Raleigh Montage – in that green
Went searching around the south of England for a 23 inch one !
I learnt a lot about the advantages of stand over height

Second one was a 1988 Cindercone with the puked pizza paint job – and 19 inch!

Bright yellow 1990 Marin Muirwoods, complete with Shimano 200 GS & plastic thumbshifters.

Wish I’d never sold it – cos it frickin’ well changed my life!

Apollo halfords cheapy circa 1988 followed by a Raleigh moon run in 1990. First bike that parents didn’t have a hand in buying, Klein Pulse Comp from bicycle doctor in 1997 deposit from my first full time pay packet. Still got the Klein.

Some classic bikes on here.
First proper MTB was an 89 Rockhopper in blue and white. If I remember rightly it had a 28/38/48 chainset and a 14-28 7 speed rear cassette – it’s a good job we didn’t have any real hills where we lived at the time. Lovely bike that I eventually sold when I bought one of the original Orange P7s.

This was mine…..a Raleigh Maverick 15 speed with Araya alloy rims and Weinmann canti brakes bought in October 1985 (I was 14). I was already riding in the woods on my Grifter, Bomber and even my racing bikes but the Maverick was a complete game changer for me.

First proper mtb…

93 (I think) GT Timberline. Was dark met green. The Quadra forks are now seized solid. The rattle can paint job was to hoodwink folk in to thinking it was a ball burnished Zaskar with Judy’s. 🙂
The GT decals are made from insulating tape.
Had to get planning permission for that stem.

IMAG0510 by pten2106, on Flickr

Brother still has it.
Keep saying I”ll have it back but god knows why.

Apology for ressurecting an old thread. 🙂
Mine was a Peugeot alpine express like the one in the pic,bought in 87.
It wasn’t easy finding a shop selling MTB in Wales those days 🙄 ,eventually found this one in Holyhead.
I remember taking it the local pub and they all laughed when i said it was going to be the next craze. 👿
Great taxi home! 😀
Second bike was a Trek 7000 i bought in Aberdeen 1990,great bike used to ride the original Redbull track in CYB,talk about numb hands or what. 😯
The ex still has the 7000 somewhere,maybe i should ask for it back one day. 😀

Another pic of mtb #2 and first proper bike, with deluxe hammerite finish and cutting-edge V brakes to replace the cantis… Last rode this about an hour and a half ago 🙂 Man they built those exage hubs to last.

IMAG0006 by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

Rockhopper from 1987 I think. Yellow. U brakes. Mate still has it!
Waited ages for a Muddy Fox Courier but LBS sold me the Rockhopper, was hooked..

1989/90 Giant Escaper

this picture is not mine

It was a 21″ frame. I’m 5’6″. I absolutely loved it. Finally killed it snapped at the head tube when I cased a set of doubles we built in coed y brenin

Some Townsend bike, then a Giant very similar to the one a couple of posts up.

First proper MTB was an Orange Clockwork. About 12 years ago I let a friend borrow it and I’ve not seen it since. He lost it.

1st mtb was a 1990 £200 British Eagle – but my 1st ‘proper’ bike was a Specialized Rockhopper FS.

I could post the real first mtb

like this but smaller

but i’d rather post my second

looked just like this

I had one of these

Stumpjumper 1982, bought in Bristol from Bike Tech on Park Street and then I don’t think I saw another Mtb for two years! Still have the 87 (or 88.) Stumpy I replaced it with, now a front and rear rack full touring bike.

Marin Eldridge – Sadly lost a long time ago when it was given to my brother on a long lend. Never came back. Maybe my memory is clouded by the mists of time, but it was such a fantastically comfortable and sensible bike.

A Diamond Back Topanga – just like Mr Nice’s above 🙂

Diamonback Topanga also but Green.
Saw a mint one the other day.

Another Topanga here in purple.

Nearly bought a Giant but got a good deal on the Diamondback for an extra £20 more than I was originally going to spend.

1991 Scott Montana.. Still got it looking like new with its Rock Shox Mag 21 SL Ti’s

I started off on a Emelle Classic 300, same gold crackle craziness as the pic on the first page. That then got stolen from college and was replaced with an early 90’s Rockhopper. That was then also stolen 🙁

I did however a few years ago find another of the same original rockhopper for sale so I bought it, it’s my commuter and my favorite bike. Built very nearly exactly how it was when stolen.

Christmas present when I was 15. Mine had gold bar ends and a gold bottle cage.

My first 26″ wheeled MTB was a Raleigh Activator. I remember a kid from around the corner then got the Activator II which had underbar shifters and the most random rear ‘suspension’ design ever.

Only in red and technically not mine, but my mum didn’t use it any more.

Saracen Tuff Trax with proper dual shifters (lx I think). Can’t remember if it was 89 or 90 but it was the blue one with Tange main tubes.

Only mods I can remember were taking all of the stickers off and adding an alloy flexstem.

Can’t remember what happened to it. Sold I guess.

Late seventies – a steel frame found in a skip. It was far too big for me but I pelted about regardless of the small-for-chuckability school of thought. Cow horn bars with a rise as high as a hippy on the Moroccan Trail, complete with solid tyres for the first year of its life.

It was jumped and pancaked so many times the head angle was slackened by the time it ended up in the skip again.

photo libre]null
The bone shaker , with canti brakes lovely.

Giant Coldrock, c.1992. I pestered my parents for one, after reading a glowing review in MBUK. It was about £300 I think.

This is not it, but mine was identical, apart from the mudguards. I was too cool for mudguards.

first proper mountainbike, 1989 SM600 (not mine unfortunately):

Apollo something then i also had a raleigh activator 2 which i thought was mint at the time.The rear suspension from what i can remember was just 2 rubber rings that were meant to squeeze together when on rough ground.Probably had about 5mm of rear travel tops.Loved it anyway,good times. 😀

The pic of the Raleigh Mustang earlier brought back memories – that was my first MTB. Heavy old beast but took me everywhere and lots of adventures. Happy days 🙂