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Here it is...my first "Back in the day..." post. In these posts we will be looking back to the days of old. For all of us active mountain bikers who have been in the sport for a long time, it will be nostalgic. For those of you just getting into the sport, you too will have memories like this to look back on. This will probably end up being one of my favorite sections of this site. Shoot me an email if you guys think of any other subjects that will go along with this section. I always like to hear ideas and suggestions.
Do you remember the feeling you had when you rode your first "real" mountain bike? I remember it vividly. First, the bike was a Raleigh M80 that I received as a Christmas present in 1995. With a mix of Alivio and STX-RC components...I thought I was in heaven. Even better, the front fork was upgrade from a Rock Shox Quadra 5 to a Rock Shox Quadra 21R. With this bike, I was ready for the big time. Off the bat, the geometry felt much faster. Especially in those days, the angles were steep and the stems were long. The dampening was handled by elastomer's that you had to grease on a regular basis. Changing the stiffness of the compression was achieved by switching out the different colored elastomer bumpers. Wow, things were simple back then. I also think it weighed twice as much as what is considered cross country these days. That was back when they thought making steel tubing as large as aluminum tubing was a good thing. It's funny to look back at now because of how far things have come. I sometimes wonder how we even rode that stuff.
Here is a picture of the bike in it's last build stage. I have actually given it to my brother using parts out of the usual parts bin to get it rolling.
Over the years I owned the bike, there were several things that got upgraded in my usual fashion. So here's a list:
- Rear Derailleur went from a STX-RC to a XT
- Alivo cantilever brakes with the Avid Triangle got replaced with XT v-brakes
- Stock generic stem changed to a 130mm Control Tech that was BRIGHT YELLOW!
- Cage pedals got thrown away for some Onza Clipless
- Stock tires in for WTB Velociraptors
- Huge red bar ends
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I rode the wheels off of this bike for a long time. Most of the rides were at Sope Creek. This was back in the days where there was no speed limit and most of the trails were still open to bikes. We used to ride that place all of the time. It was our little a-line. I can remember thinking about how much air I thought I was catching running down the left side of the fork in the back. I could have sworn I was going over 50 mph because that is really what it felt like. The funny part is that I wouldn't catch myself dead riding tires that skinny ever again...and I considered those huge back then.
One of my favorite rides was Conyers right after they opened it to the public. As you can see in the pictures, they used to make you register and wear numbers back in those days. I remember seeing deer jumping the orange fences they had set up for the Olympics. That coarse was incredible, but from what I hear, unsustainable for regular use. That is why it is the trail that it is today. There was one section that had a bail out that seemed to be a vertical downhill with a sharp left hand turn at the bottom. Just enough to get the heart really pumping. It was also the first time I had ever ridden on granite.
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I got a lot of really good use out of that bike. It was also what started the sickness for me. Once I took a ride on a "real" mountain bike, I was hooked. Still to this day, every time I get on a new bike, I get that same feeling I did back then. When I see people getting into the sport for the first time, it brings me back to those days and reminds me how much I enjoyed those beginning stages of my riding. It was also a time that I actually kept a bike more than a year!
Now the bikes are much more complicated and use specific but that same heart and enthusiasm is still there. The same reason I rode back then is the same reason I ride today...I just love it. Hopefully that will never change and I don't think that it will. Everyday I remind myself how great it is to have a hobby like this one. Someday I hope to pass along this same love and passion (ok...obsession) to the kids I plan on having one day. I guess by then, they will be riding 26 lbs. 8" travel bikes or something else crazy like that and look at my pictures from now and ask...."dad...how did you ride that thing?"
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April 1st, 2008 at 7:10 am
I totally get what you mean….. I started riding with my dad back in ‘92 on a rigid Royce Union…. I still remember the joy of riding “fat” tires for the 1st time
April 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
Whoh. That’s me.
My first real mountain bike was also a Raleigh. I got it in 1992 or 1993. It also had a Rock Shox Quadra fork. The bike had aluminum main tubes with chromoly rear triangle and head tube. The main tubes were silver with purple anodized specks. It was a blast. So much so that I tore my knee open on my first blazing fast downhill on Mount Pacifico near Los Angeles.
I also raced on that bike in my first racing season in 1994. My first race was the 1994 Cactus Cup. I loved it.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 am
I picked up my first “quality” bike in 1991. Not knowing what I really wanted, I decided on a hybrid. I did lot’s of research and ultimately settled on a Cannondale H400. The first time I threw a leg over it, I knew I had to have it.
The ultra stiff, lightweight aluminum frame seemed to transmit my very thoughts immediately into forward motion
The unbelievably smoooooooth shifting
It was the anti-Huffy. It was all too much to handle, so I plopped down what seemed like an extravagant 550 clams and took the pretty blue bike home. Enjoyed the heck out of riding through all the little towns in east-central Mass (Lexington/Concord,etc.)
