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Trek 970 in 1996. Lovely thing...
That GT is a very cool thing. Has me trying to figure out how rim brakes affect brake jack and all that.
First term at university after almost breaking my scott hybrid in leigh woods. Never really mountain biked properly before and this thing opened up a whole new world. Still have the frame and still one of the best handling hardtails I have ever ridden.
1995 Scott Tahoe... though many different incarnations inc pace rc35 mxc and magic 217s
https://www.bricklanebikes.co.uk/scott-tahoe-mtb-frame
Seeing as there was a complaint about lack of pictures. My first mountainbike and first offroad tour - early 90s. The bike is an emmelle and was pink. thats all I remember of it
Laugh away
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49720722942_c3a3fbbe6d_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49720722942_c3a3fbbe6d_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2iKDGFQ ]jeremy mtb borders trip[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/25846484@N04/ ]TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr
1986 was the year it all took off for me. First a box of bits from a friend of my dads which I built up into a proper road bike - no idea what the frame was but it had a press fit bottom bracket! I resprayed it La Vie Clare colours in the garden
Then picked up a 2and hand Diamond Back Apex ( still got it in my dads garage) with U brake and Shimano DX (no deore then!) To replace my ton-weight Raleigh Maverick
Started racing both and never looked back!
Raliegh Chopper mk2 ,1973ish . Parents sold it to a lad in the village and got me a Raleigh racing bike . First mtb was a Claude Butler Blade in 2007 .
Depends how you define proper, but my Emmelle Laser probably. Had thr first one at the age of 12 and went through 2 more after they were nicked.
That GT is a very cool thing. Has me trying to figure out how rim brakes affect brake jack and all that.
It doesn't matter where the brake caliper is, it's how it rotates around the axle under braking. You could build a hub brake that acted on the axle for example and get the same "brake jack".
Things like brake arms, or mounting the caliper on the seat stay are altering how the caliper moves, to make the suspension squat under braking you have arrange it such that that stay being pushed by the caliper moves in a way that compresses the suspension.
Just moving the mounting on the stay is a bit like those L-shaped cranks of days gone by.
A road bike. I spent the summer cycling the Eden valley or length of Ullswater to get to work.
I remember the brakes being particularly appalling.
First proper MTB was an Al Carter - a note defunct brand. Full Alivio 😎
I've no pics but it was a Carrera Krakatoa Flex in purple and silver Flex meaning flexstem, the worst invention in biking history. Did nothing until the elastomer perished, which happened pretty much immediately, at which point it was a rattly hinge between bars and bike. Also extra jaggy for when you crushed your balls on it, which considering that my approach to all obstacles was to ram it, was every ride.
But it was otehrwise really nice- tange frame, altus everywhere (clicky underbar shifters, which was new and exciting), smokes and darts. I still had it til a couple of years ago.
Andre Bertin built up from frameset. I was working in a bike shop so I got all the goodies at cost. {Apart from fitting wide steel rims and the biggest tyres I could get in 27" because it was destined to spend most of its life on mountain trails in the Highlands)
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First proper (MTB) was a Ridgeback 605. Fully rigid steel frame, 3x7 gripshift gearing and cantilever brakes for the bargain price of ~ £300. Bought from Butler cycles in Portsmouth before they morphed into Wiggle. Mate and I went up to QE park for a first ride and found out there was a XC race going on the next day so we entered. Turned out to be the final round of the National point series. Still going strong and I only sold it last year due to a house move (seemed a bit pointless to have a pub bike when I can see the pub from the house).
Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo was my first 'proper' bike. Think it's a 2010 model. I keep it up at my parents and love riding it round the local trails when I go back home.
I had a falcon sierra. Everything on it broke and was either bodged or upgraded by ordering off the fine print ad from merlin on the back of mbuk. Eventually the head-tube snapped off. Then my mate knew the importer for mongoose so I bought an iboc comp frame and built it up with mostly lx groupset, dx thumbies, mavic rims on lx hubs, zoom finishing kit and a kona p2 fork. Awesome at qecp, local woods stuff and on the sdw.
First proper mtb was a Coyote, not the shit duel slalom thing but an original one. Came with a flexstem which snapped middle jump over the first double at Ipswich BMX track. Still have the scars. Following this, I had a Giant ATX something hardtail which was mega. 15 inch frame, terrible rst forks and canti brakes which I upgraded to DX vbrakes. Snapped it trying to back flip out of Thetford bomb hole.
Can't really nail down my first proper bike, but my first proper mtb was a 1995 Kona Lava Dome (not my pic):
Upgraded the heck out of it and rode it until the left dropout weld failed in 2001. The frame was replaced with a 2001 Kona Kilauea (which I since sold to a mate who still has it), i've been a big fan of Kona's ever since.
