It's 23 years ago this week that I bought my first ever mountain bike.
It was a 1987 19" fire engine red Specialized Hardrock with a Dia-compe U-brake on the back. Rad! Suntour thumbshifters and I put a pair of Panaracer Blocktread tyres on it.
mmm
SARACEN Rufftrax blue no sus loved it!!!
Ahhh. Nostalgia - it's not as good as nostalgia was when I was younger...
[b]1989.... '89 GT Tequesta[/b]
Still have it, the only original parts are the frame, rear U brake and lever...
Was ridden in some nice wooded singletrack this very morning....
Ah i remember it like it was yesterday !
1988 RIDGEBACK ?? It was Blue & Yellow from Freewheel on west St in Sheffield.
They were the days !
1988 Giant Sierra. It must have been one of the 1st bikes with a hyperglide rear cassette, smooth shifter 🙂
Rode it on the South Downs and QE park (long before the trails were there)+Butser regularly
1986 Dawes Tracker.
Green & White Reynolds 501 Tubing
18 Exage Country Gears, complete with Biopace Chainrings..
All this in a 21" frame, that I never managed to " Grow into"..
Giant coldrock 21" with exage400....1987.
1990 Giant Escape,
25 + a bit years ago purchased a Saracen Conquest from Steve Wild at Summit Cycles in Blackburn. Them was the days when walkers jaws would drop when you cycled past them up Snowdon or the Garburn Pass in the Lakes.
1989 Giant Stonebreaker.
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This isn't it though.
1989 falcon californian 🙂
1990 apollo kilimanjaro - 21 speed LX, green and pink frame followed closely by a 1991/92 Ridgeback 706RS, complete with full XT groupset and RS3 adjustable air forks with 48mm travel. Beautiful bike in black, wish i could find a picture somewhere of it
1992 Raleigh Apex
Mine was a 1991 Saracen Sahara which unfortunately got stolen after 6 months 🙁
I then got a Marin Bear Valley se, which was probably the bike which really got me into mountain biking.
The Marin was the bike that got me to start racing and going out further afield with the Liverpool Mountain Bike Club rather than just riding around my local area.
1990 giant hurricane
1999? Schwinn Mesa, bought from Bicycles, Inc. in Fort Worth TX!
It must have been the smallest one they did as I was only 11, but I still have it as a singlespeed chuckabout play bike.
My first mountain bike ride was on a mate's Townsend on some rough ground behind his house. My first was a Raleigh Maverick (circa 1988) bought for me 2nd hand by my parents. First I bought for myself was a blue Saracen Tufftrax of the 1990(?) vintage. Happy days...
1990 Muddy Fox Courier Comp.
Townsend Hedgehopper, replaced with a Raleigh Activator (oh dear). First 'proper' mountain bike was a dark grey rigid Alu '98 Trek... erm... 4500 or 6000 can't remember exactly. Full STX-RC. 21 speed. V brakes. It was mint. Donated it to a bike charity place a couple of years ago - a decision I've regretted ever since 😥
This was my first in field gate size 21"
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I even had this on it - brilliant
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1996 a silver C16-R still in use as a hack bike.
Some second hand Dawes thing that weighed a ton and left my wrists feeling like I'd just been digging up the road. Got half-inched when the Mrs put the bins out and left the back gate unlocked.
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This is what I thought I was buying in to;
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Don't think I actualy went off-road till it all went alu late 90s?
And Saracens actually made it affordable. Was light but still no suspension.
First proper one was 1990 GT Karakoram, loved it to bits for all of 4 months before some tea leaf had it from my garage - been paranoid about bike theft ever since.....
Mine was an '88 Diamondback Ascent, it even got ridden in the Alps around Chamonix, you really needed those 4 finger brake levers!
1992 GT Pantera soon stolen and replaced by a Caloi which by brother now has:
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1985 raliegh maverick fully rigid brown and tan £150 utter crap took all of 6 weeks to break it and my dad went nuts even tho i paid for it!.
PTR, was it the pantera in bright orange per chance !
A new '96 GT Timberline which I bought in '97. Steel frame (painted titanium coloured), rigid forks and V brakes. Up-graded the forks to Marzocchi Z3s in 2001.
Rode it on and off until 2005 when I started riding a lot more and bought a Marin Rocky Ridge.
1991 e-stay Alpinestars cro-mega DX. Sold it this year.
1995 Kona Koa; don't have any pics though 🙁
Still wish I'd never sold it (swapped for a Kona Stab) 🙄
2000 spesh hardrock a1 comp fs with rs jetts
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GT Karakorum, 1996. Came back from travelling in Australia where I'd done some mtb and decided I wanted a mtb bike. Bought it second-hand from a guy in the Welsh valleys who'd advertised it in a mtb magazine. It's downstairs as I type. Takes me to the supermarket now and occasionally ventures to the gym. I still love it. I'd be heartbroken if it got nicked.
