What year did you start mountain biking?

1988, Raleigh Mustang; 15 gears, steel rims, nasty paintjob, 36lbs…

1991 on a raleigh highlander – 200gs gears, Biopace chainset, plastic levers and brakes, cheng shin tyres, vetta gel saddle and a reynolds 501 frameset with the most awesome paint job ever – Teal coloured forks and head tube fading into white fading into hot pink on the chain and seatstays.
Thats was a proper colour scheme.

Not sure if this counts I had a Raleigh RSW 16 for my 12th birthday in 1974 and use to ride it in the mountains above my home, much later the 9feet.com trail was built in the same area.

But in 1998 went team building in the Peaks where I rode a Marin in the rain, hail & snow, dressed in a pair of Ron hills, cotton tee shirt and a pac-a-mac. 😆

83/84 ish.

Fitted cross tyres, a bmx stem and flat bars to my dad’s touring bike, removed the mudguards, and pretended I was a motor x bike. Weighed about 28lb so was pretty svelt.

A break in cycling between 1990 to 1993 then bought a Trek Singletrack 950 with True Temper OX2 tubing and full xt groupset.

First proppa MTB in 2000….

But…..

First proppa jumps & riding bumpy stuff in about 1973-74 on a bike with big wheels,no gears,no suspension & no stickers on it to say what it was called either.Fell off loads,got back up & had another go.Plenty of split lips,cracked a cheek bone,knocked out my two front teeth, had a fair few trips to the hospital to be sewn back up & a couple of cracked ribs too.

Alas I now have the bike that that was built for it but not the body or the confidence to do half of what I did as a kid…. 😯

Started proper mtbing in ’97 on a Kona cindercone.
Remember riding around Gwydyr forest near Betws long before any man made trails. Also wearing silly clothes, like Ron Hill joggers and big sweat shirts, also mens shoes, ‘cos they didn’t do Ladies.

Once went riding in the Peaks in a downpour, wearing my Mums bright yellow waterproof golfing suit, T’was very hot and sweaty. Managed to tangle the trousers into the chainring and ripping them. Should have worn a bike clip.

Around 88 or thereabouts with a KHS. Razzing around woods was a nice alternative to the road and track.

Stopped shortly after, started again in 03/04.

Bought a wrought iron Peugeot from halfords in around 91 for dicking about on canoe slalom sites (ridding up & down the course checking out the lines) – and commuting – started doing longer rides around 93 – the Peugeot fell apart in ’94 when I bought my first Clockwork and became a full mountain biker

That said I was hammering around Roundhay Park & Gledhow Valley woods in Leeds way back in the early 70s

1987 ish. Huge purple Raleigh Mirage before graduating to a clockwork.

Eee them were the days.

(Max had a flourescent Shogun trailbreaker I seem to remember!)

Oct 2006. Age 40 and a quarter. Do I win a prize for being n00b? Bought a carrera kraken. Killed it in 4 months after the 2nd frame had been replaced. Got a Dawg Primo in Jan 07 and then really fell in love with the sport.

I started to follow the sport in 2004 then got serious in 2005/2006. Had my first taste of true mountain biking in wales on the marin in 2007.

http://s5.tinypic.com/mmzuvc.jpg

About ’72. And that’s singlespeed, but not fixed.

Can’t figure out how to put pic on this page though.

started with a 1993 Raleigh Apex with 400LX gears and a girven flexstem on it! nice. got a paper round and over the course of about 12 months put nearly full 94 XT on it

85, Overburys crossfell, biopace chainset when they were new and expensive, think the bike cost £550.

1988 Ridgeback, then spent my student loan on a Kona, never looked back. 😉

Still wish i was fitter, faster, better…..

1896, military issue “iron horse” with mary bars and rod brakes.

1988 for me.
Diamondback Ascent EX was my first mtb.

I used to ride my raleigh striker through the woods that gnarly dudes now ride long travel DH bikes down!

I used to ride my raleigh striker through the woods that gnarly dudes now ride long travel DH bikes down!

