[Closed] Year you bought your first atb

Some horrific Peugeot thing from Halfrauds on the never never back in 1987. I really wanted the Kirk magnesium thing but couldn't afford it.

Peugeot Puma 1998 Halfrauds was my first - lasted 6 months before a Diamond Back Ascent Ex (Black with the pink tiger stripes - GGGRRRRRR!) replaced it.

Had that until 1999 when I unwisely sold it for beer money

1990 - I had sold everything and gone travelling around Europe so when I got back I needed a mode of transport. I got a Peugeot thing in metallic ivory white just for riding around town on and it wasn't until later I got into ATB riding and I spent a fortune blinging it on X-Lite bar ends, Ringle bottle cages etc. At this time (now I had started to get an active interest in specifications etc) I realised that it actually had a really good quality Reynolds alu frame. Around that time I wrote to MTB magazine (and was published) asking if they knew the history and whether or not they thought I had got a half decent bike accidentally. They had no idea 🙂

Although, I *DID* previously have a Raleigh Bomber which was surely a worthy claim to being a predecessor to proper ATB bikes? That was around 1982.

1987,Overbury's of Bristol,531 frame,and 501 tandem forks,yellow,thumbies,18 sp,Biopace rings.

Halfords apollo 18sp ATB 2 sizes too big in 1989, sold 6 months later for a raleigh peak (which a mate still uses)

I had a British Eagle - my dad had bought me a tourer when I was about 13-14 because that's what he liked to do.

I wasn't really into it, so the mudguards came off and it went round the local bomb holes. I got a British Eagle Inferno MTB a couple of years later - 1991 ish. TBH, it wasn't that much better than the tourer, but it was green and yellow & it was the first big thing I ever bough from my Saturday job money.

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PS: not my actual bike. Pink bottle cage? Ew...

i was bought a dawes ascent for xmas in 1988. it weighed a ton but i did my first ever 100 miles on it (devizes to reading and back).

shimano 15 speed,thummies,501 tubing,super hard plastic grips that were a weird shape oh and it weighed a ton,but i loved that bike 😀

edit did i mention that it weighed a ton 😛

1997, it was steel framed GT Timberline with rigid forks.

1994 I bought this - in 2011 I "loaned" it to a member of staff it didn't end well; I never saw it again.
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1986 (or - possibly - 1987) for me too redmex.
Specialized Rockhopper. Yellow. U brake on chainstay.
Amazingly, it's still in use!

I wanted a M Fox Courier or even Courier Comp but LBS could never get them in stock, so settled for Rockhopper.

Raleigh Dune Dancer. Must have been 1988 ish. I had been working for a year or so as an Apprentice and commuting on an old 70's Carlton road bike that my uncle had given me.
It was time to buy myself a nice bike after putting up with old garden gates for years.

Raleigh Montage, 1994. Always had BMX before then.

1991 - (repainted) Raleigh Mirage

1990 GT Tequesta in "Purple Haze" - Suntour XCE groupset (I changed the trigger shifters for thumbshifters), and super rigid forks.
It looked so purdee.
Then a 1992 Clockwork Orange in Purple/ Orange (like a Prestige) with Deore DX, slowly upgraded to XT with thumbshifters.

87 courier

I remember the u brake under the chainstays probably only played one season but the xt thumshifters were amazing piece of kit so precise then ground control tyres to get grip

1990 ish. An Emmelle of some variety.

Raleigh Max in 92/93 I would guess. It have massive over-sized tubes (for the time) so it looked like an Alu bike, but it was Cromo and weighed the same as the Death Star. Plastic brakes, early grip-shift but I loved it. Fell apart after a couple of years and the old man wrote it off as "crap" and skipped it.

Replaced with a GT Timberline a few years later which was awesome.

First with my own money was an Azonic DS Evo in 2002
First atb (that I upgraded everything bar the frame and headset, then transferred all the parts to the above) was a carrera mission in, I guess, 96 or 97.

I'm not sure, I've been trying to date it by the bike which was a Trek 830 in a mid/dark blue.

The only model that fits the bill is 1985 one which seems a bit too early to me. I do remember that I'd wanted to buy a muddy fox courier comp but the Trek was being discounted so I'm going to assume that it was old stock they were getting rid of, which probably makes 1986 the year I bought it.

I do remember riding home on it and thinking it was a near impossible distance to travel on a bicycle (about 6 miles) and being amazed at how easy it was.