First proper bike after the obligatory 10spd road bike for passing my 11plus would have been a Mk1 Stumpjumper Spesh loaned me for a year. The next one was a 2014 Cannondale Trigger 2.
Mine was a much loved singlespeed mullet bike-niche or ahead of it's time?
Kuhawara custom bmx followed by a Peugeot atb in the eighties, followed by a sunn mtb in 2000. Wish I had kept the bmx.still have the suñn and use it.
Early 90s Marin Palisades, the stone-fleck grey frame with yellow fork, stem and bars.
One of these rigid 1997 Marin Muirwoods,
Not mine in photo (hopefully posting photo works, first time trying).
Well that didn't work ☹
A Peugeot Ranger for my 14th Birthday.
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2nd attempt
honourablegeorge thanks for that.
Don't know what I did wrong
no pictures unfortunately
my first mtb was a dawes ascent 1988 in white with yellow rear triangle and fork. it had 15 speed shimano with plastic thumbbies and huge plastic grips. i did my first 100 miles on it when i was 15 (1990).
my first real mtb though was a 1992 marin eldridge grade in zolatone black with gloss red rear triangle.that bike was another level after the dawes.
First vaguely mtb was a peugeot Anaconda, like this:
Ridden round the local Essex woods and tour of Holland twice for school trips. Self guided mayhem 🙂
Then after a 19 hour day at work I sleep-bought an Orange Evo2, like this:
Used for bimbling around the local woods with my old man, then on the trails in Wiltshire after a work mate showed me around. He had a GT Lobo, about as far from my Orange as I could get. Had a go, crashed it, decided I wanted a full sus.
So I got this, which I view as my first proper mountain bike as I rode actual mountains on it:
First bike I genuinely loved, still have it over 15 years later, still love it 🙂
2000 Kona Hahanna. Pretty sure it was £299 from James in Sheffield after months of pleading with my Dad. Blue and White with glow in the dark decals!
Eventually it had Manitou X-vert forks (with grease nipples!), Azonic bars with cross brace, an original 4 pot XT Shimano disc brake on the front and an XT parallel push V brake at the back. Mavic 521 Ceramic rims on XT hubs. Tioga Factory DH 2. 1 tyres, except the rear didn't fit so me and Dad cut all the side knobs off with a grinder.
Got it nicked off me at knife point in the park. Man I loved that bike.
(True story - went to court and everything, and the * got away with it because the copper who ran the identity parade used a non approved make up to apply spots to the guys faces. The police put so, so much effort into finding that * for me, and then some judge threw it out based on that, and being late for his Golf.)
1st proper bike was a 1984 Raleigh Scirroco in Claret red.
I still had it up until about 2006 - it spent the last 10 years of its life on a turbo trainer.
My dad bought it for me for £185 from Allen’s cycles in Wombwell on their payment plan/club. I rode it home to Brierley from the shop. I remember that ride like it was yesterday - it was getting dark as I climbed the hill from Great Houghton towards Grimethorpe woods and I had no lights on the bike - every time a car approached from behind I got a reflection of its headlights on the gorgeous shiny paintwork and the concave Weinmann rims before I could hear the car. I don’t think I’ve been as thrilled with any bike since then.
When I was a kid its was a stream of knackered old Townends/whetever shite my dad found at the tip. Had a Genesis Core20 when I got back into it about 12 years ago, 16" frame it was tiny looking back at it.
I'm ignoring the Dawes Kingpin shopper bike that for some reason my Dad felt was completely acceptable for a boy to have as a bike in the 1970's instead of a Grifter/Chopper/BMX or indeed anything but not a sodding shopper bike with a seriously uncool tartan zip bag on the luggage rack. The Dawes got thoroughly abused/jumped/crashed in many off road antics...
Dad however redeemed himself by buying me my first "proper" bike: an Eddy Merckx* junior racer bike in about 1981-ish, I loved that bike 🙂
*in my naive youth I had no idea who Eddy Merckx was apart from being some foreign bloke with an odd name
First proper bike was a Dawes Chevron 5 speed racer for my 12th birthday in 1975. 23” frame iirc so I had to grow into it. Crashed it into a tree off-roading it which steepened the head angle but was still straight. Got pinched at university.
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First mtb was a 1992 Marin Palisades Trail. Had the shop fit a DX chainset rather than biopace. Regret not buying the more expensive Kona Cinder Cone I test rode though.
Edit - I really CBA adding images on here any more.
Had many bikes growing up as a kid but the first real bike was a 531 framed hand built racing number from Woodrup Cycles in Leeds. Bought second hand and just happened to fit me perfectly at the time.
MTB wise, I had 2 Raleigh Mirages', both got stolen and then got a GT Timberline in 1991. This weighed an absolute ton but rode very well and had a cool speckled grey paint job.