1991. I went along with a mate when he bought his first mtb. Thought it looked fun so bought one myself the following week.
Bike Forum
When and how did you become a mountain biker?
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Posted 6 months ago #
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In the late '80's I needed a new bike (like a lot of others there has always been a bike kicking around in the background but was never a 'cyclist') to get too and from work. I thought mountain bikes looked pretty cool so picked up a Giant Escaper 23" gate which never really got off road (other than dirt/farm tracks).
I then took up road biking and joined a roadie club which just happened to have a mtb section. Having been mug enough to volunteer to help on the committee I met a mtb'er and asked him if he'd drag me out. Went for a couple hour loop to Glen Tannar and loved it (even though the first downhill bit felt scarily like just before I crashed a motorbike) and that was me bitten/smitten. For about the next 10 years when ask what I was I was first and foremost a mountain biker.
Sadly my mtb mates dropped away (moved away/abroad, turned roadie or plain turned weird, 1 even became a fully fledged junkie!) and then my bike was nicked. Combined with a relationship with a non mtb'er this meant that the biking slowly dropped off and climbing increasingly became the focus.
It comes and goes in phases. Not really got biking mates ATM, a niggling back injury and a current lack of motivation/mojo doesn't help.
Planning on nipping out locally on my tod for a couple of hours tomorrow though...
Posted 6 months ago # -
Started in 1988 on a Specialized Hardrock bought by my parents from Halfords. I spotted it recently at the local train station still sporting the same water bottle I sold with it in the early 90s
Posted 6 months ago # -
Mine was really about 4-5 years back when me and the wife moved to the 'countryside'. What this meant in essence is that the Downs are about 100m from my doorstep and within 5 mins i can be more than a mile from any houses and truely out in the country. So i started off with some Ridgeway stuff and progressed from there. That was on a s/h GT proper pile of garbage bike i paid £50 for from Gumtree. Then moved onto a £250 upgraded Carrera and then onwards and upwards from there really.
Any of my 'free' time now is generally taken up by MTBing (or motorbikes)Posted 6 months ago # -
had always ridden down the woods on an assortment of bikes usually made up from bits we had salvaged from the dump,gave up on biking in my teens took up motorcycle trials and womanising fast forward 15 years and ive settled down and moved out of Edinburgh and into rural Ayrshire spotted a MTB in a bike shop 94 and that was me back on two wheels and loving it
Posted 6 months ago # -
Late '80s, secondhand Raleigh Montage with a 24" frame(!!!), local parks and woods. Loved riding the singletrack straight away.
Glad I never tried to do any "proper" mountain biking involving actual hills on it though, it was a bloody deathtrap.
Always had a mountain bike since then.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Rode a bike round the garden as a kid then nowt for 30+ years. Got interested in the early 90s but didn't have the spare money to invest on a whim. Moved to North Yorkshire in the mid 90s and finished up living a couple of miles from Dalby, got interested again and bought a Spesh Hardrock in the end of year sale 2004. Only bike I bought from an LBS, and only one so far that was the wrong size. Dabbled but slowly got more interested and then bought one of the first 456 complete bikes in 2007 and been hooked since then.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Had a Raleigh mountain bike for xmas when i was 10. My mates all had bikes and we lived on them every day. I then had an apollo around age 12-13 with front suspension which bottomed out and hit the tyre lol. Then at around 14-15 I had a nice carrera hard tail which I remember was a nice bike. Messed around on it until 17 and the driving licence arrived and never touched a bike again until I was 22.
Walked passed a bike shop around 21-22, saw a £500 GT hard tail which caught my eye and thought I'd treat myself as I always said I'd buy a nice bike when I could afford it (£500 seemed a lot for a bike 8 years ago) Rode it to work a few times, left it for another year and then went to cannock with a mate. Turns out my cardio fitness was rubbish even though I was in reasonable shape, hit the wall, felt sick and went home having not enjoyed it.
Few years later (2.5 years ago now), my best mate from school moved in with his missus a few mins round the corner and he got me running the wrekin. After a few weeks of doing this he suggested we take the bikes. It was amazing fun descending and messing around. A few more weeks later he traded his hard tail in for a £2600 trek remedy 9. Suddently he had twice the descending pace I had on the GT and I decided I must have a full suspension bike.
