The biggest hurdle most people have with the older bikes is that they think they’ll be rubbish to ride. Nowadays there aren’t any really bad bikes, they all go, stop, handle ok, some are amazing but none are really going to kill you…. Older bikes, well, errr they can!

The 1991 Haro I have posted up already was a case in point. It handled brilliantly, maybe a bit twitchy but it was so direct. And it felt like a BMX in the air, not surprising given their heritage. However, it was harsh. Now I know some people think they have ridden harsh bikes but you haven’t, beleive me, until you ride a Haro Extreme. Oh. My. Word. I am pretty good downhill and don’t mind blatting down a Peaks descent on a fully rigid bike. I’m used to the knocks and can handle them. I rode the Haro in North Yorks on some trails that weren’t as rocky as W Yorks where I live but I was reduced to a crumbling wreck, my bones turned to dust and my hands, arms, shoulders cried with pain!! The combination of plain guage cro-mo straight (basically BMX) forks, and the mega rigid wing bar and stem (both cro-mo and in mega rigid 31.8mm OS flavour) were just too much. So if you rode that bike compared to a modern bike you’d be put off for life!

However, my 94 Kona Kilauea is an absolute joy. We did a big retrobike.com national ride in the Surrey hills at the weekend and the Kona was perfection – darting round the singletrack like a dragonfly. 600mm bars, fully rigid. Big tyres absorbed the knocks well (there isn’t many knocks there to be honest!) too. I got to the end of the ride and honestly thought if I came on my own I would bring the Kona rather than my modern Spesh FSR and it was amazing. Thats probably why you see so many old Konas around, and why they fetch a decent amount SH still – they are still great bikes to ride even compared with brand new ones.

It’s great seeing what all these bikes ride like, and there are more pleasant surprises than horrible revelations!

To answer the question about what makes a bike “retro2….

On retrobike.co.uk the cutoff is 1997. Reason for this is summed up by a moderators post on RB about the very same question:

The 1997 date makes sense to me due to a number of technical changes and advances as seen on the widespread introduction of a number of components.

These included, the introduction of V-brakes, forks like the Marzocchi Bomber which were reliable and performed well and disc brakes became much more affordable and popular. There was also the introduction of Shimano’s 4 arm chainsets.
Full suspension was also becoming accepted as not just for DH. Bikes like the Santa Cruz Heckler, GT LTS and the Marin Mount Vision proved to work well for general trail riding and XC racing too.

In 1997 in the UK, the first purpose built trail centres, notably Coed-Y-Brenin had just opened. This was a very significant step which has fundamentally changed and shaped mountain biking (at least in the UK) ever since.

Mountain bikes and mountain biking took a significant evolutionary step forward at around about this point so it seems to be about the right date for me.

But as already stated, it has already been a thoroughly discussed subject in the past.

EDIT: The more I’ve thought about it, the more significant the opening of the Red Bull trail was back in 1997. I visited it for the first time in November 97 and came away thinking that this was a great new experience to have on a mountain bike. Marked purpose built trails where bikes had priority. It was like racing but without the entry fee or the need to compete.

Everything was different after that.

Here’s mine.

1992 GT Tequesta – replica of my first ever decent MTB

And me riding in the Dark Peak last year

1991 Haro Extreme

With NOS Haro Wing bars and stem – 31.8 clamp size in 1991. 🙂

1991 Rocky Mountain Experience, being ridden in the Lakes

1994 Kona Kilauea – this exact bike bought by me in 1994, stolen then recovered last year and restored

1991 Dave Lloyd Beez Kneez
653 tubing, basically a road bike with lower gears!

In progress….
1997 Mk1 DMR trailstar – one of the first 100

1996 Kona Hahanna – for a friend. Bought for 99p!

Damaged 456 frame here for anyone wanting to have a go at fixing a frame.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=281153932471

Doesn’t look too bad IMHO.

It isn’t mine by the way.

You’d be better off buying the CDS new than buying that…..

