karen were not about to rob a bank, they were just trying to fend off the Loch Etive midgies.

Italspark on his second outing with us. On the first his bars were eight inches wider on each side. Combat trews, Check: Polystyrene Barnacle helmet, Check:

First ride and first OTB on my new Rockhopper up the Green Cleugh in the Pentlands, long before any trails were built.

Awesome Pete, takes me back…

1987. Raleigh Avanti in local woods. Oh boy get that saddle height sorted !

Boxelder is that first pic of yours, one from last years Kielder 100

Would have saved on disc pad hassles…..

just trying to fend off the Loch Etive midgies

AAhhhh, the optimism of youth. Still have nightmares about being stuck on a belay on the ‘slabs’ with a hesitant leader and 50 million of the blighters.

Brilliant job mc. I still remember the Dan and Karen image even though I’d never seen the photo.

Raleigh Maverick on the farm 1986. That wing mirror was the height of fashion (although DIY attempts at tie-dying with Mum’s Domestos was not).

mcmoonter.

Those stripey Troll climbing tights take me right back. 😀

Rik, I think that was our second attempt of the Glen Kinglass Loop. The first I did with Soup and Mike. We had ridden the DS the day before and thought we could ride GKL in what remained of the following afternoon.

It didn’t work out well. The rivers were in spate, Soup and Mike both got the bonk at the bottom of Glen Etive, with no food, bar half a pack of dextrosol tablets between us. With darkness falling I rode up to the Kingshouse, drank lots of tea and ate all their Mars Bars. With an awesome sugar rush I rode solo across Rannoch Moor in darkness to find Susie and the Panda. She was leafing through the phone book for the mountain rescue phone number when I arrived.

The Panda’s gear linkage broke on the way back to the Kingshouse so we had to thrash it in third gear all the way there and back.

Epic doesn’t come close!

10pmix. Check out Stuart Dangerous’s hybrid Mav-Back. I think its an earlier version of yours. Ridgeback frame, Maverick forks and motorbike ‘bars. He was uncatchable descending Mt Keen on it. I still think it was a design ahead of its time.

moonter, your photo’s are fantastic mate.

i had one of those polystyrene brancale helmets for triathlon duties in the 80’s.

Mid-90’s DH practicing (on the climb back up) on the Isle of Man 😀

I’d love an Etto helmet now – they were well cool and really comfy

kex.sykes.jon.downhill by boltonjon, on Flickr

bloody ace thread. ijs445ra that vid is superb.

10pmix … I’ve got that exact same Maverick in my garage in near original condition that I’m selling to free up some space … tempted????

No words needed:

Mcmoonter – You and your pals must have got through a lot of chainrings!

🙂

Here’s italspark in proper 80s mtb position – flat back, huge stem, narrow bars = unrideable. we all envied that rasta Roberts tho, even when he put straight forks on it and blamed them for crashing on every corner 😉

IMAG0083.jpg by alan cole, on Flickr

Kev Dangerous (Escape Route, Pitlcochry) doing the first ever stupid face on an mtb pic – IMO still one of the best, understated and subtle. Note wood-fablon bike, mahogany front triangle, teak rear for compliance.

IMAG0084.jpg by alan cole, on Flickr

And a 15-yr later stag based re-union (despite 80s helmet worn by Cookie at the back) riding up Glencoe after riding the DS…I think we were all too old for this to turn into a road-race *thinks of leffeboy collapsing into barriers*

IMAG0086-1 by alan cole, on Flickr

Great pics Al. Have you got any of the Slingshot on the DS that day

Kevin Dangerous on the Devil’s Staircase race probably 88 or 89. Me and Italspark went to marshall this drop off, we got there moments before the racers, but we crashed so many times on the way there we used up all our first aid supplies.

Oh, and Dangerous pinch flatted his front tyre and crashed seconds later! Would never have happened had he been on his bamboo bike.

Italspark on his new Roberts White Rasta Spider

Not sure re Slingshot but I think I have one of Shearer hucking regent Terrace and nearly flatting his front tyre, too much to do to hunt for it now tho.

Sadly I couldnt find the add that said something like, turn your XR3i into a Porsche with a flex stem.

Sons of Marin, Innerleithen downhill race around 1990.

Featuring Leffeboy, Italspark, the Dangerous Brothers, the Shrew and MC.

@peakprowler. Sorry, no space for any nostalgia right now! If there was my collection would start here:

fantastic memories guys,
the first pictures are of me on my dawes cougar (531 ya bass ), before i snapped the steering column off it (along with my collar bone)
followed by the custom rasta Roberts white spider which i trashed the front end of in a race at bridge of allan, i got the down tube repaired and respayed it battleship grey! next bike was a Fat Chance team issue with syncros forks…………happy days

not me unfortunately but here’s a buddy riding BMX before I knew him

this is the only one I can find of me circa 1970/71 with my younger brother. I have no idea why we are wearing blazers.

I’m riding my bike in the back garden: that counts as MTB surely??!!

Bump, anyone else got photo’s?

A few more.
Vintage MTB trophy for finishing 2nd overall in the 1985 Fat Tyre Five national race series – run by the long defunct Bicycle Action magazine.

Elbows out and short shorts – back garden jumping in 1985 on Saracen Conquest.