What year did you start mountain biking?

1988 after I got bored of my roadbike crashing on descents.

03, triscombe dh track in the pishing rain, claud butler cape wrath loved it!

93/94 been riding the Quantocks ever since.
Marin Palisades Trail BTW.

Early 90’s can’t remember exactly, was a raleigh apex, with a girvan flex stem, pearlised purple paint, loved it though it was too big for me, sold it to a mate when I got a cindercone, cindercone was special, fitted it with mag21’s happy days, the list eventualy went, zaskar, s-works, attack trail, soul and now hummer, the s-works is still used with a kiddy seat on the back and the soul is waiting to one day be rebuilt maybey into a single speed or a winter hack? but not ridding the hummer seems a waste so it gets used for everything!
PJ.

late 70’s for me. Trackers, not mountain bikes. Everything we do now but on a bike we built ourselves, Old racer frame, CX tyres and rims. Motorbike handlebars, BMX stem and grips.

First proper bike was a BSA Star Rider 3-speed Sturmy with 650B wheels, fitted with Avon CX tyres and steel motocross bars for ‘dirt tracking’ in the woods and round the local lanes, probably around ’65ish. First real mountain bike was a red and white Stumpy from Caratti Sport’s shop in Bristol. Deore, Biopace, U-brakes, Ground Controls. First one in the country, brought over for an expo, cost £550, got nicked in Bath six months later, and replaced with an identical one. That was ’88.

Christmas 1993.Kona Fire Mountain. I hate dissing people too but I’m sure that was fitted with some of the first year Exage parts. I am happy to be proved wrong but I think there are people claiming to have been riding bikes in the 80s that didn’t exist before the 90’s.

But memory is a strange thing. I’m convinced I remember my mum talking to a neighbour about JFK being killed. I am old enough for this to be true, just. But I wonder now if this is an artifact assembled from a collection of early life memories. I am convinced though that it is ‘true’ to me and I could pass a polygraph test about said memory.

89 on a GT Tarquester

Blimey and I thought I’d been riding for a while 😉 Sorry I didn’t promise a prize. You reward is sharing your stories and photos – Cheezy eh 😉

speaking to an elderly gent yesterday. told me about converting road bikes for taking over mountains and the yearly off road events when the local villages would race each other.

when?

1940’s

Came home in 91 from a year in Stuttgart making silly money on a site and bought a Marin Eldridge Grade for 540 quid cash, also bought hi-tec Mtb Boots, Mt. Zefal pump and Bell Image Helmet.
Grey Zolatone paint with flouro orangey/pink bars and forks.
Had two Marins, a Jamis and a kona since.

1995 for me – used to take my raleigh arena with cow-horn bars off road/through fields in the early ’80’s. Doing that and BMX’ing sowed the seed…

1988 for me, Muddy Fox Courier, white with colour fade.

Always had bikes as a kid but I replaced my aging “touring/audax” style Dawes bike with my first proper MTB in 1993 for my 16th birthday.
It was a Saracen Sahara Elite, all black. In my first race about 3 months later (a winter CX) I came 2nd last on it, was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a big fleece jacket.
The bikes have changed (and the race results improved a bit too…) 😉

first ride 86 first bike 87

Newcomer here. 2001 for me – on an awful Giant hybrid with semi-slick tyres. And panniers. I remember how deep the mud was and the tyres would never grip, but I still loved it and have hardly had a week since not riding.

My first ATB was a 15sp Raleigh Maverick like this which I bought in 84/85 with my hard earned paper money and tattie picking money. £175 of heavy british steel but I loved it.

Got my first mtb in 1992 but riding offroad lots before then. Got through a fair number of road bike rims though.

Got my first proper mountain bike in 1997 it was a 96 GT Timberline in Ice Titanium. Some scally nicked it 🙁

Easter 94 with a 2nd hand Kona Explosif. Black with splatter paint job. Lovely 🙂

1998…

Was selling bike in the local decathlon. But at this time I was in the dark side. So I asked to try a mountain bike.
Bought the rockrider 740 3 month after. Since the road bike is gathering dust…

no idea, i was riding trail centers (they werent called that back in the day) when i lived in wales, would have been about 6-7, that would have been about ’92? got into it properly in about 97/98 when i moved to derbyshire.

Blimey Rich – popular thread you started here 🙂

1990(?) – Marin Bear Valley with “hammerite” anti-scratch paint work, biopace, foam top tube pads and Zefal luminous frame pump……ahhh happy days

’88

enforced by my parents moving to the peak district

1986 rode my brothers muddy fox courier a few times then in 1987 rode a cannondale that was being used as part of a Yorkshire schools exploring society expedition to the himalayas I was trekking for the month not riding unfortunately. Bought a Saracen Tufftrax later that year. As a child I rode in the woods quite a lot on a converted road bike with cow horns then had a bmx. Once rode into the canal trying to jump over the mooring rings on the towpath on my converted road bike, the 3 speed sturmey archer gears never did work the same again. Happy days.