Two chocy bars is quite a lot of energy! He’s comparing the discomfort of spin class vs the denial of pleasure from eating two chocolate bars, and saying “it’s not worth it”. A subjective opinion from a chap who probably splits his time between the lab and the sofa.

Spin class is only “hard” because people have come to expect physical comfort all the time. I quote my sister: “I don’t like sweating”. Physical fatigue and working my body feel good to me, so hard exercise is as enjoyable as eating chocolate.

I can see why people give up – exercise is pedalled as this “do MY class/regime/plan and you can eat what you like”. But I have found out the hard way it’s more about the food really.

I lost a load of weight last year using couch25k and myfitnesspal apps. Basically working on the notion that if you eat less than you burn off you’ll lose weight.

It took me 3 months to be able to run 5k. It was agony and I hated it (well maybe eventually I enjoyed it once or twice). Everytime I ran I estimated the calories burnt and it always was around 350-450 each time (checked app and various guides online, didn’t matter it wasn’t 100% accurate but a ballpark was ok).

Realising it only burnt off a couple of rounds of toast or a decent choccy bar each time eventually meant that finding out those calories burnt didn’t make me run more to burn more, it made me eat less. It was so difficult to find stuff that was healthy when you travelled round for work like me too.

People don’t realise what crap is in the food they eat!

Wasn’t trying to be especially funny….. and I achieved that! 😉

I am, however, riding for 2 days and I’m not at work. Woo-HOO!

fasthaggis – Member
I think that the – EAT MY DIRT – sticker will guarantee success .
You have nothing to worry about

Phew!

Being as I am “team” rider 😉 I suppose I should do this:

http://www.eatmydirt.eu/

mikey3 – Member
so does putting decals from a old model fork make you forget your bike is actually worth 2 grand and make you feel more of a martyr,maybe you should do it on a unicycle.

Can someone order this guy a new sense of humour please?

Asterix – nice bikes!

I remember riding/carrying my bike up Helvellyn on my 1992 Gt Tequesta, in, errr, 1992. Riding down a big UK mountain is always one of my favourite days out on a bike.

chakaping – Member
It’s a bit bumpy up there, so make sure to secure that chip on your shoulder unless you want to lose it.

Aaaah I see that some people still don’t recognise sarcasm when it slaps them in the face!

fasthaggis – Member
Are they Rock Shox ?

Why yes they are!

You may be too young to remember Rock Shox RS1’s their first ever forks. The decals I have on those Pikes are reproductions of the Rs1 decals in a different colour sized to match the bigger forks.

Much better than the new 2014 decals anyway…

Even the most hardened fashionista/style snob HAS to admit that the Halfords shorts are a pretty similar colour scheme and design to other fancy brand shorts. I’ve seen Fox shorts fairly close to that and I guarantee putting a Fox logo on would mean they’d be selling for (quality/durability issues aside) £80-90

“Waves from Huddersfield” 😉

Any other countries want to know how we got so good at cycling? That’s why.

Unfortunately it takes a lot of time and effort by a lot of people and many years to get where we are now, but a lot of people think that money can buy everything you need for success. Yes it helps but you need the people too.

I posted a link on your other thread about LSN in castleford, if anyone can do it near you it’ll be them.

Look at this thread on retrobike for a recommended/not recommended list of places to go:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=232111

It was started so people had a central place to log recommendations pr where they had problems. Most retrobikers use a frame sprayers at some point so there is a lot of experience on there.

I personally wouldn’t go back to Triple S as they were very expensive and had only a few colours. Great quality admittedly. I went to LSN in Castleford who did my 1994 Kona Kilauea in a lovely metallic grey finish. £40 for fork/frame and 2 stems. All masked off properly (did need a small amount of emery cloth work to correct a bit of overspray but only 5 mins which I would do with a brand new frame anyway) and a lovely even thin finish (not thick and gloopy). Massive amount of finishes to choose from as well.

I have posted on that thread with my bikes I have had done there.

As a regular on Retrobike I see SO many Konas with dented top tubes. Even with the sloping top tube they seem to get dents in them easily, possibly due to long stems slammed onto the headset and flat bars.

