What's your mountain biking pedigree? List past owned bikes…

Kona Caldera

Tend to keep my bikes for a while and give ’em a good thrashing, but here’s my list going right back to the start…

Raleigh Budgie (wheelie machine!!!)
Raleigh Grifter (planted the seed for future MTBing)
Raleigh Equipe
Raleigh Apex (first proper MTB with Girvin Flexstem and Scott AT3 bars!)
Orange Clockwork (class act and still going strong 😀 )
Proflex 857 with Pace RC36 and Noleen NR4 (still got it but killed the shocks eventually)
Genesis Altitude 30 (love it!)

1989 rockhopper – still got frame somwhere
1995 kilauea – still in use, but needs wheels again
2009 orange crush.

er thats it..

Raleigh Mustang
Raleigh Sabre (with anodized blue brake calipers, handlebars, pedals and bar ends)
GT Tempest W/RS Indy XC’s 1996
Raleigh Burner
Powerlite PFS2
Azonic DS2
Orange Crush 2006
Orange Patriot
Vintage condor road bike
Swobo Del Norte
On-one 456
Kona Jake the Snake
Mongoose BMX
Peugeot Performance 2000
Orange P7
Peugeot PA10 to be built up..

2005 Giant Terrago Disk
2006 Trek Top Fuel 110 frame broke so became…
2007 trek Top Fuel 9.8 frame broke so became…
2008 Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL frame broke so became…
2009 Trek EX9*- fed up with carbon, but give Trek their due warranty was first class
2008 Orange 5 Pro* bought when fed up waiting for Trek to be sorted again but liked EX 9 so much kept both
2001 Litespeed Kitsuma*
2010 Ragley Ti*

*= still have

Saracen Rufftrax
Saracen Hardtrax
Kinesis Maxlight
DMR Trailstar
Sintesi XC bike
Specialized Bighit
DMR Sidekick
Kona Roast
Specialized Demo 9
Spank jump bike
-strayed into road bikes until I came to my senses-
Carrera Venegeance
Santa Cruz Chameleon
Sunn Kern
Kona Dawg Supreme

Bison Stealth
Kona Hahanna
Klein Pulse
Spesh Stumpy fsr
Merlin Tig Team SL
Spesh Langster
Cove Handjob
Lapierre Zesty 714
Genesis IO
Lapierre R-Lite
Dialled Love/Hate
Chumba HX1 mk1
Chumba HX1 mk2
Pipedream Scion

Currently on a Santa Cruz Butcher and just ordered a Highball Alu to go with it.

Wish I’d never sold the io or the langster.

Full-on mongrel here ! Just started taking mtb’ing more seriously this last couple of years….

1987 Raleigh Avanti, 531, biopace etc ! (mtb, now name used for a road bike I think)
1994 Carrera Furnace, by 2007 all that was left original was the frame and seatpost.
2008 to now Giant Trance. Rapidly upgrading, wallet emptying, loadsa fun.

– Raleigh trike with the ‘cranks’ attached directly to the front axle 😀

– Puch (just a ‘bike’, single speed not a ‘racer’ or a mountain bike)

– 5 speed friction-shift racer, can’t remember the brand. Used to watch the TdF with my Dad then go outside and pretend I was Sean Kelly…

– Emmelle Nevada 15, Hi-tensile steel frame, 24″ steel-rimmed wheels and 15 speed friction shift, brand new on my 9th birthday. It weighed a ton and was, to be fair, a heap of poo. I loved it though and went all over Derbyshire on it. I went through Christ-knows how many back tyres by deliberately skidding it round the corner at the bottom of our Close (cul-de-sac if you’re posh!). I eventually got my Dad to brush paint it black with Hammerite (he picked the lugs out in red enamel, I thought it looked the dog’s danglies a the time) and carried on riding it until I couldn’t raise the seatpost any higher. By this point I had begun reading MBUK and had also had my first big crash – Whilst riding home from a mate’s, I was trying to do cross-up wheelies. The two main problems were that I couldn’t do wheelies at that time, so I was just ‘manualling’ the wheel maybe 20cm or so off the deck. I was also riding quite swiftly at the time! The inevitable happened and I landed with the wheel crossed up, went over the bars and went sliding along the road, using my face, legs and arms as a brake. I still have the scars today…!

