[Closed] When and how did you become a mountain biker?

When BSO mtbs first filtered down into Raleigh's range I got one. 1986/7 Raleigh Mustang I think. At 10/11. A year or 2 later I convinced my dad to get me a Saracen Traverse £490 at the time I think as a combined birthday and Xmas present. I've loved and owned mtbs since although this year I've hardly ridden once 'cos I've turned roadie (loving it btw)

ok, I turned up at a tower hamlets multimedia course and met this outspoken eastlondon young man who was very interested in bikes and dismissed my outsized rockhopper but took me for rides around epping. always waiting for me to keep up. What a thoughtful kind gent.

Cycled 40 years. Mountain biking 18 months. Moved to Windsor. Access to Swinley and Palmer Velo's MTB rides got me and two sons into it. Hence my (ahem) eclectic MTB history:

Bike 1: Airnimal Rhyno FS 20er Alfine
Bike 2: Kona unit 29er SS

So I've NEVER had a 26er... 😆
I have had a broken collarbone though so at least I must be trying 😳

EDIT: And I was a sufficiently sad bike geek to be posting on uk.rec.cycling when Singletrack was just starting, so was aware of the magazine from the beginning. Just never rode off road.

Nightmare alcoholic wife...needed to get out of the house..........A LOT

but come to think of it I remember sessioning "singletrack" in local woods (now a housing estate) when I was maybe 10 or 11. so it's always been there.

good stories here

Hit 17 stone after the birth of our son. Bought a bike (Raleigh rigid something - still my pub bike) to get fit, and took it to Center Parcs. Did the off road guided session, and really enjoyed it.

Bought a "proper" MTB about 7 years ago (Marin hardtail), and still loving it. Still use the frame and handlebars of the proper MTB - everything else has been changed (some things several times).

Now 12 stone -ish.

Strated off roading in '88. On an MBK (french I think) MTB.

Became a coporate whore which killed my riding, broke down 3 years later.

Got back on the bike and have been sane ever since 🙂

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Stopped riding bikes when I moved to London (mostly just a lot of pootling around on a road bike before then). In my late 20s realised I was in danger of becoming a fat biffer and although I went to the gym, never really liked it.

Decided to buy a bike. Loved even the ride back from the bike shop to Waterloo and decided to stick with it. I'm not a mountain biker as much as a cyclist, I just really love riding bikes.

My bike got nicked when I was about 12.
Spent 6 or 7 years without, then bought one in an auction for £30 (A GT arrowhead - a mate is still riding it too), when I finished uni i realised it was pretty knackered so started to replace parts.
Sadly none of them seemed to match so I ended up replacing nearly all of it.
As a result I had (what I thought) was a good bike, so me and a mate went to chicksands and scared ourselves stupid.
Amazes me still that I initially refused to ride the tiny drop on the dual slalom.
Since then not looked back and love it everytime I get out on the bike

Learned to ride a bike at the age of 12. I dug out an old rigid steel mtb out of the back of my mates garage which I used to ride on the road between Huddersfield, Halifax and Bradford as well as canal path riding up to the age of 15, then I just stopped riding all together.

Then this summer, one morning I felt the urge to grab my dads £800 Halfords GT (he uses it to commute) for a spin in some local woods, rather enjoyed it, and so when I had a 1 hour wait for a bus I popped into Morrisons, and lurked in the magazine section - picked up a copy of mbr and that introduced me to mtb and provided the inspiration.

I bought a Genesis core 40 in September and I am aged 18.

For proper MTBing:
1996, Bristol, got bored of roadbikes so switched. Bit of a slack period when I lived in the Netherlands. Then resumed again when I moved here.

For sick to the power of rad:
Raleigh Grifter ca. 1983ish. Think I had the record for the biggest wheely. Ramp assisted, of course - those things were hewn from steel. Best friend had the record for the biggest jump, until he spacked a collarbone. And I spacked the forks and head tube on mine so couldn't get the record back.

