MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Just having a moment...
My era is... Back in the day of Pace being the kings of cycling, everyone wanted an RC200, purple was the weapon of choice, Saracen was great, bunnyhopping was a skill, Mint Sauce was a legend, purple bolts were mandatory, renthal bars were aspirational, SPD's were new but amazing, smashing pumpkins 'Disarm' and pearl jam were our outlet and on Fridays we'd drink white lightening and cop off with, well, anyone, but we'd walk them home afterwards.
... Is there anyone here from that era, or am I alone?
I shouldn't need to say how old I am, if you aspired to owning anything owned by USE then you are.
You are not alone
No I sound far too old.
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I have an Saracen E stay from back in the day in bits in the garage. I'm pretty sure there's some purple bits. It even sure action at the Malvern Hills Classic.
Isn't everyone here "from that era?" The odd few that actually ride bikes that is.
No I sound far too old.
Drac, if you're serious you've missed out.
Drilling holes out of the chainset on your GT Tequesta to save weight, cutting down your bars, listening to binary finary while out with your mates who are a mixture of cyclists, in-line skaters and and skateboarders all totally mushed, at 2am around Torquay seafront, ready to get back to whoevers house at 5am and then continue the night?
THAT was cycling 😀
RC200 ?? you youngster!
I had a RC100 that replace my Team Marin and my Offroad Proflex ( with a flexstem 😀 ) when they were stolen.
Bought from Paul and DT at Stif's original place in Granby Street in Headingley.
The Pace had the Yellow bullseye cranks, Campag mechs and the original Hydrostop brakes and renthal bars, it was no 248 made.
I loved that bike and selling it was the worst mistake i have ever made! 🙁
Xlite ti canti bolts in blue annodised cups.... From Dave hinde....
puts up hand - yep i'm here.....
at least i think i am.....
#standsup# ok you found me.....but my experience makes me faster! :))
I had a girvin flexstem and a use suspension seatpost!
When I swapped my 1994 Canondale M500 with Pace Rc35 for an Exposif Pro I got the deal of the century, but still, nothing on earth was as light as my Cannondale!
And yes, X-lite ruled, bar ends were king ....also we had manners and although we would have a stab at anything that moved, we were gents and prided ourselves on getting our ladies home safely.
We were a bunch of Scott/Saracen/GT/ riding nerds, but I can't help but think we had something that no-lone else will discover, and this generation I see on STW, although in the main a decent bunch, are missing out....?
My first bike = Saracen Tufftrax 1987. Graduared on to decent stuff shortly thereafter.
OP you are not the only one worthy of mtb repsect on here.
Bula hats for slalom gate markers, isn't it? Wasn't it?
Is there a Date or a year to this ?
First MTB- Dawes Tracker in 1986. Exage Country Trail gears , Biopace Chainrings, Reynolds 501 tubing.
And it was a 21".
I was apparently going to grow into it.
I was 12.
26 years on, I never did grow into it.. - I now ride a 17.5"..
a few months before you got into it grantway 😎
Piemonster that bike is a thing of beauty, bring back crazy Flouro paint & panaracer smoke tyres!
[s]I've still got my m400 btw its in pretty good shape!
Drac, if you're serious you've missed out.
Of drinking white lightning in the park, no I think not. Did most of the rest though.
My first decent MTB - orange clockwork circa 1990 - it confused people as it was actually black! Handle bars so skinny they had one grip cut in half & shared between both ends.
Side mounted cable runs had a tendency to nip any passing exposed skin.
Bloody kids.
[i]Bula hats for slalom gate markers, isn't it? [/i]
That reminds me, I never did manage to get an Etto helmet...Jez Avery had one and I wanted one so I could ride like him 8) 😉
I was cycling in TQ from 15 onwards, I got my explosif pro in cack black resprayed in a turq blue and cycled back 10 miles with the frame over my shoulder and build it into my dream machine. I even got Kona Stickers that said "Kona Custom", which back in the day was a big deal!
It had a mixture of Suntour XC Pro and XT on it and chicks went mad for the groupset and when I table-toppped off Torquay seafront onto the beach!
It was the best looking bike in the SW and I sold it to someone random for £580!
Full Sus was something for...well, nobody's..!
Drac - ModeratorDrac, if you're serious you've missed out.
Of drinking white lightning in the park, no I think not. Did most of the rest though
Don't go all middle class on me!!
