I started back in 92 just after I left school and got a summer job at the hospital. A few of the guys I worked with were already into it and with my 1st months wages I went out and bought a 2nd hand Giant and been doing it ever since. I havent seen those guys for years and often wonder if they still ride.
I’m really interested to hear how you guys got started and when.

Elfinsafety

Epping Forest nightriding on a rigid Carrera Vulcan using a a set of borrowed SMART 12.4W lights.

when i was 4yrs old i rode a bike. i never stopped 🙂

1987, bought a Tufftrax with the money my mum had given my for my A level results, after lusting after mtbs in mags and not being allowed a bmx (thank ****).

Met many stars on it since…

EDIT been riding of course since I was 4 3 actually too.

38yrs and loving it

Bought my first proper mtb, a 03 Kona kahuna as my reward for giving up smoking. A far far cheeper hobby,not including the old death thing!

I’m young enough to be a second generation mountain biker – my dad was always into it and I’ve always had bikes and enjoyed it, but didn’t really get into bikes properly until a summer maybe 4 years ago when I bought my friend’s old Mongoose freeride bike and spent a long summer razzing about Calderdale on it.
Been well and truly hooked since then…

Took it up seriously when wife was pregnant with no 1 son in 96 she asked to stop rock climbing as it was “too dangerous” in her opinion. Never fell once whilst climbing, however not a ride goes by without me going over the bars or ejecting sideways.

got into riding in the mid 80’s courtesy of a big brother who dragged me all over welsh mountains just to make his little brother vomit on climbs

had a big rest from biking in the 90’s due to sex drugs and rock n roll, dragged my fat unfit arse back onto a bike in about 2002 and still ride slowly and puke on climbs….nothing changes

I bought a “Mountain Bike” around 1993, but didn’t really use it much. It was mainly to get me into some remote glens to facilitate Munro-bagging. I got a lot more interested in 2006 when I bought a full-sus and started actually going out for the express purpose of riding a bike. I have issues with my feet which has cut walking down severely, so off-road biking is really just my next best thing.

jedi – Member
38yrs and loving it

also about the same length of time, but back then they were just bikes (still are to me really) 🙂

Early 90s me and mrs rocket were working our way through the Munros and had done all the accessible ones. The rest involved either a massive boring walk in or an overnight at a bothy, usually with some extreme SAS /hobo types. Yours truly had the idea of buying a couple of these new-fangled MTBs so we could bike in, knock the hill off, ride out and be back for tea and cake.

The rest, as they say, is history.

What jedi said & 57yrs auld 😕
Living and working on farms I reckon I could be classed as a very early mtber. Singlespeeding was the order of the day and if you had 3spd Sturmey Archer you were one of the rich kids!!! http://www.sturmey-archer.com/
one of my play/cycle playgrounds

Raleigh Strika was my first suspension bike…..

hilldodger +1

started riding shortly after i learnt to walk but bought my first mountain bike as soon as i got my first job in 86. mostly due to the fact i kept breaking the road bikes by going off road with them so it made sense to buy a mountain bike. (raliegh maverick by the way)

Always rode bikes as a kid. I got my first mountain bike at about 11, an apollo 🙂

An old friend of the family took me out on a ride, and I was hooked. I used to buy mbuk and dream of having suspension forks and a tioga disk drive (back in 92-93) My hero’s were John T and JMC.

When I was 14-15, I started hanging out with older kids who were into pot smoking and going to parties. My bike was then only used for going to friends houses to smoke pot, and to go to parties…… At the age of 17 the bike was put away for 13 years.

Last year I randomly happened to go on a ride with an old friend (who was riding an apollo) After the first downhill, we were both grinning like kids on our bmx’s again 😀 I’ve been hooked ever since.

Strange one for me. My cousin – a year younger than me – died of heart disease at 38. Left us all shocked. A week later I was sitting in an Indian take away (you can probably guess the healthy life I had at the time and I knew I HAD to change).

And as luck would have it – which magazine was on the table in the takeaway that cought my eye: yes – FHM ;).

But after that was “What MTB” awards issue, which reminded me so much of my youth messing about on bikes off road. 4 days later I’d bought their top rated hardtail – at an OUTRAGEOUS price of £499 for a GT Avalanche. The bestest 499 I’ve ever spent! A couple of years later, numerous stones lighter, a lot poorer, skills not a lot better, but enjoying it ….

rocketman – Member
Early 90s me and mrs rocket were working our way through the Munros and had done all the accessible ones. The rest involved either a massive boring walk in or an overnight at a bothy, usually with some extreme SAS /hobo types. Yours truly had the idea of buying a couple of these new-fangled MTBs so we could bike in, knock the hill off, ride out and be back for tea and cake.

Aye – once you’ve walked to Derry Lodge three times, the novelty sort of wears off 🙂

39 years here.

1987- age 14- wanted a radio controlled car and my dad bought me a mtb. And that was it, first race two years later and not missed a single race season 21 yrs later. Bring on 2012. I love this sport and am proud to be part of it.

About ’88-89. Was doing a bit if time trialling but found a copy if MBUK with J Tomac on the cover ,downhilling on drops. Started almost immediately (my dad came home a few days later with a Claud Bultler something) and I’ve been riding pretty much since then

maybe it was when I was 10 and I fitted cowhorns to my 10 speed raleigh racer to make it look more like a clunker and to help it handle better over the jumps in our street and up the woods..

or maybe it was when I was 13 and got a raleigh mustang and went off on ‘adventures’ with my mates..

could have been when I was 22 and my little sister became interested in mountain biking and we used to go up to the local hill and get lost in the woods daring each other to ride progressively steeper faster lines..

it was more likely in my early 30s when a new aquaintance and I were chatting in the pub one night and discovered a shared love of mountain biking and a drunken club of two was born.. new bikes aquired and regular adventures sought..

maybe it wasn’t until I found STW though.. 😉

I had one of those “all bikes only £69” MTBs to get around when I graduated.

