If Yeti made a modern, reasonably priced 29in ASR-5 I might be interested in owning one.

Orange could be a good equivalent for Alfa?

Great fun, highly engaging rider’s bikes, classic design, might well break.

Awwww the illustrious wonder of riding an orange frame though what makes them break?

Single pivots are odd feeling to sit in and ride ime

Though I’m sure they are lovely & cussshy

On the road? A Bianchi in celeste

I raced on a Bianchi in my teens, but it was candy apple red. I even had the first generation of Look clipless pedals!

In MTB terms it would have to be a GT, and probably an Outpost specifically (only because it was their affordable model back when most of us on here were first starting to buy). Or, if you were more aspirational, a Marin.

Brooklyn Machine Works TMX or Racelink (I had #113) and a Park Bike for street hooning.

BMX wise first issue S&M Maddog/Dirt Bike/Holmes

Dawes – Because of the Galaxy and the Ranger (first UK mass produced ATB?)
Peugeot – cos “everybody” had a a cheap Peugeot ATB/ 10 speed racer.
Raleigh – Maverick – what you bought if you could afford something better than the Peugeot ATB
Specialised – for hardrock/rockhopper/stumpjumper
Orange – when they made proper bikes
Colnago – but only when they were really hand made in Italy
Chas Roberts

and purely because I’ve owned one
Fondriest
Bianchi
Pat Rohan
Thorn (SJS Cycles)

Moulton.
Rogers, Higgins or Longstaff
Common as muck TiRed. How about Galli? Resilion if you want something a bit more common.

Ohhh, fun, kinda flawed but brilliant?

Mondraker!

Brompton

The Fiat 500 of bicycles

Chater Lea
Mafac
Stronglight

If your looking at components

Specialites TA
Brooks (I know they’re overpriced retro chique now)
Sturmey Archer

BMX – burner or GT
early HT – Kona or Bonty
full sus – Enduro or Orange
road – Giant TCR or …

Peugeot – cos “everybody” had a a cheap Peugeot ATB/ 10 speed racer.

Once again the generation gap rears it’s head. 20 years before my time.

My first proper MTB was a GT Timberline in candy apple green with RS Jett C’s, I can count in one hand how many times I ever saw them move. Still did a Red Bull race on it before upgrading to a Planet X Bommer (On One Gimp with vertical dropouts).

Thought I had a Galaxy but it turns out its a Mirage so betterer.

Once again the generation gap rears it’s head. 20 years before my time.

Probably why no one on here seems to remember the Dawes Ranger from 1984/5 (I think). Full Reynolds 531st, built in UK and way out of my price range. Massively long and slack – so I think the geometry is back in fashion again!

Thought I had a Galaxy but it turns out its a Mirage so betterer

I had a Mirage. Used it off road too often and bent the frame. Definitely not betterer than a Galaxy.

Sick – lots of people should have owned those.

Just quoting this as it made me laugh and is sadly very true.

Back to the OP I would say Cotic, On One, Ragley, Raleigh, Orange, Pace and Whyte if you’re a mountain biker and live in the UK. All are or were iconic brands in my opinion

Puch
Raleigh
Peugeot
Diamond Back.

Vaguely surprised Bontrager hasn’t had a shout yet…

As someone who was into DH back in the day, an Intense M1.  I was lucky enough to have owned one and it was everything I ever hoped.

Amongst others I’ve also had Orange (original Clockwork, 222 and 5), Turner (5 spot) and Santa Cruz (Bullit, Bronson v2 & 3).

Mostly acquired 2nd hand.

Can’t say I’ve ever had the desire to own an On One, the aesthetics / graphics are generally awful.

Other historic brands I’ve also owned include Peugeot (early atb), Raleigh (team burner) and GT.

I’m only just getting into road, not sure what my aspiration is there yet.

Vaguely surprised Bontrager hasn’t had a shout yet…

And Fat Chance and early Salsa.

Never meet your heroes

Sick – lots of people should have owned those.

*applauds*

Well done.

Raleigh Maverick
Muddy Fox Courier
GT Zaskar
Pace
Orange single pivot

(The last 3 on that list are still in my garage.)

If your looking at components

Specialites TA
Brooks (I know they’re overpriced retro chique now)
Sturmey Archer

Simplex gear levers
Mavic SSC gears and rims
Campag Super record anything

Original steel Kona
Merlin Titanium

Fir Impes rim Just so you can experience how quickly a rim can crack.

Vaguely surprised Bontrager hasn’t had a shout yet…

I mentioned it, a few posts above yours.

