my mtb history, whats yours?

saracen tufftrax: crap, not good enough to tempt me away from road riding
diamond back ? (hardtail): better but still not good enough
orange p7: o.k. but geometry was wrong (think it was intended to run rigid, but i bought it 2nd hand with a sus fork on it which made it too slack. i couldn’t work it out at the time, but its clear to me now)
on-one inbred: started to really enjoy off road on this.
dialled morning glory: really liked this until…….
gary fisher rig: opened my eyes to 29ers, but this one wasn’t quite right
niner sir9 (cracked and repaired): fantastic, brilliant bike for me.
niner air9: great, but prefer the sir9
niner sir9 (another one): as above, this one is 2×9 with suspension, the other is rigid ss.
still own the last 3. been riding road bikes for longer and don’t think i could list them all.

I can really remember but I’ll try…….

1987 – Raleigh in a green colour made from reynolds 501 – Stolen
1988 – Raleigh Technium Chill – gave to an up and coming rider
1988-1995 – Cyclo Cross bikes for training
1996-2002 – did nothing apart from play golf
2003 – Merlin hard tail- didn’t feel right – eBayed
2004 – Giant XTC with an XT/Dura ace mix, hope minis and SID teams – Sold
2005-07 – Cove Hummer x 3 – broke 2, gave the remaining one to a friend
2007 – Stumpy – rode till it died
2008 – Another Stumpy Expert and an Epic Expert
2009 – Kona Coilair Supreme

1998 GT Lightning bought in 2000.

Converted to singlespeed using bits scounged from number one son in 2003.

Still riding it today

made redundant in 93, company car went, needed transport , redundancy bought ,
Scott Peak (you spent how much on a bike!), then,
Mtn Cycle San Andreas 4″ (prostop mount on frame) then,
24-7 Dark Angel (still got for sale!)
Mtn Cycle San Andreas VPS 6″ (hope mount on frame) then,
Orange 5, (still got)
OnOne 456 (still got)

1989 – Raleigh Mirage (steel, white, Reynolds 501, u-brake, exage trail grouppo)
1992 – Scott Boulder (steel, red/yellow/white, rigid, Deore LX)
1994 – Marin Pine Mountain (Frame, transferred parts from Scott)
1998 – Marin Mount Vision
2003 – On One Inbred (Frame, rigid fork, transferred parts from Mount Vision)
2004 – On One Tinbred (Frame, transferred parts from Inbred, now with Fox vanilla fork)
2007 – Yeti ASR (Frame and Rock Shox Reba, transferred parts from Tinbred)
2007 – Kona Major Jake (c2w scheme)
2008 – Rebuilt Tinbred (now rigid with Pace RC31 and 1×9 for winter duties)

So, in conclusion, I rarely buy bikes off the peg as the specs are never satisfactory!!

92 Kona Hahanna
96 Bontrager Privateer
97 Bontrager Race
2007 Trek Top Fuel

Ridden the whole period, no gaps, Why change bikes every year when you find one you like.

No year as I can’t remember but…
Raleigh Mustang
GT Tequesta
Orange Prestige
Klein Attitude Race
Specialized Stumpjumper FSR
Marin Rift Zone
Litespeed Pisgah
Ellsworth Truth
OnOne Inbred 853
OnOne Inbred 29er
SC Superlight

Bit of a short list:

1986(ish) Emmelle something or other. Barely counts but it got me started.
1988(ish) Specialized hardrock. Too big.
1990 Specialized Rockhopper which is still in the shed. Incredibly narrow bars and insanely twitchy handling. What were we all thinking?
1999 Second hand Specialized M2 bought from some dodgy bloke in West London. Very much a racing bike. Now the ugliest bodged from the spares bin singlespeed.
2005 Second hand Cotic Soul which I still have and is fantastic.

