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I read lots of mountain bike magazines. There’s currently a four foot high stack of them in my back bedroom. I’ve taken out subscriptions to all the major ones at some point over the last 20 years and even had articles and photographs published some of them.
So I am always a bit sceptical whenever I see a feature on the history of mountain biking. Experience tells me that it’s usually a disappointing sidebar feature which is compromised by brevity and sometimes spoilt by inaccuracy.

A few publications, notably the now defunct Privateer, have got it right though. Nice long in depth articles from highly regarded sources; so when ‘The History of Mountain Biking’ landed on my doormat I wasn’t expecting to be impressed.

On a first quick flick through of the 154 pages I was struck by the lack of advertisements. In fact unlike the mainstream magazines which have so little content compared to the volume of adverts, this had none, apart from on the inside covers. This was all content; a good prospect.

Scanning through the list of contributors revealed a range of very highly regarded journalists and significant figures in mountain biking’s past and present.
Tym Manley, Charlie Kelly, Steve Worland, Jacquie Phelan, Steve Behr, Wende Cragg to name but a few…

The first article written by Tym Manley, is engaging and well written, summing up the story behind the ‘official’ rise of the mountain bike in California. It’s in depth and really sets the scene, introducing many of the key figures of the time.
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In the early 1980s, Chris Chance, an American frame-builder who specialized in TT and criterium bikes, formed Fat City Cycles in Somerville, Massachusetts, and began building mountain bikes. He had an intuitive and prodigious talent, and over the course of the decade was building the best handling off-road bikes in the world, including the Fat Chance with a relaxed, upright position and the more responsive Wicked Fat Chance with quicker-handling geometry. For the 1990 model year, Fat City Cycles launched a new top-of-the-line racing model, the Fat Chance Yo Eddy! Team. Combining everything Chris knew about designing efficient, quick-handling bikes for criterium races with almost a decade of building the sweetest handling mountain bikes, his resulting effort was perhaps the finest handling mtb ever built.

The Yo Eddy was hand built in the Somerville, Massachussetts factory, and TIG welded from quad butted, heat-treated True Temper 4130 chromoly steel. The frame weighed 4lb 5oz, and the fork 1lb 12oz, and every bike was a work of art. All the major cycling magazines praised the Yo Eddy’s sublime handling characteristics, incredible climbing and descending abilities, and almost telepathic responses to rider inputs. Seasoned bike journalists were astonished by the craftsmanship, examples being the silver brazed cable guides, strengthening gussets around high-stress tube junctures, and frame alignment accuracy to within one thousandth of an inch. (more…)

The January 2014 Bike of The Month contest was taken by wadsy’s 1993 Diamondback Axis Team Titanium, from some excellent machines as is shown by the three way tie for 2nd place!

The full result is as follows
1. wadsy’s 1993 Diamondback Axis Team Titanium
2= Giom6′s 1992 John Samways Formula One
2= Richieb’s 1990- Brodie Catalyst
2= mauricer’s 1990 Rocky Mountain Blizzard

Click here for more details and full results (more…)

UK MTB scene stalwarts Orange Mountain Bikes can trace their ancestry back to wind surfing company Tushingham. Orange’s Lester Noble worked for Tushingham back in the 80s and there the Tushingham mountain bike range was designed. The lucky owner of this Tushingham B-52 which is being offered for sale on ebay picked it up without realising the bike’s significance and is now selling it. The B-52s apparently came from the same factory as the Muddy Fox Courier, hence numerous similarities. Tushinghams are a rare beast, later in the 80s Lester Noble went on to form Orange with Steve Wade and the rest is very much history!

Click here to discuss in the forum.

The December 2013 Bike of The Month contest was taken by CCMDoc’s 1989 Merlin/Mongoose John Tomac Signature, from some excellent machines.

The full result is as follows
1. CCMDoc’s 1989 Merlin/Mongoose John Tomac Signature
2. Giom6′s 1992 Zinn Z-Centaur
3. theproscloset’s Missy Giove Yeti ARC ASLT

Click here for more details and full results (more…)

Stuck on last minute Christmas gifts for the cyclist and retrobiker in your life? There is still plenty of time to pick something up either from your local bike shop or most of the online retailers. Let us help you avoid a last minute dash to Marks & Spencer’s for a pack of socks on Christmas Eve with our top ten last minute gift guide. (more…)

The Christmas 2013 Specials are now online, click here to see the Retrobike Xmas Specials. We are doing various bundle deals all of which represent a massive saving off normal price.

Numbers are limited to stock so if you want a combo be quick

Barnoldswick. It just sounds like a Northern village name. I can’t hear it without thinking of a northern accent saying it. The kind of place you find in a rom-com where Cameron Diaz goes to find herself but finds Ewan McGregor instead. What you actually find in Barnoldswick is Hope.

Pulling up at the house of Hope is quite different from most of the British bike industry I’ve visited. It’s, well, kind of American actually. At least in appearance. Kind of huge in presence and neat in display. You’d never think this gentrified modernised church of British bicycle family silver was actually made in this incredibly smart building, it’s just too nice, too neat, too, well, American. But this front of house is entirely appropriate. To the founders, to the workers, to the ethos, to the product. (more…)

The November 2013 Bike of The Month contest was taken by girlonbike’s 1990 Fat City Team Comp, from some very strong competition.

The full result is as follows
1. girlonbike’s 1990 Fat City Team Comp
2. mr_ship’s Alpinestar’s Ti-Mega
3. Stumpjumper1990 1991 Specialized Stumpjumper Epic

Click here for more details and full results (more…)

The October 2013 ‘Halloween Special’ Bike of The Month contest was taken by Halaburt’s 1996 WTB Steel Phoenix.