Shared a house with a MTB-er who said “do you ever ride that thing off-road?” (thanks Al, wherever you are).

The rest is history

APF

I started riding mtb quite late I suppose in ’99 , I had a serious RTA on my road bike at the end of ’97 which put an end to my competing in triathlon.

After sulking for 6 months and putting 2 1/2 stones on too I bought a rigid Raliegh RSP300 and rode that till my compo came through (then I spunked 3k on a fully loaded carbon I-Drive 😀 ) started with MTB with the idea that if I get hurt then it’s more than likely to be my own fault not some idiot who wasn’t looking properly.

I did windsurfing in the late 80’s and got fed up driving from the surf mecca of Swindon to the coast

So in 88 I bought a scarecen Trekker and I have not looked back since

We were lucky enough to have some Emmelle (sp?) bikes at secondary school, bought one in my 5th year. XX years ago.

Not until the age of 40, thought we’d end up in jail with the antics/speeds we were doing on the m/c’s, so needed a ‘safer’ hobby…

’91 I think. Hadn’t ridden a bike for years and thought this “new” mountain biking thing looked a laugh. Hooked ever since.

before that riding roadbikes with cowhorn handlebars from about 1979 onwards in the local woods (only 9 ish riding fullsize roadbikes and madeup bikes we found ) ..then onto bmx for the eighties

1988 ,sister had a no name mtb with combo bar and stem and lent it to ride to work once then hooked ! went out bought a diamond back with u brake cut the bars down put my BMX beartrap pedals on and my skyway brake pads ….served me well for a year or so then the spending really begun !!!

Gave up smoking about 11yrs ago and a mate suggested we took up mtbing to get fit , 10 months later we did the newmham 90 it nearly killed us but we both enjoyed it and I’m still enjoying it now . Mate gave up some years ago now, sadly.

Otb Raleigh grifter, surprised by how little it hurt, never looked back.

Hurts like hell now mind

End of 2007. Mr Toast said that mountain biking was a bit like the speeder scene in Return of the Jedi, so that was me sold. Had to learn how to ride a bike properly first though…

back in 1988 (either for my birthday or christmas) i got a dawes ascent mountain bike.at first i was disappointed (as i wanted a road bike.sorry 😳 but after riding it for some time,i really loved it.i even did my first 100 miles on it when i was 15 (and came back just in time to watch the tour de france on channel 4/the year that greg lemond beat laurent fignon 😀 to be honest i never did much off road riding on it,but it was that bike that introduced me to the joys of mountain bikes 😀

early nineties, was into climbing/mountaineering but couldn’t afford to go to Lakes/Scotchland/N Wales every weekend. Dales and NYM was for nancy boys and old folk, so we got MTBs instead to explore the Dales and Peaks. Had 6 years 2000-2006 where I didn’t touch me MTB tho.

I was given a raleigh marauder in 1990/ 1991 for Christmas after riding bmx for years.

My uncle used to take us (eleven at the time) along the local railway lines, down through bluebell woods and back along the riverside ‘Lambton Trail’. I did this every weekend and two or three nights a week. I was hooked.

BUT, when I first became a mountain biker was when I spent a week in the lakes when I as 17 with a mate. Beer and bikes for a full week and I (very naively may I add) conquered striding edge then climbed back over to Ambleside for more beer.

1985 when i was 19 was the year i bought my 1st mtb. it was a universal something or other, total crap.
took it to Hebbers on the train and rode hardcastle craggs, buckled both wheels and the gears packed up on the way back to the station.

carried on using my flat barred dawes galaxy for offroading till 1986, when i bought a muddy fox explorer, with shimano deore xt11 gearing, it was fantastic.
did the 3 peaks the 1st weekend i had it, with sa mate who bought a courier.

i had however been riding offroad with the ctc since 1980.

First time on a borrowed Trance at Afan, May 08. Sold all my road bikes when I moved to the Basque Country a couple of months later, intending to buy a new one when I got here. Started riding MTB with the locals, bought a hardtail a month later… took me a year to get around to buying that road bike 🙂

Been riding bikes (of all descriptions) off-road since I was 8 or 9.

Moved up to Barnsley to do my teacher training in 1995 and discovered hills (grew up in the fens) and a copy of MBUK. Built my first MTB from car boot sales and police auctions (was riding a klunker before I knew anything about the history of the sport I had just discovered).

Built my first ‘real’ MTB when I got my first teaching job in Coventry (one-off Lee Cooper frame with Quadra 21s. Inspired by Spooky et al got enthralled by the hardcore hardtail idea and soon moved on to a mk2 Trailstar with Bombers.

Drifted out of things a bit in 2001 once back in the flatlands of the East and engaged to my now wife (we got into archery and she had a (working) car so no longer needed a bike for transport either which put cycling on the back burner for a while).

About 4 years ago Zoe wanted to get some exercise as part of a diet. Seemed a great excuse to get her an entry-level bike and dust off (for which read buy shiny new stuff for) the old Trailstar, which ended up including a new frame too. n+1.

Haven’t looked back since.

slainte 😀 rob