popularity contest. name the frames you deem "special&q

i openned this page regularly for a couple days and i notice there is basically interest for:
Kona
Orange
Gt
Klein
Merlin

my list of special bikes:
Ibis
Fat Chance (wickeds only.)
Salsa
Grove innovations
Rhygin
Yeti

All those are handmade by cyclists w/ geometry tweaked to specific terrain. which turns into so called "soul".
I am not into Kleins since i am not into ultra stiff rides w/ proprietary hardware...

i don't get the passion for taiwanese, mass production for chainstore bikes.

For me 'special' has to have a story, a reason why you want or love something. It's not about 'I fancy one of those and so I bought it' it has to be 'I dreamed about owning one as a kid' or 'I saw a racer ride one of those and had to have one so I could pretend to be him'.

All my special bikes come from one period in time and that's the period when I was 15 - 18 when I was at my height of passion for bikes and at the depth of my poverty. It's all about me trying to relive my youth but this time with me having all the toys.

I'm not someone who wants to rebuild a bike I owned as a kid, they were never my dream bike, they were what I could afford, I mean when you fantasize about your ideal woman you pick a supermodel or an a sexy actress, you don't choose an ex-girlfriend, do you?

My special bikes are:

Fat Chance Ti
Yeti Ultimate
Bradbury Manitou
Pace RC100
Salsa La Raza
Roberts White Spider

The number of views a bike has had is often a good marker for the 'specialness' of it.

Lumping bikes together by brand is pointless IMO, most larger manufacturers have had good and bad periods, and again they are all personal opinions. I love Kona pre about 92, can't stand most of the stuff afterwards..reason, well I guess it's to do with my age when I was developng the habit as Pete says..

Bit I think it reflects on the dynamic of the users of this forum, when most of us were growing up you didn't get Yeti's, FATs, Grove's in your local bike shop, so I would think most of us atleast start by trying to get the bike we looked at for hours on end in the LBS, and then maye look for something a little more high end.

This just shows how personal this all is. When I was young, MTB just took off, at least, it became more known for me. This was somewere around the end of the 80's. I still didn't know anyone how did it at the time!
Me and a friend spent months, even more then a year, going through spec sheets to find the best bike money could buy. I can remember that we liked Klein the most, but endlessly unaffordable, our choice was the Cannondale M800, if I remember well.
I don't know why, but we never bought anything. Fast forward to 1999, I worked already for years and I passed a bikeshop that had this purple Raleigh Maxlite in the window. I instantly bought it! Not me at all, I didn't even know about group sets etc! I biked with it for some time, but it became less and less.
Fast forward again to about 2 years ago. As I am in Italy a lot, I decided that it would be nice to have an MTB there. In the same period, I was also looking for a new hobby as I had been in a semi prof raceteam for years and was looking for something else to put my heart in. I put the two things together and this is how this passion for older bikes was born. I am formost an technical guy, so I am mostly attracted by the technical side of things, even if they have been proven not to work. It is certainly not sentiment that directs my choices, although I still like the Cannondale M800!!

Don't think you can call an Orange a 'chainstore' bike purple.

I agree with Hilts. The bikes I relate to most are the ones me and my pals lusted after in the LBS in the early 90's. An Orange Vit T would excite me more then many exotic brands (although I do have a massive soft spot for Fat Yo Eddy's). Also, to be honest, you still have to chuck loads of cash at the really tasty retro bikes and I don't think I'd be willing to when I can spend a couple of hundred quid on a retro ride that will bring me as much pleasure.

i rode a gt karakoram and a khs. BUt if i am going out of my way and build a vintage bike now i am sure NOT going to build a karakoram. I will look for the handmade, special stuff which was NOT around my turff then. i look for bikes i had only seen pictures of.. i look for knowledge on bikes i didn't even know existed and then procceed to collect them.
it's not a nostalgia trip. i am looking for the ultimate ride.

And? Why should it matter to you what someone else likes?

The bike is just the tool, it's the rides that matter..

My number 1 special bike would be the Yeti ARC AS LT as Missy, Deaton and Myles all rode way back when. I could never afford one back then, I will never be able to afford one now... it's a pure 'out of my league' bike. But very, very special to me, these are the bikes that have 'downhill' etched into them, not only that but right up there at the pinnacle of the sport with the Kamikaze and Big Bear.

*sighs*.

You've obviously been having the wrong ex-girlfriends Pete...