# Downhill on a shopper



## Jody (24 Nov 2016)

View: https://youtu.be/_2_nDekAyZY


This one brought a smile to my face. Just shows if you've got it then it doesn't matter what you ride.

I imagined @mjr pulling some stunts like this on his dutch bike.


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## raleighnut (24 Nov 2016)

That's how MTBs started out,


View: https://youtu.be/h19n-5qIp78


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## Salar (24 Nov 2016)

Those were the days, I started around the late 80's early 90's on early Marins and Konas with my son who had one of the first Raleigh mountain bikes.

He quickly graduated from that and became a downhill nut on a Kona full suspension bike and did well in the Welsh national downhill comps until broken shoulders slowed him down.

I've a few old MTB books which document the USA history very well.

Good times then on slim looking fully rigid steel frames.


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## mjr (24 Nov 2016)

raleighnut said:


> That's how MTBs started out,


Yes, but not in the USA! Geoff Apps had been making them since the 1960s, with Cleland Cycles's first designed model (rather than Gary-Fisher-style customs) being produced in 1981. Here's Geoff riding a 1982 model:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1bYUSRhPRg

Sadly, Cleland was forced under by a supplier in the mid-80s and is now largely forgotten, except for a sterling effort at https://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/history/ - I see on its homepage that the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame has decreed that mountain bikes must have tyres 2 inches or wider, which seems like an ugly trick to keep early European mountain bikes out, as they typically used 650Bs which are 1½" wide. I think 700D is the only common European size to be that wide and it was only used on a few GT bikes... I guess that's how you steal an invention, folks: succeed commercially and then retcon earlier competitors out of the history.


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## greekonabike (24 Nov 2016)

That was amazing. I saw some footage of original klunkers hurtling down hills and it's interesting to see how the disciple has evolved so much in a relatively short space of time.

GOAB


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## DRM (24 Nov 2016)

It's what we used to do in the 70's, get a ratty old bike and rag it to death off road, no such thing as mountain biking then, we called it scrambling, they were certainly tough old things as we couldn't break them, indeed I don't even remember getting a puncture either, I bet they were the sort of bike that hipsters pay a fortune for to restore into a single speed retro thing.


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## Salar (25 Nov 2016)

We used to ride and race in the 60's on a local bike speedway track in Newcastle, no hills or countryside for us , we were just a gang of friends, not in a proper club or anything.

I was given a single speed BSA for passing my eleven plus, this soon started to lose parts. First the mudguards, then the chainguard, then the front brake, then the back brake I think I disconnected it.

Dangerous riding days, but I only came a real cropper once and that's another story.

It looked like this when I had it!


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## GrumpyGregry (25 Nov 2016)

Jody said:


> Just shows if you've got it then it doesn't matter what you ride.
> .


Actually it does. No matter what Physics is physics and a talented rider on a bso will still find it breaks.


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## ChrisEyles (29 Nov 2016)

Love the ding of the bell before the big backflip jump 

I was once riding my 1950s Raleigh Sport along a cycle trail when a group of young teens sitting on the bank hollered for a bunny hop over a speed bump... I was pretty chuffed to be able to oblige, but now I feel wholly inadequate!


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## marzjennings (30 Nov 2016)

Jody said:


> Just shows if you've got it then it doesn't matter what you ride.
> 
> .


 Except the fact that the back wheel buckled on a drop, tyres weren't up to the job and the bike had to be modified to be rideable downhill (brakes and pedals). Video was funny as a joke, but I think enforced the idea that you need the right tool for the job.


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## shouldbeinbed (30 Nov 2016)

Awwww I had hoped for this when you said downhill on a Shopper


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## Jody (30 Nov 2016)

marzjennings said:


> Except the fact that the back wheel buckled on a drop, tyres weren't up to the job and the bike had to be modified to be rideable downhill (brakes and pedals). Video was funny as a joke, but I think enforced the idea that you need the right tool for the job.



My point being someone unskilled on a £5k downhill bike wouldn't be able to do the same. He is the opposite end of the scale and yes the bike is not fit for purpose but backflipping a 40lb+ bag of spanners on a big double takes some skill and taking a big drop off on a shopper takes some bottle.


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## marzjennings (1 Dec 2016)

Jody said:


> My point being someone unskilled on a £5k downhill bike wouldn't be able to do the same. He is the opposite end of the scale and yes the bike is not fit for purpose but backflipping a 40lb+ bag of spanners on a big double takes some skill and taking a big drop off on a shopper takes some bottle.


If you're trying to say it's more about the rider than the bike, then I 100% agree. But if you were saying if you have the skills it's possible to have just as much fun regardless of the bike, then no, I don't agree. Which was my point.


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## Jody (1 Dec 2016)

marzjennings said:


> If you're trying to say it's more about the rider than the bike, then I 100% agree. But if you were saying if you have the skills it's possible to have just as much fun regardless of the bike, then no, I don't agree. Which was my point.



Let's not over analyze this as it was a light hearted film and comment. I'm sure you know what I was trying to convey.


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