The 'Introduce Yourself Here' thread

Hi all.Here`s my story..
Started mountain biking in 1992 riding a 21" Diamond Back Sorrento (Far to big).One year later I,upgraded to a 1992 19" Kona Cinder Cone(Loads of space and superb handling).This evolved over the next two years to the point were it was time to go "Full Suss".In 1996 i replaced the Kona with a Pro-Flex 856 and even tried a few downhill races (and took it to Chamonix in the summer,Plan Praz to Brevent is absolutley AWSOME).Having reached the limits of elastomer suspension I,changed the frame in 1998 to a Giant ATX 990 with longer travel linkage plates on the rear and Manitou X-Vert R forks.So now I had a "Long Travel" 4" front and rear downhill bike but was starting to miss hard tail accuracy and so in 1999 I,bought a 17" Giant Boulder Team (£250 Team Replica) this bike turned out to be a hell of a lot more fun to ride than its more expensive full suss brother and was taken to Coed-Y-Brenin twice.
Then I,did the settling down family thing and sold the bikes.In 2003 I decided to return to biking and built up a Kinessis Maxlight which was superb but for some reason I,just didn`t have the "go" of previous years and so the bike was sold.
In 2004 I,was diagnosed as having a Pituitry Tumor which was proboably the reason for the lack of "go" as the pituitry gland controls all the bodies hormonre levels.
So here we are..
2005 nearly 2006...
Tumor removed...
1992 Kona Cinder Cone built and awaiting a thrashing...

So thats my story.

If anyone wants advice on Pituitry Tumors PLEASE ASK...

Er.........

Started MTBing in 1989, bought a bike for a £10 that had been sprayed white......including chain, tyres, saddle etc.

In retrospect it had probably been stolen, although I trusted the guy I bought it from, probably due to my youthful ignorance. Was very cheap and dayglow underneath the paint, lasted about a month as I subjected it to some well hardcore youthful action.

Next trashed a Townsend Explosion, then bought a Clockwork with Shocktech shitty forks that compressed and didn't rebound. Wore that bike out in Clandeboye Estate Northern Ireland and other Ulstery places, got into Scotland and Polari etc., moved to Glasgow then Beauly then Glasgow in search of MTB nirvana.

Current main MTB is an Orange Gringo built 2000 with good kit; looks dated now but I can keep up with my mates on full bouncers.

I still have the original Clockwork and it's my most used bike........well it's not quite the same as the frame died due to what I would proudly call very high mileage. Bought a 'new' frame (secondhand 91 Clockwork!) but still have it built up with bona fide kit like original Pace RC30's DX Thumbies, 1' Salsa Stem, flat bars. Still have a set of 117 SUP CD Ceramics that I bought in 1992 but the braking performance is kak because the ceramic has worn of on certain bits.

Like the highlands.

My turn

I've been riding and racing since 1990, starting off in Bournemouth, then going to Uni in 1993 in SE London and now residing in Kent.

First moment in Mountain Biking was picking up an 1989 end of season issue of MBUK with Tim Davies of Shmoo Cycles lifting the championships from David Baker and Tim Gould of Team Peugeot. That inspired me to purchase a Clockwork Orange and when that got nicked, a Trek 970. I then got into Treks and went onto buy a Trek 8500 which I loved, and still had until reently. In 2002 I bought my dream bike, a Kona 1996 Hei Hei which rode wonderfully, and now I have my other dream bike, a 1991/92 Pace RC200.

I love all things retro, and am well pleased to have found a site full of simular minded people..looking forward to sharing some memories and piccies over the next few months

Cheers

Rich

Welcome to the site

Elmo,

glad you're back on the bike

Rich,

how did you find the site?? Getting the site promoted hasn't been easy.

rutteger":v4q0nsmn said:

Rich,

how did you find the site?? Getting the site promoted hasn't been easy.

Click to expand...

Funnily enough it was doing a google search on PACE RC100's that did it..brought me to retrobikeguy's Pace....

I had the same problem with my site..seems the only way to find it on google is to search for Kona Hei hei's

Rich

Hi

I've just recently got back into mountain biking after many years in the wilderness.

I started way back in the late 80's when I was at school and when mountain biking really took off in this country. This was the time when Muddy Fox was king of the hill and Suntour was still a major player in the market. I got my first bike in 1989, a Specialized Rockhopper in bright yellow with a Shimano Exige groupset - very fetching at the time! I had this for a while and upgraded various components until I decided that I wanted to upgrade to a better steel bike. I opted for a Saracen Kili Flyer (can't remember the year) in a tasty epoxy coated purple finish with Tange prestige tubing and a special black finish (rare at the time) Deore groupset. This bike was my pride and joy until some a-hole nicked it from the school bike sheds. Luckily, I was insured so I got another one - new for old policy. I had this for a while and then this one was nicked too!! Again, my insurance company paid out and I got a Diamond Back Axis in a cool splatter type finish with full XT. Lovely bike with great handling and a sloping top-tube. Again it wasn't long after that my luck ran out - yes, you guessed it! it was nicked, this time as I was riding home from Uni in Bristol. I was mugged at knife point!
:cry:

As you can probably imagine, I was beginning to think that mountain bikes and me were cursed. I decided to leave it for a while and started to get into cars. I've always loved cars and got into them in pretty big way when I left uni. Anyway, a couple of years later when I had the money and time I decided to get a nice steel bike again. I got a lovely 95 Kona Explosif and attempted to get back in to riding but never found the time. I sold it about a year later and put more money into buying cars - Old BMWs

Anyway after many years, I've now got an On One Inbred (a retro bike for modern times), which I'm very happy with. Great bike, simple and very cool. I quite fancy an aluminium bike now as well - maybe a pristine old Cannondale or Klein with front shocks. Cars and bikes - expensive hobbies!

By the way, that's my story above. I forgot to log in!

Nice one ,

very expensive indeed

fluff was also bike mugged at knifepoint in bristol, nice place bristol then..

My story

Hi guys. My story: got a Trek 7000 in 1992 that turned into a Yeti FRO two years later through a chance discussion with a friend's Dad. I took it to Evolution Imports / Bromley Bike Co. the following day to have it checked over and was told by Mike Jackson (he of riding over cars in MBUK fame) "you didn't just buy a bike, you joined a cult. And if I'd known that one was for sale, I'd have bought it"

In 1995, a trip to the US saw me driving from South Carolina to Durango, Colorado to visit the Yeti factory. Turned out my Yeti was a rare round-tubed version, made when they temporarily ran out of the trademark oval tubes. I believe it is a FTW built frame, but am willing to be corrected by any other Yeti nuts!

So I bought another FRO at the factory and saved up to build it into a mean machine. I switched all the XT kit over from the original and still use most of it to this day. I believe it's from the very late '80s!

I've raced, and still race, in MTB, triathlons and adventure races on the new FRO and it's never let me down still turning heads.

The original FRO is still going strong ...

Living in SE London / Kent.

Found the site from a link in a SingleTrackWorld post.