Bright yellow spesh rockhopper in 1988 followed by a marin eldridge grade in 1990 with the zolatone paint

1989 Trek Antelope 830. Part of my early mid-life crisis when I gave up smoking, became a vegetarian and bought a bike.

My parents must have brought me a Raleigh Mustang in about '88

1991 - Saracen Trekker in a gash orange colour! Spent every penny of my savings 😳

Specialized Hardrock in about 92

never called it an atb, was always a mountain bike, but this was my first yin, early nineties, a bit to big for me. I had to grow into it and it weighed a ton! The brakes were crap, and I always switched off the index part of the gears and just manually shifted. good fun though, better once I changed the tyres for some kinda chunk tioga efforts if i remember right.

(not my pic, but same bike.)
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Scott Impulse, circa 1992?

Early 1989, a Saracen Trekker with 18 speed Deore thumbed and front and rear U brakes.

1989 Raleigh Discovery,200GS Biopace gears, was my 14th birthday present. I replaced every single part on it over the years and it saw me through until my 21st birthday in 1996 when I got the one of the first Joe Murray built Voodoo's to hit UK shores and ported alll the components over before starting the upgrade cycle again
Still got and ride the Voodoo
In tradition of marking birthdays with new steel framed bikes I bought myself a Cotic BFe for my 40th

1988 at the age of 15, paid a couple of hundred for a secondhand one of these in 24in.

[img] http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=172359 [/img]

Wasn't long before I upgraded to something a little better fitting.

Ridgeback 601 in 1986/7.

1987 Raleigh mustang in black and white a bit later my mate got a Raleigh maverick in lemon and white, nice 😉

I then added mbuk pink neon cables and a pink flouro framebag /carry pad. Early bike packing gear 🙂

In 1993, coming from BMXs, I bought a red/orange 1992 GT Outpost that was far too big for me. I chopped it in as soon as I could for a chrome 1994 GT Vertigo 😀

If you don't count my Raleigh Chopper in the 70s then a Claude Butler Blade in 2007 .

Not counting my Grifter, would have probably been 1995. A lovely blue Cannondale M500. Was a bit late to the off road party.

Falcon sierra, c1987 ish. Went from a bmx to the mighty sierra. Everything broke on it at some point and it became a bit of a trigger's broom. Eventually the headtube snapped off.

Aside from the 'quarry bikes' we made in the 70s to ride a bit like bmx/single track bikes. The first proper ATB was in 1982 - a Stumpjumper, I didn't see another atb for nearly two years. Part exed it with the Bike Store Park Street for a mark 2 in, I think 86-87, still have that one.

1984 or 85 muddy fox explorer.

like this, not my pic tho
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=201531&mode=view

I didn't own my own mtb until 1999. Was far too poor to buy a bike before that. Relied on borrows and hand me downs. Had a British eagle, some horric grey thing with a massive dent and bend in the seat tube and a full camo unbranded bmx!

Mind you, when I could finally afford a bike I did it properly.

1999 kona explosif. Boom.

gary fisher tassajara 1993

Grifter then
1992/3 (iirc) Muddy Fox Courier, probably stolen, too naive to know better..

'92 Diamond Back Topanga. Purple with (Exage?) biopace chain rings and rapidfire shifters.

Rubbish appollo thing in about 1990 and in 1992 a diamond back acsent ex. Blue with silver dribbled all over it
Taking apart and upgrading those two bikes ruined the rest of my life lol

Always wanted an orange clock work

My first one was bought for me as a present - a 1989 Raleigh Mustang, the first one I actually bought was in 1991 - a Halfords Apollo Creed (I think?) after the Mustang had to be put down.

A 21" Dawes Tracker. To big for me even now..
18speed Exage Country Trail gears.
It was, well. A 501 steel Tank of a bike, still it got me into the whole off-road thing.

Ah, misread the question. The sierra was a present. First bought bike was a mongoose iboc comp frame I had tagged onto an import order with an outdoor shop. Fitted it out with project 2s, stx/lx groupset, mavic rims, zoom finishing kit and a nice sella turbo saddle. In my mind it was rocketship fast. Couldn't afford the first gen spds though, so rode it with my ngubas (sp?) in toestraps for a year or so whilst I saved for spds. So c early 90s for that beaut !

