Twenty years ago….What were you riding?

Spesh Rockhopper:
Slowly upgraded until I sold the frame for a Rock Lobster.

Nice clothing 🙂

Kirk revolution Had it a couple of years, upgraded it a little, RF+, better tyres (where smoke/dart around then?), even got myself some nice wheels for it, LX parellax hubs with campy rims….just before it got nicked 🙁

hopefiendboy – Member

One of these, a retro halfords special:

Loved it, shimano SIS 15 speed and everything. Upgraded the centre ridge rear tyre to a farmer john for more gnarly trails…same as my mate, bike and tyre upgrade. You’re not chris are you?
🙂

Raleigh Dynatech Pro. Upgraded to SPD’s, Flexstem, syncro’s bar ends…
Wish I’d never sold it 🙁

GT Tequesta, a speckled pale blue colour. It was nicked along with two Spesh CrossRoads (I think) and replaced with a GT Karakorum which lives on, in the shed.

I was mostly doing my paper round on one of these:

a steel Stumpjumper I brought back from the States, very nice bike let down by Judys, awful awful forks.

I had a Pacific Cycles 7005 alu elevated chainstay, rasta colours, Mag 21 with 1.25 steerer and 60mm long travel kit, XT thumbies, smoke & dart in 2.2″, i rode in a pair of purple cut down Levi 501, AXO Pony boots, Power Straps and a huge bum bag 😀

20 years ago….. same trails as I ride now! On my newly acquired 92 Cinder Cone! Although back then I was on a Marin Bear Valley.
I’ll never get bored with my local trails/ woods/ river/ farmlands. I’ve lived and ridden elsewhere but I’ve ended up where I started. The Alps were a highlight though…

I too must scan in some images somewhen.

92 Explosif Pro like this. Got to test the Lawwill Leader forks for a couple of races but had to give them back to Kona 🙁

Following 3 seasons on Mongooses (Mongeese?) the kona was a revelation. Suntour microdrive too – compact chainsets are nothing new! Following season I got the explosif with the fluted downtube, kept that for 18 years!

that yours 40mpg? even got lever hingmys, dr dews?

Edit just googled it, Dr Dew brake lever extensions, from another thread here

Bought a Marin Bear Valley in 1987

Not my pic

Anyone notice that the Konas are pretty much the only bikes from that era with the TTs sloping downward not upward? I snapped an Explosif trying to learn to DJ. And the RS Indys and killed the old Mavic rims as well that summer

Not my pic, but I was on something very much like it (the rad rat, yellow/pink monstrosity):

my first MTB was a Raleigh Activator in 1994, i’m ashamed to say….well i had to start somewhere and besides it was a gift so wasn’t my choice. it was too big for me but i still rode it (i even named it the Shaftivator)…although i did remove all the stickers so no-one would know what it was. i never took any pictures of it either as i was too embarrassed…and i dont want to offend anyone on here. i didnt have it for long though as i soon managed to save enough money to buy myself a brand new Marin Eldridge Grade 2 years later. oh how i miss that bike…some sticky fingered **** stole it ftom my house in 1998…i know who the culprits are but never had enough proof…one day i’ll catch them out…

1992 – A Purple Fat Tubed Rigid ‘Dale M500.

The bike that started the illness……:)

Think I got this for my 12th Birthday (1990). Raleigh Mirage – 21 gears don’t you know!

Followed by this in ’94. Kona Cinder Cone (although I had RS Mag21s on mine).

Halcion days!

*Photos not mine.

Me riding my 1992 GT Tequesta in 1992

Wonderful people at Retrobike found me a rusty pile of cack standing outside a cash converters in Bradford which I spent £40 on and then spent a few months restoring it to this to replicate that bike:

Rode wonderfully!

Saracen tuff trax comp , then sold ton part fund a black kona cinder cone , complete with sun tour xcr drivetrain
My mate who was an apprentice plumber got an explosiv

The cinder cones still being ridden as a commuter / hillwalking bike by my Dad , he loves it

I shudder even thinking about the rides that I used to tackle on a fully rigid bike lol

*Reviews thread*

*Feels a warm glow*

Lovely, lovely stuff people! So many happy/scary/funny/brilliant etc memories!