2 months of research began and I finally stumbled upon a lovely Giant trance x with a anodized frame which grabbed my attention. The adventure started there, in the first summer we tried longmynd, cannock, brenin, marin, penmachno, llandegla, wrekin, east ridge. Looking back it was one of the best years of my life but it has been something I've kept up and love more and more and is now part of my life. Still have the same frame but with an entirely new set of components, forks etc and enjoyed customising it as much as riding.
I'm certain I will continue riding as long as health allows, the perfect escape from day to day stresses of life!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Been cycling since the age of 3 but got my first mountain bike in 2007. I had to sell my motorbike to buy another car as the missus passed her driving test and I got a new job with a longer commute. Needed something to get my thrills quota so got myself a little Marin Wildcat hardtail.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I've been cycling since I was a kid but got into MTB in my final year of Uni back in 91.
I hit a car side on and wrote off my road bike and as the roads were in a crap state (no change there then) I splashed out £400 on a Giant Escaper.
Joined the MTB society and started riding with them at local spots and Cannock Chase.Started racing and bought a Team Marin in '95 or '96 when I didn't get a job in the states.
Still wonder if the Uni guys still ride - I remember we started riding the 15miles to the Chase to join a 20m group ride then hammered it home. Improved my race results no end.
happy days
Posted 6 months ago # -
I'm a cyclist, not just a 'mountain biker', as I have a road bike + BMX too...
So since I could ride without stabalisers... aged 2, back in 1986...
Posted 6 months ago # -
I started riding bikes 40years ago and rode offroad since then as well. got my first real mountainbike in 1994 ish. Always have ridden bike sregularly since then.
I came to mountainbiking thru touring and access to the mountains to munro bag really but I was also inspired by tales of roughstuff fellowship style riding way back when so tried to incorporate a bit of off-road into my touring routes
Posted 6 months ago # -
1988/89 when I was bought my first mountain bike, a Marin Muirwoods
Posted 6 months ago # -
1987, aged 18, a mate who worked in irvine cycles showed me his muddy fox courier, i had a shot up and down the street, bought one a few months later.
never stopped, dont ride so much now, (work etc) but doubt i will ever give up.
love it.Posted 6 months ago # -
Always cycled off road stuff since a kid in the 70s but first road an ATB in 1984 it was an Overburys Fellrider .I still have the frame.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I've been cycling since I was a kid, but really got into mountain biking from the age of 14 when I bought a very brightly coloured MBK 'all terrain' bike.
Used to spend every night after school riding along the sand dunes and forest tracks between Crosby and Southport.
I managed to save up enough money from a paper round to buy a Saracen Sahara in 1992 and then joined the Liverpool mountain bike club and it took off from there. Joining a club opened up a whole new world to me as due to my young age; I couldn't drive myself.
My poor Saracen Sahara got stolen and my folks house insurance helped fund my favourite bike; a Marin Bear Valley SE. I loved my Marin to bits and spent all my paper round money on 'blinging' it up with anodised blue bits, project two forks and a 'snowflake' front wheel from Formby Cyclesports.
I then moved onto the St Helens 'Woolly Backs' mountain bike club, still relying on club members to drive me to destinations afar; as I was still too young to drive.
I haven't been part of a club for long time now, but still ride my mountain bike most days.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Had a interest in bikes since I was 9 or 10 since I got my uncles mk1 chopper (i could wheelie that forever
)..then I got a raleigh Commando followed by a Grifter, started experimenting with different builds in my early teens before falling away from it for 20 odd years although I always had some sort of bike..really only got into proper mtbing about three years ago 
Posted 6 months ago # -
got banned from the school buses in my first year for being a pyromaniac and had to find other means of getting there so bought a marin bolinas ridge from a mate and 24 bikes later its the most expensive mistake i ever made still got my commuter tho
Posted 6 months ago # -
There's really quite a lot of mtb heritage and experience on this forum isn't there
Oh, and if you're reading this repack rider / Charlie - I don't think you really need to add a post!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Picked up a couple of bikes at a local police auction - one for me and one for my mate when I was about 16. I kept the bright yellow Muddy Fox Courier, and he got the Trek.
