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Here's a thought.
Next Christmas it will be 25 years since i started on the road to eternal poverty that is mountainbiking.
During that time it has given me a reason to travel around the world, i have loads of friends that i would never have met and for about 8 years it was my career as a bike shop owner.
i have raced in all sorts of events with the first being the first cheddar challenge closely followed by the first of the ledgendary Malvern Hills Clasics. i have managed to avoid the draw of downhill racing (although i have waived spanners ath the bikes of some of the worlds best).
Mountainbiking eventually dew mw into road racing, where i competed around the country and in the 1997 tour of Malta.
I've tried to put together a list of all the bikes i've owned (i've not included the ones i had for a few days in the shop (to sell as ex demos as these include low-lights such as cannondale ravens and the like.
This year i'm planning to revisit some of the old places, disciplines and events to prove to myself i can still do it :-/
It would be really interesting to know if there is anyone else out there who has been riding this long (who was dragged into this world by seeing the muddyfox advert with Jaquie Phelan with the fox paw-prints up her back) and maybe we could organise some sort of get together at on of the bigger events (Clic's on my doorstep).
Anyhow, heres a list of my bike (so far) 😀
Muddy fox Bigfoot 2 (1986)
Holdsworth professional roadbike (still got as winter fixie)
Diamondback accent (1988 - u brake under bb shell)
MS Racing al mega dx
Diamond back Axis (white with black specles)
Trek 700 road bike
Specialized stumpjumper fs
Diamondback Axis (green)
Diamondback Apex 700C (29r in 1992)
Peuogeot 708 road bike (what is this new STI stuff)
Trek 990 (one of the bikes i wish i'd never sold - light, steel and lovely)
Cannondale m900 (yellow) posibly the harshest bike ever made
Eddy merrkx SLX (Red with white and gold anniversary decals)
Cannondale killer v 500 (polished) nope, this was the harshest
Gt rts 2 (why???)
Cannondale f700
Gt sts (thermoplastic) SNAP!!!!!
GT karrakpram (purple!!)
Cannondale supper v 700 (got through 2 of these in a month - bendy!)
Trek OCLV ROADBIKE 😀
GT Karrakpram (blue)
Pinnarello Low-Pro TT bike (ex tem banesto)
Cannondale silk road with spinergy wheels (WHY!!!!!????)
Kona A'ha Singlespeed cruiser
Colnago BiTitan titanium road bike (ex team mapei -tdf)
Trek Y- bike (Y22)
Kona cindercone (matt blue)
Kona A A (Urt suspension)
Kona caldera (orange)
Coyote titanium (was bent out the box, but took ages to notice)
specialized S-Works M2 (team bike)
Specialized S-Works Enduro (Black with Brain etc)
Specialized Roubaix expert
Curtis (custom built based on cove hummer / enduro)
Trek 9.8 OCLV hardtail
Own built single speed (dave yates course. 853 proteam
The Curtis is just being rebiult with Hope wheels, DT forks etc etc and i recon is the best bike i've had and is the evolution of all the above 😀
25 years in april, without any hint of hyperbole it totally changed, and made, my life
in 13 years I've had a minimalist 5 bikes:
Diamondback unknown
Marin Eldridge Grade
Scott FX1
Intense Tracer
Merlin Malt 3 - which will only be replaced if I break it
without any hint of hyperbole it totally changed, and made, my life
me too, utterly 🙂
June 21st 1991 is the day I first rode a mountain bike - a hired Marin in that cool matt grey woth coloured forks. The same day, I started going out with my now wife after her cousin kicked me in the shins until I asked her out.
Choose 3.
Which ones for which duties?
About 20 years sometime this year courtesy of a secondhand Specialized Street Stomper which I believe is still owned by my (now) ex father-in-law. It would have been a year or two sooner if I hadn't spent the last years of the eighties paying out 90% of my wages each month on a mortgage.
I could claim 30 years ago if you count the scrapper I built up in my early teens for riding the local woods and spent two terms of metalwork lessons making suspension forks for.
EDIT
Just remembered the first event I entered. The Isle of Wight Scouts had orgainsed an inter troop kiddies cyclo-cross for us all. I can remember riding a borrowed bike and the course being very muddy.