– Hawk Trakatak. Hi-tensile steel, mig welded, triple triangle GT copy. Bought from a mate in my class at school (Peter McCall, if he’s reading this!) for the princely sum of £16. I thought it was fantastic, on the grounds that it had 26″ wheels so could take ‘proper’ tyres and it had indexed gears. Shimano SIS, no less! I upgraded it with Specialized Ground Control tyres and an incongruous pair of white unicrown forks – one of the dropouts sheared clean off the originals!

– Raleigh Mirage. 23″ Reynolds 501 lugged frame in a fetching shade of purple. My Dad bought it for me in a Police auction and, again, I loved it. All decked out with Shimano 300LX, it had 21 gears, STI (the original Rapidfires with both buttons stacked underneath each other and operated with your thumb), alloy rims and a quick release front wheel. I really was going up in the world! Sadly, I managed to bend the frame along the top and down tubes during a session of repeated heavy front wheel landings off the tabletop at Alvaston BMX track. So I saved up my paper round money and replaced the frame with…

– Raleigh Dyna-Tech Diablo. I bought this off a rich kid from school (Chris Endacott…!) for, I think, £50. It had aluminium lugs and titanium main tubes. All my mates kept telling me I’d been seen off and the rear triangle was bent (even I had to admit that the rear wheel never sat straight in the frame!) but it never seemed to hold me back. The colour scheme was truly ‘special’, with Royal blue lugs and a kind of mottled purple ‘petals’ effect on the main tubes. Not my actual frame, but one like it here http://hilarystone.com/retromtbbikeandframes.html
I initially kept this as a spare bike when I got my Kona but the frame ended up getting passed round various mates over a few years. It met a sad end when one mate who’d borrowed it crashed his car into a tree at around 80MPH and, unsurprisingly, died. He was 18 and, sadly, thought himself invincible. The Derby Evening Telegraph published a picture on the front page of his car in-situ, with my Dyna-Tech half hanging out of the boot. I was virtually inconsolable at the time (I was only 16 years old) and formed some stupid guilt complex in my head that if I’d never leant him the bike then he’d never have been for a ride, so wouldn’t have been driving home from said ride and therefore wouldn’t have crashed and wouldn’t have died. Weird what grief does to people.

– 1996 Kona Fire Mountain. Bought brand new in October 1995 with a loan from my Dad, mail order from Leisure Lakes in Daventry. As standard it had Shimano Acera gears and Gripshift. It went through many, many build permutations, including a full respray, disc brakes and a Fox fork. I adored this bike and it was still in daily use right up until the day it was stolen last November. I’ll freely admit to having been close to tears.

– 1999 GT XCR3000. First of the i-Drive bikes and replacement for the LTS. I bought this brand new from Leisure Lakes in Breaston as a present to myself when I got back from my first Operation tour. By today’s standards, the rear suspension was probably pretty agricultural but I enjoyed it. It met a very bizarre end in 2001 when a mate and I got very very drunk on tequila. My mate decided that it would be funny to post it out of the window on the premise that a full suspension bike should bounce. My room was on the third floor. At the time, I though it was hilarious, when I surveyed the bent-to-buggery frame the next morning through sobered eyes, I wasn’t laughing anymore… The best bit was when I told the nice lady on the phone exactly what had happened. Somewhat bemused, she just said ‘I’m afraid we don’t have a category for that. We’ll just put it down as crashed’ and sent me a cheque! I still have the Judy 100 forks today, although they’re currently unrideable as they leak like a sieve and need so need to go to TF for some love.

– Trek 9000 full suspension – the really old ‘pogo stick’ one with the single beam swingarm and elastomer shock. The frame was given to me by a mate who had bought a Specialized FSR. I had it stove enamelled and built it up with all brand new parts including a full Deore groupset, Magura HS33s and RST 281XL triple clamp forks. A pretty shocking bike by STW standards, but I had a right laugh on it. I once even took it round Coed y Brenin for a weekend and didn’t die.