Edit - getting confused. Must have been lx with dx thumbies. Stx is what I replaced the crankset with later as I think stx was mid 90s.

1988 Saracen Tufftrax in yellow. Loved it and so wish I still had it.

Another Raleigh mustang 20" for xmas 1987. Still got the video of me getting is and shredding the snow on x-mas morning!

Raleigh bomber then a Raleigh mustang, 1st proper was a 93 cindercone which was mint.

'89 Kona Cindercone - 2nd hand in '91, still got it, still works

1994 when I bought a '93 Orange Prestige frame from Leisure Lakes in Bury, got it cheap as it was "last seasons" model.

Prior to that i had some Claud Butler Magna abomination bought from the Grattan catalogue or something, Alu frame, black/green speckled paint.
Original one was stolen and replaced... with the same model! 😥 the second one I completely broke the dropout off it in a crash 😀

Never touched a mountain bike until my mid 20s when I bought a'95 Kona Lava Dome

3x7 gripshift, canti brakes

I loved that bike - I still have the frame and must build it up sometime

First ATB ride was June 13th 1991, on a hired Marin, the day before I asked my now-wife if she'd go out with me.

1992 - bought my brother's GT Outpost off him

1995 - bought a new Kona Hahanna. Followed by an Inbred in 2004ish and an insurance replacement after it was nicked.

Another Muddy Fox Courier in bright yellow in 1987. It was second hand and I brought it off a truck driver, though why he had it I have no idea.

That was the first real MTB, but before that I used to chuck an old Coventry eagle bike with those steel rod brakes (leather brake blocks!) around the local berms and jumps we made, until the head tube departed from he rest of the frame leaving me in a very odd chopper pose sliding down the road in a shower of sparks.

1990. Some crappy thing I kept for 6 months then went mad & got a Saracen Tufftrax which really kicked me into off road cycling.

I had some crappy Townsend thing in about 89/90 got nicked about a month later!!

1991 GT Timberline - bought with my first Christmas bonus as an apprentice.
Up till that point all my paper round/odd job money was going on bmx but I was getting a bit burnt out on it.

In 93, a Marin Bear Valley.

Raleigh Mirage in Purple a Gate of a bike

Ming the Merciless - Member
Some horrific Peugeot thing from Halfrauds on the never never back in 1987. I really wanted the Kirk magnesium thing but couldn't afford it.

Me too - apart from the credit as I was 13... Mine was a Peugeot Lynx in a light metallic blue.

postierich - Member
Raleigh Mirage in Purple a Gate of a bike

Reynolds 501 with Shimano Exage 300LX?

I also built up an old bike into a chopper using scaffolding tubes then subsequently cut them back down to make a stiffened front end. Totally gutted I don't have pictures of it all as I spent so much time experimenting with stuff back then.

My road bike got stolen, a Columbus sl Battaglin. My insurance policy had less than a month to go and the company paid out. I bought the first of the Rockhoppers that came into the UK, I was poised to buy a Saracen Conquest but the bike shop I worked in had just seen the new Specialized bikes and told me hold fire.

I had to go for a 21 inch frame as my heels caught the cantilever brakes on the 18 inch frame. Wasn't everyone's first mountain bike too big?

First ride = first crash

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Mine was a specialised hardrock in pink/ purple from about 1989 I guess. Spent a few yrs riding it everywhere and upgrading bits as they wore out. Can't remember where I got it but used to use Martyn Ashfield cycles in risca where bill used to hand build the wheels.

Then in 1993 I bought a clockwork frame from sunset in Cardiff and transferred all the upgraded bit to that in my flat in Plymouth. Ended up covered in xt groupset, dx thumbing, onza clipless pedals, use seatpost, control tech stem and bar ends flite ti saddle, blue anodised bolts everywhere, manitou 3 fork after a while. Proper arse up head down light race machine. Ritchey z max skinwall/ reddy brown tyres. It really was gorgeous.

Still got it now but singlespeed with brown big apple tyres as my pub/ shopping bike. Still rides great. Best money I've ever spent on anything.

Sometime in the late 80's a driver for Grattan catalogues delivered a Claud Butler to my flat in Headingley. It sat in the hall way for a while then I start using it.
Had for a couple of years until it was stolen buy an Asda truck driver.

