[Closed] ..best bike you bought that genuinely transformed your riding?

Patriot. Gave me the confidence to try jumps, descend properly fast and hit really gnarly bits - now I do them on all bikes 🙂

evil d.o.c. geared at 1st, now singlespeed. 100mm forks, super fun and learnt everything. still got it 3/4 years later (in a slightly more abused state)

redline mx24:

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(itsa 24" bmx cruiser fyi)

i bought it new for £200, and without even trying i've sort of learnt to jump / whip / manual / wheelie.

as close as possible to actually being able to buy skills.

(yes, the new skills have transfered to the 26"ers in my life)

*cliche alert*

Orange 5

Again, 5, ha!

DW 5 Spot!

Buying another hardtail after getting a full suspension bike too soon. I was relying on the suspension to do all the work, learned better technique on the HT.

Riding with people who are better than me helped more though.

MC Battery. Jumps, jumps, drops, rooty nasty rough stuff, easy as pie.

Its the best skill compensator ever...

My TranceX - speed, cornering and lots of fear.

All my bikes have been great and all transformed my riding tbh... But it has to be the Hemlock, the Soul though brilliant didn't do anything my older Scandal and Carrera did, it just does it a hell of a lot better, but the Hemlock's a total hoodlum, mainly what I lack in my riding is confidence and it just inspires me to ride stupider stuff. I've loved all my bikes but would I have gone and done laggan black or off beat on my Idrive? Hell no. Yet it's still brilliant for simpler stuff, even does a decent impression of an XC bike. Good enough to flatter but not so good as to make me a passenger, perfect.

my ventana el capitan 29r...............cos it is the only bike that has ever fit me properly.

Orange MsIsle.
Lovely little bike and it was great fun to ride, especially at speed on twisty singletrack. It helped a lot in building my confidence up as it was such a bombproof machine.
Still got the frame in the shed, would love to build it back up one day....

gary fisher rig, big wheels one gear - it taught me a lot but it took me a while to learn the lessons

more recently my superfly has been awesome, just feels the right size, bloody love it

Blue pig

my first one

Blue pig

Evil Sovereign. Makes you a better rider at everything and makes you enjoy it more. It's better than all the bikes mentioned above (and below), and that's S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

2004 Spesh Enduro.

SpokesCycles - Member
Evil Sovereign. Makes you a better rider at everything and makes you enjoy it more. It's better than all the bikes mentioned above (and below), and that's S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

shame they are only available in kid's sizes........... 😉

Sold all my mtb's (despite working in a bike shop) and rode nothing but bmx for 2 years.Then bought a Kona unit 2-9 for pub duties.Two years later I'm racing the crc and no fuss enduros this summer and 3 peaks on the cx bike (ss of course!).

Remedy

Surprise surprise... Five

Rigid on one inbred, tought me I had to be skilful, involved me, inspired me to get the Jones, which with a fat front wheel and saint brakes again transformed my enjoyment of riding.

Trek Remedy 9 - 2009

Planet X jumping jack flash. One of the first batch in the country in 1999? I think.

ton - Member

SpokesCycles - Member
Evil Sovereign. Makes you a better rider at everything and makes you enjoy it more. It's better than all the bikes mentioned above (and below), and that's S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

shame they are only available in kid's sizes...........

how big are you ton?

i know a number of folk over 6ft managing fine on them

Nicolai Helius FR.

Cove stiffee.

Cove Hustler - handles beautifully, totally confidence inspiring, justs eats up roots, drops etc.

2006 Marin Attack Trail

SC Chameleon.

Evil Sovereign. Makes you a better rider at everything and makes you enjoy it more. It's better than all the bikes mentioned above (and below), and that's S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

I would agree totally - as would Nim if he were being honest!!

Giant ATX 890-F with Judys (Indys)- LOVED THAT. Rode ace and had a massive dent in the top tube which never seemed to bother me like it would now!

Ton- oli up there is an inch shorter than you and rides an Evil with a smaller seatube than mine! Gurt big seapost'll sort it.

my on one inbred set up as a SS. I think it was half having a SS bike and half having a good bike, all of a sudden my interest in cycling exploded and ive not had a break/layoff for the year since i got it.

My first bike - a Raleigh Stryker. Went from not being able to ride, to being able to. A fair transformation.

My 2003 Enduro FSR. Really great bike, although my 96 Zaskar LE led me up the path to it.

2008 enduro, ride anything with 0 skill

then a on-one ti, learn the skills i missed on the enduro 😀
😆

h[/i]eihei - Member

Evil Sovereign. Makes you a better rider at everything and makes you enjoy it more. It's better than all the bikes mentioned above (and below), and that's S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

I would agree totally - as would Nim if he were being honest!!

Very funny! Indeed Evil Sovereign is great fun but not one I own! (yet)

blur LT

S&M Mad dog, the first rider owned company to break away from the factory team nylon uniform days of BMX.

Awesome frame-rode everything on it-raced it, street, trails.

Also a MK1 Chameleon. The first frame to give me that BMX feel I'd been looking for in a mountain bike. Upto the Cham it had been GT Zaskars that were the closest I could find but the Cham took it to another level.

5

My Trailstar LT. The Rockhopper I had before it was lighter and faster but nowhere near as confidence inspiring. Learned to jump on the Trailstar which has been a huge boost. Now I just need to start trying some bigger drops 🙂

SS inbred - taught me to pedal efficiently and carry my momentum.