Fair enough, here goes:
I originally got the Stumpjumper when a friend entered me with him for the first Polaris. He was undeterred by the fact that I did not have a bike or the means to get one; he simply bought me the Stumpjumper and told me that I owed him £699 (those were the days!). I then had it for a couple of years before I folishly sold it to a friend to fund a Klein and then went to the Philippines (I see trading the Stumpjumper for the Klein as being seduced away from an attractive and loving girlfriend by a superficially more glamourous alternative only to spend many years regretting the choice. The fact that the Klein was also cheap adds to this!).
Moving forward, I worked in Pakistan for a charity from 1998 to 2001. My work involved me travelling to the mountains in the North every 6 to 8 weeks for 5 to 10 days at a time. On a visit to the UK I decided to buy back my Stumpjumper to ride up the KKH (this involved selling the mint XC Pro equipped Pinnacle with RC 30s to another friend where it remains unattended to in his garage - but that's a different story).
So, the Stumpjumper and I were in Pakistan and enjoyed the road ride from Gilgit north towards the Chinese border. The road is absolutely stunning, an engineering marvel but of variable quality. Never went offroad though although would expect that it's truly worldclass and very untapped by bikes. I have photos somewhere of the Stumpie in the middle of nowhere, must try to find and scan them.
Anyway, September 11th 2001 came and it was quite clear that Pakistan would be implicated, fairly or unfairly (after the bombings in East Africa under the Clinton administration Cruise missiles hit Afghanistan, and Pakistan by mistake, within hours. So with a more right wing reactionary President a response was expected sooner rather than later - apologies for the political bit here). We lived about 100m from the US Embassy and our car park had been used as a base for a remotely launched rocket only a few months earlier so it seemed a good idea to move. We packed up what we could and relocated to a friends house, although we did go back for bits and pieces, including part but not all of the Stumpie. 10 days later we were evacuated and although I managed to get the frame and wheels to the same friends house we have lost contact.
So that's a brief/long story of a lost bike - it would be fantastic if I could one day be reunited with it.
PS I think I've made it sound like Pakistan was a dangerous place to live. I suppose in some ways it was but in three and a half years I had a fantastic time, it is an incredibly diverse and beautiful country and I met so many generous and interesting people. The reporting on the country by the British media during the days after September 11 and to a certain extent since has not been particularly balanced and I certainly did not live in the hotbed of radical fundamentalism that is often portrayed.
Anyway, apologies for the length (and dodgy liberalism) of this post!