– 1993 (I think) GT Timberline. I got this for nowt in about 2002 from a mate who was chucking the entire bike away on the basis that the seatpost was seized into the frame and he’d somehow managed to snap the top off the post by heaving on the saddle to try and shift it. I took it into the REME workshops, got them to apply a bit of heat and out came the post. One cheapo post from the LBS and a saddle from the spares bin later and it was a perfectly functional bike. Resplendent in hearing-aid-beige and with a farm-gate 23″ frame, this is still my commuter bike today. I’ve upgraded it slightly with a Titec low riser bar, XT thumbshifters and period XT mechs, SPD pedals and a neon-yellow Magura HS33 front brake for comedy effect (£25 off eBay!)

– 2007 Kona Caldera. My current steed, bought for £275 of eBay when my Fire Mountain was nicked. So far I’ve ‘upgraded’ the forks by inserting a stack of 2p coins under the preload adjuster to try and firm them up some. I’ve replaced the seized Hayes Nine brakes with M956 Deores and I’m currently waiting on a Hope headset to replace the knackered Cane Creek original. The WTB bar and stem (very high rise) have been replaced with an Easton EA70 low riser from eBay and a Hope 0 degree rise from the STW classifieds. I’m not planning to spend too much on this bike (I realise how futile an intention that may be, even as I’m typing it!), with a view to saving up some proper pennies for A Nice Bike in a couple of years. We’ll see…

raleigh blazer (handmedown from brother)
Raleigh Boxer (handmedown from neighbour)
Raleigh Burner (my first new bike!)
Raleigh Yukon (fully pimped out with flexstem, full dx groupset etc etc)

20 year gap until April 2011 then….

Specialized Rockhopper
Santa Cruz Heckler
Giant Anthem
On One 456

still got the last 3….:-)

92 Saracen Sahara elite
93 KHS Montana Pro
94 KHS Montana Team
95 Proflex 955
97 Merlin Taiga (still have)
00 cannondale Jekyll (cack)
01 Specialized s works fsr
03 Santa Cruz Blur
07 Santa Cruz Blur xc
09 Santa Cruz Blur xc carbon
10 Santa Cruz Tallboy (still have)
11 Giant xc 29 (soon to be gone)
12 cotic Solaris

96 Specialized Rockhopper
98 Specialized Stumpjumper M2
00 Specialized Stumpjumper Sworks M4 x 2
03 Specialized Stunpjumper Sworks M5
04 Specialized Epic Sworks M5
04 Titus HCR
04 Titus Loco Moto
00? Klein Mantra
05 Gary Fisher Rig
06 Specialized Enduro Sworks M5
07 Specialized Epic SWorks Carbon
07 Salsa Moto Rapido
09 Yeti ASR
11 Salsa El Mariachi
10 Salsa El Mariachi ti
11 Salsa Ala Carte
10 Salsa Ala Carte ti
10 Salsa Selma
12 Salsa Vaya
02 Ambrosio Rapide Carbon
05 Trek Madone
07 Specialized Sworks Tarmac SL
11 Specialized Sworks Tarmac SL3

Ok then mountain bikes only? So starting in 1989 to to present day.
Orange Clockwork
Orange Alumium Elite
Merlin XLM (not the sort from Lancashire)
Orange Sub 5
Orange 5
Orange E8
Gary Fisher Xcaliber 29er
Gary Fisher Rosscoe
The realy sad fact is that with exeption of 1 or 2 bikes i still own all these bikes.

GT Timberline
— big gap —
Genesis Altitude 20 (current HT)
Cotic Bfe
On One Inbred 29er in commuter build (current)
Orange Blood (current FS)

Kona explosif
Cove hustler
Cotic soul
Singular swift

Not a long list, but a good one

* mamadirt to the Forum please *

Raleigh hybrid.
Raleigh Amazon.
Claud Butler.
Trek Singletrack 950.
Scott Team Racing.
Santa Cruz Juliana.
On-One 456.
On-One Inbred 853 ss.
Rock Lobster.
Scott Speedster road.
Litespeed Ocoee.
Cotic Soul.
On-One Inbred 853 ss.
Scott CR1 road.
Cotic Simple.
Ibis Mojo.