Did they ever stop and say “hello”?

Muddy Fox Courier pearl white with yellow decals canti brakes, saddle made from what looked like giraffe hide.
Bought, one of the first, at Avon valley cyclery in about 1986. very common bike at races along with the Ridgeback. Very early days of mountain biking and to get over to llanyrtyd wells was no more than a dream. Quite often saw Tim Flooks in full flight on the Quantocks. Anyone remember Jeremy …….? An early pioneer and influenced by what was happening in the states.

First Mountain Bike was back in 1987 with a Claud Butler something or other. It was purple. I know that much. I smashed the BB out of the frame doing drops in the quarry.

Next up was a British Eagle, then a Raleigh, then a Marin, then… (the list goes on and on and on)

Still love it 🙂

Speaking of all these Muddy Foxs’… did anyone see any of the 10 special gold plated ones they made?

here it is

MrNutt – Member
I used to ride my raleigh striker through the woods that gnarly dudes now ride long travel DH bikes down!

Would those be the Woods Behind Nationwide in Swindon?

It’s actually the woods near Pittshanger Lane, opposite the Hoover building.
How did you post the pic???

1988 on my Muddy Fox Roadrunner then bought an Orange Clockwork from Schmoos Cycles in Swansea in ~1990 and LOVED ever minute of it – had to do 2 paper rounds every day for 6 months just to pay back my parents the £600 it was !

Still regret selling the Orange… 🙁

Orange C16R with full STX-RC was my first bike in the 90’s. Did a fair bit on it and then bought a Sub 5.

1986

My mum took me offroading (and salmon poaching and shooting) in the early 60s, I was on a tricycle, she was on a raleigh shopper….

singlespeeding on t farm in the 70s

rejoined mtbing after motorbike trail riding got a bit to political in the very late 80s.

RSF type stuff back in the 70s on my converted road race bike – cyclo cross tubs and inverted cut off drops

1990 – GT Tequesta in Purple Haze, with Suntour XC-E groupset.

Yeah, those woods behind the Duke of Kent are well gnarly.

Jesus there are some blasts from the past on here 😉

must have started around 86-87 on a Claud Butler Spectre with Shimano 500LX and Reynolds 501 tubes 😉

after lots of wood riding on the totally unsuitable cammando star bike i got a black and white raleigh mustang the first black and white one sometime around 87 iirc . weighed a ton lol i took all the stickers off sometime later in its life and stuck on neon cables and stickers and a nice triangle frame bag/shoulder carrier thing in neon (i think they came free in mbuk lol) i also used to lust after the marin range (with neon bits on) in two wheels good in leeds 😉

1989 – not that you can tell – twenty years and one week back. Bought the bike the week before but then was away on a field trip for a week before I got to ride it properly. First ride was a circuit of Richmond Park and poor attempts at jumping on east sheen common.

probably about 87 on a Raleigh Winner – all my mates had mustangs! 😀

properly in 99 on a Trek 7000 on the west coast of the states. Only got rid of it last year to someone on here

Raleigh Mustang in the late 80’s for me too, after i broke my BMX!

Started bmx in ’82, first mountain bike was alpinestars cromega DX in ’89ish (still got it in original spec, for sale if anyone wants some old school humour), forgot mtb and concentrated on bmx until big injury in 2002.
Started mtbing again as a SAFER alternative in 2004ish. Still got a lovely bmx race bike though for special occasions.

I have memories of being bought a Peugeot ‘mountain bike’ when I was 10(ish), c. 1988 and then a progression of Raleighs. Messed around with BMX’s quite a bit in my younger days too.
My first proper mountain bike was a Marin Rift Zone bought 2nd hand in ’02 when I moved to the Lake District.

never been without a bike since I had my first one sometime around 1973-74. Used to go scrambling in the woods starting sometime in the late seventies on our Raleighs and what have you and in the eighties I always had racers. It was 1990 I when I got my first mountain bike, a Peugeot Adventurer. Purple frame, pink forks and yellow handlebars I think.

Keva