1992 Emmelle something or other in Pink Smoke paint job. Nicked after two weeks. Replaced with an Al Carter Sacremento which saw many years use...
This was my first Pentlands ride on my new 85 Specialized Rockhopper. Green Cleugh endo, long before paths were built there.
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1991 Giant Coldrock - rememer feeling rad when I upgraded the rear mech to a 400DX.
followed up by a '93 Cindercone, which I still have and still ride, upgraded to v-brakes but still with P2s, and still fun, but sometimes a bit painful....
Wow, Mcmoonter, are those bullmoose bars, they should be due a comeback by now
Wow, Mcmoonter, are those bullmoose bars, they should be due a comeback by now
They were especially good for picking up art students in a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stylee
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OP IIRC hardrocks did not exist in 87, i think you mean 88. Specialized did the Streetstomper in 87.
I remember because I text rode one and bought a Tufftrax instead, in about 2 weeks' time in 87.
Hhmm 93 Claud Butler Zagato cast iron tubes lovely pink fade colour scheme,run it into the ground best fun ever sold it to a mate to finance the next bike think its still being used as a daily commute bike
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GT Timberline, can't recall what year exactly, but approx. 1994. I think I added some Ballistic sus forks in about 1997/98.
had one of these in 1987/88...though my one was a smaller 18",
it still rides nice for an old un... 😮
im lookin for a rear wheel cover for it too!
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Mine was a pink Raleigh Mustang from about 1990. 20 years ago!! Dam I feel old it don't seem two mins ago I was riding about on that. Cool thread. like all the old bikes good or bad. Makes a change from the ubber niche bags of money bikes we all see on here 🙂
Raleigh Mustang+1. Blue and white, single speed (way ahead of the game), riser bars, 16" wheels. My first bike! 
A horrible, horrible Giant hybrid (with panniers - yay!) circa 1999 that weighed about 18 stone even before I got on it. It cost 99 quid from memory (new) and I rode it every week for about 6 months in the Surrey Hills. It was truly sh*te!
My brother still rides to the station across fields on it every day, despite it having been on life-support for the last 5 years!
Wookster - Member
SARACEN Rufftrax blue no sus loved it!!!
me too but had my biggest ever off on it. of course i can jump that......
1991 Marin Pine Mountain that I bought second hand for £500 in 1994. Loved it from the go.
my first was (shock horror) a barracuda snakebite. on my first ever trail ride in Brechfa (before the marked trails) the forks seized up, pedals stopped spinning, lost 5 of my gears, brakes didn't work, bottom bracket fell to bits.
upgraded everything within the next 2 months!!!!
20 years ago, aged 13, Raleigh Discovery in the classic "he'll grow into it" size.
Still lives in my folk's garage;
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black bmx, dad ran over it in his company car, never got replaced.
'88 Rockhopper. Nice shade of blue with hideous yellow & pink graphics.
Tim Gould Peugeot Team replica...
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Closely followed by 1st "proper" bike - Diamond Back Ascent EX
Time to wheel out this old photo again of me up near Chorley in 1985 - a young Andy Oldham of Merlin Cycles in the background. 1985 Saracen Conquest. First MTB race won in a skinsuit?
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1984 - Saracen Conquest
+1 for pink raleigh mustang. loved it. First experience of bike related grief when someone ran it over repeatedly in the train station car park because they couldn't get the lock off to steal it.
2004 bought an '03 Giant NRS3 with upgrade to Hope Mini brakes, frame and fork lying in corner of garage
1992 Dawes Die-Hard. Awesome lime green details!
Got nicked in about 2002.
Orange C16R in about 1996.
Didn't know to much about mountain biking and what i did know,kinda freaked me out,so i never took it of road and put slicks straight on it from new.
Claud butler cape wrath in 2004, was the first bike i threw down a muddy woodland trail.
1992 Raleigh - no idea which one.
Felt like it was made of cast iron, the ride feel was hard (you felt every tiny bit of grit on the road or trail as a punch in the arse from the saddle!
Gears worked as if possessed - i.e. they did whatever the hell they liked when they liked!
awful awful thing - and for some mad reason I sold my light weight thin tubed steel classic road bike to get this monstrosity. Didn't off-road much on it as my body could only take that much abuse occasionally!
It got hit by a car when chained up outside a pub in my final year at uni and was replaced by a Marin Pine Mountain which was a lovelly bike.
Karinofnine - Member
1984 - Saracen Conquest
Another person with great taste in 1st MTBs 😆