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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.
I have a set of Manitou X-Vert Supers from 2000 that still work surprisingly well – maybe thanks to the grease port on the back of the legs that you popped a couple of squirts in every now and then
Yeah. Reading all these posts and looking at the poll, which are pretty much as I expected, I do have massive imposter syndrome! It did make me very hesitant to post my own rookie numbers. I’m 61 and fell into the 10-14 yr category. Definitely a late bloomer!
I cycled sporadically before that, but was never really a keen cyclist. A little cycle commuting on a BSO for a couple of years here and there. A brief flicker of interest whilst teaching my kids to ride. A little taste of mtb in the late 90s in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus as part of an organised “adventure training" trip whilst I was posted there. None of these fired me up enough to “get into it".
It wasn’t until around 2014 that I tried it properly, really enjoyed it and it “clicked". A mate convinced me to do a charity race event in the Brecons which included a road/off road cycle, run/hike around the horseshoe and a team raft row. I borrowed a Whyte hard tail for the mtb bit and absolutely loved it. I bought my own soon after and I have never stopped since.
Taking it up so late in life does mean my skills and appetite for risk are mediocre at best, so I’ll never be any good at it. But maybe somewhat erroneously reading all the above, I still consider myself to be “a mountain biker".Â
Hope my subscription isn’t going to be revoked after this confessional 😳🙏😄
Riding off-road, from about 1990 on my Raleigh Mustang. I caught the bug so started saving my paper round money, emptied my post office savings, and bought a 1992 GT Tequesta.
Good point – could also be an opportunity to post how fresh to it all you are, coming into it when FS was the norm and learning to ride at BPW, wondering why the old giffers who should have had more experience were slow or avoiding the big jumps.
Being part of the new school is a good thing. Maybe just me.. but so many of the younger lads who got into it in the 2000s quite quickly became much faster than me and 95% of the older guys I know.Â
i dont think our 80’s mtbs were designed for speed. i did a fair few big races back then and even the top boys were not that fast….. the events were more about endurance.
karrimor 50 mile thing was such a event.
Same here, I still have the same tube of Manitou grease that I picked up around 2000ish from either Westend Cycles in Conwy or Beics Betws. It usually gets an infrequent outing if I can’t find my usual grease. 😆
I voted 20-24 years even though I actually had a MTB (townsend peice of crap) in about 1991, but it got nicked a few months later and I only rode it to school. I did use my GF bike for the odd ride off road around Halifax sometimes mid 90’s. I then had a Raleigh Dyna-Tech, between 1998 and 2000 I think, which was my GF’s brothers and all I did was ride it to work.Â
I bought a GT Avalache in 2003 and actually used it to start MTBing, so thats where my MTB journey started really.
No. MTB bikes and culture might have started on the Repack Run but I think it was the all-round ATB idea that really took off in the 80s.Â
been on and off mtb since the mid 80’s, racing a lot of the early north wales series with my older brother but then had a stint of sex drugs and rock and roll where bikes were out ( I even sold my lovely Dave Lloyd as a student to keep the drugs and rock n roll bit going) then got back into bikes after giving up the lifestyle that was killing me.Â
First MTB was an Emmelle Cheetah that I got for Xmas in 89. I’d seen some guys on MTBs riding the West Highland way the year before when I was walking it with the scouts and thought it looked cool. A friend’s older brother and his mates were into mountain biking, riding muddy fox’s and an orange clockwork if I remember correctly. I’d been riding round Mabie Forrest with my mate on the bike my dad used for riding to work, a Raleigh Merlin, which was a flat bar roadster type bike before I my Emmelle. Started reading MBUK and inevitably wanted to upgrade, so the Emmelle was part exchange with a bit of cash for a Diamond Back Topanga the following Xmas. A 1990 Stumpjumper followed that (discounted as it was the previous years model). Held on to that for nearly 10 years. Love mountain biking even more than I did back then. We may all be getting older, but as long as I can ride my bike I’ll always be that 13 year old on Xmas day in 1989.