I had a dale m500, what a horrible ride. Looked good in the red white and blue. I am nearly 38. First proper decent bike kona explosif splatter paint job and track 2 forks. Dabbled with flex stem...
Only just retired some pink/purple Onza bar ends.
Ned Overend, Missy Giove and Dave Baker were hero's and we all wanted a Piranha necklace!
Walkers stopped you and chatted, amazed you could get a bike "up here".
Happy Days
In an age before anodising, at the dawn of Lycra I was still wearing Fair Isle.
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Don't go all middle class on me!!
Nope just too old.
Drac - ModeratorDon't go all middle class on me!!
Nope just too old.
You miss it though?
Being young not really, I turned 40 a few weeks ago and just love be another generation.
It was the best looking bike in the SW
I disagree.
Darren Tapp's GT's were always blinger than anything anyone else had.
I'm in! Good grief, this thread takes me back to the days when I used to long for the latest mag. to be published, long before the internet was easily accessible. First pair of spd shoes, Santini fluoro tops,Pro-circuit Racing at Thetford-was it really that long ago? Staring retirement in the face now.
Still riding my pace rc200, hence user name, my mate still has his orange p7 in purple with purple rims and rock shock judys painted purple.
The older we get the better we were!
My paper round income wouldn't stretch to anything by pace etc. almost saved up enough for a girvin flexstem once. I had to make do with and entry level diamond back whose forks had paint coming off near the top with stress from all the nose dived landings.
White lightning on the other hand was well within budget 🙂
[i]First pair of spd shoes[/i]
Found my first pair in the garage the other day...
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I had them SPD shoes too ^^
Always wanted an RC200, never got one though. Quite fancied an LTS too.
I had a Marin Attack Trail (still going strong) single pivot, coil sprung. Riding with mates on their Specialized Ground Control and Orange O2.
No purple, but I had (and still have!) Azonic World Force riser bars, they were the dog's danglies, everyone wanted some.
I remember elastomer forks, I had a setof coil & elestomer X-Verts, mates had RST 461s, better than 381s but not as nice as Mojo Pros, other mate had Z4s.
.
Actually I was the first person at school to get a full-suss (that Marin) It had disk brakes too. When I turned up on it I might as well have arrived in a UFO, no-one could quite believe it!
Bum bag, no helmet?
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I had a flex stem on my Saracen and aspired to a Klein Attitude (remember Dave Hemming riding one in the DH worlds the same year Tomac competed with drop bars)..
Yep, Saracen Traverse was my 1st mtb, found an old pair of farmer johns in the loft!
My first was an '88 Rockhopper but it's the Team Marin in purple and (so bright it can be seen from space) green that I kinda miss.
Always aspired to a Yo Eddy in aqua-fade & still do really, just not found one in decent nick for sensible money 🙁
Didn't the sun always shine, all summer, even in the Malverns?
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/47933770@N07/8391717481/ ]006 - Copy[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/47933770@N07/ ]T*inbred[/url], on Flickr
Proper Ground Control tread on the hat. Nice.
Drilling holes out of the chainset on your GT Tequesta to save weight,
Ha! I knew a bloke that actually did that. And his was a GT too. Was it you?
Used to ride BMX then got a GT Timberline in 1989 that got nicked at uni in Newcastle. Replaced with a Trek 970 and we did the NEMBA races that had a downhill then a xc race on the same day. Good times, but no different to today really, just much more capable bikes.
As for SPD shoes, I had those white with multi coloured splatters ones by Caratti. Only chucked them out a couple of years ago. They were, err, lush.
your not alone...
2 years till the big 40, few minutes ago i was reminiscing about the 'old days', listening to music and found this on the web, actually work there on the main bar and had an amazing weekend...
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the wife still takes the piss that 90% of my ipod music is early 90's stuff... pearl jam, stone temple pilots....
my first proper mountain bike (well to me ) was this...
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*by the way what happend to rear derailleur guards?
I had a pace loved that thing which was sold for the proverbial beer and hookers first time at uni.
I sort of skipped 1996-2006 spending too much time climbing and or surfing.
Came back later in life... First upgrades USE seat post 🙂
Nike Poobah's clicked in.
Thunderbird Red in hand.
Nirvana tape playing in the A reg Austin metro....carrying bikes worth 3 times the value of the car.
Some things dont change.