’88 – An Emelle somethingorother which got me hooked
’90 – Kona Explosif
’97 – Trek 9000 (Stolen after 2 days thank god as it was crap!)
’97 – 853 Custom steelie with Pace forks and XTR (stolen)
’99 – Weird white Decathlon hardtail with SID’s and XTR which was so cheap i couldn’t say no
’02 – Cove Handjob
’04 – Added in a Litespeed Unicoi
’07 – Sold Litespeed and bought a Rocky Mountain Element Team
’08 – Serotta TiMax 29er

So now i have the TiMax, the RM which is my race bike for AR and the Explosif is a S/S. Plus the road bikes 🙂

Ha Ha! How long is this thread gonna get? (And how many bikes have some people had!) This is surely the ultimate ME TOO thread..

Well, here we go:

1990 – some cheap mild steel ‘Halfords special’ type-thing with a plastic rear wheel ‘disc’ that was my friend’s originally, but it fell off my dad’s roof rack on the M3 at 70 mph. My dad replaced it with a new bike, and I got the Halfords special. Used for my first forays into the wilds of Surrey

1991 – some cheap-as Townsend – made with Reynolds 501 – woo – it had aluminium rims! Did my first races on this bike, and spent hours of my life cursing its retchedly poor specification and build quality as it greadually fell to bits and I tried to put it back together

1993 – Marin Eldridge Grade – the sweetest cro-mo hardtail ever! Had rapidfire plus shifters and it actually worked and everything. Did more races and started finishing top 3

1994 – Canondale M100 – I decided to upgrade to aluminium as by this point my biking had become *serious*. I did loadsa racing and hours of painful training on this pig-of-a-bike. Rigid as, with a disgusting pant-job and useless ‘Canondale Original Design Aplications’ (CODA) components, which just fell to bits. It got stolen in 1997, much to my eventual apparent benefit. I’ve loathed all Canondales ever since.

1998 – Giant MCM Team carbon monocoque (1997) purchased on a whim whilst blearingly hungover one day because I liked the colours – but probably the best decision I ever made. It had done a season as one of the Giant pro-team’s race bikes. Lovely bike, soooo, soooo light and my first bike with actual front suspension! I still own it and ride it to this day, and enjoy every moment. I’ve upgraded most of the bits on it now so that it is a thing of ultra-light retro beauty

2006 – Klein Attitude (2001) frame built up gradually over a summer with old spares and bits off eBay. Intended as a winter bike to stop the Giant from dying. Totally love it though. Beautiful paint-job and a lot of fun. Feels a bit more robust than the ol’ carbon Giant. Currently riding (and racing) it here in Tasmania.

…still haven’t made the leap to full-sus yet.

I think you’re all slackers for not providing pictures 😉

We are a bunch of old men eh?

I won’t bore you with mine, apart from:

wondering if anyone remembers the black-to-fluo-pink-fade ‘townsend equalizer’ from about 1989 (my first mountain bike)

and realising that I haven’t bought a brand new bike since 2001. Quite a few second hand frames and forks though.

and realising that the only components I have ever properly broken (as opposed to worn out) were a quill stem in 1992 and a crank arm I cross-threaded with a crank puller (you only make that mistake once!). I must not be riding hard enough.

Has anyone got any more old pics of their old rides? fascinating how much things have change over the last 20 years or so.

having owned well over 100 I’m **** if I’m listing them all, let alone typing something about them.

GW, some sort of bike whore? what about your highlights?

Rob – Nah, not really.. just bought and sold a lot of S/H bikes in my time.. in the last 15yrs pretty much always had at least 5 keepers.. currently have 7.

highlights of current bikes..

07 Giant STP – do everything jump bike. small/strong enough for DH/DJ ‘just’ big/light enough for proper XC/trailcentres.

07 IH Sunday – race DH bike.. light, strong and fast – ’nuff said

Giant OCR – 9yr old and not the lightest/fastest road bike out there or fitted with the best/latest parts (old Ultegra) but it’s strong and durable (and maintenance free as possible) and more importantly it just fits.

have had more expensive bikes than I currently have and prob enjoyed some older bikes more but that would be more down to a combination of youth, fitness/balls, time available to ride and nostalgia rather than the actual bikes being any better..

Think you’re right about nostalgia. When I look back on my racing pics I only remember the good times, never the pain of the climbs/ punctures that cost you good race positions/ crashes that forced you out. I also forget the wet races and rides, the summers seemed to be sunny and I was always riding. Not anymore….

