Year you bought your first atb

All terrain bicycle was what some of them were called
I bought a Specialized rockhopper in 1986 but frame was too big, 6 speed thumbshifters non index, blue was the colour

Some horrific Peugeot thing from Halfrauds on the never never back in 1987. I really wanted the Kirk magnesium thing but couldn’t afford it.

Peugeot Puma 1998 Halfrauds was my first – lasted 6 months before a Diamond Back Ascent Ex (Black with the pink tiger stripes – GGGRRRRRR!) replaced it.

Had that until 1999 when I unwisely sold it for beer money

1990 – I had sold everything and gone travelling around Europe so when I got back I needed a mode of transport. I got a Peugeot thing in metallic ivory white just for riding around town on and it wasn’t until later I got into ATB riding and I spent a fortune blinging it on X-Lite bar ends, Ringle bottle cages etc. At this time (now I had started to get an active interest in specifications etc) I realised that it actually had a really good quality Reynolds alu frame. Around that time I wrote to MTB magazine (and was published) asking if they knew the history and whether or not they thought I had got a half decent bike accidentally. They had no idea 🙂

Although, I *DID* previously have a Raleigh Bomber which was surely a worthy claim to being a predecessor to proper ATB bikes? That was around 1982.

1987,Overbury’s of Bristol,531 frame,and 501 tandem forks,yellow,thumbies,18 sp,Biopace rings.

Halfords apollo 18sp ATB 2 sizes too big in 1989, sold 6 months later for a raleigh peak (which a mate still uses)

I had a British Eagle – my dad had bought me a tourer when I was about 13-14 because that’s what he liked to do.

I wasn’t really into it, so the mudguards came off and it went round the local bomb holes. I got a British Eagle Inferno MTB a couple of years later – 1991 ish. TBH, it wasn’t that much better than the tourer, but it was green and yellow & it was the first big thing I ever bough from my Saturday job money.

PS: not my actual bike. Pink bottle cage? Ew…

i was bought a dawes ascent for xmas in 1988. it weighed a ton but i did my first ever 100 miles on it (devizes to reading and back).

shimano 15 speed,thummies,501 tubing,super hard plastic grips that were a weird shape oh and it weighed a ton,but i loved that bike 😀

edit did i mention that it weighed a ton 😛

1997, it was steel framed GT Timberline with rigid forks.

1994 I bought this – in 2011 I “loaned” it to a member of staff it didn’t end well; I never saw it again.

1986 (or – possibly – 1987) for me too redmex.
Specialized Rockhopper. Yellow. U brake on chainstay.
Amazingly, it’s still in use!

I wanted a M Fox Courier or even Courier Comp but LBS could never get them in stock, so settled for Rockhopper.

Raleigh Dune Dancer. Must have been 1988 ish. I had been working for a year or so as an Apprentice and commuting on an old 70’s Carlton road bike that my uncle had given me.
It was time to buy myself a nice bike after putting up with old garden gates for years.

Raleigh Montage, 1994. Always had BMX before then.

1991 – (repainted) Raleigh Mirage

1990 GT Tequesta in “Purple Haze” – Suntour XCE groupset (I changed the trigger shifters for thumbshifters), and super rigid forks.
It looked so purdee.
Then a 1992 Clockwork Orange in Purple/ Orange (like a Prestige) with Deore DX, slowly upgraded to XT with thumbshifters.

87 courier

I remember the u brake under the chainstays probably only played one season but the xt thumshifters were amazing piece of kit so precise then ground control tyres to get grip

1990 ish. An Emmelle of some variety.

Raleigh Max in 92/93 I would guess. It have massive over-sized tubes (for the time) so it looked like an Alu bike, but it was Cromo and weighed the same as the Death Star. Plastic brakes, early grip-shift but I loved it. Fell apart after a couple of years and the old man wrote it off as “crap” and skipped it.

Replaced with a GT Timberline a few years later which was awesome.

First with my own money was an Azonic DS Evo in 2002
First atb (that I upgraded everything bar the frame and headset, then transferred all the parts to the above) was a carrera mission in, I guess, 96 or 97.

I’m not sure, I’ve been trying to date it by the bike which was a Trek 830 in a mid/dark blue.

The only model that fits the bill is 1985 one which seems a bit too early to me. I do remember that I’d wanted to buy a muddy fox courier comp but the Trek was being discounted so I’m going to assume that it was old stock they were getting rid of, which probably makes 1986 the year I bought it.

I do remember riding home on it and thinking it was a near impossible distance to travel on a bicycle (about 6 miles) and being amazed at how easy it was.

Bright yellow spesh rockhopper in 1988 followed by a marin eldridge grade in 1990 with the zolatone paint

1989 Trek Antelope 830. Part of my early mid-life crisis when I gave up smoking, became a vegetarian and bought a bike.

My parents must have brought me a Raleigh Mustang in about ’88

1991 – Saracen Trekker in a gash orange colour! Spent every penny of my savings 😳

Specialized Hardrock in about 92

never called it an atb, was always a mountain bike, but this was my first yin, early nineties, a bit to big for me. I had to grow into it and it weighed a ton! The brakes were crap, and I always switched off the index part of the gears and just manually shifted. good fun though, better once I changed the tyres for some kinda chunk tioga efforts if i remember right.

(not my pic, but same bike.)

Scott Impulse, circa 1992?

Early 1989, a Saracen Trekker with 18 speed Deore thumbed and front and rear U brakes.

1989 Raleigh Discovery,200GS Biopace gears, was my 14th birthday present. I replaced every single part on it over the years and it saw me through until my 21st birthday in 1996 when I got the one of the first Joe Murray built Voodoo’s to hit UK shores and ported alll the components over before starting the upgrade cycle again
Still got and ride the Voodoo
In tradition of marking birthdays with new steel framed bikes I bought myself a Cotic BFe for my 40th

1988 at the age of 15, paid a couple of hundred for a secondhand one of these in 24in.

Wasn’t long before I upgraded to something a little better fitting.

Ridgeback 601 in 1986/7.

1987 Raleigh mustang in black and white a bit later my mate got a Raleigh maverick in lemon and white, nice 😉

I then added mbuk pink neon cables and a pink flouro framebag /carry pad. Early bike packing gear 🙂

In 1993, coming from BMXs, I bought a red/orange 1992 GT Outpost that was far too big for me. I chopped it in as soon as I could for a chrome 1994 GT Vertigo 😀

If you don’t count my Raleigh Chopper in the 70s then a Claude Butler Blade in 2007 .

Not counting my Grifter, would have probably been 1995. A lovely blue Cannondale M500. Was a bit late to the off road party.

Falcon sierra, c1987 ish. Went from a bmx to the mighty sierra. Everything broke on it at some point and it became a bit of a trigger’s broom. Eventually the headtube snapped off.

Aside from the ‘quarry bikes’ we made in the 70s to ride a bit like bmx/single track bikes. The first proper ATB was in 1982 – a Stumpjumper, I didn’t see another atb for nearly two years. Part exed it with the Bike Store Park Street for a mark 2 in, I think 86-87, still have that one.

1984 or 85 muddy fox explorer.

like this, not my pic tho
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=201531&mode=view

I didn’t own my own mtb until 1999. Was far too poor to buy a bike before that. Relied on borrows and hand me downs. Had a British eagle, some horric grey thing with a massive dent and bend in the seat tube and a full camo unbranded bmx!

Mind you, when I could finally afford a bike I did it properly.

1999 kona explosif. Boom.