🙂

I was riding and selling these twenty years ago.

Full sus switchable on off, really light and stiff, way ahead of its time…

“Only” 13 years ago, my grandfather bought me a Scott taos (not original brakes):

I still ride it today (after upgrading most parts), very nice bike although she can be a bitch on technical trails:

I always lusted after a Kona but, although it shames me to say it, what I ended up with was an Emmelle Cheetah in a really horrible metallic lilac colour.

Not a great bike in any shape or form but had great fun ragging it rotten around the coastpath and mountains of N Wales with no regard to personal safety or access laws.

I actually still had the frame, converted to a singlespeed and covered in Hammerite until about a year ago.

robdob – Member
Me riding my 1992 GT Tequesta in 1992

Wonderful people at Retrobike found me a rusty pile of cack standing outside a cash converters in Bradford which I spent £40 on and then spent a few months restoring it to this to replicate that bike:

Rode wonderfully!
Where are you from then? 1st pic looks scarily like Southwell Minster school!

My first “mountain bike” weighed a tonne and the brakes didnt work. I remember riding in the Purbecks and snapping the front brake cable on one down hill.

Probally this , Ellis Briggs 653 custom built with lots of chrome

A BMW R100RS.

Returned to cycling in ’95 with a rigid steel Spesh Rockhopper.

Road bikes mainly

Robert Millar King of the Mountains as my Hack bike

A peugeot something or other – sold it as I was a student- as the “proper” bike.

Got a MTB around this time but used it for gentle off roading/commuting

My first “mountain bike” weighed a tonne and the brakes didnt work

duh! Dunno whether to feel jealous of people who recently got into mountain biking or sorry for them. “Your first bike was light and stopped properly and had tyres that gripped offroad? You’ve missed out on so many erm…fun(?)..experiences”

A Peugeot Anaconda. Pink to green fade – mmmmmmmm

not mine, pic from Retrobike.

Mine was nicked sadly and replaced with a pearlescent white British Eagle that I seem to remember was aluminium, but no idea what it was called.

D0NK – Member

“Your first bike was light and stopped properly and had tyres that gripped offroad? You’ve missed out on so many erm…fun(?)..experiences”

+1

I had not seen the light 20 years ago. I was still getting around town on my beloved Sun GT 10. I didn’t buy a “mountain bike” until about 1997, and then it was a cacky Giant hybrid that cost less than a hundred quid which I used for offroad riding in the Surrey Hills for a couple of years. It was so bad it had panniers and put me off anything made by Giant for life!

What’s with all the vile colours on many of the bikes on this thread?! Was everyone colour-blind in the 1980/1990’s?!!

one of these…… (not this exact one, but just the same with Risse Racing Shock, and Manitou elastomer first gen fork) I used to secretly make brahhhhh motorbike noises when no-one was listening.

Was everyone colour-blind in the 1980/1990’s?!!

new kid on the block trying to be as brash and in your face as possible I think. this is not a road bike, it’s not a kids bike, it’s not a vicars sit up and beg bike, it’s certainly not a shopper bike, this is a MOUNTAIN bike. My first mtb was dayglo green with bright orange forks and had a neon pink toptube pad on it.

mega!

no idea behind the obsession with purple anodising tho, was that the cheapest/easiest type of ano?

robdob – Member
Me riding my 1992 GT Tequesta in 1992
Wonderful people at Retrobike found me a rusty pile of cack standing outside a cash converters in Bradford which I spent £40 on and then spent a few months restoring it to this to replicate that bike:
Rode wonderfully!

Where are you from then? 1st pic looks scarily like Southwell Minster school!

Got it in one!

My GT Timberline and here it is today, I got it second hand in ’92 I think

My GT Timberline and here it is today, I got it second hand in ’92 I think

I’m sure in ’93 I was going through a BMX revival phase so one of these Skyways:

and a Marin palisades trail