First bike I ragged off road was some nameless racer with bullhorn bars and knobbly tyres circa 1981. First “mountain bike” was some purple candy-flake Emmelle monstrosity in the late 80s with plastic brakes which I just couldn’t kill. Frame was still doing singlespeed pub bike duties until last year!

Scott Timber bought in 92
Here it is at the top of Kilvey Hill

I added an 150mm long Kalloy Stem in light anodized blue soon after this,
replaced it in 94/95 with a Specialized Rockhopper Comp

Sort of like this one, but betterer

Ace thread! Mine was the blue crackle gt tequesta…..lost in France somewhere.great bike,did everything on it

apollo kiliminjaro, 21spd lx. Halfords rocked back then!!!!
Swiftly replaced in 92/93 with a Ridgeback 706RS, full xt and RS3 suspension. Still to this day cant find a picture of it anywhere, google etc

I coveted the kakoram…

1st bike was a Raleigh Avanti with Deore XT II drivechain. The forks folded outwards on a drop so ended up like a chopper. Got the forks replaced under warranty. That one then got stolen from the local train station. Same as this one:

2nd bike was one of my all time favourites: Team issue Raleigh DynaTech Pro. Suntour XC Pro groupset, upgraded to a flex-stem and some syncro’s bar ends. Same as this one except mine had a curved top tube:

Same as this one except mine had a curved top tube

The DYNA CURVE

I had a Dyna Tech Mission wit the Dyna Curve. Loved it, but broke it 🙂

I would have done anything to have that Dyna Tech back in the day…. just like David Bakers!

First mountain bike was a Raleigh Lizard circa 1990, sold that and got a Dawes Kickback. Then I discovered girls and cars.

Came back to riding with a 2nd hand Mongoose Amp in about 2000

1990 Apollo Atomic (yellow & black). Must have been about a 20″ frame and I was 11! It lasted about 2 years before I broke it. Then I had a Carrera Katalyst with elevated frame. That lasted 2 years before it got stolen 🙁 I then had a Saracen Eiger which developed purple-itis and i had for a long time 🙂

Thinking about it apart from the Raleigh all my other old bikes are still kicking about in my parents garage. 😀

one of these 🙂 complete with flex stem.
I’m sure i’ve got some old pictures somewhere.

I would have done anything to have that Dyna Tech back in the day

I worked in one of the Raleigh main dealers and we had a race team. Somehow they managed to persuade Raleigh to sell me a Team issue one..cost me over £1200 in 1989/90 I think. Damn, I wish I still had it.. 🙁

GT Timberline, would have been 1995 or 1996. Wasn’t really into MTB at the time, more just using it as a means to get out into the local Yorkshire Dales on a Sunday. As a climber and mountaineer, we considered the Dales a bit pathetic, Dales mtbing kind of made it acceptable.

Raleigh Massif

then…..

Raleigh Apex

Sadly both nicked.

Edit: Darren that’s the exact same bike I had , complete with flex-stem. Oh how I loved it.

Neon yellow Muddyfox Courier – bought from the police auction at Thainstone Mart near Aberdeen. Ironically, it got nicked (again) and I never saw it again. Replaced it with a 2nd hand Lavadome and never looked back 🙂 Looked just like this one…

2nd hand light blue Muddy fox pathfinder with white porc tyres and xt thumbies bought from one of the mechanics at my lbs.
£80 if i remember and i still have the receipt 😀
Then a Cannondale m200
Then an Orange Clockwork with Z2 and hope wheels and C2’s

Dynatech you said ?

Raleigh by S1mmy1, on Flickr

Only joking its one of them replica Team ATB / MTBs

Got it around 1988 I think after moving on from BMXs – went everywhere on it and, when I reached about 16 in 1993, started messing with cars and left it in my Nans kitchen till 2007 when I lent it to a friend who commuted on it for a few weeks.

It then stayed in his uncles garage till about 2 years ago when I realised it was still there lol I brought it home, new wheels, tyres but everything else it original besides brake pads.

This picture was taken last April and since I’ve changed the saddle but I only use the bike occasionally as its a bone shaker compared to my main bike

2nd hand Raleigh Dyna Tech in 1990. Kept it for about 2 years. Had to sell, was unemployed and needed the money. Bought a Kona Explosif in the summer of 93. Then began the love affair with Konas.

Falcon Sherpa – how I remember it…

Just think what this sort of thread will be like in 10-15 years….

