[Closed] Love at first ride

Charge duster here too, currently resisting temption to spend more money to rebuid/upgrade for 2012.

tazzymtb - Member
awesome bike, but looks like it's going as need to downsize the collection

Downsize? Just sell your ass a bit cheaper and do longer shifts. 😆

for me having ridden many and owned 11 (so far)these felt right instantly

2008 orange 5
singular swift
black sheep highlight

Love at first test ride for my Cannondale CAAD4 F600; thought I'd better try a few others (Trek, Kona, Gary Fisher, Scott, giant, spesh etc) to get the best bike for me, but it was the 'Dale that felt 'just right' instantly. actually I was set to buy the Trek, but then a couple of days later came back to put a deopisit on it, and they had the Cannondale just in. Had a quick spin, that was it. Sorted.

Loved my Rock Lobster 853 from the start, without even test riding one.

Tried a Titus Motolite up in North wales recently, up on the Marin Trail. Bloody hell what a lovely bike. Not set up for me, stem too long, wrong saddle etc, but felt great from the off, and after a very short time I was riding it like I'd had it for ages. If I buy a full susser, it needs to be just like that. Best one I've ever ridden.

Funnily enough, on the same holiday, an equally borrowed Spesh Tricross felt really good; 50 mile ride, felt fine after, no complaints. Which for a road bike, is saying something.

Sue; be worried. Be [i]very[/i] worried.... 😉

Mk2 inbred because it suited the forks I had on it where as the mk1 didnt. Same forks were OK on the cotic but once the ones I wanted turned up the Soul it was love at first fork again.

Kona Paddy Waggon fixed. The geometry is sublime. The only way I could improve it is to make it from titanium. Every commute is great.

And my Merlin road bike always makes me grin. Tbat one IS titanium.

The Kona Unit 29er was also love at first ride, this replaced my Airnimal, which in truth took a while to come to love.

kona explosif, cotic soul, swift ss opened my eyes to the big wheel pleasures.

Another Cotic Soul... There's just a rightness about them. And I suppose my rigid-forked Carrera, wasn't technically a first ride as I'd had all the bits for ages but the carbon-forked version's so different from the original that I'd call it a new bike.

have loved my Sanderson Life from the first ride, great bike so much fun and perfect for me.

Cannondale 613 on the road. still love it now.

DMR Switchback- built up on the very cheap, with bits taken off a Marin Wolf ridge. (which was my least loved bike)Totally rediscovered hardtails as a result.

And as a refinement of the above- Cotic soul- though i had to run it with 1oomm forks for a bit until i picked up some 100-130 revelations. Still that setup two years later, and going strong.

Rockhopper Comp from about 1990, still would put many modern bikes to shame.

Klein Fervor

Giant Anthem

cannondale prophet 2008

Kona Stinky Six 2001
Kona Stinky 2006
Kona Stinky 2009
Kona Stinky 2011

Absolutely gutted that they don't make them any more

Been through over 40 bikes/frames in about 12 years.

Only one that was love at first ride was/is my Singular Swift. Never had a bike feel so good or fit so well.

All the others had something (maybe *really* small) that was not quite right.

I tried a Swift a few weeks ago and, considering it was my first time on a 29er, it just felt right immediately. Spot-on geometry.

The other bike that I loved straight off was my first-gen Spesh Enduro. It was as perfect a FS for my needs as I can imagine and I still regret selling it.

Can't argue with the Soul, it's "right".

Feel the saem about my Spicy though, and it couldn't be more different.

Klein palomino was always a smile on face ride , esp with the maverick mono link upgrade, it just climbed sooooo well.

However, it doesn't beat the cannon dale caadx 105 I've recently bought. It's just such a good bike all round, really really enjoy it's versatility, and it's a perfect fit for me when riding

Clown wheel Inbred for me.
And 04 Spesh Enduro just instantly felt right also.

Original (not X) Giant Anthem.

Still the fastest and in some ways the most flattering bike I have ever ridden. Fell out of love after a year or two though as it proved too much of a handful for me.

More recently Trek Session 88 - fits me great, intuitive handling, pedals so well. Felt instantly at home on it.

my bokor - it came from halfords, I rode it with the stock pedals and tyres and it was great. the positioning is spot on for me, it's light but not so you think that you'll bend it, and although it's not cut out for chairlift followed by black run, it's not meant to be, you thrash it through the woods as fast as you can whilst trying to burn your mates off 🙂

My old 2009 Claud Butler Cape Wrath - bought on a budget and it was great - it really was just perfect.
Then last year, I and the bike got taken down on a roundabout, bye bye Cape Wrath....

