97 Kona Munimula (thats aluminum backwards dont'ya know!) - my everyday xc hack
manwells - Member
boblo really nice looking retro bike how is it to ride then!
Thankyou. It's a bit stretched and a bit tough on the wrists when you start to 'get on with it'. Oviously the brakes are crap compared to modern discs and anyone with an ounce of mechanical sympathy winces as the rims grind away merrily in Peak grit. I still use it for Trailquest events and off road touring...
Someone mentioned a Saracen Tuff Trax above. That was my first MTB in 1986/1987 Bright yellow with that horrible chainstay U brake that carved its way through tyre walls as the pads wore down... The choice of the day was a Muddy Fox Courier or a Saracen Tuff Trax. My chum had a Courier hence I went for the Saracen.
BTW, all these people who keep saying 'My Dad's got....' or 'my Grandad's got...' can they pack it in please I'm starting to feel like a fossil 🙂
Another 94 Pine Mountain here. Original frame, saddle and seatpost left I think. And purple bottle cage of course 🙂
Marin's were SO cool back in the day. 8)
I have a 92 Kona Kilaueu which I'm just off to ride in the snow again 🙂
Well looks like we've got enough victims to organise an 'early Marin's' only day out... Just as an option for anyone excluded from the singles only love in going on at the mo 🙂
[i]Ah, now that would've been the Bolinas Ridge you had, not the Muirwoods[/i]
Nah, defo a Muirwoods.
Bright yellow, Shimano 200 GS (steel n' plastic, with thumbshifters.. when everybody else got STI!). There may have been some overlap between '89-90 models - I can't remember (got it for Christmas, a very looooooong time ago).
And check out the frame pads.... 8)
fantastic looking bike clubber is that the original paint colour and was the frame columbus nivachrome? are those forks pace by any chance around 95 as well maybe?
clubber i think life was better when mountain bikes all looked like that.
I still have and still ride my 1884 (yep, 1984 - I still have the signed by the builders ticket too) Wicked Fat Chance.
And I still rate it as the best bike I've ever owned.
regularly ride my 1999 Sunn bike for local xc. Still loving it. Only bars, frame and seatpost are now original though. Everything else has been replaced. It now sports disks all round thanks to Chas Roberts. 🙂
johnb spends most of the winter riding his venerable roberts dogs bolox. i can't tell you how old it is because time had yet to be invented when it was made. knottie has loads of pictures of it, so hopefully he'll see this thread and post one up.
[i]Gotta love neon.[/i]
Ha - indeed. I remember seeing the Muirwoods being tested in [i]MBUK[/i], ridden by Steve Worland - who was wearing appropriately garish leggings to match. There was also an [i]MBUK[/i] feature with some guy parachuting out of a plane with one. I remember being rather miffed that all the 1990 Marins from the Palisades upwards came with the fancy zolatone finish... but not mine. IIRC, the Muirwoods changed colour (atleast in the UK market) in [url= http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=12556 ]1991[/url] - and then the Bolinas Ridge adopted the all-over fearsome yellow... although there was some degree of factory variation. But I'd no sooner forget the name of my first mountain bike than I would the name of my first girlfriend! 😀 😳
Bludy wish I hadn't sold it (years ago) - it was a thing of formative importance.
[i]1984 Wicked Fat Chance[/i]
Nice.
Still have my 89 Stumpjumper, (did have an 84 Stumpy and an 86 Rockhopper before that. It is mostly used on the road and byways now, like the other amazing what we did on them and what we do on our current ones.
My Kilauea above has been repainted twice actually. It was pearlescent White when new but I had it painted dark blue when I had the hope mechanical rear disc mount welded on around 97. Re-repainted a couple of years back to the sky blue shown.
The tubing is tange prestige. Reasonably light but not particularly springy. It broke at the driveside dropout like most of that era but a mate who worked at a garage got it welded back together.
The pace forks in the pic are rc36 evo2s which were 2001ish. They've since been replaced with 07 rc39s. I'm not really into historic builds but rather just what works well on it. That said, the brakes are hope c2s that I bought in 97 (shortly after deciding that even with the welded disc mount, the Hope mechanicals weren't much good.
And talking about the Marins, I had one of the 92 Pine Mountains with zolotone paint and orange as the contrast colour. Sold it to buy the Kilauea because the Marin was rubbish with the RS mag10s I'd bought ( with a full 43mm of travel before I increased them to long travel - 60mm!)
For all you 1985 Saracen Conquest fans a few more pics + the gallery link.
[b]Gallery link: [/b][b][url= http://picasaweb.google.com/zangolin/1985SaracenConquestAfterRebuild# ]http://picasaweb.google.com/zangolin/1985Saracen[/url][/b]
I am still doing 90% of my riding on my 2003 RM switch. And not talking about some crappy english wood here 😉
My first bike was a '90 Marin Eldridge Grade in Zolatone grey and fire truck red, cost 540 quid from dales cycles and did me 8 years. was still holding up until about 2 years ago when my dad decided to stop riding it and sold it along with his wifes immacullate muirwoods from the same year, she bought it having seen mine and rode no more than 10 miles on it in 17 years.just sat in our garage gatherin dust.
PS yeah the saddle was a lycra covered gel affair which held water like a sponge.
fantastic bikes people.i should have added at the beginning the bikes i've owned. 1.1988 dawes ascent 501 tubed 15 speed mtb (my first mtb) 2.1990-1 marin eldridge grade. 3.1993? specialized stumpjumper m2 purple/green with first gen xtr and direct drive rigid fork. .those are what i would class as classic bikes (the rest have been made after 2000ad)
Have those pace elastomers rotted like most do?
It's got a set of the "really hard red ones" in at the moment (all they had left when I rang pace a couple of years ago) - to all intents and purposes it's a rigid fork... I'm a big lad, and most movement i've seen at the end of a ride is maybe 2cm.
I'd still love a carbon y frame to ss. Not great bikes really but they look great 🙂
I own and still use my 1983 Cleland Aventura. Though a friend of mine has a 1982 model that is in full working order.
http://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/restorations/
i destroy bikes, they never last more than 2 or 3 years 🙂 and a few grand a go its and expensive hobby
i've got a 1990 something Marin Bolinas Ridge that's going to be used offroad, whe then built is complete. Gotta love neon.