Fast forward to 2000. I finally decided to take the plunge and get a “real” mountain bike. The hybrid was nice for fitness, but I’m not really jazzed about riding the same road over and over. I was living in Cheyenne at the time–all barren prairie, and constantly windy. Spent most of the summer whining that I couldn’t ski–had to find a summer activity that would instill the same passion–maybe I’ll try mountain biking.
So, the first thing I do is seek out a Cannondale dealer since I had gotten such a special feeling the first time around. No such luck with the Cannondale MTBs. I kept moving up in price, but still no magical moment. So I expanded my search. Before all was said and done, I threw a leg over 36 different bikes from 16 manufacturers–I’m sure some of the guys at the bike shops all up and down the front range were sick of me. I was ready to settle for something that felt good but not great (a mid level stumpy hardtail or a similarly priced Fisher Big Sur, maybe a Kona or even a K2), when something caught my eye as I dejectedly walked out of the last store in the Denver Metro area. It was 1250 clams, about twice what I wanted to pay (I wasnt’ sure if I’d really dig the sport, so I was reluctant to dig to deep), so the guy at the store hadn’t bothered to point it out. It was this obnoxious bright metallic yellow and stood out like a beacon in the night. On a whim, I asked the guy to pull it off the rack. I then took it out and had a spin. Wow! It was the Cannondale experience all over again, only better. It was like the worlds best bike fitter had taken my measurements and transmitted them to a custom builder and I was their only customer. My new Rocky Mountain Oxygen Race and I were a marraige made in heaven. To this day, I credit that bike with instigating my obsession.
Fast forward to 2005. I’m getting older, softer, yet riding more and more technical terrain, not a good combination. So, I decide it’s time to buy a dualie. After a couple years exile in North Dakota, I decide to reward myself with the best bike I can find and price be damned. Having been transfered to Colorado, I’d be able to put a top-of-the-line trail bike through its paces. Again, the exhaustive research. Long story short, I brought home a new Yeti 575 with full pro build kit. After a brief period getting used to FS trailbike geometry (slightly shorter top tube, higher BB), I’m in seventh heaven riding stuff I thought I’d never be able to ride, I’m riding longer, further, faster, and with less fatigue. Again, worth every penny and then some.
Now for the interesting part. Now living in Montana. The winter is long and the trails don’t dry out periodically, like they do in CO. So, I pull the clipless of the Yeti, throw on some flats so I can do tiny laps around the furnace in the unfinished portion of my basement, practicing for tight switchbacks, trackstands, and other tight, low-speed maneuvering. A warm wave hits and I’m too lazy to swap back pedals, so I pull out the old Rocky and head for the trail. Within minutes I’m reaccustomed to the lower, longer riding position. The old hardtail isn’t very forgiving of my now sloppy technique. The stiff, unsuspended frame gives me instant feedback when I’m not light on my pedals. After a few rides (still haven’t bothered to swap pedals back on to the Yeti), I’m really digging the old hardtail again. I can ride the technical, rocky sections as smoothly on the hardtail as I did last summer on the dualie. The devolution has been highly instructive, as well as a heckuva lot of fun.
So what’s next? Fully rigid? Single speed? How retro will I go?
Actually, I’m looking forward to getting back on the Yeti–I’m guessing once I thorw my newfound skills onto the more capable bike, I could reach even greater heights. Waiting for the latest snow to melt . . .
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 am
I invented mountain bikes…..Kinda.
I grew up near a national park (Acadia) where there are miles and miles of graded gravel roads called carriage trails. they were originally for horse drawn carriages, so they are pretty wide, adn very smooth. As a kid, we bombed all over the Island on our columbia and Raleigh single or three speed bikes. Sometimes we would try to ride the hiking trails - at least down to the lakes or to some secret spot where we could smoke a cigarette or whatever…
Later, when I first came to california, I had a diamond back “mountain bike” I rode as a messenger. I guess it counts, but I would say now that it was more like a ten speed beach cruiser. (or was it 3×5?) When I moved out to Arizona for a year I got my first “real” mountain bike. It was a taxicab yelllow Trek 850 with deoreXT index shifting, really good brakes (U-brakes rear) and some cool stuff like a custom shop built grease fitting on the BB. I rode the hell out of it and came to understand what mountain biking was all about. I rode single track, dirt roads, even the back roads around Prescott. What a blast. That was in 1989.
In 1994, I bought a Bontrager through a guy who worked at Start to Finish. Rock Shocks Judy XC, V-Brakes, XT Rapid Fire 8-speed. WOW, that was a great bike. In fact I still own it and ride it all the time, although it’s a single speed now with a chopped SID in the Bontrager crown.
This week I built up a Karate Monket with 3×9 gears and a rigid fork, and I have to say, it is a pure machine. Kinda heavy, very rigid, and everything a mountain bike should be. It’s reminding me a lot of the early bikes before suspension, before good brakes, before all the technology took over…. I like it a lot. Can’t wait to strafe the carriage trails on this thing this summer.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
My first mountain bike was a brand new 1990 Nishiki Colorado. I bought it at a warehouse sale, and they guy sold me the only size they had…Extra Large. I’m 5′11″, my riding buddy was 5′ 8″. We called it the Behemoth. It was way too big for me.