😯

Raleigh Striker
Raleigh Grifter
Suzuki RM80
Viceroy BMX
Mongoose Supergoose BMX
CW phaze 1 aka “Z” frame BMX
CW ZX Pro BMX
CW Pistol Pete BMX
Marin Bear Valley
GT Zaskar
Kona Lava Dome
DMR Trailstar
Specialized Rockhopper
TNT Pro BMX
S&M Challenger BMX
Specialized Stumpjumper
Basso road bike
Principia road bike
Suzuki RM 125
Suzuki RMZ250
Yamaha YZF 250
Lynskey Custom level 3
KTM 250 EXC
We The People 24″
Genesis Altitude
Lapierre Spicy
Canyon Nerve XC
Lapierre Zesty

Marin Palisades Trail
Specialized Stumpjumper FS
Dawes Tracker
Kona fire mountain
Raleigh MT4 + mag21’s +xtr
Rockhopper
Dawes Double Edge
Merlin malt
Rockhopper comp FSR – 98
MTB tandems Fandango – current mtb Tandem
01 Stumpjumper FSR XC M4
Hardrock comp – current kiddie carrier
Dialled PA – current HT
04 sworks enduro – current FS

Raleigh mustang
Carrera something in a nice turquoise
Gt timberline
Kona kula
Gt lts2
Marin wolf ridge
Giant xtc3
Pastey howler ti
Specialised stumpjumper fsr comp
Santa cruz blur 4x

87 Tufftrax
88 Rockhopper Comp
89 Stumpjumper Comp
90 Stumpjumper Epic
92 Fisher Prometheus
94 Specialized FSR
98 unbranded steel HT
99 Giant HT
99 Giant FS
00 Marin full suss
00 Ibis Mojo
04 or so Inbred sliding dropout
05 Shand
05 Superlight
03 Heckler
08 Nomad
03 Heckler
11 9zero7 fat bike
11 DIY Marrowfat fat bike
10 Big Kahunna

I’ll probably remember more in a mo, I may have a think about the road bikes.

bike shaped object
dawes shuniah (in attic)
24seven dark angel full sus
merlin malt 1 (in attic)
haro bmx
Cougar road bike, hand made by Terry Dolan (in attic)
GT Hans ‘No Way’ Rey trials bike ’05 (rebuilding)
Marin Quake (still got)
Cotic BFE (building up)
SE Fixed (awaiting)

some quality. some not so… all bargains in some sense

1989 – Marin Pine Mountain (donated to mate)
1997 – Pace RC200 (still got it, might rebuild as SS)
2002 – Marin Riftzone (sold)
2005 – Whyte 19 (broke, warranty replacement sold)
2007 – Cotic Soda (broke, refunded)
2011 – Brodie Holeshot (stolen 😥 )
2011 – Kinesis Decade Virsa (broke, warranty replacement now for sale…)

since 1979

dawes galaxy
dawes super galaxy
challenge mtb
ridgeback
muddy fox explorer
peugeot hybrid
peugeot roadbike
diamondback axis
diamondback apex
diamondback topanga
saracen eiger
gary fisher hookooheekoo
raleigh max 1
orange aluminium o elite
bontrager privateer
kona hoss deluxe
merida matts se
cannondale t200
specialized sirrius
orange sub zero
on one 456 that green
on one sand 29r
redline mono
standard kona hoss
haro mary ss
haro mary geared
456 summer season
precialized hardrock
2nd on one sand 29r
surly k monkey
fisher fat possum
specialized tricross
specialized rockhopper pro
2nd k monkey
nicolai helius fr
fisher pro caliber 29r
fisher paragon 29r
surly lht
chumba hx2 29r
santa cruz heckler
ragley blue pig
ragley mmmbop
singular swift 29r
ventana el capitan
2nd singular swift 29r
2nd specialized rockhopper pro
2nd surly lht
on one 456 salt n vinegar
kalkhoff pro connect disc
and something on it’s way.

and if anyone can remember owt else i have had please post for me… 😆

Marin Bear Valley SE (actually a Raleigh Mustang hand painted to look like one)

A real MArin Bear Valley SE

Cannondale Super V 400

Cannondale Scalpel 2000

Cove foreplay

Pace RC-200 F8

Specialized Pitch Pro

Cove Foreplay (again)

My god ton, that list is legendary 😯

Starting from where they vaguely went mountain bikey:

1992 Raleigh Lizard
1996 Raleigh Max Cromo
2001 Specialized Enduro
2003 Specialized Stumpjumper HT
2005 GT Avalanche 1
2007 Specialized FSR XC
2008 Commencal Meta XT
2009 Ibis Mojo
2010 Pitch Pro
2010 Tricross Comp — still have
2011 Scandal 29er — still have
2012 Orange Five — still have

I get hideously mocked for going through bikes so fast, don’t feel quite so bad seeing this thread (which means I can have a Solaris 😈 ).