Started off with a Marin Palisades in 1989, followed by a Roberts White Spider in 1990 (to small) then a 91 Stumpjumper Team then a Klein Pinnacle.

A hiatus followed until 2002 (although I did buy the Stumpjumper back, resprayed. God, I loved that bike). Then, chaos as I owned in no particular order (got a bit complicated keeping track):

Orange P7 with fresh dropouts to make an ss
On One Inbred ss
1990 Marin Team
1991 Stumpjumper Comp
IF SS Deluxe
Merlin XLM
L Yo Eddy
1993 Orange Vit T
Bontrager Racelite
XL Yo Eddy
Roberts White Spider/DOGS BOLX (also too small)
Surly 1×1
Early 90s Specialized M2
1994 Explosif

That looks bad when listed and I may have embarrassingly forgotten some.

Dad tried to teach me to ride and bought me stabilisers at 4.

Next day I stole his adjustable spanner and taught myself to ride like the older kids on two wheels not 4!

The rest is history :O)

1988 Muddy Fox Aluminum.
Broke the frame just before the end of the warranty. Frame was then replaced with the Aluminum Pro frame.
2003 Stumpjumper
2004 Epic Pro
2007 Stumpjumper FSR pro Carbon
2007 Enduro Sl Carbon
2008 Cannondale Taurine 3
2008 S-works Stumpjumper Carbon
2008 S-works Stumpjumper FSR Carbon.
2008 Tri-Cross Singlespeed.
**** On One Inbred 853 Singlespeed.
**** Sanderson 853 Life.

Just about to sell the S-works FSR and go back to the Enduro, just been out around some of the trails around Bath…I might even look at something other than Specialized..

1988 – Peugeot “Mountain Bike” from the Grattan catalogue – immediately returned due to fault.
then
1988 – Green Raleigh Montage – Heavy iron clunker with horizontal top tube – pretty nasty
then 1990
Black/Dark brown (sort of coca cola coloured) Stumpjumper, my first sloping top tube mountain bike, all DX components. It was actually really nice.
Then 1991 – Grey (matt) Stumpjumper Comp – lovely bike
Then a Kona Kilauea in about 1994 – two tone silver & red frame – nice bike
Then no bike for a few more years (marriage kids etc)
Then 2003/04(?)a Spesh Epic – nice bike
Then a Kona Explosif custom build from frame & also had a Coiler deelux at the same time (really cheeky! These remained a “guilty secret” for quite some time! oooops)
Then finally my current bike from 2006 – Orange Cove H/job – my best bike to date – will last me a long time methinks.

As my first post I thought I’d dig up this thread from last week. Here is my history:

’85 – hear about mtbing, then start riding offroad on my BMX (couldn’t afford a new bike at the time)
’86 – get a Raleigh Maverick – with 5 gears, steel rim and side pull brake combo for total wet weather lack of braking!
’89 – Dawes Ascent – bit too big a frame but it was cromoly, 15 index gears, alloys rims and canti’s.
’90 – Fisher Celerity – this bike I still have, hence the ‘oldfisher’ username – over a period of time (about 3 years) it got deore low profile cant’s, original Gripshift, Flexstem, Flite saddle, etc, etc.
’93 – Fisher Supercalibre (’91 model) – then over the next 2 or 3 years added Manitou 2 forks, various bar and bar end combos (last ones being Club Roost and Onza), lighter front rim to balance the forks weight out. X-lite stuff and other titanium bits and bobs.

Also had a couple of ‘commuter’ mtb’s around ’92 – ’96 – Firstly a Giant Stonebreaker which was rubbish! Then a ’93 Marin Bobcat Trail which lives on as a mate’s bike.

’96 – nigh on killed by a errant motorist. My riding stops as I concentrate on new things like learning to walk again!

Don’t ride till mid-08. My kids are hooked on bikes and it re-lights the fire in me. Supercalibre dugout and huge crack in headtube shows it to be dead. Celerity in need of parts, lots of parts, so look to get riding by buying a basic mtb.

Dec ’08 – Commencal Normal – with added Wellgo Mg1’s – arrives.

’09 – Still riding the Normal and plan to singlespeed the Celerity at some stage this year.