Personally I wouldn’t touch it even for £20. Not worth it. The Explosifs are very light for a steel frame and the tubes are pretty thin. That isn’t just a ding, that a proper bad dent. I wouldn’t trust it.

Widen your search to include a Kilauea as well, they are just as good to ride.

Should be fine in most respects, as long as the front mech fits (road frames often need a braze on mech) and the BB isn’t a weird one.

Biggest problem will be the gears – even with a triple 22/32/42 the gearing will be very low. They’ll spend most of the time in the big ring even in hillier areas.

A road triple groupset with flat bar shifters might be better – you could get a road groupset and sell the STI shifters and get flat bar ones – road STI’s are always in demand and fetch high prices even second hand.

We have new computers at work. Most websites are fine. CRC now takes ages to load any pages, menus are dreadfully slow, like we have a dial up connection! Was using it last night and I gave up in the end as it wouldn’t load anything and either crashed or I got the “oops sorry we messed up” screen.

If I were CRC I would be looking for the person who designed it with a set of Bombers. Absolutely hopeless.

I don’t think anyone’s said this so far, but why don’t you put up a small fence and some gates? Car out, close gates. Perfectly ok and expected you should fence off your own land. Tasteful chain link or rope affair should be enough to keep costs down.

I love this project, done for no other reason than they want to be the first, the best, and show British engineering off. It’s the sort of thing so many people say “you could build a hospital with that money”, and they just don’t get the point. Sometimes it’s good to be the best!

I would love to have been at the meeting when this conversation happened (as I imagine it):

“Righty-ho guys, we need to make a faster one now. It’d be spiffing to make it do 1000mph, eh?”
“Yes, Andy, do you mind driving again?”
“I would be delighted!”
“So, the jet engines, do they do a more powerful one than we used last time?”
“No”
“Oh. Whats more powerful then?”
“A rocket.”
“Aren’t they a bit dangerous?”
“Yeah, a bit.”
“Be nice to put one on a car though, eh chaps?”
:general murmur of agreement through thoughtfully trimmed moustaches:
“Hang on though, we need to make sure it works. Don’t want to look bad for Queen and Country, do we? How about a rocket AND and jet engine? And a Formula 1 engine in there too?”
:general murmur of agreement through thoughtfully trimmed moustaches:
“Ok, thats decided, all three. Get to work chaps!”

If you are the sort of person who might feel downhearted and give up if you come last, you might not want to bother. I can understand that.

If you are like me and you want to use the race as a barometer of your general fitness and ability – go for it! I entered a road hill climb event last year (Jackson Bridge Hillclimb, West Yorks) just to see how fit I was. I had previously done it, self timed, at 14 mins ish. My time was 9:58. I was chuffed to improve my time but I did come dead last, even behind the junior riders (under 16yo!!). I grunted up in the inner ring of my (shock!) triple chainset!! My friend won the veent for his club in less that 5 mins. The organiser of the event was really nice and encouraged me to enter (He’s a cat 2 racer I think) and I enjoyed the whole thing.

Best of all I have a time to beat this year…. will I come last? Maybe… but if I improve that’ll be awesome!

Why would you want to drive into Manchester?!
There are these things called trains, buses and, in Manchester, one of the biggest and best tram networks in the UK. There are even FREE shuttle buses from the station that just circulate all the popular areas.

If you’re going to say things about Sunday trains/buses from where you live then drive to a local station or an area with free parking and get the tram/bus/train or walk from there. On the rare occasions that I do drive, I often park up on Great Ancoats Street, it’s a 5 minute walk through the back roads to Piccadilly or Northern Quarter from there.

Hmmmm train from Huddersfield is £24 for 2 people. Plus the bus fare to my house from bus station return for 2 people is £5.60. Couple of hours to get there house to the shop I wanted to go into.

Or £3 parking and £6 diesel. No contest.

Another example, I would love to get the train to work. I live in Huddersfield and work in Leeds. Diesel is £5 and parking (when I have to pay it, sometimes I get one of the limited spaces my company provides for free) is £3.50. £8.50 total. Around 30-45 mins door to door.