Raleigh grifter, surprised by how little it hurt

Saw my first 'ATB' (a Kuwahara) in a BMX mag circa 1983. Started experimenting with sturdy gents frames ( 😯 ) and a mates dads welding kit to add canti brakes, bottle bosses, bash guards, more bottle bosses, even cutting out the bottom of the seat tube and adding a second higher BB, and bottle bosses. Got through lots of forks though.

First off-the-peg 'ATB' in 1985 - Raleigh Maverick - which I raced cross on and got fit very quickly. Then first few proper MTB races appeared - Surftracks at Blandford - and that was it, never looked back 😀

Summer of 1991, there was a sunny weekend when me and a mate went riding up into the Pennines above our town on our pair of unwieldy Raleigh gates. We chugged up some massive hills, and bombed down the other side on trails that I still love to ride. We explored and got lost and got sunburned and dehydrated and wore ourselves out. I recall noticing that two full days of honking 35 pounds of steel up pretty respectable inclines actually made my scrawny 12 year old legs visibly change shape. I woke up on Monday really resenting having to go to school instead of getting on a bike, and that was it.

That was it; I've wandered away a few times but I've always come back. I've not ridden one every day, far from it, but since then I've always had a mountain bike ready to ride stashed away somewhere. Thinking about it, I can't say that about many other things: clothes, shoes, a copy of Back To The Future, a mountain bike, those are the constants in my life for the last two decades. I should probably think about growing up...

Nah. Bollocks to that. 😀

My earliest memory of bikes is standing astride one at about 3 years old, and pushing it round a friends garden because I couldn't ride yet. Loved them ever since. My first off road riding was on a Dawes Kingpin shopper! It was surprisingly well made. I remember dunking it in a streem up to the saddle to get all the mud off so I could ride home. And it only finally went to the dump about a year ago.

Had a road bike as my first proper bike, a Merckx no less - not as impressive as it sounds, it had 'racing mudguards'.

Move on a few years to about '88 and I started riding a borrowed mtb, and I've not stopped yet. Got my first mtb (Saracen) in '90 and set about riding all the local trails I could find. I've done quite a few other sports as well - hill walking, climbing, running, orienteering - but really I would always describe myself as 'mountain biker' 🙂

London turned me in to a Mountain biker 😯

Raced Motocross and Enduro bikes < sold bikes ..[b]Before[/b]..< Moved to London 1986 >[b]After[/b] ... bought first ATB (Dawes Wildcat) > did the first Eastway events and the very early ATB races (When Tim Gould and David Baker were gods )I think my MX skilz gave me a bit of an advantage ,cause I did ok .that was it,I was hooked 🙂
It became a good way of getting out of the city at weekends and I met a load of great folk from London that were travelling round the races.
Cycling has given me so much from then to now,and even though I have ridden and raced all sorts of bikes ,I always think of myself as a mountain biker first,because that's where I feel most comfortable.

I was very lucky and always had a bike whilst growing up. Earliest daft stuff I can remember is having a bike on holiday and jumping a bonfire on it! Probably about 8 then! Got a grifter then into bmx for ages and then a mountain bike. Didnt have a name! There are still trails near my mums that I made when I was about 13 and I still ride them. Got stuck at school with teachers strikes so quickly sussed that if I didnt want stuck there all day doing nowt I should take my bike - which I did. Used to cycle up to school,realise no teachers were there and head off into the Pentlands. Proper ace that! Took guys up there a wee while back and I thought to myself Ive been riding this for years. Strange that. Got a bit older and turned into a complete arsehole. Preferred fighting and drinking to bikes so right at the time they got good I didnt. Think I couldve done allright at it as well. Anyway got back into it about 5yrs ago and havent looked back. Im poor but managed to pick up a wee Orange sub 5 for 200quid and really went for it. That bike was too wee for me(beggars cant be choosers)but did a frame swap for a Patriot 7+ and slowly built that into the great bike it is today. Got a Pitch as well for 380 and swapped out and slowly built that into a great bike to. Work gets in the way a bit much but now I really enjoy my bikes and a lot of the other activities that go with it - photos,trailbuilding uplift days etc. Great sport and I intend to keep at it and aim to get better.

