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I'd love to know what Raleigh model it was- it had a Y-shaped seat stay rigid hardtail- any ideas?
Andy, I remember that Explosif when I first walked into a bike shop to get my first mountain bike , I think they were about £700 from memory? I baulked at the price and still spent twice my budget when I chose the Cindercone at £429, still have the receipt but not the bike!
A surfboard.
A '92 Palisades Trail, bought from Behind Bars in Abingdon. I really wanted a Cindercone (?) the one with the 18sp Suntour set up but couldn't afford it. Was a toss up between the Marin and a Lava Dome and the rapid fire shifters swung it. Sold it to a neighbour who's never ridden it. Still has the Onza bar ends and the DX chainset I upgraded to from biopace.
A raliegh marauder, heavy piece of ****! loved it though! 🙂
One like this...
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Carrera Kashmir. It had oval rings for blah blah blah. Is that bio-pace?
in 1992 I saved up loads of lawn mowing money and swapped an Emmelle Cougar (white and flouro yellow, i think) for a Marin Bobcat Trail:
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I was going to buy a shogun trail breaker, but I won a competition in PC Zone magazine.. the prize was a Creative Soundblaster 2, which I sold for £60 (a fortune!)
Dave
Can I just add that I still use the shop where I bought that Ascent EX. Bought about five more bikes from them since then!
Cindercone 1990:
[url= http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6183/6066749720_5d97cdd53f_b.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/37390545@N06/6066749720/ ]Coed_Y_Brenin_Aug1990[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/37390545@N06/ ]franklini10[/url], on Flickr
Rascal a little later:
[url= http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6083/6035216266_29b37bf0c6.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/37390545@N06/6035216266/ ]n759618369_674274_5040[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/37390545@N06/ ]franklini10[/url], on Flickr
No idea what it was called, and no pics, but it was a beach cruiser type mtb. 3 tubes in the top tube, a middle thick one and two thinner ones each side, all curved. High riser type bars with black foam covering them.
Heavy as anything, but still rode everywhere.
Started on a Carrera Krakatoa - Yellow/black with rear U brake under the chainstay. Broke two of those, got a full refund.
Bought Kona Fire Mountain, wrote that off crashing into a car.
Bought Kona Cinder Cone and raced it to mid-table mediocrity through '92 and '93
[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3310/3281576791_4c29e12d07.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardkenny/3281576791/ ]BMBF1993[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/richardkenny/ ]richardkenny[/url], on Flickr
One of these (but not that one).
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It broke.
Muddy Fox Courier for me until it got nicked with another bike it was locked to in Canterbury in 1995 🙁
One of these:
I remember picking it coz of the black rims
20 years ago this Christmas I got my MTB - I went to the local Raleigh dealership with my mum and dad to look at a Montage, and one of the lads who worked there asked quietly if we'd be interested in a second hand bike. Popped over to his house later that day to be met by a 17" 1989 Rockhopper Comp with Deore gears, Farmer John's Cousin tyres, a Turbo Saddle, 150mm Salsa stem complete with little roller and some ridiculously narrow bars (am guessing 450mm max) which we picked up for £350.
I was the envy of the entire school as everyone else was rolling around on Emmelles, Al Carters and Raleighs. I raced it regularly in the Leisure Lakes series.
It was very sadly stolen a year later but the insurance coughed up and I got a very nice GT Zaskar for which I saved up for 6 months and bought some Rock Shox Mag 20s.
Tho
Already progressed from an MBK Aventure (flouro wagon), MS Racing Cromo LX then a 1990 Cinder Cone.
Pretty sure I was on my '91 GT Zaskar LE, rigid forks, U brake rear, 261 ceramics on Pace hubs and a pair of AT4 pro bars, a bike a regret selling but then it just funded the next great one, a custom Fuquay.
This was about 20 years ago. Haro Sport painted blue and black with hammerite using a toothbrush. I have a another pic somewhere of it with me riding a miniramp while dressed as elvis 😐
I think around that time I had a Claud Butler something mtb (it began with V). It was metallic pink and it broke.
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Dawes tracker
Biopace rings
Onza porc tyres
Fluoro pads and frame bags of every description
Sharkfin chainstay protector
Rode like a psychadelic anvil, was secretly jealous of my mates peugeot sahara
psychedelic anvil
🙂 Band name manqué!
Green Halfords own brand "Apollo" something bought with saving up from a paper round. Made from pure mild steel I'm sure- weighed a ton! Rode it into the ground, including riding Sheffield to Whitby one weekend. Gave it to a mate once I could afford "suspension" (RST elastomer forks) on a Giant ATX (about 5 or 6 years later). Worst decision I ever made as he let it turn to rust!