You could swap it out for a Fat Chance/Merlin ti/DeKerf/Klein/early Yeti but I never knew anyone with one of those…

I had a Mirage. Used it off road too often and bent the frame. Definitely not betterer than a Galaxy.

Same frame is it not? Both 531 and naff all difference between the two, Mirage just has sportier components. So I assumed anyway.

Brooklyn Machine Works TMX or Racelink (I had #113) and a Park Bike for street hooning.

BMX wise first issue S&M Maddog/Dirt Bike/Holmes

That is setting the bar rather high (though my schoolfriend had a Holmes and it was and probably still is one of the coolest bikes I can think of)

No one mentioned Fat Chance? Ultimate old school want that can still be had.

After that:
Orange.
Yeti.
Santa Cruz just to say yes or no.
Jones.

For Parts;

Bomber Z1 in orange
Mavic D521 Rims
Magura HS33 Raceline
Azonic Stem – the machined one with all the holes

Grifter

Suntour XC-Pro groupset.
Had a Raleigh Avanti in c1987, with Deore XT , which got stolen. Then managed to get a Team Dynatech Pro (the one the team actually rode) which had the Suntour XC Pro groupset, it was a revelation compared to the Shimano.

Chris King headset (got one on my used latest frame which was lucky)
Colnago (had a Colnago Pista 10 years ago and is on my “why did I sell that list”)
Also had an Alfa Romeo 4 years ago, it was okay and didn’t break down.

A lot of brands have changed a lot over the years. Whereas a GT BMX was typically nice, GT MTBs (post Zaskar) have never really had it so wouldn’t want to own a modern GT

Anything with Campagnolo on it.

Can’t believe someone hasn’t mentioned…

Curtis

I think some of you are looking back with too much nostalgia and not enough reality with some of your ‘should have owned’…. HAlf of them were crap, some of them really really crap.

For me, Santa Cruz. Why, because well, it’s essentially one of the best out there in terms of riding, development, technolgy and componenty…. I’ve never owned one and only ridden one once (and hated it) but i do still want to own one in my future.

Definitely Yeti.
Loved my 575 to bits.

Turner
Pace rc200
Gary Fisher Supercalibre
Ballistic

I’ve had both a yeti and a bianchi and they both snapped at the seatstay.  I’m lucky to have owned an intense, and original Marzocchi Z1 and a Cove Stiffee.  I got given a GT frame once, built it up with spares and gave it to charity.  I had an on-one inbred 29er for three months and let it go quite quickly as it beat me senseless.

I gained an Orange (Clockwork Evo) last year, and feel I should own a Cotic at some point.

My 50yo / race retirement ambition includes:

Specilaized – likely a Roubaix 2020 onward, the later aero design

Turner – I’ve always wanted one since I marvelled at a friends XCE, so I might like to spend my old man off road days pootling on a Flux.

Same frame is it not? Both 531 and naff all difference between the two, Mirage just has sportier components. So I assumed anyway.

The Mirage I had was Reynolds 500 and about the third the price of a Galaxy. They may have re-used the name though.

Most expensive bike in the shop at the time was one of those swanky new Moulton AM7s at about £750. I wish I had one of those.

For MTB it has to be a stumpjumper, any era, doesn’t matter, they are always good bikes for the day. Not fancy, not niche, never crap.

Ah, mine is a ’76, that’s a shame.

Can’t believe someone hasn’t mentioned…

Curtis

Good shout, they’ve always been a quality brand made for racing.

Moulton is a good shout. I’d love an old moulton to do up clean and cherish.

Brooks and Tubus are both brands that say ‘proper cyclist’ to me when I see on a bike.

In my shed I’ve got 3 Giant TCR framesets – one was the actual bike that was reviewed by Cycling Weekly and introduced compact geometry to the road community for the first time (if you ignore the bespoke Roberts frameset that did the rounds the year before!); a spare aluminium bike made for Jalabert as a climbing bike (idea was he’d jump off his standard tcr on to one of these at the bottom of the final climb for a tour mountain top finish) that has been acid dipped within an inch of its life and you can press in with your fingers on the main tubes and had a predicted lifespan of 120 miles. It was given to Mike Burrows as a present and somehow I ended up with it; and a 2002 spare from the Once team the year they rode the new carbon frameset the year before it was available to the public. It’s got a couple of nice features like a race number boss that never made it to the production bikes. There was a helsion period for just a few years when Giant went from random manufacturer of bog standard frames to crazy innovators before dropping back into the mainstream again. I keep them because they were significant in their own ways but also because I raced all three extensively (the crazy acid dipped one lasted 2 seasons as a 2nd and 1st cat roadie but I winced every time I hit a bump in the road) and have had most of my most memorable cycling moments on those 3 frames.