Train and bus is £9.10 and £2.80 respectively, so £11.90. 80 mins door to door. No contest.

Problem is that if I went by train I’d probably go and spend money in central Leeds as I would have to walk through it to get to my work.

Oh no – I was out riding with some of the Holmfirth guys on Thursday, I know someone who I was riding with could fit the age description. I don’t know them very well but my friend who lives there does. I’ve given him the heads up.

You just never know when it’s going to be so close to home I suppose.

I went into Manchester 2 weekends ago and the parking is very restrictive and according to the shop I was in (Cotswolds Clearance) enforced very strictly. It was quite expensive too, but in the middle of the afternoon maybe 1/10th of the spaces were being used.

Bargain!

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=15827

I had to upgrade the hubs pretty quickly on my pitch as the big standard Shimano m475 (not as good as Deore) had crap sealing and the free hub seized. Went for Pro2 Hope hubs.
Just sold my Avid brakes and went to 2013 SLX. Braking not more powerful but should be more reliable and lever feel is ace.
Standard Spesh Eskar tyres are amazing though. I bought more of them when they wore out.

Am I right in saying you can’t hide your address from a winning bidder anyway? So if you give him an address to send the cash it won’t be any more risky.

Some people just like to deal in cash.

I had an American cheque Fedex’d to me on an overnight courier service from the USA to pay for a vintage Turbo saddle which only cost about £50. I waited it to clear and sent it off, no problem. The overnight service to send the cheque cost him £30 as the price was on the package. Never understood why he did it that way but it was genuine.

Oh that’s awful. A very sad day indeed.

Thanks so much for the mountain rescue guys for all their efforts. We can’t give too much money to these guys. Sad to hear their efforts were ultimately in vain on this occasion, hope they are ok.

My brother put Lyrics on his which suit the back end nicely but it does make it a bit of a monster. I’d go for some nice coil 150mm forks when I replace my Pikes on my Pitch.
Hard to see them ever getting “tired” though!

I would accept the new place, if the old place want you badly enough they’ll offer more, but they don’t sound great.

Have a look to see if the middle ring lines up with the centre of the cassette, between 5th and 6th cogs on a 10sp. Yours may be heading towards the smaller cogs so the angle to the big cassette cog is too great.
Although you should in theory be able to run a big ring to the largest cog on the cassette which would be further out anyway, so this might not be it.

Another story from my wife (I don’t know why she has all the fun stories 🙂 ) which still haunts her to this day and refuses to speak of it again….

She was with her mum in Bradford Interchange waiting for a bus. I suppose the location should be a warning that weird stuff might happen but you don’t expect this… The interchange does have toilets. This is an important fact.

A slightly shabby looking “larger” lady (not obviously homeless but maybe not looking after herself) walks outside the large bus shelters along where the buses stop. She is wearing a long dress.

She proceeds to lift up her dress and semi-squat over the sewer grate outside the shelter. She then, without removing her underwear, has a lengthly bout of severe liquid diarrhea, which pours out from her underwear. 😯

She stands up and walks away.

Several hundred people at the interchange that day have their lives changed forver.

Not me. I have an iron sphincter. I could clip the ends off cigars with it.

😯

Please don’t smoke anywhere near me please. For many many reasons…. 😉

My wife has many stories about working in M&S, but this is my favourite.

She was on a till once and a guy came out of the changing rooms (which were nearby). He was a smartly dressed office type with a briefcase, no sign of what he was about to do. He opened his briefcase and pulled out a clearly (both visually and nasally) HEAVILY soiled pair of underpants. He asked the till staff to put them in the bin for him.

I was at a local HWS and asking the bloke if they kept bikes aside (they didn’t) when an old bloke came up to the same worker and asked where he should dump his 2 perfect condition Roberts radios. I said something along the lines of “right here” as I held out my hands. 😯

I would do it on my own, but I’d probably be so cautious I wouldn’t enjoy it. I’m going up in a couple of weeks in the evening with a friend, very much looking forward to it!