How we used to ride.

[palinurus]

First bike I spent any serious money on (i.e. the first one that didn't come out of the Marshall Ward catalogue) was one of these, from Bob Addy's.

 

[Kirstie]

OMG Biopace! Remember that?
My first MTB was a 1992 Shogun Prairie Breaker but it's long since gone and I have no pics of it. I always coveted a Kona Hahanna but never had the money in those days as I was a student...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Like some others, I used to have a Muddy Fox courier... it got stolen in Oxford (still vying bike theft capital of the UK, along with Cambridge...)

 

[bonk man]

couple of pics,,
this one is my 1st mountain bike, suitably up a mountain, er , well up the top of the Worcestershire Beacon 1300 ft ... some sort of Peugeot, don't know what model. I actually raced this beast..
[ATTACH=full]181562[/ATTACH]

And this one..
[ATTACH=full]181563[/ATTACH]
just after a really muddy race at Eastnor, 4 laps with the alligators in the woods..
The bike is a Karakoram,, you cannot really see it but the rear rim has split, I managed to finish the event, many only managed 3 laps.
Decent if heavy bike, got a few top tens in local events riding this thing. I still have the squeaky horn that is attached to the bars, it annoyed many riders in Sports category as I went past on the hills Last outing for the hooter was last years Marin Rough ride

This one , though you cannot see the actual bike is an early Cannodale M1000 at Eastnor 24hr a couple of years ago.
[ATTACH=full]181564[/ATTACH]
Now sold as too big for me.. good bike though.

 

[dodgy]

Tinker, is that you?

 

[longers]

It's been fitted with mudguards and was used for a couple of weeks for the mile round trip for him to get to work while the gas board dug up the road.

I had to have words about the state of the chain.

 

[Cubist]

Glad he's using it. It was great on the towpaths and so on, but I only rode it "proper" off road occasionally, and the last time I did I remember dropping down a mile long rutted farm driveway and not being able to focus 'cos my eyeballs were jiggling. Give me plush forks any day!

 

[guitarpete247]

Still got and use Biopace chainset. Read Sheldon Brown's article on Biopace before you diss them. Mine is 22 years old on an "88 Tufftrax.

Still riding it today. Only bits changed from when I bought it are bar ends added and new pedals (not on this photo).

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

My first MTB ( or tracker as we called them) was a Triumph racer converted to single speed, some wide cow horn bars fitted and my local bike shop did what I can only imagine now were cheap cyclocross tyres. Everyone had one but as I remember we weren’t to see Real MTBs till a while later. The Raleigh bomber was the first I saw anywhere near an MTB. The real good bikes had a sturmey archer hub gear but most bikes had the derailleur removed as they generally ended up bent and the chain just ran on the best gear for all round stuff. This was the early 80's. Now I feel like a right old git!

 

[palinurus]

My first MTB ( or tracker as we called them)

Trackers! yup we did that too.

 

[madguern]

Weird because in pub the other night talking to my mate about tracker bikes. Thread brings back memories, first mountain bike was a falcon , conned on that one. Then and MBK purple and white thing. Both great bikes though, just at the wrong time for me as discovered drinking ! So ended up with an early rear suspension bike that had no known name ! It was like riding a steel girder with a bouncy back end. That ended my love affair with bikes for a while. Plus lived in a flat up 3 flights of stairs and had to carry the girder after each ride.

Had to wait a few years for my Marin and it had proper front suspension and indexed gears and was really light !

 

[Hacienda71]

Trackers! yup we did that too.

We did too. Must have been a countrywide phenomenon. Rocket seat by iscaselle.

 

[jay clock]

Bombing through the local woods and doing jumps on my old 5 speed

5 speed? What is wrong with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed? With motocross handlebars?!

 

[hotmetal]

First bike I spent any serious money on (i.e. the first one that didn't come out of the Marshall Ward catalogue) was one of these, from Bob Addy's.

Ha! I used to live in Watford and remember Bob Addy. IIRC he was a miserable old git of a roadie who hated MTBs but sold them cos everyone wanted one. He sold me my first MTB, a Saracen Ltd Edn, powdercoated black Tange steel frame, LX groupset, Biopace c/r and that odd 'U-brake' under the chainstays/BB. As MTBs were new then, he sold me a frame according to road sizes. How many trees did I crash into? Still, it gave me the bug and I sold it and bought a 2nd hand 1988 Cannondale SM800 for the same as the Saracen cost new. The 'Dale is still in my garage with CityJets on as a town hack. It is still a truly great bike, albeit a bit knackered. It still shifts as well as my 2006 Jekyll which has SRAM X0 on it! The old 'Dale was rigid as standard, with a 24" rear wheel and 26" front (which made finding decent back tyres tricky by 1995). I stuck some early RockShox on it, but wish I'd kept it standard now. It had XT thumbies (6 speed), a Flexstem, Suntour Rollercam rear brake (awesome stoppers pre-V). The Mavic 'Paris-Gao-Dakar' hubs and BB have never needed adjustment even after 20+ years of abuse and being hit by a Rover 827!!!
I'll see if I can find some pix.

I do remember the old Raleigh Arena ('racer') and the shortie mudguards, cowhorn handlebars etc. I think that's why Raleigh invented the Bomber. Everyone was making their own anyway. We used to go down the "Death Track" through the trees in Oxhey Park (Palinurus may know it) on 'racers' that we converted into what we called 'trackers' by the addition of cowhorns and replacing the rear wheel with one off a Grifter, which meant building your own bracket to fit the rear (side-pull) caliper. Oh, the fun. Oh, the hideous injuries!

 

[hotmetal]

My 1988 Cannondale

Note the old "Station House" Cannondale logo, the 24" rear wheel, the Rollercam rear brake and the Flexstem. And the "Mint Sauce" stickers that came free with early issues of MBUK (I think). Mint sauce was so cult at the time.