Made redundant in 93 lost my company car with the job, spent £300 (How much!) on a Scott Peak (in the wrong size)to get about.

1988. Awesomest present ever.

Stabilisers off age 4 or thereabouts. Grew up in a small town with plenty of woods on the fringes and parents took us all over Scotland on every school holiday so always been into "messing around in the woods" on bikes.

Saved up to buy my first MTB (Dawes Die-Hard) aged about 12. Had a bit of a dip during the Uni years (discovered beer, women and, to be fair, snowboarding).

Got my first graduate job and used the old Dawes to commute to work. Didn't have a car and made sure the bike was insured as it was pretty essential to me. Bike got nicked and insurance replaced it with a nice, entry-level Trek hardtail which got me into "proper" mountain biking.

Riding bikes is now my full-time job for half the year!

About 7 years ago, I broke my hip. Then, I partially tore my ACL in the same leg, so was basically ****ed. Could walk but not run, couldn't move normally at all, and couldn't do much exercise. Lots of physio, boring. Dragged my ancient Carrera out and started riding for physio. A mile at first was a big deal, then eventually 2 miles with slight hills, then managed the big hill without stopping (which was a mission then, but now is on my commute and gets dispatched in the big ring), then finally started doing some of the old offroad trails. The day I dared to go over the top of the hill down into the next valley was very special- a nightmare getting home but such a victory.

Then, weirdly, picked up a copy of What Mountain Bike, and ChrisL of this forum- who I knew from uni but hadn't really seen for the best part of a decade- had written in. One text later and, well, here we are.

So I guess I owe it all to a broken hip, Future Publishing, and Chris. But also can blame them for financial ruin and broken bones 😉

Someone used me as a give way line
I wanted to continue riding so gave
Mountain biking a go.

Started around 31 because some drinking buddies used to hit the Surrey hills in the morning then the bars in the evening, eventually just stopped the drinking bit and concentrated on the riding.
For me its a great way to stay fit, meet new people (all MTB'ers are friendly), see beautiful countryside and satisfy my mid-life gadget fixation.

Always rode bikes when I was younger, me and my mates used to make little kickers out of bricks and wood. I then got into bmx but most of my mates quit riding that in about 2005. I decided to sell my bmx and try mtb for something different. Bought my first Trailstar in 2005. Rode it on and off but it didn't really get used til about 2008 when I decided I really needed to do some exercise and lose weight.. I was just riding it on the roads for exercise but in 2009-2010 I started riding on jumps and trails like follow the dog then realised how fun it was. From there I've progressed loads in the 2-3 years!

About 8 years ago. Family holiday in Les Gets (Pronounced gets 🙄 )Last day of 2 week holiday ,thought I'd try it after watching people on the DH tracks from afar. Never heard of mountain biking - ironic eh?

Hmm, cycling since I was too young to remember, the usual mix of bmxs, boxers, etc..cycling in the park, setting up ramps in the street, a highlight was jumping the burn round the corner from my house..
Prob my first proper MTB was an old trek 900 something or other.. Must have been about 94 cos i remember using it todo my paper round. Can't tell you the exact model but it did have a sort of pink paintjob but no dropped toptube i would add!
Then moved onto a British Eagle for touring/off road stuff, then an alu Saracen rufftrax I think about, oh, 98? Remember how light it was! And V-brakes! I remember going otb the first time I used them on a downhill!
Broke my leg pretty good not long after getting that, my best friend got all my mates to
chip in and buy me some early orange Manitou forks to get me back onto the bike.. Sigh.
Then a rockhopper in 2001, an sworks Enduro in 05, and my current 575 in 2010.

1991. I went along with a mate when he bought his first mtb. Thought it looked fun so bought one myself the following week.