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Me (on the right) with my GT Zaskar '92 Malverns. I crashed in the bombhole in 40mpg's photo the year before on my Muddy Fox courier comp 🙂
Reggae in the old Coed-y-Brenin cafe...
So Back in 'that' day bike was a gate sized raleigh something or other used only for commute into Pond St from eccleshall road. Was into (C2) canoe slalom at the time. If I could get back to that fitness and level on bikes all would be good. So probbly no not of your age or even generation 😥
SPDs? Is this an under 40s thread?
A maruader! Bloody hell my mate had one of those when I was at Sheffield! It was heavy even in them days! We used to ride out to the peaks and he'd be near to tears!
23" Raleigh Montage. Actually not too bad, wouldn't mind something that big now - MTBs only seem to come in children's sizes these days.
duirdh - Member
SPDs? Is this an under 40s thread?I used Kona Joe's cages until 2 years ago when I discovered Time Attacks!!
I don't know whether Im the same age as you OP, but I got into MTB's about 1996/1997 I think.
Those Pace frames looked great, remember when Akrigg used to ride one?
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SPDs! Pah, I'd been MTBing years before they'd been invented!
Shimano XT Bear traps was where it was at.....
Think I started MTBing in 1985/6 when the Raleigh Maverick was first launched....
XT? I'm off to bed, leave you youngsters to it
Kind of scared to post this, but:
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbosussexmtb/8414202604/ ]retro-awards[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jimbosussexmtb/ ]www.sussex-mtb.com[/url], on Flickr
Yes, I am of that age!!
I still have my 1984 Wicked Fat!
And it is indeed still Wicked!
Raleigh Maverick bought from my mum's gratin catalogue so I could pay her back over time. Progressed onto A Muddy Fox with biopace chain rings......the mutts nuts in the day!
Ok....42..... u?.....first mtb (after bmx years) ridgback gs601 circa 1990 onja bar ends,tioga physco's,rst mozo pro's!
..couldnt afford biopace rings!... great days!
Oooh, Oakley Razor Blades. Looove them. Im also 'of that age' Im 36, but a pup compared to you old guys.
Lol'd at the picture of the rear mech 'protector' forgot all about them. 🙂
I've got a 'crud comb' in my toolbox, remember those?
A Crud Comb? Pics please.
Ooh, my zolatone framed Palisades.... We used to dream of suspension forks on our paper round money...
My mate had a Girvin flexstem and our CDT projects all revolved around trying to create suspension for our fully rigid bikes...
Where's my pipe and slippers?
Hijack, being 26 and that.
Very interested in this thread, being that I'm looking forward to being 45 and saying...
"Remember all those different wheel sizes"? Or something...
And very excited looking at the technology employed by the bikes presented here, what currently exists, and what's going to come-and pass- in the future.
I do hope that the people who are in her 20's will laugh t people wearing American Football kit to ride trails we all used to ride in t shirts 😉
I remember those days!
Own up who had a DCD??
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I can remember me and some friends all having them in various colours.
Ha, bet 'Dave' was laughing all the way to the bank in the 90's.
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I always wanted a Paul Components Rear mech in rasta colours...
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Tioga Disc Drive. My mate got one and I got Spinergy Rev X Roks
Shit!.... is 42 old?.... dave crud rules!
Pacerc200
Those bars look like heresy but I would still quite like to do ungodly things to that bike
Easton monkey bars, still got the pace/renthal flat bars from original build somewhere attached to a control tec stem.
Ah, this is lovely! I remember having a tioga disc drive and nearly being blown into the sea on TQ harbourside!
While the old timers are here, since you've seen technology come & go...
With all the hubbub about modern tech, what gizmos "revolutionised" cycling but were really just cack.
42 old! ****!
Never got into buying bits for my bikes back then - didn't have any money really, so lusting after components would have been a waste of time!
First (proper) bike was a Muddy Fox Courier - the neon yellow one. Got it at the police auctions. My mate bought some kind of Trek at the same time and had to get a blacksmith to take off the U-lock! Bought a 2nd hand Lavadome (still fully rigid) shortly afterwards and took it to The Pyrenees for a couple of months - best holiday of my life. Three of us in a two man tent, no responsibilities and a HUGE bag of good weed 🙂
Spent all of our teens flying up and down the Grampian mountains and Royal Deeside.
Kind of scared to post this...
Jimbo, did you pass on your sartorial expertise to Deadly? 😉 I need to find my first phase of MTBing photos, covering the vintage years of '88-'96...