Hi Andy, Hi Jo, been a cool 25 years my was in June 09, I can hardly believe what has happened /changed in that time, but MTBs have been the consistent thread in my life, my 3rd bike which is now 21 years old sits there to remind me.
Andy if you remember the Malvern days (with hundreds even thousands!) do you remember the 'National' Champs held in a quarry in South Wales when 35 ish turned up !
And best of all Mint Sauce and Steve P are still at the top!!
Have a good next 25
18 years for me. Still love just as much as the first time.
Bikes wise, very little in comparison
Emmelle Classic 100
Diamond Back Apex
KHS Montana Comp
KHS Montana Pro
Proflex Animal
Specialized SX Supercross
Specialized SX Trail
Specialized Stumpjumper FSR
Now managed to get my significant other on the bike and she loves it so many years riding still ahead.
Orange Clockwork
Orange Clockwork LTD matt flor orange paint
Alimnium Elite
Merlin XLM
Orange Sub 5
Dave Yates 531c Road bike
Orange E8
Orange 5 HC
Planet X Uncle John
Colnago Dream
Kona Dawg Delux
Kona AA
Still own nearly all of them (just can't bare to part with an old pal)
First got on a mountain bike 18 years ago -
First proper mountain bike 15 years ago
Raleigh Ascender (green with bullhorns)
Kona Lavadome from 1996/7 onwards
Specialized M5 S-Works (Red) 2000 (approx)
Specialized 2009 FSR
Kinesis XC120 - homebrew - currently set up with 700c discs, carbon rigid forks!!
10 years coming up.
Before that I had a racer and used to laugh at people as I sped past them riding Mountain Bikes on the road, their legs going ten to the dozen and going nowhere!!
Just remembered the first event I entered. The Isle of Wight Scouts had orgainsed an inter troop kiddies cyclo-cross for us all. I can remember riding a borrowed bike and the course being very muddy.
Oh my god, i completly forgot that i did the scouts cyclocross race on my raliegh grifter. i won it as all the others were on road bikes or old 3spd things with road tyres and i had these g'rt big octagonal knobbles on mine 😀 x 10
In 1974 I ventured off-road on my Raleigh Pavemaster and went straight over the bars. This was 36 years ago!
I bought my first "proper" MTB in 1989 and then hammered a touring bike off-road doing a lot of RSF stuff before migrating back to 26" tyres in 2001.
Riding a bike has defined my life - and will continue to do so.
My list of bikes is something like this:
Wooden Trike
Raleigh ? (1972 - a really small one)
Raleigh Pavemaster (1974 - a bigger one)
Raleigh sometyhingorother (1977- used to pass Cycling Proficiency Test!)
Puch road bike (crappy cheap thing)
Emmelle Cortina (1989-1993)
Trek 520 (touring bike, 1993 - present. Has done 63,000 miles now)
Cannondale T700 (1996 - present. My "new" touring bike)
Trek MTB (1996 - 2001. ex-hire)
British Eagle Cambridge (commuting, 2001-2009. Frame cracked)
Specialized Rockhopper (2001)
Dawes Edge (2002-2004)
Gary Fisher Big Sur (2003-2006)
Brompton (folding, 2002-present)
Non-branded steel road bike (2002-2005)
On One Inbred singlespeed(2003 -present)
On One Inbred geared (2004-2006)
Airborne Valkyrie (audax, 2004-present)
Santa Cruz Superlight (2006 - present)
Airborne Lancaster (2006 - 2009. Frame cracked)
Sanderson Life (2009-present)
Ahhh - the memories....
Just to make it clear, i was an early starter, i'm only 35 not an old git (roly 🙂 )
Started mtb-ing early to mid '90s so eighteen or nineteen years now...
Muddy Fox Courier (the pearly white version, biopace chainrings 8) )
Ridgeback 604 (ex-hire deal from Andy at Biketreks)
Kona Fire Mountain (blue one, '97 I think)
Kona Kikapu ('03)
On-One Tinbred
Orange 5 ('05)
Cotic Soda
That's the lot. Do I need to try harder?
Don't remember when I bought it exactly but my first was a 1990 Ridgeback 600 SIS from Moore's in Isleworth. I raced it that year in some XC race on Ealing common or there abouts. No car as I was only 13 at the time so all my proper rides involved a long ride out and back from Twickenham to places like Virginia Water. Or closer to home in Richmond Park.
