Forum menu
Santa Cruz Heckler
By the time I had enough money to buy one the Nomad had come out and the shop staff persuaded me VPP was way way better than single pivot.
Another one was a Matt Chester. I started the process to order one but then started to read about how customers were waiting months past their expected delivery dates if they got their bike and when people cancelled their orders not getting the deposits back so I cancelled mine before any money was sent.
Fat Chance Yo Eddy in Aquafade
Klein Attitude in Green/white/pink fade or purple/pink linear fade
Moots YBB
Colnago C40 in Art Deco
Always wanted one of these and stared with envy whenever I saw one…
Klein Attitude
Cotic Soul
Orange 5
Anything Santa Cruz
I currently love the Hope HB130 and the Bold Linkin.
My wish list was/is.
GT Xizang
GT Team Avalanche
Chas Roberts D.O.G.S B.O.L.L.O.X
Fat Chance Yo Eddy
Santa Cruz Blur 4X
If it's any consolation I've owned a Klein and didn't actually like it that much - very stiff, hard at the back, but it might work better for taller riders. I wasn't heartbroken when it got nicked.
I did own a Bontrager Racelite - that was nice, but very different geometry to a modern bike. Very steel is real to start with , but at the end started feeling distinctly soft to ride, but it was 20+ years old at that point. Nicked again 🙁 , from my garage.
The bike I really miss was a Yo Eddy , owned as my third mountain bikes after a Muddy Fox , then a dynatech. Super bike, amazing build quality and rode really well though I guess now it would feel quite alarming. I'd like to try the modern one. Mine as grellow-purple tips.
Bike I coveted - Pace RC100, 200. Never even rode one
Ibis mojo
Orange blood
Honda DH thingy.
For some reason (I liked XC) really wanted a 1996 silver ProFlex 950 or something whatever it was 856
Wound up instead with a Diamondback v-link 3.0
Which was fairly lightweight, and very fast, and all of 25mm travel both ends! Undesignated softtails FTW! It also had the fastest orange paint-job in the world
(not mine)
Late 80s/early 90s wants:
Mountain goat Whisky town racer
Alpine stars Cro-Mega
Trimble (fibreglass deathtrap)
Original Salsa ala carte
Ritchey softail
Pace RC 200
GT Lobo
Of course they always say never meet your heros, many of the above have not aged well.
I'd have loved a BWM racelink when they were about in the 00s, but now they just look heavy and impractical (arguably more a problem of me getting older, than a real issue with the bike).
Whyte PRST-1
Yup. One of those ^^
Whyte 46
Raleigh Bomber
Raleigh Grifter
Raleigh Team Banana
Giant VT1
GT Zaskar
A 'proper, cool' bmx
Breezer
MountainGoat Whiskytown Racer
Trimble
as a former PRST1 owner i can tell you that you had a lucky escape letting that one get away.
geometry that changed suddenly under compression, pitching you over the bars on the steeps or any kind of step down, which was terrifying; a spherical bearing in the front linkage that was shot after about 50 miles; and those rear dropouts that undid themselves when the ground got slightly rough. absolute piece of shite it was.
the 46 was a different beast altogether. awesome bike and way ahead of its time. It ate pivot bearings for breakfast though.
as a former PRST1 owner i can tell you that you had a lucky escape letting that one get away.
As I suspect, all of us were. I reckon the vast majority of the above will be shit compared to what we’re all riding now.
Never meet your heroes, that said, PRST-1 lusterers may wish to check out structure cycle works…
If ever there was a thread that needed pics, this is it...
Flying Gate
Borrowed a mates dads for hill climbs in my teens. Lost touch but still want one. Even better would be the Gate trike I know of!
Yeti ARC
Roberts D.O.G.S B.O.L.L.O.X
Rode a Proflex round the block at the LBS and that was far enough for me. Couldn’t afford a Zaskar so bought an Avalanche instead. That’s still in the family as a commute bike.
Mantis XcR 1991
Amp research B1
+1 AlpinestArs mega AL
Moulton F-frame... something like a speedsix.
loads come to think of it
if if ever there was a thread that needed pics
Agreed! will try a few
back then:
Raleigh Grifter
Raleigh Burner
Raleigh Bomber
Carlton Criterium
Dawes Edge
Specialized Stumpjumper (like Jason McRoy’s!)
Alpinestars Cro-Mega DX
Kona Kilauea
Dawes Ranger
Diamondback Apex TT Lite
Sunn Exact Flex
Santa Cruz Superlight (But I did get a Club Roost XC4 😉 )
Surly Big Dummy
Dahon Speed P8
Saracen Zen X
Circe Helios
Specialized AWOL
Elephant National Forest Explorer
more recently:
Bombtrack Beyond Adv
SingleBe Marilyn (custom)
Bearclaw Beaux Jaxon
Fairlight Secan
Genesis Vagabond 725
overbiked pie in sky e-machines:
BMC Fourstroke 01 One
Specialized Turbo Levo SL
R&M Load 75
Orange Vitamin T
Ibis Mojo
The only genuine bike I really would have bought was a Fuquay, and when I used a student loan to buy a bike in 1996/7 his adverts in mbuk had all dried up and nowhere to seen.
