How we used to ride.

[Debian]

Here y'are oldies, you'll enjoy this, I bought the first issue and it only lasted for about four:

I recognize that, I bought it as well!!!

 

[dan_bo]

Here y'are oldies, you'll enjoy this, I bought the first issue and it only lasted for about four:

I've got that! and several copies of MTB Pro in the loft


I bought an '89 stumpie team from a shop in Palo alto for............................................$35, just for the XT thumbies. Shipped it back home and commuted on it for three years as a singlespeed 'cos the thumbies were on my cannondale. Bargain.

 

[dan_bo]

Good to see mud in the blood back up as well!

 

[Alan Whicker]

Two of my mates had 80s Stumpies at college. They were convinced that the manufacturer was Stumpjumper and the model was 'Specialized'.

My first MTB was a Claude Butler Xanthos in about 1995 - steel, rigid with canti brakes. Pretty heavy but it went up (and down) anything. It was completely indestructible. It's probably on bomb disposal duty in Afghanistan now.

I remember when my mate got one of the first Marin B17 full sussers. In our bit of the Pennines quite a few MTBrs thought suspension was for softies, and I was one of them until I took my super-stiff alu Hardrock down the cobbles at Ogden Water .

 

[fido]

My first "proper" MTB was a 1990/91 ish Kona Hahanna. As a particularly clumsy rider I was delighted with it's ability to smash through roots/kerbs/trees/walls without flinching.

I also used to be able to do most of my own servicing but hydraulics, suspension forks and cartridge bits & bobs give me a migraine.

 

[Globalti]

I will never be able to describe my feelings the first time I rode an MTB, it was a yellow and white Raleigh Maverick and after years away from cycling I was thrilled with the way it rode and handled. Years before, I had broken a couple of my 10 speeds riding cross country so this MTB did everything I had always wanted from a bike.

I had once even bolted a tiny chainring that I butchered off my brother's trike onto the inside of the chainrings on my 10 speed, changed the chain over by hand and ridden it up a steep hill, amazed at how breathless it made me.... until the steel ring collapsed under the strain!

 

[dodgy]

Another from the days of UK klunk here, too. I had a bright flouro pink MBK 'something or other', it had a bottom bracket mounted brake like someone elese mentioned! Not long ofter I got an aluminium frame (which was pretty advanced for the day) built up with a very early Shimano Deore groupset, Girvin Flexstem. I remember going up to the Lakes on holiday with a mate for a week of MTBing and camping. We met some other riders who were in awe of my flexstem But we did some proper long MTBing up there, riding up Helvellyn etc. He had a Raleigh with Campagnolo groupset, very swish.
Happy days, makes me laugh when I hear people asking what bike they should buy to ride 'insert name of trail centre here' and will only 5 inches be enough

 

[dodgy]

I should also have added that that lot started a love affair with MTBing for me which lasted 20 years, it's only now that I've become just as, if not more interested in riding on the road. I can see the same essence that attracts me, to me, it's no different.

 

[arallsopp]

Still got my white / mauve muddy fox courier. Long been converted to a twinspeed (by means of dead rear derailleur) but still as bombproof as it ever was. Unfortunately, I'm not so robust, and am off uprights for the foreseeable (pending reincarnation).

It lives with my dad now, and he still takes her out from time to time. Triangle frame bag, cantis, elliptical chain rings, suntour shifters, ridgeback grips, little wheels to route the front brake cable down the stem, and (now removed) a neon disc for the rear wheel.

Wonder if I can get that disc on the SMGTe. Ah... the noise.

 

[fossyant]

I still use my Diamond Back (circa 92)..fortunately, Wills Wheels resprayed it a number of years ago from Marbled grey (gash) to blue......

Still does the business........... suspension is for nannies..........

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Flexstem! - ALWAYS wanted one of those (at school with a Saturday job, suspension was unaffordable)

Mountain LX thumbshifters were the dogs

And Ringle!

 

[leyton condor]

My only off road bike is a circa 92 Muddy Fox courier comp.
It weighs quite a bit but I could not part with it.
I generally use it at weekends when I'm with my 8 year old daughter and for commuting in the snow.
I am thinking of getting something from this millenium though. Considering a GT avalanche1.........or maybe I will give the MF a few more years.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

They forgot to mention the big Duracell lockable lights that were the alternative to the standard Ever Ready offerings that every man and his dog had.*

Anyone remember them?

They were about 6" across each way by 2.5" thick, looked like they were more at home on a quad bike, and locked to their brackets. I think each one took 17 D size batteries or something like that.

*later, Ever Ready made versions in luminous green to match the trend of having similarly garish forks, remember those?

 

[bauldbairn]

Younger MTBers might not appreciate what we oldies went through as test mules for 20 years to bring them the comfortable, fine-tuned, lightweight and fashionable kit they can buy nowadays. Have a look at this:http://www.mudintheblood.co.uk/hwutrhome.htm

Thanks Globalti very interesting link - was only into "Racers" when everyone else I knew was either BMXing or MTBing. So I never knew how the progression in MTB design came about.

 

[Stephenite]

Anyone remember the Raleigh Bomber from the early '80s? It probably qualifies as the UK's first MTB shaped object. From memory it looked like a beefier version of what the cool kids were doing at the time, putting big cowhorn bars on their racers. My schoolmate had one, it weighed a ton. Mind you so did he so it needed to. Gonna have to google for one now...

I had one of these beauties. You're right, it did weigh a ton. I remember trying to go down a 2.5ft drop-off when the other lads were doing it on BMX's. I think it made a dent in the tarmac!

http://www.raleigh-bomber.co.uk/index.html - there were some for sale here last time i looked, but not now i'm afraid.