20 years ago this year 😀
89 Specialized Street Stomper (sold to the (now) ex father-in-law)
91 Kona Fire Mountain (PXed)
93 Clockwork LX (still here but cracked and rusting)
97 Rock Lobster (sold)
99 Orange Evo2 (sold)
04 Malt 3 (quickly sold)
05 Inbred (also quickly sold)
05 Dean custom titanium replica of the Evo2 (now SS and loving it)
07 Surly 1x1 (for the winters)
09 Merida AM3000 (ex Demo and too good a deal to refuse)
Bit late to the proper mountain bike - 1986 on my 21st Birthday.
But I was riding to the top of Leith Hill in 1979, albeit on a "normal" bike - well, it was a sort of road bike style Raleigh with 3speed Sturmey Archer and road tyres.
Got into mtbing by accident. Had been off-roading in my local forests(now famous Stanes)for years. Due to a bad knee I had stopped playing sqausf(for the 1st time)and was walking into town which happened to have my lbs en route. Noticed a nice looking bike, 1st of the Raliegh Max in silver. Wife was in maternity ward awaiting birth of daughter, 26yrs ago in June.
I buys bike, disappears off into forest, gets lost(no sing posts then)for ages and just made it to visiting time!!!
Long before that in my youth I used to ride over fileds and waht has become; http://www.wwt.org.uk/caerlaverock
So I reckon I could have been mtbing for the best part of 40yrs 😆
Currently riding a Blue Pig.
My other bikes include a Kona Dawg Primo and Bontrager, both needing some tlc.
I still have a Trek Y22 which I always convince myself I will get roadworthy again.
Other than the Raliegh Max my other bikes have been various other old Raleigh and my sons Trek 8000(bonded `94/95 version)
About 20 years for me
and as a result i have met my fiancee, made friends and ny own business is all down to MTB
long may it continue
Be around 15 come spring time - although impressive because I'll only be 27 come then...
22 years here but only 6 bikes in that time.
Lost all feeling in four of my toes due to nerve damage otherwise pretty unscathed.
Seen quite a few changes all pretty welcome except the signifcant commercialisation of MTB due to the increase in marketing and prices. Still it's pretty decent value but I do see some stuff that makes me wonder.
i know, it used to be my odd little hobby, now everyone does it. lukily the craze / fad ellement seems to be dying out and it's all going good at the mo.
God I'm bored too. Here's my list starting in 1990:
Townsend Smokey Bear 200lx (1st race on this bike: Brabyns Park, Marple Bridge. Came last).
Al Carter Country 500 lx
Trek 850
Freddie Grubb fixed (paper round bike!)
GT Zaskar avec U-Brake
Orange Clockwork (bent)
Offroad Proflex 853
Offroad Proflex 854 (sponsored)
Saracen kiliflyer (stolen and recovered twice!)
Giant Cadex 980c
Kona Lavadome
M & B Cycles 531 c cross bike (national hill climb champ!)
Yeti FRO (steel one)
Orange Aero
Hercules old school with Hercumatic gears and rod brakes
Rotec steel fillet brazed dual slalom thing
Spooky Metalhead
Spooky Metalhead (replacement)
Spooky Pitboss
Cannondale r1000
2 x Specialized team cross bikes
Azonic DS2
Azonic DS1
Scott Boulder (staff night ride bike!)
Ellsworth Aeon Isis
Kona Kilauea converted to SS
Rocky Mountain Blizzard
Cotic Soul
Pearson 531 fixed
Independent Fabrication steel deluxe
Ribble Sportive racing
and it all comes down to this…
On One slot dropout with Alfine! 😆
25 Years for me in April.
Had been a roadie since 1980.
Rode the Fat Tyre 5 races through 1985 - organised by Tim Gartside + Bicycle Action magazine. Also did the 3 Peaks CX race that year (on an MTB - banned them the following year).
1st MTB Saracen Conquest from Summit Cycles in Blackburn.
Oooh FRO, always wanted one of those 😀
forgot my giant cadex road bike which fell to peices on the turbo trainer. bb shell fell off!!
On Monday 20th May, 1991, my brother & I lashed out £129.99 each on a Raleigh Dakota.
And so it began... 🙂
'89 Spec Rockhopper
'93 Clockwork (seems like yesterday!!)
