Most wanted – iconic mountain bikes

An Overburys pioneer

Orange Vit-T..

My mate had a Roberts Dogs Bolx

An Overburys pioneer

I nearly bought one of those. I managed to persuade a couple of friends while on a camping trip that we should take a not insubstantial diversion to go and look at them in the shop but when we arrived on a Wednesday we discovered the shop closed on Wednesdays. So they never got my money and I spent the entire budget for the bike on a Roberts White Spider frame.

For me the most wanted would still be the Muddy Fox range from 1984/5 that I used to go in and look at in the Muddy Fox shop in central London

Something just made for me, from JRD.

GT zaskar LE ball burnished with a Judy Dh fork 80mm of elastomer travel.. And magura hydro rim brakes….with those green semi slick Michelin tyres…….. 😀

I would look at one in the LBS weekly wishing I could buy it as a kid!! I reckon it’s like meeting your hero though better imagined than in real life!!!! 😆

Pashley 24/7
Spooky Metalhead

Turner burner
Iron horse Sunday
SC heckler / bullit
Orange 224 (the old one)
Intense m1

Oops.

Meant Pashley 26mhz, not 24/7 (not sure how that got into my head).

Yeti arc 92-93 era a bit ironic considering i worked for 2 of the companies with bikes on this list

couldn’t afford an arc at the time though

I suppose I’m quite lucky in I’ve got a yo eddy in the garage. Never will sell it though. Have a gt lts1 that I’m thinking of selling. Doesn’t get used at all.

I’ve got 2 bikes on the OP’s list and had a RC200.

Do I win something?

Rocky Mountain blizzard? Quarter of a century and counting.

I’d forgotten about the Yo Eddy…what a bike!!

Good shout for the intense m1 as well

shortcut – Member

Some people have a very funny idea of early days! Santa Cruz Blur – really? Cotic Soda is very recent too.
S’just a ‘bikes I’d like to own’ thread innit?

I always wanted an old Zaskar so last year I picked up a tired ’97 frame cheaply built it up nice and light and it was crap. I was very disappointed.

I also loved the LTS and STS as did my mate. He has an STS and well its a bit meh.

So with those two experiences I have given up any thoughts of owning bikes older than the ones I currently have, 06 Enduro and 12 BFe. I loved the old GTs and would love to try an RTS and a Lobo but never buy them.

1991 Zinn Z-Centur (or the Record version!)

LOVED that bike. What the hell I was doing riding mine with 150mm Control tech stem I don’t know.

If I knew how to, Id put a photo up!

Merlin XLM
Pace RC100
Roberts DB
GT Zaskar LE
GT Xizang
Marin Team Titanium
Kona Explosif (96 olive green one )
Alpinestars Ti-Mega
Boulder Defiant
Bontrager
Cannondale Delta V2000
Cannondale Beast Of East
Rocky Mountain Ti Bolt
Rocky Mountain Blizzard
Ritchey P series
Serotta T-Max
Dekerf
Yeti Arc
Yeti Fro
Moots YBB
Zinn
Klein Adroit
Orange Formula
Orange Elite
Orange Alu-O
Proflex

…….. and that’s just to start with 8)

Whyte PRST4

Rubbish pic but have we done this yet?

Sbike – by son of some famous actor or something?

Anything by Checker Pig 😉

On my wish list are a Pace RCseries, Intense M1,one of the carbon K2 (Proflex) jobbies with the ‘leccy damping (for looks alone really) another origonal Orange Clockwork and ’90s Kona Explosif.
Rough count in my head extends to a good 40+ bikes owned over the 20 years I’ve ridden including a good few of the bikes on people’s lists.
Klein is in my attic but is a lovely fast race bike even today despite being a ’92 vintage frame. Bontrager; I only managed a Privateer but was lovely until it snapped. I hated my ’98 San An but it was buily with Stratos MX6s as a DH bike. BB was up in the stratosphere!
Mount vision I found ‘ok’, neither good or bad but I suspect tht was what was so ace about it. Both RTS (had a Team model) and LTS (1000DS) were fantastic bikes to ride. Lack of disc mounts was the reason I got rid of the LTS (for the Mount Vision.)