Other mates got involved and we spent the next five years trawling about all over Aberdeenshire and beyond. Loved it! Still loving it now
Posted 6 months ago # -
I was out riding my hybrid one winter in the mid-nineties and took a shortcut to The Hunter Lodge down a very muddy Haydon Drove. I ended up dragging my bike by one handle bar! I got chatting to some cyclists in the pub and one of them said "I think you need a mountain bike".
Posted 6 months ago # -
August(ish) 2010.
Signed up for D2D with some 'mates' last year and figured I would need a bike... the Giant Revel got me through my first Winter Series, various other races and the Singletrack Weekender this year I now also run a '08 Kona Dawg Primo, that will continue to get a kicking racing and pushing the boundaries in 2012.
Never been happier Posted 6 months ago # -
When I was 24, had a heavy Pergeot mtb when I was 12ish during the 90s which didn't go offroad much, and on my 24th birthday saw a Mongoose Switchback rigid mtb with a tange frame advertised for 80pounds in the local paper, and bought it a day or two later and got into cycling upto Stanage Pole on it and along tracks nearby, and my parents bought me a Kona Cidnercone a ocuple of years later as a combined b'day and xmas present, from me being indecisive about presents.
Am currently building up a Cotic Soul hardtail after my alloy Kona frame broke around the seatpost tube at the tope of the seatstays and seat tube.
Used to be into climbing untill injury, so mtbing give's me a buzz doing something else. I love getting out to my favorite spots and having some tranquility before enjoying the ride back home again, the mixture of a buzz from riding and tranquility from the countryside is hard to beat, and on later in the day rides the ride back home for tea is nearly always filled with anticipation.
Posted 6 months ago # -
i can remember MBUK starting up and thinking "its about time!"
Posted 6 months ago # -
Got a Raleigh Amazon for xmas '91 to replace my bmx, then was in a newsagents with a friend in Inverness and he suggested I buy a mountain bike mag seeing as I now had an mtb, so I bought the January 1992 MBUK and that was that as they say. Beer, weed and women took over for a few years when i was a student and then got back into it after a messy break up about five years ago, still lovin' it
I can still remember the cover of that MBUK! I think it is still in my parents attic with the following 5 or so years worth of issues.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Excluding the traditional gents Raleighs that we cut about and added m/c bars to etc and the thing that I made with NSU moped suspensions forks and a Chooper back wheel (my jump bike) my first experience of mtb's was turning up at college in Bangor in'83 to find some one with a Dawes Ranger. We were riding the Welsh hills before the Crane brothers. (but the buggers beat us to the 3000's in one go as we were to lazy to rush). Rough stuffing on the road bikes was also the thing to do. My next mtb came from Sian Roberts at Biecs Betws in 89.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Started end of 82/ beginning of 83 came back from the Falklands and bought a Stumpy - I did not see another MTB for nearly two years. I (sadly) still have the first edition of MBUK.
But started riding off road about early 70s, we would build the strongest bikes up we could from any bits we could find, called them Quarry Bikes which usually broke in early jumping sessions!,I remember the Rangers and the Highpeak.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I've just always ridden bikes, I lived close to the fields so always ended up off road, so have pretty much always been a mountain biker.
I can remember when MBUK put People like Barrie Clarke on the cover and still have the issue when the new XT groupset was released with the revolutionary V brakes.
Posted 6 months ago # -
5 years ago when I left my career as a semi pro skier and rugby player in the RAF I started having to work for a living and stopped all the sport. I got a wee bit beefy and during a drunken discussion about how to get fit for an upcoming ski holiday my pal suggested I buy a bike. I haven't looked back since. I love it.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I started riding about 88 when i got a raleigh marauder it weighed around 4 tonnes so i ended up getting into downhill obviously
over the years rode every discipline from bmx to xc racing and love all of it around the late 90s there were 20 or more of us riding and now due to kids work etc im the only one left riding regularly and i still love it i dont see why anything should stop you doing what you love,,
i must be an addictPosted 6 months ago # -
Summer 1993 or 1994 bought half a secondhand bike from Fred baker cycles in Brizzle and first ride was in Coombe Dingle (I think). My local shop cyclemart had not long moved from their first shop to another larger place and I got friendly with those guys who in turn 'made' me try a race which I sucked at! A year or so later I bought a secondhand Marin Rocky Ridgeoff the mechanic coated in xt/xtr trickery and some manitou twos and that's when racing and riding got serious for me
Posted 6 months ago #
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