The full result is as follows

1. Halaburt’s 1996 WTB Steel Phoenix
2. Noka78′s 1988 Fat Chance Wicked in pumpkin-orange
3. landsbee’s 1992 Salsa A La Carte

Click here for more details and full results (more…)

The word legend is one which is used all to readily, especially in sporting endeavour. For a select few the titled is deserved, the sadly late Jason McRoy was surely one of those. In the days when MTBing was still a relatively young sport and many retrobikers still young men JMC took on the best in the world and in many cases won. His life was tragically cut short but the memory lives on. The McRoy family have been auctioning some of his bikes with proceeds going to charity. This FSR was the last bike Jason raced on and was sold earlier this year for a shade over £5K. The seller has relisted it, once again some proceeds are going to the JMC Foundation. Check the auction out here > JMC Specialized FSR and discuss in the forum here.

We were extremely saddened to learn that forum regular Greenstiles aka Nigel Tillett has passed away following a motorcycle accident on Saturday 19th October

There is a thread setup here in Nigel’s memory, please post your thoughts there.

The funeral is to take place on Friday 8th November, a collection is being made in Nigel’s memory for ASPIE, an Asperger’s charity in Worcester which was a cause close to Nigel. Details on both are contained here.

Our thoughts go out to Nigel’s widow Alison and young son Alexander in this difficult time. Greenstiles, wherever you are mate, RIP.

Why a retrobike?

The coolest people of every generation have an icon. During the 1960s, among the rock n’ roll set on Chelsea’s Kings Road, it was the Jaguar E-Type. In the 2010s, the trendsetters are the 20-something media types of Shoreditch. They wear skinny jeans that stop above the ankle, and the coolest have meticulously manicured moustaches. Their preferred mode of transportation is a retrobike, specifically a fixed-wheel road bike from the 1970s or 80s, such as a Colnago or a Mercian. Less cool, but still way ahead of most of the population, is a slightly older male – mid 30s to mid 40s – typically a graphic designer with a penchant for classic trainers and vintage mountain bikes. On dry spring and summer days, they can be spotted cycling to work at a design studio in Islington on classic mountain bikes from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some are on top-of-the-range dream bikes like the Klein Attitude, Fat Chance Yo Eddy, and the Yeti FRO, while others ride models like the Muddy Fox Courier, or an early Marin, which – to retrobikers – are just as cool from a design point of view. The main reason for this is that the century-old classic bicycle design reached a peak around this time, before technology such as suspension and hydraulic brakes changed the game. In essence, a retrobike, from entry-level to top end, is a celebration of classic bike design. (more…)

So, here we go again, another lame Edwards tale that will follow the usual format. I’d echo Micheal Gove with his “yadda, yadda, yadda” from Newsnight (I can’t believe I’ve just repped Gove) but I know that more is expected, desired even. They say never change a winning formula but when your formula ain’t winning you sure as hell make changes. So, if you’re after the usual hackneyed recounting of lack of physical and mechanical preparation, unfortunate bowel evacuation, shoehorned popular culture and your modest scribe bravely saving the day via scarcely creditable heroics then you will be disappointed. But somehow I doubt it.

I’ve ridden l’eroica twice before, taking on the full 205km L’Erocia in 2010 and then the more modest 135km L’Erocia in 2012 to take full advantage of a beer in the sunny square in Gaoile in Chianti while the dust was still fresh on my legs. Despite being enjoyable, neither visit was completely satisfying due to some elementary errors – finishing downhill on the Strade Bianche in the dark with no lights or brakes in 2010, turning up with 42×23 in 2012. Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” and I wasn’t for arguing with Bertie Boy (well, I have some quibbles with the E = mc² lark – no, not the risible Big Audio Dynamite clunker – although I’d obviously agree that with mass being equivalent to or converted to energy, at relativistic speeds particles become harder to accelerate because as you inject more energy their mass appears to increase if only because it explains, succinctly, the additional challenge faced by a big boned rider). But, crucially, would it be third time lucky or once, twice, three times a lady?

It’s pretty obvious that the physical preparation wasn’t going to all it should be. And it wasn’t. But my mechanical skills were much improved and with a week before departure I had a fully working bike (ok, ok, I hadn’t actually confirmed that it worked by riding it). I was particularly impressed by my ingenuity in getting the Super Record rear mech to work with the 28t Shimano freewheel – at first the upper cage and the freewheel interfered with each other but with the use of half a cable end cap I fabricated a solution that was as effective as it was inelegant. Naturally I left packing the bike away until 5 hours before we had to leave for the airport. Which considering that we had to leave the house at 3.30 a.m. was someway short of the exacting standards of preparation that I pride myself on. (more…)

Hans Jörg Rey aka Hans “No Way” Rey will need no introduction to anyone who has ridden a Mountain Bike in the past twenty five years. The GT Bicycles veteran has multiple World and National championships under his belt but it his consistently high media profile many will know him for best. Images of Hans’ spectacular mountain bike trials shows and adventures are amongst the most iconic in the sport and have graced numerous magazine covers and posters. Hans kindly took the time to answer 20 questions for us…

1) Retrobike: How’s life in 2012?
Hans Rey: Life is good in 2013!!! I’m still living the dream, I’m as busy as ever riding bikes and having fun. I would have never dreamt that I would have such long and good career. I try to stay relevant to the times and my age, inspire people to ride or live their own dreams all along while making sure the sponsors get what they are looking for. I’ve done some great trips to Haiti (MTB Ayiti Event), Kenya & Uganda, Southern French Alps with Dan Atherton and the Lofoten Islands above the Arctic Circle in Norway.

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