For properly iconic I’d have to go with a Cunningham. Really the genesis of modern xc mountain bike geometry and design. Not to mention the first oversize aluminum frames.

marin bear valley – steel and was a lovely ride, my first bike, but sold
Funk Durango/ProComp – had one and regret selling it
mantis pro floater – very rare but would love one even today
manitou FS – sadly these are stunning but mostly seem to crack
ibis bowTi – still riding mine
ibis ti mojo – still riding mine
pace rc100 – square tubed desire
amp b4 – actually wanted a b3 but the later b4’s were sexier

I’d still have a mantis pro floater if I ever found one and another funk or B4

Jeepers that Matitou bike has a fork for a rear shock?! 😕

Tomac 204 Magnum

“Always wanted the Fuquay that Chipps reviewed in MTB Pro…”

You mean the one I ended up buying? I’ve still got it. In Smoky Bacon flavour colour 😉

Still on my list: Green/White/Pink Klein Attitude and a tigerstripe Trimble.

For the Proflex fanbois here’s my 856 bought new in 1996:

Have still got it.

Not too shabby on fireroads/buff singletrack and it’s like having an engine on the climbs but hopeless on gnar-tech

@chipps, was it not the ‘walkers roast chicken’ colour one with Pace RC36 proclass forks? #notastalker. Though i do still have that issue!

I used to have a Zaskar LE, but it was way too twitchy for me, scared me half to death!

i’d like to have a go on a jones, one of those funky looking things.
had an original turner xce, wish id never sold it.
cannondale raven floated my boat. i’d like to have a go on a jekyll and the specilaized demo eight was the first bike i thought i could ride through anything on earth on. would love to have tried a demo nine.

I had a Proflex 752 . CAme with the Elastomer stack rear suspension and a Girvin Flex Stem. It always gave you the impression you were going over the bars . The flex stem was replaced with a set of RST Mojo Pro’s , in 100mm guise .
The rear elastomers needed wrapping witha towel then a kettle of boiling water poured over it to warm them up , and make them move at all.
Gave it away when I got the Full Carbon Proflex OZ . Actualy a great bike and way ahead of its time . Put Hs33’s on it so it would stop and it lasted years before the bb insert started to rotate in the frame. Still got it in te garage .

Also Got a ’97 Zaskar , which is a very quick xc bike on smooth tracks and fireoads. Unforgiving is something that its not, and a the ‘arse up , head down ‘ riding position , combined with the hammer blows transmitted by the alloy frame to my back means its rarely ridden .

Niner Air9 with THAT fork.

But my fave do it all bike was/is a Turner 5 spot. Now I’m able to achieve one, I can’t let my ASR-5 go in order to fund it. 😕

My Dad still has my old Marin Bear Valley, I bought it secondhand in 1993 IIRC

Can’t beleive I forgot the Intense M1 off my list! Thanks to whoever it was just mentioned that.
.
Why no mention yet of Specialized Ground Control or Klein Mantra?

Definitely a Klein Comp

Bontrager OR or Privateer, I’ve got one but just not in my size sadly.

A ball-burnished GT LTS built up with a Judy SL and XTR

A replica of JMC’s stumpjumper

A replica of Dave Hemmings Orange Vit off of Dirt

Cannondale Moto

An Original Sunn Radical (or any original Sunn for that matter, including a BMIX)

Can’t believe no-one has mentioned the ’94-’95 FSR as ridden by JMC. I have four… oh, and a ’92 GT Xizang too…

Would a Cannondale Raven make the cut?

Wish I still had my old Klein pulse, blue green fade….got nicked a few years ago.
Mate still has all his old bikes which include
Alpine stars almega
Yo Eddie ( green/blue frame)
Dekerf
Canonndale beast of the east.

Just wont part with them.

1993 American Bicycle Comp Lite Beryllium:
…for the astonishing sum of $26,000. The Beryllium bike was made with Beryllium tubing (top, seat, down, seat stays, chain stays) bonded into aluminum lugs. The bike was developed with Electrofusion Corp. in Fremont California. Much of the labor was donated by the company since there was some spare time due to the decline in Cold War business for the company. Beryllium’s atomic number is 4 just after Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium but the specific modulus (stiffness to density ratio) is seven times better than steel, titanium or aluminum, which are all essentially equal. The first frame was overbuilt and weighed 2.5 pounds. Of that, the Beryllium tubing was one pound (including one ounce chain stays), 1.25 pounds of aluminum lugs and 4 ounces of adhesive.

I think only 4 were ever made, and one of those was stolen from the factory.