1996 Scott Vail
bought that just before moving to that top MTB destination called Holland.

Having had a go on a pals Raleigh Mustang I was hooked. I lusted after a Peugeot Lazer 15 and Apollo Blizzard but it took me so long to save up I upgraded and ended up with a 1989 Saracen Tufftrax. Think it was actually 1990 by the time I/my mum had paid in full and taken delivery.

My best mate got a 1990 Marin Palisades on the same day.

1993, GT Talera from Colin Lewis. Saved half from paper round and parents paid half.

Immediately commenced the upgrade route , sold it to a mate for a ridiculous profit and bought a Grey M500 frame with RC35s, which was my first true love.

Late 80's, maybe 1989. I rode an off road event on my hybrid and really enjoyed it, but realised it would have been so much better on a proper MTB. I test rode a second hand Team Marin, it was so good I bought it for an outrageous price that I now can't remember.
3 years ago I was knocked off it and a seat stay was snapped and twisted. I had it mended but it's never been quite the same. I still have it, though now it has been relegated to pub transport duties.

Shogun Trail breaker - '86ish. BMX since '80

Rudge bi-frame in 1980, the year my son was born and wife passed her driving test. It was intended to be my "commuter" but it became my "fitness trainer" to help with my squash. Due to having asthma I really struggled for quite some time, still do sometimes.
First "real" bike was a Raleigh Max followed by a Bontrager Privateer in '96, used sons Trek 8000 for a couple of years before that 😀

From and old thread 😀

BFITH - Member
1987 - Giant Super Sierra....no pics unfortunately ....got nicked from outside my front door! gutted.....

POSTED 5 YEARS AGO #

Possibly 8th, probably 9th birthday, so July '88/'89,sparkly purple Prompto Equalizer (yes, with a 'z'). Bought from a shop on Wallisdown Roundabout, Poole; now a Sue Ryder shop it seems. I really wanted a red/orange Emmelle but Dad wanted the cheapest possible... I don't remember much about it, other than my parents letting me cycle off with friends in a way I find unimaginable with my own children (which I regret hugely). My gang would go to a local hill and charge down it full speed with no helmets until we fell off, which didn't take long. My mum got me a white Bell helmet but I think I'd just learnt what a bellend was and refused to wear it. I liked doing skids too, so much so that my dad had to replace the rear tyre after three weeks, telling me I'd have to buy the next one.
I started a paper-round at 12 and by the time I was 14/15 bought a marbled black/red Boss STX RC, which was fantastic - bombing along the Poole-Bournemouth promenade at night with no lights... It got nicked from my girlfriend's garden in 1996 and with the insurance got a chromed Muddy Fox that I never got on with and sold to help pay for my Yamaha TZR 125. I think that was my last bike until a Breezer Lightning Team in 2012. Intervening commuter and road bikes in London and Sheffield.

[img] https://www.cyclechat.net/attachments/dsc_0162-jpg.190755/ [/img]
My first ATB was one of these, complete with biopace chain rings in around '94 when I was the tender age of 25. I can still remember hurling myself off the Shropshire hills on it with the mostly decorative brakes making for some 'interesting ' experiences.

I was taking my Raleigh Bomber off-road a lot, but my first proper atb was a 15sp Raleigh Maverick bought in October 1985 and I’ve been addicted ever since.

Another ghastly Peugeot thing here. Must have been 92/93. Then I inherited my Dads Diamond Back Apex....It was the greatest bike in the world in my opinion. Onza Stubbies, brake lever grips, pink Avenir computer and Shocktech elastomer forks.

Kona Explosif, some time in 1989. It was about six months old at the time so it's an '88. I was training and racing sled dogs and wanted something to keep me fit during the off-season. I think it cost me £250.

Bought my first in 88/89, an MBK Aventure in a 3 flouro colour fade, got me in to it massively and then went through a bike a year for the next four, MS Racing CompLX (i think), proper splatter Cinder Cone, then from the frame up a Zaskar LE (original one with a U brake) built with Pace hubs with Sachs freewheel, suntour thumbies, Scott AT4 Pro bars before going custom built with a beautiful TIG welded Cromor Fuquay with red USE bars with bar ends, USE seatpost and XT throughout.

1985, Apollo Blizzard – does that count? (I was only 7 so technically I didn’t buy it):
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More realistically, 1995 (I think) Univega Aluminum – so much wrongness but so much right for the period – DCD, huge ControlTech stem, purple bits snowflaked front wheel:
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Spot the upgrades – Judy XLCs and my first set of V-brakes:
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