It was so damn tall that it fell out of the roof rack while we were cruising under 50 mph on a straight piece of road. We used to put it on a trainer my buddy had. It didn’t have a mount, you had to pedal and balance the bike with the back wheel spinning on a pair of rollers. The bike was already too tall for either of us, but the extra height of the trainer meant that any “unplanned dismount” would result in a painful meeting with the top tube. I never knew spinning on a trainer could produce so much fear-induced adrenaline.
We used to ride on a hillside that had been terraced for development, so you’d drop a steep 15 feet, then 30 feet of flat, then launch down another 15′ slope. Lost control at the bottom, flipped over the bars and landed on my butt. And the next day I bought my first helmet!
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
I remember test riding a Schwinn Moab with front suspension at a local bike shop in 1995. I am 6′2″ and weighed 190lbs at the time. As soon as I sat on the bike, the fork immediately fully compressed and bottomed out. I rode it off a few curbs and could just make out a slight resistance to bottoming, which it did with a loud thunk, and thought to myself so this is what real mountain biking suspension feels like, sweeet! Needless to say and lucky for me, I didn’t have the $550 to purchase the bike.
I did purchase a used rigid GT Talera (recreational bike with high-end looking bits added to it). It was meticulously maintained with WD-40 and was really fast downhill because the brakes didn’t work.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Well sounds like I’m the freshest here for getting their first real MTB. My first one was a 2002 Marin Bear Valley (aka Ear Valley now…) which is going to be my commuter next year at university. I don’t think anything I had before that could be classified as a MTB in anyway shape or form. It felt amazing because it was… *GASP* actually light!! I was used to crap dept. store bikes before and getting a real hard tail with good components was just amazing, it was undescribable actually being able to climb a good sized hill without dieing of exhaustion halfway to the top… but now I’m moving on to my second real MTB… and man that is some bike compared to my first…
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Coming out of high school, (1990), I wanted to do something to keep in shape, (swam and played water polo), but since I had already had multiple knee operations and couldn’t do anything involving running I figured I’d get one of those bikes like Greg Lemond rode. Well, I bought an assortment of magazines and started soaking it in. The more i read the more I started looking at mountain bikes. I rode/raced BMX bikes back in the hey-day of the early 80’s, and thought a mountain bike would be the perfect move.
I knew some $100 dept store bike was not going to cut it and decided to go big, (before doing any research) and decided that I was going to get something pretty high-end…………. for $300, (I figured spending 3X the amount of a Wal-mart bike would be pretty high end).
So to make a long story short, I did a 90 days same as cash deal at a local bike shop and got a 1990 Bridgestone MB-3. My budget went from $300 to $750 QUICK!!! It came with Deore DX and had the 1st gen rapid fire shifters, of which I had the shop swap out for some thumbies when they quit working once a little sand got in them. The first time I rode that bike I just giggled.
We had some local trails where I lived (Playboy hills was what we called it). They were a scorchering 1 mile long. We rode those at least 5 times a week. Then we would venture into the local trails in Houston which to me were amazing. Eventually I decided to try a race a couple of hours north of me. Thats when I first saw a real mountain bike trail.
Well, I thought the Bridgestone was as good as it gets, then within a year, I’m ordering a custom Serotta T’Max with all XT (Pre XTR), Mavic ATB hubs/rim kit, (mavic sold a kit before they made complete wheel sets), and a Mavic BB. A-tac stem and Hyperlite bars, and red Bullseye pulley wheels. The first time I rode that bike I just giggled.
After many years in and out of shops and seeing many bikes come and go, I went and took my old 1991 Serotta, had it repainted, chopped off the der hanger, and turned it into a single speed 4 years ago. I found myself riding it more than my new bikes. It was why I decided to get a Eriksen. I wanted what the Serotta gave me, but with the ability to run disc brakes and front suspension. The first time I rode that bike I just giggled.
Ahh, pure bliss.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Great story Trey…but you left out the fact that you giggle so much that you had to make a career out of it! I know how you feel on the knees issue…that is part of the reason I started too.
April 5th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Hey kiddos!
After I had a couple thousand miles on my Super Record equipped Benotto (that I built one piece at a time on my $150/week salary) I started drooling over the hand-made Ritcheys et al. coming outta CA but I couldn’t swing the cash. Then in 1983 Specialized came out with the Stumpjumper Sport for $600 list. I bought one the second week they were available. It’s certainly a clunker by today’s standards but I assure you it was a “real” mountain bike in its day.
I haven’t been without a mountain bike since, but I’m still riding a ‘98 Rocky Mountain.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
My first was a new 1996 Raleigh M-50, fully rigid. I still have it, still love it though I recently bought a full suspension bike.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:35 am
@LP: What I remember the most about my old Raleigh (it is still hanging from the ceiling) is how thick they made the chromoly tubing. That just added a lot of un-needed weight.