We’d like to know a little bit about your for our files.
It’s pretty important for us that we know who you are. That’s how we can make sure we are doing the right things for our users and subscribers. So every so often we will ask you to complete a poll or two. Here’s our next question following our last poll on how old you are?
Below you should see a poll. If you don’t it’s possible that you are not logged in to the site. If you don’t have an account you can create one in under a minute here. The one you see will depend on whether you are a full member or a free member. Yes, we’ve made two polls but you will only see one. So you will get to see the results of your group after you have submitted your age, but we will get to see if there’s a difference between the two groups. I’ll report on the answer to that question in the comments in a week or two.
So, if you want to see the results, then tick some boxes.
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In a few weeks we will publish the complete results of our surveys, comparing both groups, to our newsletter subscribers. If you are not already signed up then you can do that now.
Off-road on a bike, 50+ years now 🙂
Earliest I remember being on a proper MTB, I used to hire for a day from places like Parsley Hay in the early 1990s, one of the best I remember is a snowy Sunday in around Jan ’93, a loop north towards Monsal Dale and back again, lovely powdery snow on bridleways and tracks, great fun but cold!
Yeah that’s the one 👍
1989 Trek 830, then an Eldridge Grade when the Trek was stolen.Â
88 Peugeot Ranger
89 Marin Palistrade Trail
90 Nishiki Ariel (cheaper version of the Alien).
Was riding all sorts of unsuitable bikes off road round the old brickyards here in the early 80s (including a Halfords road bike – did I invent Gravel?).
First ‘proper’ mountain bikes were early 90s Police auction klunkers for riding round Cambridge and fenland bridleways, then I moved to Barnsley for a bit, had a uni mate with a Cannondale and the world changed forever…
First mtb I owned was in 1990 I believe, a Specialized Rockhopper Comp.
The year before I’d had a go on a friend of a friend’s Specialized Stumpjumper. It felt great. She’d popped in one day and had spent the previous summer riding around South America on it.
1986/age 13
I used to walk past the bike shop in Oban everyday as we wandered down the street from the high school to get our lunch/head to the arcade/nick stuff from John Menzies etc.Â
In the window was a white muddy fox explorer and I can remember it was around £350 which was a fortune back then to a 13yr old but it was the ideal looking bike for Dalavich, Loch Awe where I lived, perfect for the forest roads and paths/hills in the area as our bmx bikes were not up to the hills/ground.
Dad worked in the woods at the time so I worked weekends with him as I had my own 19cc mini chainsaw, brashing/binging/marking logs and i then started supplying cut/split pulp/softwood to the 30 houses in the village and after a summer of this I had enough saved for the Explorer which was a size too big as my balls rested on the top tube but I didn’t care – best bike ever in the perfect environment to experience the beginning of my mtb journey.
I’ll see if mum can dig out a pic when I bought it.
Haven’t been on a bike for 5 years and will be never be on one with what’s left of my life but I was there at the beginning 😉 , we kids in the 80’s with our Walkmans and mtbs were exploring the world (or in my case within a 20mile radius of Dalavich….if the midges allowed)Â
Started out on a Carrera Krakatoa, 35 years ago.
Was that the black Carrera with the splatter paint job?Â
Much the same here, living inland and not able to get to windsurf or surf every weekend bought a Raleigh MTB complete with Weinmann rims, u brake and Biopace chainrings in 1988.
I was thinking early 90’s but actually must have been 89 I got a Raleigh Lizard for my birthday. My dad was looking at the Peugeot for £20 less (£180 from memory) and asking what’s wrong with that. Mum said “just get him the one he wants". It was the best and worst of bikes: best because it was mine, and an MTB (actually an ATB – All Terrain Bike – by the frame sticker) but worst because it was really shit. But it got me down the woods in the mud and into the Peak District and had me instantly hooked.
I got a Raleigh yukon in 1991 for my birthday. My folks were skint at the time so 300 quid on a bike was a small fortune. It was an awesome bike, 21 gears, anodised rims, underbar shifters..
Best birthday present ever
It was a fortune to an eighteen year old too back then, a year of working washing up in a wine bar in Coventry got me that much and I bought my first car with it, mini 850 K reg, yes that’s 1972, total rust bucket but I loved it…
That’s why I never could have bought a decent bike as well 😂Â
Love all the retro revivals and memory lanes/trails here.
Just registered my vote @Mark
I do worry, that by the very nature of the poll might come across as the opportunity for those of us who have been riding a long time to be viewed as a humble brag by those who haven’t, so they’re less likely to register their own vote, which might skew the results…?
Certainly amongst my riding groups, there’s very few people who’ve been riding anywhere near as long as I have (35yrs), most would come into the 10-14 and 14-19yr categories, though many would come below that…
Either way… Hope that my vote has helped in any way…
You don’t see the results until AFTER you vote so I’m not worried.Â
Senior moment. After the 830 was stolen, I got a Raleigh Peak, which was written off by a Post Office van and replaced by an Eldridge Grade, which was in turn replaced by a Mount Vision in 1999 but still being used today by my 30-year old son to get around London.
1989 when I first rode one – my BIL’s Marin Eldridge Grade and then I bought my own, a Cannondale M600 Beast of the East in 1991 which was £650 from memory as I had it upgraded with a Girvin Flexstem.
Bought my first mtb in 87 an Emmelle Cougar then what I consider my first proper mtb in 88 a Kona Cindercone.Â
I started cycling aged 9 in 1975! Joined my first club and started racing in 1976: TTS and then schoolboy crits. First MTB bought in 1989 – it was a tange prestige tubed Pacific with full XT – I got it from a shop in Sheffield on finance and it got stolen after the first ride – no insurance – I was paying it off for two years!!! Never bought anything, apart from a house of course, on finance again!!!Â
First MTB was a Diamondback Ascent in 1985/1986.Â
Previous to that I’d been racing MX bikes from the age on 5 in 1973 and also the first wave of BMX during the 80’s.
Stopped racing the MX/Enduro bikes in 1989 so I could do more on the MTB’s.
Mrs NBT got me into MTB riding in 2000. I’ve voted 24 years as it took a few months for me to decide that I enjoyed i. Haven’t actually ridden my MTB since May 2023 though…
Another Diamond Back Ascent rider from around 1990(ish) – the grey marbled one. I was more of a road rider, but we all bought MTB’s. One of our first rides was up Snowdon ! I still have the bike, but it’s been upgraded a bit to period XT where needed and I use it for commuting.
I put down the date of the first bike one could call a mountain bike (or ATB), but for sure I was using Raleigh Grifter for stunts and jumps in what some people might call mountain biking now. And my Raleigh Winner also got used on the farm, off-road.
Was a roadie between the first proper bike after the above and the Scott MTB in the mid-90’s with its whopping 50mm suspension (XC version, rather than the massive 64mm downhill version). Still got both of those bikes.
Early to mid-90’s here, on an Emmelle initially, before moving to a GT Karakoram and a Trek 920. The later had a pair of Indy SL’s on it too!
I found out my Dad still has a bike with a pair of my cold Marzocchi Z3 Coil 100’s on it from circa 2001. Never been serviced and they move surprisingly well.