In the late '80's I needed a new bike (like a lot of others there has always been a bike kicking around in the background but was never a 'cyclist') to get too and from work. I thought mountain bikes looked pretty cool so picked up a Giant Escaper 23" gate which never really got off road (other than dirt/farm tracks).

I then took up road biking and joined a roadie club which just happened to have a mtb section. Having been mug enough to volunteer to help on the committee I met a mtb'er and asked him if he'd drag me out. Went for a couple hour loop to Glen Tannar and loved it (even though the first downhill bit felt scarily like just before I crashed a motorbike) and that was me bitten/smitten. For about the next 10 years when ask what I was I was first and foremost a mountain biker.

Sadly my mtb mates dropped away (moved away/abroad, turned roadie or plain turned weird, 1 even became a fully fledged junkie!) and then my bike was nicked. Combined with a relationship with a non mtb'er this meant that the biking slowly dropped off and climbing increasingly became the focus.

It comes and goes in phases. Not really got biking mates ATM, a niggling back injury and a current lack of motivation/mojo doesn't help.

Planning on nipping out locally on my tod for a couple of hours tomorrow though... 😀

Started in 1988 on a Specialized Hardrock bought by my parents from Halfords. I spotted it recently at the local train station still sporting the same water bottle I sold with it in the early 90s

Mine was really about 4-5 years back when me and the wife moved to the 'countryside'. What this meant in essence is that the Downs are about 100m from my doorstep and within 5 mins i can be more than a mile from any houses and truely out in the country. So i started off with some Ridgeway stuff and progressed from there. That was on a s/h GT proper pile of garbage bike i paid £50 for from Gumtree. Then moved onto a £250 upgraded Carrera and then onwards and upwards from there really.
Any of my 'free' time now is generally taken up by MTBing (or motorbikes)

had always ridden down the woods on an assortment of bikes usually made up from bits we had salvaged from the dump,gave up on biking in my teens took up motorcycle trials and womanising fast forward 15 years and ive settled down and moved out of Edinburgh and into rural Ayrshire spotted a MTB in a bike shop 94 and that was me back on two wheels and loving it

Late '80s, secondhand Raleigh Montage with a 24" frame(!!!), local parks and woods. Loved riding the singletrack straight away.

Glad I never tried to do any "proper" mountain biking involving actual hills on it though, it was a bloody deathtrap.

Always had a mountain bike since then.

Rode a bike round the garden as a kid then nowt for 30+ years. Got interested in the early 90s but didn't have the spare money to invest on a whim. Moved to North Yorkshire in the mid 90s and finished up living a couple of miles from Dalby, got interested again and bought a Spesh Hardrock in the end of year sale 2004. Only bike I bought from an LBS, and only one so far that was the wrong size. Dabbled but slowly got more interested and then bought one of the first 456 complete bikes in 2007 and been hooked since then.

Had a Raleigh mountain bike for xmas when i was 10. My mates all had bikes and we lived on them every day. I then had an apollo around age 12-13 with front suspension which bottomed out and hit the tyre lol. Then at around 14-15 I had a nice carrera hard tail which I remember was a nice bike. Messed around on it until 17 and the driving licence arrived and never touched a bike again until I was 22.

Walked passed a bike shop around 21-22, saw a £500 GT hard tail which caught my eye and thought I'd treat myself as I always said I'd buy a nice bike when I could afford it (£500 seemed a lot for a bike 8 years ago) Rode it to work a few times, left it for another year and then went to cannock with a mate. Turns out my cardio fitness was rubbish even though I was in reasonable shape, hit the wall, felt sick and went home having not enjoyed it.

Few years later (2.5 years ago now), my best mate from school moved in with his missus a few mins round the corner and he got me running the wrekin. After a few weeks of doing this he suggested we take the bikes. It was amazing fun descending and messing around. A few more weeks later he traded his hard tail in for a £2600 trek remedy 9. Suddently he had twice the descending pace I had on the GT and I decided I must have a full suspension bike.

