I ride a 456 almost all of the time. You can pick up a decent 2nd hand one of these, complete, for £3-400.

Not flash, not expensive. And the really old stuff seems to have a retro niche pricetag, which realistically makes it tot much cheaper, if at all.

momentum and saddle down keeps you on the bike

Saddles don’t go down very far on those old bikes. I suspect he was playing up for the camera to be honest, people only really go over the bars on that hill if they don’t manual off the rocks.

Saddles don’t go down very far on those old bikes. I suspect he was playing up for the camera to be honest, people only really go over the bars on that hill if they don’t manual off the rocks.

fair enough. Saddle will go down the 2 inches that it needs to though!

My proper bike is up on bricks in the LBS, so am heading out for a hack tonight on my old (95ish) Scott Yecora. Complete with rigid fork and original cantis.
I’m looking forward to it!

The newest part on my Global is the forks, which must be about a year old. Oldest is the wheels, dating from very early Hope years. The frame must be 12 years old I guess. Only the forks and cranks were fitted new, everything else is second hand or off older bikes. You can’t see the shifters but they are Suntour XC Pro and must be 15 years old.

That Global is nice.

Used to love borrowing one of the second hand bikes from a shop I worked at years ago after I’d sold all my lovely bikes to pay for Uni, proper old fully rigid canti braked sheds and going on the evening rides around the Surrey hills with the other guys on their brand new fandango bikes 😉

A friend came out with me once on a fully rigid ’92 rock hopper comp. complete with bar ends.

Regarding sus forks, cantis and Vs, my Dyna Tech was designed for rigid forks and cantis, but I put Vs on it in ’97 and it now has a ’03 80mm fork and front disc (no rear disc mount, but the V works fine).

I took my ’91 Carrera for its first off road ride in a decade, yesterday. Good ride, but by god old bikes are rubbish. It’s a road bike now and there it’ll remain I think.

On the other hand it doesn’t seem likely that I’ll be riding my Hemlock in 2031.

I’m running my 853 ’99 Kona Explosif as a singlespeed and it is still a lot of fun.

I’ve got a ’95 Diamondback Apex that I still ride off road, for commuting and pootling in the lanes with the Mrs. It’s got Project 2s on it at the moment but I’ve still got a set of Manitou 4s in the shed that used to be on it. Had it from new and love it.

2002 (I think) frame here, it’s my only bike!

I spent the Easter weekend riding Cannock and Dalby on my old klein attitude complete with thumbys due to a cracked Yeti 575! Took it all its stride and has me wondering why I have been on a long travel full suss for the last five years!

This is my yr 2000 gary fisher x-caliber i bought it cheap just over a week ago, after bleeding the brakes, putting a little more air to the forks adding a set of v8s and some odi lock on grips its like a new bike.

I would love something like an orange 5 but i just cant justify spending all that on a bike, plus id be to frightened to ride it for fear of falling off and damaging it.

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I still have been riding my 1994 ti ibis up until last year, now a rigid SS but still fab and lighter than air!

Find a bike, make sure it’s frame is sound and ride like goodun.

I’m running a orange gringo with 80mm Z2 forks

I a Marzocchi Z2 or Z3 from around the year 200 is a good reliable bet for a v brake fork on an older style hard tail

I road is at woburna couple of times while my forks were being serviced. Actually 14 months ago it was my only bike.

Its done loads of stuff including Penmachno and stuff in the lakes

Its a bit harder on the body than some newer bikes but it’ll still get you there

This is still my most ridden bike, it’s mostly used for that quick hour or so of lanes, farm-tracks and bridleways that makes up the bulk of my riding time.

’92 Fire Mountain, plus some err, upgrades over time as stuff has worn out.

The rack is very useful for hauling shopping / animal feeds on (although it does then look like a tramps bike – which I guess in a sense it is). Bit too big for anything too technical, but it’s great otherwise – and even better now it’s back to being fully rigid.

My ’94 DBR Axis is in regular use in the Welsh Mountains.

2003 Cove Stiffee is my regular trail bike, in fact at the moment it’s my only MTB cos I sold my full sus recently.

Forks are RS Psylo’s from 2003 so they’ve lasted very well. The bike is still way more capable than I’ll ever be.

a Marzocchi Z2 or Z3 from around the year 200 is a good reliable bet

Blimey, and they ask what did the Romans do for us?

hamish cat

good to know you read what people post….

I thought that was the idea 😉

97 clockwork (c17 to be precise) ridden on a regular basis – or more correctly thrashed within an inch of its life – one of the best bikes I’ve ridden

Stumpy sees regular action on the trails andis just as much fun as more modern hardtails – not quite so gnarr capable, but not far behind. I just remember I’m riding an older bike and adjust riding style accordingly.

The Golden Stumpy by Pablo’s Feet, on Flickr

At its heart a 2000 frame, 2000 forks, 2000 wheels, and 2000 V-brakes. Other parts (except for colour coded THE saddle and DMR acid V8s – even on a ‘junker’ I can’t help being a bit of a tart) are hand-me-downs from my ‘main’ bike.

Sees mostly ‘towpath’ and easy XC stuff round here when out with my wife, but every so often gets a more serious off-road work out and is in practical terms not really any less capable than my modern bike (bombproof Mr Hyde build) and in some ways is actually more fun to ride being springy steel rather than unforgiving ali girders. Even still looks fairly modern unless you measure the geometry (maybe I was just ahead of the mainstream curve a bit back then?)

I guess if I’d gone full-sus I would see more of a difference between old and new.

slainte 8) rob

My “old” bike’s a trailstar as well.. I think the only difference between this geometry and something newer is the head angle is apparently 71 degrees. To be honest I find my trailstar more fun than the BFe I had for a while – yes the BFe was more planted and stable but it felt a bit sluggish on anything resembling flat!

my 1999 sunn enduro is my xc bike and gets used loads for local xc. I’ve had disk tabs added but to be fair that was years ago too. run it with 2000 80mm bombers. LOVE IT.

Still ride my 98 Kula, soon to be SS’d and P2’d

XTR v’s are still the business in the dry

Agreed with that, XTR V brakes are fantastic if set up right and in dry conditions.

Just to let you all know, i have plumped for a stumpjumper off the evilbay, bit of a discrepency to how old it is he say 2001 but it isnt in my opinion, the decals etc suggest it is mid 90s, i think it is an A1 FS stumpjumper so here we go, i have some modern kit to go on if it doesnt work well but for £130 it was worth a punt.

love riding my ’95 Cindercone on the local trails. Its presently in the loft though waiting for me to find time to build it some new wheels. Bl00dy rim brakes…