Instead I bought a Roberts custom (genesis?) which looked so nice but was made of butter, very disappointing.
Maybe the pewter P7 with Pace RC36MX of similar era, would probably still have that now if I'd got that instead
Another Brooklyn Race/Mini Link aspirant. Was gutted Superco didn't go anywhere, those 3 Silencers are unicorns now.
Tora have started making something very similar with modern geometry, ain't cheap though but Brooklyns weren't to begin with.
Other objects of my affection have included the Giant ATX DH, Santa Cruz Super 8, Evil Imperial and Honda RN01.
I've actually owned a few listed which I feel quite happy about, my Pitch is my current Favourite Bike with a set of Boxxer Rides on it that I'm pretty sure @northwind has raved about as well.
Oh and I had a weird soft spot for the Balfa BB7, they were probably bobbins but I just liked the bolted together, mixed materials and silly high pivot point with an idler design. all a good decade and and a half before it became popular again in DH racing circles...
And the Lahar M9, it would probably horrify most people today but it just looked awesome to me...
you’re right, but the prst1 just sucked and was so unreliable compared to other bikes of the time, compared with my mates bikes back then. and they were all shit too!
In contrast the kona lava dome i had before it was supreme, given its limitations as a fairly low end fully rigid bike of the 90’s.
We must all be the same age (48) as my list is similar to a lot of these.
Had an Orange Clockwork and Santa Cruz Blur, that appear on others lists.
But on my list would be:
Pace RC100/200/300
Proflex with linkage forks
Breezer
Dekerf 853
Ritchey P21
Original Manitou full suss
Roberts DOGS BOLX
Yeti ARC
Fat Chance Yo Eddy
Orange Vitamin T
Pegoretti. Dario isn’t making any more 😪
Pretty sure BB7s were good bikes, certainly still sought after. Lahar were good too but that's an epic tale of its own.
Back in the 60s it would have been something from the Carlton factory I used to pass on my way to school. In the 90s a Vitus 979 or a Tommasini in one of their more outrageous paint jobs. Oh and the gorgeous Longstaff tandem trike I saw when out at a local bike race. I seriously thought about one of those for his 'n' hers touring.
I had a third hand Grifter for my 10th birthday and couldn't lift it up steps due to its heft. It was in great condition, even the gears worked.
Got nicked from outside the shops. Was gutted at the time.
Had plenty of Raleigh BMX'. All very tatty but were good fun.
My older brother had an Alpine Stars, it was a brilliant bike and would 'borrow' it when he was at work.
Didn't Tom Ritchey make a P20 - that didn't come with a lifetime guarantee 🙂
Nicolai Geometron. Outside my price range though.
I just like the idea of a gearbox.
I lusted after the Ti Indy Fab for a looong time.
Yeah, this (Independent Fabrication).
Cannondale Killer V
GT LTS
Klein Mantra
Orange P7
Stooge
yeah, I wanted a Indy fab steel deluxe for ages. The UK press bike was up on eBay recently, but too small for me.
Or it was a Cannondale 'Beast of the East' M800 I think was the model.
Skyway TA
Just the one for me. Early 1993 I spotted a beautiful Yo Eddy in the window of Neil Ross cycles in Aberdeen and popped in for a look. I soooo wanted to buy it (it was my size) and I'd just started working offshore so money wan't too much of an issue, but I'd only recently bought an olive green Stumpjumper and was trying to save for my first flat so decided to be financially prudent and keep hold of it.
I'd have loved a Kona Explosif back in the day, with splatter paintjob obvs.
And later on I took quite a shine to the Intense Slopestyle and Uzzi, but settled for a Lapierre Froggy (which was great anyway).
I bought a Team Marin new in 1994, I really wanted the Team Ti but couldn’t afford the extra £400.
I was in a similar position, but mine was the grey 1996 Team Marin.
Ti was never really an option for me money-wise, but the steel bike (quad-butted Fuji tubing IIRC) was so nice to ride I never really thought of it again.
I’d have loved a Kona Explosif back in the day,
I had one for a bit, and for all the hype mine didn't feel all that great, just a bit lumpen and dull really. replaced it with a Cove Hummer, which, if it hadn't chain sucked badly, I would've hung onto as it was leagues better than the Explosif.
I suspect that for all the rose tinting, lots of these bikes wouldn't be that great in comparison to what we've got now.