2 months of research began and I finally stumbled upon a lovely Giant trance x with a anodized frame which grabbed my attention. The adventure started there, in the first summer we tried longmynd, cannock, brenin, marin, penmachno, llandegla, wrekin, east ridge. Looking back it was one of the best years of my life but it has been something I've kept up and love more and more and is now part of my life. Still have the same frame but with an entirely new set of components, forks etc and enjoyed customising it as much as riding.

I'm certain I will continue riding as long as health allows, the perfect escape from day to day stresses of life!

Been cycling since the age of 3 but got my first mountain bike in 2007. I had to sell my motorbike to buy another car as the missus passed her driving test and I got a new job with a longer commute. Needed something to get my thrills quota so got myself a little Marin Wildcat hardtail.

I've been cycling since I was a kid but got into MTB in my final year of Uni back in 91.

I hit a car side on and wrote off my road bike and as the roads were in a crap state (no change there then) I splashed out £400 on a Giant Escaper.
Joined the MTB society and started riding with them at local spots and Cannock Chase.

Started racing and bought a Team Marin in '95 or '96 when I didn't get a job in the states.

Still wonder if the Uni guys still ride - I remember we started riding the 15miles to the Chase to join a 20m group ride then hammered it home. Improved my race results no end.

happy days

I'm a cyclist, not just a 'mountain biker', as I have a road bike + BMX too...

So since I could ride without stabalisers... aged 2, back in 1986...

I started riding bikes 40years ago and rode offroad since then as well. got my first real mountainbike in 1994 ish. Always have ridden bike sregularly since then.

I came to mountainbiking thru touring and access to the mountains to munro bag really but I was also inspired by tales of roughstuff fellowship style riding way back when so tried to incorporate a bit of off-road into my touring routes

1988/89 when I was bought my first mountain bike, a Marin Muirwoods 😀

1987, aged 18, a mate who worked in irvine cycles showed me his muddy fox courier, i had a shot up and down the street, bought one a few months later.
never stopped, dont ride so much now, (work etc) but doubt i will ever give up.
love it.

Always cycled off road stuff since a kid in the 70s but first road an ATB in 1984 it was an Overburys Fellrider .I still have the frame.

I've been cycling since I was a kid, but really got into mountain biking from the age of 14 when I bought a very brightly coloured MBK 'all terrain' bike.

Used to spend every night after school riding along the sand dunes and forest tracks between Crosby and Southport.

I managed to save up enough money from a paper round to buy a Saracen Sahara in 1992 and then joined the Liverpool mountain bike club and it took off from there. Joining a club opened up a whole new world to me as due to my young age; I couldn't drive myself.

My poor Saracen Sahara got stolen and my folks house insurance helped fund my favourite bike; a Marin Bear Valley SE. I loved my Marin to bits and spent all my paper round money on 'blinging' it up with anodised blue bits, project two forks and a 'snowflake' front wheel from Formby Cyclesports.

I then moved onto the St Helens 'Woolly Backs' mountain bike club, still relying on club members to drive me to destinations afar; as I was still too young to drive.

I haven't been part of a club for long time now, but still ride my mountain bike most days.

Had a interest in bikes since I was 9 or 10 since I got my uncles mk1 chopper (i could wheelie that forever 😀 )..then I got a raleigh Commando followed by a Grifter, started experimenting with different builds in my early teens before falling away from it for 20 odd years although I always had some sort of bike..really only got into proper mtbing about three years ago 😥

got banned from the school buses in my first year for being a pyromaniac and had to find other means of getting there so bought a marin bolinas ridge from a mate and 24 bikes later its the most expensive mistake i ever made still got my commuter tho

There's really quite a lot of mtb heritage and experience on this forum isn't there 🙂

Oh, and if you're reading this repack rider / Charlie - I don't think you really need to add a post! 😀

Picked up a couple of bikes at a local police auction - one for me and one for my mate when I was about 16. I kept the bright yellow Muddy Fox Courier, and he got the Trek.

Other mates got involved and we spent the next five years trawling about all over Aberdeenshire and beyond. Loved it! Still loving it now 😀