'95 Merlin Taiga (still riding it now - still fantastic!!)
'01 Intense Tracer
?'04 Intense 5.5
'07 Turner Spot (nicked)
'08 Wilier Izoard
?Giant TCR (building for commuter)
'08 S-H Merlin Oreas (fantastic - nicked within 2 weeks after building)
'09 Turner DW Spot
To come.........New Hardtail ????? Rourke or other 853 or S-H TI ??
Possibly replace the Izoard ???? Cervelo? Orbea? Viner?
forgot my giant cadex road bike which fell to peices on the turbo trainer. bb shell fell off!!
My seatstay snapped but my mates dad replaced it with a tube from some windsurfing application..... that was mid-90s and it's still going now! Scary!
22 years for me, time goes quick when you having fun.
Rode the Fat Tyre 5 races through 1985 - organised by Tim Gartside + Bicycle Action magazine
That was what started it all. There was an article in Bicycle Action about hose races and the Hay ??? something. showed one pic of racing and loads of people sat outside the pub afterwards. Still got that mag somewhere. had a thing about bernard hinault winning his 5th TDF on the cover.
seem to remember a bloke racing then called Friend Wood. any ideas what happened to him??
Rode the Fat Tyre 5 races through 1985 - organised by Tim Gartside + Bicycle Action magazine
That was what started it all. There was an article in Bicycle Action about hose races and the Hay ??? something. showed one pic of racing and loads of people sat outside the pub afterwards. Still got that mag somewhere. had a thing about bernard hinault winning his 5th TDF on the cover.
seem to remember a bloke racing then called Friend Wood. any ideas what happened to him??
last i saw of Friend Wood (a few years back mind you) he had made a car out of wood, a quick google confirms it's quite infamous
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he has a beard
I started mountain biking when I was 8. I'm 22 now.
Biking's the source man, swear to God.
I started when I was 11, which is now 22 years ago. My first race was the Sherwood Pines races in Clipstone Forest. I came 11th in one race. Been getting slower and wider since.
First bike at 11 was a 21" Emmelle Cortina XL. I was told I would grow into it, however I never graduated past 5'7" so that wasn't great advice to be honest. 😉
I went to 3 years of the Malverns Fat Tyre Festival (is it me or were they HUUUUUGE events?) which were ace until the lager louts invaded and spoilt it for everyone.
Like another poster, I used to ride 8 miles to get to Clipstone Forest on Notts to do a few miles then ride home! Blimey.
Since the Emmelle I've had:
GT Tequesta (Black and White striped one, remember?)
Kona Kliauea (grey with suntour thumbies, tange prestige ultimate I think?)
Azonic DS2
On one inbred dn6
on one inbred 853
Specialized Pitch Pro (first full suss)
Thats all! Crikey!
I have realised a few things over the years:
No trail centre can ever compare with natural trails, but the availability of cake at the centres does tend to swing it a bit.
2 miles of fun messing around with good friends beats 40 miles of ultra epic you don't enjoy.
The bike really doesn't matter. At all. No actually it doesn't. Unless it's a Merlin Titanium (one day maybe!)
You really do not need suspension.
The amount of money you have to spend on bikes does not equal the amount of fun you will have. I'd rather have a £50 halfords special than nothing at all.
A dry dusty trail in the late afternoon in the summer on the last downhill to a cup of tea is the best thing ever, no matter where that trail or tea is.
Don't be afraid to try something.
NEVER EVER BE WITHOUT A BIKE OF SOME SORT.
And as I've recently found out (sorry peterpoddy), despite what I've been saying all these years, you can put weight on with free cake. D'oh!!
Can't remember exactly when I first started taking that Ridgeback offroad, but it must be about 20ish years now
Ridgeback 601 88/89ish ?
Marin Pine Mountain 90/91ish
Kona Lava Dome 92
GT Zaskar LE 95
Specialized S-Works M2 Team 98
Specialized FSR XC 09
One On Inbred 09
On One 456 Summer Season 09
Just the Ridgeback and the Kona that have gone, these rest are still kicking around in various family garages. Longest serving regular bike was the Zaskar for about 14 years.
20 Years for me this year
Emmelle Cortina - too big but had mega wide bars I cut down to about a cm wide!!
Orange Clockwork that I kept for a long time. Lots of purple anodised parts.
