MTBs you covet but never owned

Bikes I coveted:

Cannondale Fulcrum, though I never had the skill or desire to ride it properly, but as a piece of engineering and looks, YES!

Ibis Bow ti. Just looked right!

Ritchey Soft Tail. I owned the P20 and the soft tail seemed a logical matching bike to have.

Some of those already mentioned by others. Mantra, ridden and nope, it didn’t work nicely. Very stink buggy.

Scott Endorphin (test ridden), heavy and  horribly flexy and I’m not that powerful!

Cannondale Raven. At its time superb. I then bought another a few years later (pic below). Time had moved on and it was great to look at, but that was it.

Shadow by ritcheyp20[/url], on Flickr

Just remembered I really, really, really, really wanted a 1994 Explosif back then in 1994.

Not exactly retro:

Singular Gryphon in off white/cream original colour. Wish i’d bought a frame when they were available

For me it’s high end price bike, like the Yeti SB95 or a Santa Cruz Bronson CC, maybe an S-Works, even on the days I can afford one, I’d never spend that kind of money when things like the T130 is so good.

So I only kind of covet them in a distant long off way.

Don’t even know what it was, but back around 92 when we were earning decent money as apprentices (lol), a mate spent a fortune on a bike and brought it to work. I had a ride around on it and decided (in my expert capacity as a roadie) the brake cables needed adjusting. Found the right size spanner, wound out the “barrel”, tried the lever and suddenly all this fluid came squirting out. Back to the shop for a brake bleed then. Gobsmacked a pushbike would have hydraulic brakes…

for me I always wanted a 1995 Kona Cindercone with RS Judy SL’s in yellow. I remember seeing one in Wheelebase. Also an Orange P7 from that year too with RC35’s.

Singular Gryphon in off white/cream original colour

I had one of the pre production Gryphons that Sam had built to test.
2008_1102penmachno0026 by multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr

Think someone off here has it now.

For me it was the Yellow/Orange fade Cannondale Super V in Top Banana, Woodford Green, circa 2000. I never had the mullah to get one, and looking at them now, they look like a catalogue bike.

Another is the Klein Mantra. Stunning at the time, but the prism of time makes it look like a full size folding commuter bike.