It was a 1991 Saracen Tufftrax for me too. Original tyres rapidly swapped for Panaracer Smokes and wheels for Mavic 231s. Wore through several pairs of 231s before getting ceramics. Did several Polaris’ on that bike – big smiles

1988 Rockhopper Comp

Not my pics but my first proper mountain bike was a 5 speed Raleigh Maverick with caliper brakes, how I didn’t die coming down from the downs to Steyning I will never know.

Then I had a Muddyfox Courier, which was really a proper mountain bike, I could ride up the hills on this, and slow down on the way back 😆

That was upgraded with a Cannondale SM700 alpine frame, with a seat stay mounted u brake, eventually it had a full Suntour XC-pro groupset, but was stolen just before I went to uni.

Lave Dome – lightly used 1990 model, bought by me in 91. Very nice too ~ had it for all of six months before i bought a custom built Overburys Pioneer 🙂

The Pie n Ear

I remember really wanting that Lava Dome. Konas looked so good in those days

’92 Fire Mountain.
Owned from new:

I’ve not ridden it since … last Sunday (tho’ all that remains from the original is the frame and seatpost).

Quick search shows mine was an 87 Rockhopper. I’m older than I thought

Mine was a yellow and white Dawes with a 15 speed Shimano SIS groupset. Awesome bike and I loved it. Then it got stolen from outside the fishing tackle shop I was in.

I replaced it with an Emmelle Cortina XL with a biopace crank. Had that for years and years and years. Happy memories.

What a cracking thread. Remember so many of theses old bikes. At the time I thought they were the dogs dooh dahs!

Started off with something that weighted about 40 kilos. Built from cast iron and had horse shoe brakes that didn’t work in anything damper than the Sahara. Used to bend the forks doing jumps and then ram it into a wall to straighten them up again!

Then got hold of a carriera frame. Found some old parts and built something that I could actually ride up hills and stop in the wet.

Then I saved like a bar steward and bought a rockhopper comp 1990 in red. Loved that bike.

Then a stump jumper A1 fs. Had that as a fun bike up until a few years back when some srote nicked it.

In the mean time I had a stump FSR pro. Lovely bike but too many things to go wrong
Although sold that to guy who had a small bike shop and wanted it as a project. Hope it’s gone to a good home.

Bought my HT 26 inch Cube last autumn and love it. Back to my roots and a good solid bike!

92 Kona Hahanna.

Like this one, but gained DX spds, flite saddle, 317s, pace sub130’s, dia compe ss5s, etc

a raleigh highlander

Something like this Raleigh Memphis in farm gate size “you will grow into it” circa 1987/88.

I still don’t ride a 24″ frame 😉

Raleigh maverick for me back in the 1980’s

’85 Rockhopper. The first one in Scotland. I was thinking about a Saracen 531 Conquest just as the Rockhoppers arrived. Bought it with my only ever insurance pay out on my stolen Colnago road bike. It seemed crazy at the time that a geared BMX was worth the same amount.

A 1987 Townsend hi-tensile steel pile of junk. I absolutely loved it, first ride still sticks in my head and whenever I ride the same trail I think about it. I rode it into the ground and destroyed almost everything, the brakes were less effective than trying to grab handfuls of air, the wheels buckled on nearly every ride, I smashed both pedals mis-judging a gap between 2 boulders, split the front hub shell, wore the drivetrain to a toothless mess and never so much as scored the surface of the rock hard brake pads which I never bothered to upgrade. Flourescent pink top tube pad, flourescent green shoulder pad frame bag and for maximum style points, a flourescent yellow plastic rear wheel disc.

It finally died when the fork snapped and I bored the head tube into the centre of the earth, bending the downtube.

My first proper MTB was a Shogun Prarie Breaker Team Issue, Tange Prestige tubing and XT kit. This was the greatest thing I had ever owned and completed my transition from geeky kid into full on bike geek.

Diamond Back Sorrento for me in about 90 – 91. Don’t remember much about it apart from it having a black/red Jackson Pollock esque paintjob. Front wheel and seat got stolen from a bike rack in town, I kept hold of it but it eventually got left in a garage of a rented house I once lived in. Would love to know where it ended up.

Trek antelope 850 , just sold it for fifty quid. bought from Mike Cooksons Whitefield early eighties .Weighed half a ton , nothing ever went wrong.Not convinced about the oval chainrings though

Had a yellow Townsend BSO in about 1993/4, plastic brake levers which flexed, terrible canti brakes, 18sp thumbies and chromed rims! Thought it was the mutts nuts at the time.
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In 1996 got an M-Trax, the titanium one with the bonded chro-mo lugs and rear end, 21sp LX. Still got and it still works! (a little too small for me though) It’s a 1993 and my dad paid £175 for it.
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