What was your Inspiriation then...THE moment you knew...???

I got bored of breaking road bikes using them off road. Then I wrote off a friends Grifter landing a jump badly and my parents decided it might be time to get me a bike that was up to the job. Never looked back.

Still land jumps badly but at least these days its my bikes that I'm writing off.

Yep; thats how i got started. Road bike[Rory O'Brien] with cowhorns and a singlespeed freewheel "tracking" through the woods & wastelands, could never get a gnarly enough 27" tyre!! Then reading Bicycle Action magazine introduced MTB's[anyone remember the Town that's going off-road article]; it was what i had been waiting for all my life, hooked from then on, although initially i felt a bit foolish thinking it was just for kids

I think for all of us it is the defining moment that the bicycle became more than a toy...

This book....



....I got for christmas one year when I was about 13, and it really made me realize that this sport is actually a sport and it wasn't just me and my mate throwing ourselves down singletrack paths as fast as we can for the hell of it. It kinda justified what we were doing and made me proud to be able to say "I'm a Mountainbiker" rather than some pesky kid who gets in the way of ramblers and comes home covered in mud. :roll:

I still have the book and I read it from time to time when I feel uninspired.... never fails gets me right on track again even now

Aah- Richard's Mountain Bike Book! Y'know, Nick Crane is now on telly on that 'Coast' programme.......no idea what became of that Charles Kelly bloke...........wonder what he's up to now?

For me it was buying MBUK one sunday- bored, had read cycling weekly and roadie thangs already- and thinking that it all looked much more fun than TT's on the local bypass.........folks with lots of gears and silly hats on, and the antics of an ironically named cartoon sheep..........

Cheers,
Dav

street":37n8ynus said:

This book....

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How nice of you to say that.

By the time I was 14 I was big enough to look ridiculous on a bmx. So when my laser got stolen I went down to the bike shop to see what was up with these odd new "mountain" bikes. Next thing I knew I was leaving with a 20" navy blue rockhopper with dayglo graphics and exage parts.

Whats really ironic is yesterday I saw one in almost mint condition. The only thing changed was the seat and the fact that it was an 18.

I got in to MTB's because of my local 'roadie' club bad attitude. MTB's are so much more chilled out.

Repack Rider":25xn6oqh said:

street":25xn6oqh said:

This book....

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How nice of you to say that.

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Didn't realize the man himself is on this forum! How cool is that!?!!

Yeah your book was definately the inspiration that sparked a passion for mountain biking that I still have today. The reason bieng, from reading it I learnt about how it all started, why it started, who started it and how it grew into what it is today.... something the magazines like MBUK and MBi that I was starting to take an interest in around the same time could never do.
The magazines portrayed mountain biking more as just a product you baught or a scene that you were buying into, which would have ultimately put me off as i'd have begun thinking that I could never get into it seriously without bieng able afford the right kit. Instead I pushed my heaps to their limits, thrived off the adrenalin and learnt how to improve my bike as parts broke and improve my riding style as bones broke. And I loved every minuite of it

I got into it in early '87 I think when I was about 14. I went to Cycle Logical in London, and saw the Muddy Foxes there, was blown away with how damned purposeful the things looked.

Shortly after a friend got a Raleigh Maverick 15, a few goes on that and I knew I had to have one. A few months later, I had a bad crash on my road bike, the council admitted liability and paid up, two weeks later and £400 lighter I walked out of the local Raleigh dealer with my Ozark.

Having been a cub and a scout I'd always been into getting up on the downs, but for hikes and things, on foot. Being up there on a bike was amazing - the distances you could cover in a day, unbelievable! The look of disbelief on walker's faces was amazing too, seeing someone on a bike, riding up a 20% muddy track, great stuff...