Got to be my Soda. I've got good memories of most of my bikes, but the Soda is the one that I never seem to have a bad ride on. Probably followed by my Soul and my Orange C16.
i borrowed an orange 222 for two weeks in the alps. wheeeee!
My 1990 Kona Explosif - still ride it as a s/s for the moment
my fav. was a village bike when I was 16 😕
Raleigh Chopper mk2. It had magic powers
A '93 GT Talera. my first 'proper MTB'. £350 and I had to pay my Mum back at a fiver a week. It got upgraded with ano purple one piece bar and bar end combo. What was i thinking??
jedi - I had a torker freestyle frame. it lay in an outhouse for a few years waiting for me to restore it but I never got round to it 😳 eventually left it behind when I moved. (hopefuly someone found it and realised what it was)
happiest memories are prob my raleigh chipper.. did my first jumps on that back in 1974/5. after I grew out of it my mum gave it to the local fun fair and they bolted it to a merry-go-round - it was still there until the fair closed down about 10 or so years ago.
but it's a toss up between that and this..
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(from about the same era)
Have equal affection for both my first BMX (at the age of seven) and my first mountain bike (a [i]very[/i] yellow 1990 Marin Muirwoods, as tested in [i]MBUK[/i] by the equally brightly dressed Steve Worland).
Who and where would I be without bicycles? 😯
Not sure about [i]happiest[/i] memory, but one of the clearest is of my, at the time, best mate's racer. I was only a young 'un and it was my first go on such a bike. I wibbled and wobbled all the way down the cul-de-sac he lived in before landing in a heap on his neighbour's garden. It was many years before I plucked up courage to ride a racer 🙁
Well I loved my Raleigh Burner when I got it aged 9 but for the sheer quantity of great memories, it has to be my Kona Kilauea, bought as a frame in 1995 because the new Mag 10s I had bought were too long for my Marin Pine Mountain (91) - It's still going (despite the dropout snapping as that year's Konas all did) having had a couple of repaints and it's been ridden all over the place, in the US, France, Polarises, XC races, touring, jumping, baby carrying, commuting, SS'd - it's basically been there through all the time I've been mtbing and it still rides brilliantly.
In fact, when people talk about bikes having soul (or more specifically about some bikes having no soul), it reminds me that IMO soul is about your experiences with a bike rather than any supposed notions of soul being attained by buying some niche machine from a shack in the mountains in the US where a bearded frame builder builds your one off - any idiot can fork out money for that.
In its current guise - commuter/baby carrier/still offroadable
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My mid-1990's Saracen Killiflyer-something-or-other frameset. It was beautifully fillet brazed prestige in pink/purple colour and built up with a mixture of Magura, Cooks, Syncros, XT and Campag. Lasted me all through my formative years until I stupidly sold it when I was at university. I bought my first Saracen from Halfrauds aged about 10 and spent the following years saving my paperround money and gradually upgrading bits and pieces one-by-one.
either
1 - my old GT avalanche, it was dark grey hard anodized, and very limited. cracked the thing but was allowed to keep it - welded up and converted to single speed then nikced
2 - the zaskar that was the warranty replacement for the avalanche - so tight and fast, great looking, rode so nice with 97 bombers. foolishly swapped the frame for a shite hardcore frame and huskavarna enduro bike with a huge hole in the cast engine. still rue the day that swap too place 🙁
Raleigh Chicco (i think that was the name 😳 )
First bike I had, learned to ride on it - good old - 'two sizes two big so he'll grow into it' sizing - bliddy odd as my dad was a passionate roadie and should therefore have known better.....)
Learnt the art of fettling, had it in pieces and re-sprayed it myself age 12'ish....) no record as to how long i had it but it was a good while before I was able to blag / sulk / cajole my way to my first BMX......
*mind wanders off in Scooby-Doo type dream haze*
the wonders of the web....... [img] http://www.raleighbikes.com/download/file.php?id=42 [/img]
curved TT long before On-One - how hip was I........ 😆
My 1998 Zaskar, sold to my mate on the condition i get first dibs if you want to sell it on. Still rides better than anything else i've tried.
My '95 Cinder Cone - absolutely loved it, until the drop-out snapped and it was replaced by a Pahoehoe under warranty.
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My first 'proper' MTB. Built it up 11 years ago while I was at sixth form from the proceeds of my first actual part time job. Still have it, still love it, still ride it pretty much every week 🙂 Its been through a fair few different guises in that time.
