Do You Meet Many Other Retro Riders?

Morning. Evening. Whatever it is.
Anyway, I was riding in Afan today with my lovely girlfriend ( who is turning out braver, faster and frankly madder than me on a bike ) and we were at the Skills Park when a bunch of chaps turned up, one of them on a 97 Kona Pahoehoe. I had to say something, so I blurted out: "RETRO KONA!!" he replied "RETRO MARIN!".
And we nattered for a bit - lovely chap and his bike was ace. Apparently it only comes out once a year. (My Marin is the only MTB I have so it's out whenever I am )
Off Michelle and I went to continue our ride ( which involved more air than I was ready for, frankly, but was brilliant) At the bottom of the park we saw Jon coming down on his Kona - blinking flip the man was fast on a HUGE berm.
Oh and as he turned to his mates as we left he said to them: "Makes a change from the abuse I normally get on this!"

Here's a pic, we are stroking each others' bikes. Because we are indecent.

Oh and I need to get some bombers on my Marin. They rock.



He is the first retro rider I have met out on the trails who stopped to compare bikes and natter ( Naturally I told him about this place) Has anyone else met many of us whilst out riding?

Nope not many here.
Once a year, what a waste.
Abuse for riding a retro Kona...heathens

yep, should be abuse for riding any Kona, retro or not ;-)


Yep bump into a few around here.

Re:

You won't find many retro MTB's at trail centres! Unless it's carbon, 1x11, and less than a year old most people aren't interested.
I have met several people on retro MTB's on my travels though, most of them didn't realise their rides were "retro" and didn't particularly care either, they were just the MTB that they'd had for several years and still worked so they still used them.
Now that's proper "retro"

Met a guy today but onto the retro road side of things.
Went out for a road ride and at the cafe stop he stated asking things about the bike and we got chatting .

Did a ride with my son last weekend: he was completely infuriated that I got stopped 3 times by people wanting to chat about my P7.

I was surprised at the range of bikes at the trail centres I have been to: BPW is more the high end stuff, but Afan has a lot more family types ( many looking a bit shell shocked after riding a trail, admittedly ;-) ) on everything from high end boingy bikes to BSOs. Mostly though it's the bread and butter stuff: Hardrocks, ( I see a LOT of Speshes ) and so on.

Not much retro as you say though - that was the first time I'd had a chat with anyone, it quite made my day. Well, that and doing a REALLY fast and technical descent. (By my standards, anyway)
Hamster: excellent Is it to him just an old bike with bizzarre straight tubes that his dad inexplicably loves?

Son rides a steel hardtail so no swirly tubes here thankyou! But indeed Dad's love for old bikes is completely over his head.

Re:

Seen this one a few times during my commute through Islington Upper St, London. Had to stop to check it out, being an unmistakeable fluro Orange with a Zoom stem. The owner eventually appeared from a cafe and we got talking about Oranges. Another occasion, the same guy pulled alongside whilst commuting the same street. Quite fast on those slicks.

Re:

Hi, I am the proud owner of the kona in question.
It was great to meet both of you guys, it's always nice to meet someone with whom you share a passion.
We had a couple of great days staying at the park accommodation, riding during the day and partying by night to celebrate the last few days of my mates freedom . We kicked off the event with a two hour beasting at the velodrome, which was awesome.
I'm not a retro mtb hardcore enthusiast but worked in a cycle workshop during my formative years in the 90s, so have worked on and sold many of the bikes you guys now keep and care for so well. I've owned the kona from new when I bought the frame as old stock in the early 2000s for peanuts as it was "unfashionable" due to the lack of disc mount. The motivation behind the purchase was a return to cross country, which is where my mtb routes lie having competed for years in the now sadly disbanded Cornwall mountain bike club race series. Besides that nursing a destroyed tibia and fibula and living at home, mother banned me from riding my beloved Dk general lee bmx :twisted:
The reason for the yearly use of my steed basically is not because I have a daily used alternative but that is literally how often I ride now . I'm not complaining but kids, mortgage and life mean as you all know difficult choices have to be made and the draw of low impact sports such as surfing are a safer bet. Be reassured that my boards are of a Similar vintage.
It may be of interest to you that my father who will be 70 next year still hits the trails weekly on his 1" headsetted, cantilever braked orange p7, legend!
I hope I haven't droned on too much and it really was a pleasure to me you both this weekend.
Cheers
Jon.