Orange P7 Silver, pace RC36 got nicked 🙁
Orange P7 matt black
Cotic Simple - my current and very new steed with all my wish list equipment
Not as many bikes as I thought. I got the most out of the early ones
1989 Cannondale M600 (slopey top tube)
1991 or 92 'dale M500 (level top tube) after M600 cracked 🙁
1996 M2 Stumpjumper
2003 P7
2003 Enduro
(and there's a couple roadbikes and a couple of recumbents too - only thing I still don't have is the roadbikes and the M600)
Whilst at uni I did someone's tutor a favour by riding back a (freshly imported) bike one day, which I guess must have been a really early mtb - big tyres, derailleur gears, fell like riding a farm gate - that was '84 I think.
Sadly I cannoet remember when I first bought a Mounatin bike. It was on of the First Muddy Fox Courriers I think it was 1986. I had rented a bike before then in the Lakes and I broke a touring bike off roading in the lakes before that. So coming upto 25 years of riding 24 of owning a mountain bike
I don't really see myself as a Mounation biker. As when I was younger and more active I would have said I was a climber. Its possibel that there was a year in the late 1990s when I didn't ride a bike once I had tendomituts in both arms. In other years I did loads. 1994-1995 I travelled with my wife ridding in America and New Zealand, we also we walked and climbed
My bike list is
Muddy Fox Courier, sold with a slightly bent head tube (sorry)
Overbury's Pioneer, snapped fork nearly kiiling me then stolen
Kona Kileau Stolen
Orange Gringo
I'm to ride more this year and get a new bike
dunno i started about 1992 riding mtb.
it's all about cycling
20-21 years for me now riding atb's-mtb's,
I was a roadie before that born into the sport with mi old man..
celebrate the 25 when it comes yes... 8)
loadsa ups n downs,and times when i shoulda been ridng instead of getting off mi face on drugs ahh well! 😮
Falcom ATB model i forget..?
Emmelle Californian
Gt outpost
Gt Timberline
marin bear valley
marin nail trail(still got)
Scott Endorphin
ellsworth moment
cove stiffee
devinci ollie
ironhorse sunday
cotic bfe
genesis io ss
ragley blue pig
not many really struggled in my teens and early 20's to support it.
obviously the road bikes and bmx's too.
awesome sport may it long continue!
Raleigh Chicco with cowhorns in 1972
Orange Eddy Merckx 10 speed racer
Emmelle something mountain bike in 1987
Muddy Fox Courier in 1988
Cannondale M800 in 1989
Cannondale M500 as replacement after snapping the above
Peugeot 531 roadie
Peugeot 753 roadie
Kinesis Shogun roadie
Quest aluminium roadie
753 custom roadie
TRek OCLV roadie
Scott Tampo-something
Halfords branded Merida magnesium HT
Spesh Stumpy FS
Klein attitude
Scott Addict roadie
38 years man and boy.
1989 Emmelle Cub
1995 Raleigh activator
1996 Saracen Hardtrax
1998 Peugeot Richard Virenque racer
2002 Specalized Enduro
2004 Rocky Mountain Blizzard
2006 Giant TCR composite
2007 Norco DH Team
2007 Cove Stiffee
2008 Voodoo D’Jab
2009 Surley Cross Check
20-21 years of atb-mtb riding now..
Was a roadie before that,born into it thru mi old man...
Loads of ups n downs,took a back seat here n there while i fuelled my drug habit..ah well doing it again now. 😮
falcon atb,cant remember model..?
emmellee californian
gt outpost
gt timberline
marin bear valley
spesh m600
marin nail trail(still got)
scott endorphin
ellsworth moment
cove stiffee
devinci ollie
ironhorse sunday
gary fisher ss (nicked)
cotic bfe
genesis io ss
ragley blue pig
road bikes and bmx's too..
Awesome sport,wish i'd stuck to it more here n there,but hey ho thats life eh..
I feel like a young un I think its exactly 20 years
1990 specialized rockhopper
1992 specialazed rockhopper (still got it)
1999 Specialized FSR thing (looked like a flying Y uggghhh)
2002 Giant XTC NRS
2006 Santa Cruz Bullit
2008 Orange P7 Pro
2008 On One inbred using the P7 pro as a donor
2010 Mountain Cycles Battery awaiting delivery..