Go one show us how old you are, how long have you been messing arround on bikes…

I remember when….

CRC had 2 page add's that you needed a magnifying glass to read the prices on.

For sale sections inside the back page rather than forums.

Having a bike with fancy positron indexed gears

bike with bio-pace cranks

A dart on the front and a smoke on the back

cannondale killer-v was the bike to have.

Bio-pace chainrings, Onza L-bends and Girvin Flex Stem… Still got the L- bends!

Email from chipps@ninefoot.com

…an RS Judy DH had as much buttery smooth travel as anyone would ever need….

Giant Sierra with a chainstay mounted U-Brake

I remember before the credit crunch and such when things were much cheaper. That's about it.

Campag MTB brakes and bullet shifters….crappy chen shin tire(sic) ads, 200gs groupset…and anal levels of recall for accessory weights in grams!..ps can I say anal?

quadra 10 forks 🙂

A dart on the front and a smoke on the back

Heh. Me too.

I remember when noone needed to ask what tyres, what's the weather like in Glentress and we didn't need trail centres.

Raleigh DynaTech "Ti" frame, Flex-stem, XT thumbies, Shimano DX. Yup, that's the commute bike I used this morning (and use each day) 🙂

My first riser bars had a clamp on brace, which I painstakingly tried to get level and the clamps at the same angle on both sides.

I remember when . . . Fred Salmon stuff was cool, and Bean Bag clothing was the clothing to be seen in!

4 finger brake levers, lycra helmet cover, Look shoe plates screwed to hiking shoes. I'm very very old.

Campy off road groupset.
Suntour Microdrive
Biopace
Three bottle cage mounts being a major selling point, then the excitement when camelbaks were introduced.
Powerstraps

Saving for months to buy some Farmer John's Nephews.

Which then turned into the biggest clay collectors ever.

taking drop bars off a racer and putting cow horns on to go riding in the woods.

Saving up my pennies to buy annodized blue cantilever brakes (to match my blue riser bars, bottle cage, bolts and pedals (with toe clips))

Mag 21 forks, purple ano on everything, looong stems, Dave's chain device

Straight-armed canti brakes as an upgrade over right-angled ones.

Hiring Muddy Fox Couriers in the Lakes, pushing them up mountains, carrying them back down, and buying issue 1 of MBUK on the way home.

my first mountain bike was a raleigh maverick, with 5 gears, massive handlebars, weighed a ton.

Team Yo Hint
Barrie Clark on the front of MTB Pro
80mm Judy DH being long travel
Quadra 21's
Dirt

1 inch threaded stem on first bike. The equivalent kona that year had thumbshifters.
STX canti brakes, 21 speed. rigid steel. ace!

"Frog pull" Suntour chainstay mounted brakes.
Tushingham's (now Orange) first foray into MTBing.
The first indexed gears.

Surely I win?!

Specialized Ground Control tyres and Suntour SE brakes.

Alpine Stars ChroMega with elivated chainstay and farmer john tyres..

MS racing bikes

My first suspension forks were Manitou, and to change the firmness of the travel you had to swap around different elastomers, which was OK until they froze solid in the winter!

About 50mm travel I think they were.

Chainstay mounted U-brakes anyone?

WTB Grease Guard Hubs – check
IRD TI forks – check
IRD Switchback Brakes – check
Suntour Thumbies – check
Shimano Antler Mech – check
Campag Brake Levers – check

Cut down flat bars on a 1" 150mm stem.

Fully rigid bikes (coz suspension hadn't been invented for push bikes yet)

Onza Porcupines.

I remember the 4 finger brake levers: IFRC you needed em too coz the brakes were absolute pish – pre vee's that is)

EDIT: oh and sloping top tubes (i.e. from back to front!)

How about "roller cam" brakes?

My stunning green middleburn hubs complete with grease ports. Love those hubs!

People being amazed that you'd managed to get a bike up there, blissfully unaware of whether it was a bridleway or a footpath.

My first foray into MTB ended when toe-straps were still connecting us to bikes, when rigid was the only option and when 2.2 tyre on the fron and 1.9 on the rear was standard (round here at least…) oh, and when your LBS was your only option for buying kit…