1974 Kawasaki Z900
....and a Sunn Radical(except that I never ended up buying one)

It's terrible how few of you seem to have ridden a Maverick. You poor things.

Cotic soul, kona explosif (99) and singular swift. All 3 felt perfect but all in slightly different ways. The soul felt like it wanted to go apeshit into every corner, the explosif had a lovely balance and the swift is just plain fast and smooth.

Early 90's fully rigid Kona Lava Dome, my first 'proper' mtb (Purple with black P2 forks)
Orange 5 2007/8
Cotic Soul (2008? Custard)
KTM Lycan
Spesh Enduro 2005
Cove Handjob pre 2009

commie meta 5.5 tried one and wanted one so bad... saved for ages and then the frame cracks started happening, so i waited until this year to buy one super cheap, and I just love it.

climbs well descends well.. and is a laugh a minute.

My old SS Wanga. Sadly gone
My old Kona unit 29er. Again sadly gone. Perhaps the new one will replace it's finery
At the moment the Spicy feels nice

Nicolai Helius AM - first time I took it to play in the big mountains it's performance astounded me. It was the holly grail of trail bike for the ups and doonhall bike for the downs. A year and half later and riding it still makes me grin like an idiot 😀

Orange 5, i demo'd about 8 bikes & that one felt 'right' straight away!

Warming to my soul,liking it more & more, but the Orange was instant!

1994 Kona Kilauea

original specialized SX.
commencal supreme DH, borrowed a mates for a couple of days. Bought one a couple of days later.

'96 Cindercone.

My Giant NRS is nice, as is the In-Bred with sliding drop-outs but they will never compare to the 'cone.

Was truly gutted when the drop-out died.

Cotic Soul in its original guise. Of course everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but when I hear someone say they don't like the way the Soul rides their opinion is just wrong.

Spec pitch.

Is my first foray into FS, the faster you go, the better it works. It's bloody awesome.

Extra tiny Titus Motolite - tried one years ago when Chipps had a fantastic pink one in as a test bike. Absolutely loved it and it spoiled my ability to get anything cheaper as nothing could compare. Took me two bloomin' years to save up enough to buy one ... 6 years on it's still the only full-sus bike I've had or ever want to have, can't see me ever wanting a different bike.

And Elf - HANDS OFF!!!! 🙂

(hangs head in shame)

A Kona Shred with 120mm forks. Brutal, weighs a ton, built up with Altus gears and really heavy tyres wheels cranks etc.
I bought my first one as a bike without wheels off a guy very cheaply as it had Hope M4s on which were to go on my 456 and was going to be a bike for the Mrs, but put some wheels on and had a try myself, and it felt much nicer than the 456. It was a bit more nimble despite being heavier, and just felt better.
In the end I sold it and the 456 due to job loss, but have bought a newer Shred (2007) and still love it. Still got rubbish kit on. It did a stint as my commuter last winter which did the paintwork no good and it went single(ish) speed, and recently got upgraded brakes (to non matching deore). Keep thinking about getting a respray to cover up its halfords roots and bad name, but don't think I will ever put very much nice kit on it, and it might end up commuting again so can't really justify it.

My Wolf Ridge. It felt "right" from the outset, a shorter stem and wider bars have since helped it feel more "right".

In contrast, my Enduro felt strange to begin with and it took me a while to learn to love it. I wouldn't be parted with it though.

Original skinny Superlight. Still my perfect all round bike.

Have ridden ML7s a fair bit (a friend is a dealer) - very nice, but on the whole I prefer the SC.

Always loved my sc superlight but even better was my sworks (which was intended as a hack bike to begin!)

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My new Blur LTc and my old Rock Lobster 853, damn I miss that bike 😥

Surprised there's been so few people naming Oranges... Not the biggest fan myself, but I've never had a go on one that wasn't immediately accessible.

I felt (and still feel) like this about both of my Singulars (Peregrine and Gryphon).

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Bontrager Race.

I'd ridden the usual assortment of Marins, Specializeds, Rocky Mountains etc - and in 1997 I bought a Bontrager Privateer, and a medium Race (above) followed soon after that. I've since switched to a large & picked up a couple more frames.

Not always the most comfortable bike, but still the [i]most[/i] fun & sharpest handling thing I've ridden on thread-the-needle woodsy singletrack. Whenever I try & ride something else, I usually end up missing ye olde Bontrager. The one inch headset dates it, for sure - but I've still got a few old forks lying around...