I first rode in my local woods in 1967, I still ride there now. My first bike called a mountain bike 1985.

1990…….. marin palisades if i recall, grey with yellow forks, stem and bars and a shimano 300ex groupset with biopace rings……lllluuuvvvverrleee!

I started in 1987 and did my first race on a steel Emmelle at Leisure Lakes near Preston in 1990 – I was 10 years old. I did not finish because my crank fell off.

1996 or perhaps 1995

2009 GT Avalanche 1.0 😳

remember issue 1 of MBUK and my first MTB, a Ridgeback 600 STI. Year was probably around ’88? Had a bit of an outage between the mid nineties and last year though, although I had a couple MTBs in that period, I rarely rode. No idea why I stopped. Am loving riding again now though 🙂

First dabbled on my brothers Giant Super Sierra in 87-88…then got my own saracen in 92…aaaah .. memories.

Can’t remember the year, early nineties – Peugot ATB in white with the colour flashes like a 206 GTI! That was followed by a lurid green and orange Emelle Cheetah(?). Next was a Diamondback Sorrento with the best paintjob ever! Black with a metallic purple stripeytypethingsortofish. Still have it but the BB is seized in the frame and I can’t get it out, otherwise it would be polished and on the wall. All bought from Madigan cycles in Carrickfergus, I loved going up to that shop!

Bought my first bike with suspension forks for my 21st birthday when I had moved to Edinburgh; Marin Bear Valley, in a lovely red – frame soon to be for sale at a bargain-tastic price as I need to clear out some space in the garage 😀

hmm, we were always riding our BMX’s offroad, but I guess that doesn’t really count.

First ATB was a Peugeot Ranger back in 1987. Broke 2 of them so Mycycles gave me a Peugeot Laser 15. Didn’t break that one.

First proper MTB was an ’89 Cannondale SM600 beast of the east which I bought from Mycycles in Malvern in 1990. That lasted me nearly 6 years, which has to be the longest I’ve ever owned one bike!

would probably be about 1985/6. My first bike was an ‘orrid Apollo from Halfrauds, with ‘Oversized Tubing’ hmmm, oversized, and heavy, hi-tensile steel frame, 15 gears and some sort of suspension forks.

Second bike (after the first one got nicked) was a Shogun Trailbreaker with STX-RC bits and rigid forks.

Third Bike was a Giant Boulder Alu-shock, 21 gears, suntour forks, bought in 1999.

Current bike, Orange G2, got last year.

So at the moment i’m averaging about 8 years per change of bike. (if you count the first two as one bike!)

Could we brake (pun intended ;)) the STW posting record with this one 😉

1989 – Raleigh amazon with 100GS groupset.
Eventually saved up enough for a 1993 Kona fire mountain – Exage LT and Deore DX thumbies. First ride i went over a wall that was 2′ one side, but more like 10′ the other and totalled the front wheel, talk about heart broken!
Somebody posted that Exage stuff didn’t appear until 1993, i kind of agree. 1993 onwards was Exage LT and ES with deore LX, DX, XT and eventually XTR above. Previously below the deore ranges there had been 300, 400 and 500LX, but i think that there may have been a much older Exage groupset. Feel free to prove me wrong!
As so many others are saying, it scares me now what i used to ride on the old Raleigh

1987 with a Raleigh Maverick for me.

Prior to that I rode off road on a Raleigh Chipper and later an Elswick Superstar BMX. The Raleigh Chipper was my first bike – think Chopper but smaller in canary yellow. i hankered for a mountain bike ever since I read about a Kuwahara in BMX Action Bike in the early 80s.

If you like retro, have a look at my old Speccy Carbon and steel frame which is currently residing upstairs in Biketreks in Ambleside. Almost entirely original tat, sorry, retro loveliness – Grafton, Cook Brothers, Syncros forks etc.

There is something very cool to me of growing up and continuing to be passionate about a sport that you did from a very early age.

Cheers

Sanny

Hey Sanny I had a Raleigh Maverick as well, only the 5 gear version.
I got it in 1985 and rode it in Kent and Wales until I got my Ridgeback 700 in 1990. I’ve still got my Ridgeback!

I used to love MBUK back then it was all about getting out and riding. but then they turned into the trash they are now. I’m Glad the likes of MBR and Singletrack are around
🙂
Laters – Matt

86/87 with a Red Ridgeback S – Loved that bike. Obviously I would have loved a muddyfox courier more, but that was crazy money on my income.