A 1991 GT Outpost, that I bought off my brother.
The same amount of suspension as my current bike but with about 20 more gears.
I had just got one of these and was loving it. Filet brazed Tange Prestige!
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17.5" Alpine Stars Al-Mega DX - I remember fitting a 145mm stem, which took some sourcing in those pre-internet days since the headset was 1 1/4".
Like this, but this pic is somebody else's:
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Would've been about 3 so probably a play trike thing.
One of these. A Raleigh Dune Dance (although the one in the picture is not mine). Twenty years ago I'd just moved to Utah, so this was getting ridden up mountains and across deserts. Still got the frame in the shed, although it's now orange and is just a frame and forks being neglected at the back of the shed, which is poor return for all the fun it gave me.
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Alpinestars Cro Mega DX (not mine pictured), I'd probably still have it if one of my mates hadn't managed to mangle the dropouts on it 🙁
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An Al Carter LX Trail with LX groupset!
Didn't get my Marin Team Issue until 1994, I was a bit behind the times.
GT Talera, Cannondale M500 (I think), grey, wasn't the beast of the east which I think was the M800?
Then bought a '93 Explosif Pro, way too small & loved it - even cut the handlebars down to about 1ft wide to lose weight.
Looking at these pics (especially the Kelin's & Marins) remind me of a different time, a great time, when you could achieve a top class bike on paper round wage and some shrews 'trading up'; pre-ebay, pre-carbon, pre-credit cards!
my brother's raleigh maverick. still remember finding my first piece of through-the-trees singletrack by chance at glentress and wishing there was more riding like that in other forests...
20 years ago, one of these:
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25 years ago, one of these:
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Fixed and sporting Postman Pat slippers, natch. I was so ahead of the curve.
After the grifter though, I had to make do with BSO's until I spent my 17th brithday 'driving lesson money' on somethign much better:
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(not mine, I don't have any pics of it from back then. Which is a shame, becuase at one point I put DHO's on it ... it lived to tell the tale too, I still ride it now)
In 1992, I saved up my paper round money and traded in one of these
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For one of these
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one of these:
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'89 SM600 Cannondale
One of these:
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Marzochi Forks
Grip Shift
BLT lights
Cook Bros Cranks
Silver Syncros
Lots of blue bling
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1991 GT Timberline in 16" - managed to save pocket money from doing chorse and combined my birthday and Christmas presents together for the remainder. Had it fitted with a flatter stem from the shop (Grosvenor Cycles in Aldershot) and 6 months down the line I sold all my Star Wars toys to fund a pair of PD-M525 SPD pedals and Shimano MO30 shoes - think I would have been 14/15 then.
Sold it after a couple of years and upgraded to a 1992 Kona Lava Dome (which got ridden around Pitch Hill by Declan Hicks of Zero Components whilst I was on 6th Form work experience there - he let me ride his £2.5k Proflex!), which made way for a 1993 Marin Eldridge, which made way for a car. Didn't own a mountain bike again til 6 years ago, and up til last year they were still all early '90s bikes.
Always wanted a 1993 Kona Kilauea after it came top in an MBUK test - will have one some day!
1992 Kona Hahanna. Loved it, despite its modest status.
Like this one (minus the upgrades) - pic 'courtesy' Keando on this here forum...
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D'oh except that^ is a Cinder Cone. Well, it looked v similar. Minus the red bits.
Oh FFS.
1992? Aged 18. Very much still riding shanks' pony. Walked all over the place - my dad and I used to knock out 50miles in a day in the Peaks, then go for a pubcrawl round Hayfield afterwards.
Having been desperate for a bike during the early '80s BMX craze, I finally learnt to ride one in my second year at uni in late 1993. Raleigh Amazon, as shown above. Really natural to take it offroad. Barely stopped since.
Not *quite* 20 years ago (18) but I had one of these:
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Got it for my 16th birthday.
Over the course of the next few years it got upgraded with SPDs, RockShox Quadra 21Rs, Harry Rowland handbuilt wheels and eventually a new drivetrain when the Shimano Alivio wore out. It also had a year or so when it had grey Specialized Umma Gumma tyres on it which were, as everyone knows, the second coolest tyres after white Onza Porcupines.
It lasted well, I did loads of races on it and days out in the Lakes and Scotland when we were on holidays.
Eventually gave it away to a Youth cycling club.
I think I had a Coyote, not sure on the model. It was black with pink writing and had Scott brakes. I'd replaced every alloy part on it for something purple too!
A skateboard.
20 years ago I think I had just about saved up enough pennies to buy one of these: [img] 
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1992 - a new Trek 950 and a Moto Morini 500 Sport 8)
My first mtb
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This bad boy lolzzz