Right then…
Raleigh Rocket,
Claud Butler Spectrum,
Stolen/found Dawes with “cow horn” bars,
Ex Post Office delivery bike with rack on the front..(Paper Rounds)
Emmelle Cougar,
Alloy Townsend Hardtail,
Raleigh M-Trax,(Rockshox Quadra 21’s)
Specialized Rockhopper Comp,
Marin MountVision,
Gary Fisher Sugar3,
Gary Fisher Sugar2,
Trek 8000,
Kona Blast,
Trek Liquid 25,
Trek EX7,
2x Trek EX8’s,
Giant Anthem X2,…Still have,
Old Trek 7000,…Still have,
And a Giant Defy Road bike for a while…

Kona Lavadome
Kona Nu Nu
Kona Kula
Rocky Mountain Element SC
Santa Cruz Heckler
Rocky Mountain Blizzard
Titus El Guapo
Chromag Samurai
Ventana El Ciclon (still got and love)
Chromag Samurai (still got and loving even more!)

God I feel guilty even typing this list out 🙁

Ton,

I bow to my knees to your almightiness!

😯

Right then…
Raleigh Rocket,
Claud Butler Spectrum,
Stolen/found Dawes with “cow horn” bars,
Ex Post Office delivery bike with rack on the front..(Paper Rounds)
Emmelle Cougar,
Alloy Townsend Hardtail,
Raleigh M-Trax,(Rockshox Quadra 21’s)
Specialized Rockhopper Comp,
Marin MountVision,
Gary Fisher Sugar3,
Gary Fisher Sugar2,
Trek 8000,
Kona Blast,
Trek Liquid 25,
Trek EX7,
2x Trek EX8’s,
Giant Anthem X2,…Still have,
Old Trek 7000,…Still have,
Oh, and a Giant Defy road bike for a while…

Raleigh nitro
Carrera mission
Azonic DS evolution
Apollo vortice BMX (best smiles/£ of any bike I’ve owned!)
Kona Stinky
Corona branded BSO
Specialized Demo 8
Specialized sx trail II
GT it1
Orange hitman 26 (still got)
Intense slopestyle (still got)

😉

Aaahh, goo ooon…..

Raleigh BMX
Marin Palisades Trial
Specialized Rockhopper Pro
GT LTS 2000
Klien Attitude Comp
Specialized Enduro
Turner DW 5 Spot – current bike

Ah, I forgot a Dialled Love/Hate too. Lasted 1 ride before CRC were knocking those Curtis S1s out for £200 and I had to indulge.

Raleigh Mustang
Marin Palisades
Marin Pine Mountain (with Browning headshock)
Kona Explosif
Manitou HT
Specialized FSR
Tomac 98 special
Ellsworth Truth
Ellsworth Enlightenment

mamadirt……………. 😆

come on, youknow you want to.

Raleigh Blaster – stolen
Raleigh Mustang – stolen
Apollo somethingorother – stolen
GT Karakorum – stolen
Trek Gazelle 850? – stolen
Specialized Rockhopper Comp – donated to a deserving chap
Cube LTD Race – sold
Pronghorn XC-SW Carbon – in bits awaiting new forks & wheels
Pronghorn PR6 – in the garage
Look 566 – in the LBS

Unknown single speed trike, light blue
Unknown singlespeed fully rigid bike blue frame, yellow forks
Raleigh Scorpio
Eddy Merxx something or other
Peugeot racing bike with Carbolite 103 tubing and a lungless frame 😯 stolen, insurance money spent on beer.
Raleigh ” mountain bike”
Claud Butler Ravanna
Giant XTC 3
Orange Sub 5
Specialized Enduro S-works
On one Inbred
on one inbred, slide drop out
On one inbred single speed
On one 456 Summer Season
On one 456ti (still owned)
Specialized Allez
Specialized Globe
Specialized Enduro 2010 (still owned)
Surly Karate Monkey 29er rigid single speed (still owned)

avalanche 2 still got
456 still got
Genesis io ss still got
Heckler still got
next: i’m going to make one
never sell anything