Which are the halcyon days of mtb'ing?

ronhill tracksters rule! i still ride in em
hooray for fred salmon as well - anodising for the people (even if it was a bit pink rather than red - uno, and trans-x, tektro etc included!)

my first bike was an '88 model but all my best MTB memories are early 90's!

ronhill tracksters rule! i still ride in em

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er...so do I! Mine are the same ones from BITD - black with a fluoro yellow stripe down them. Bit threadbare in the seat now, but still do the job!! Got a photo of me from about 1994 standing with my bike on top of the trig pillar on Skiddaw in them somewhere...!

Bear-Chan":ycxllwi0 said:

ronhill tracksters rule! i still ride in em
hooray for fred salmon as well - anodising for the people (even if it was a bit pink rather than red - uno, and trans-x, tektro etc included!)

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One day I'll build a proper 'Retro bike' - no-name alloy frame anodised electric blue with an Uno seatpost and stem, fred salmon bars, tioga psycho tyres (always on sale it seemed) a velo flite copy saddle (same low weight, none of the comfort) and a mismash of shimano parts cobbled together with whatever you could afford that month.

I remember one month I'd tacoed a rim on a nice wheel I'd inherited on a second hand bike. Having no money for a new rim I swapped the tacoed wheel with a purple ringle hub for a DX hub on a mavic that was true. Broke my heart to lose my only bit of bling but at least I could carry on riding.

stevet1":1jrj2pe9 said:

Bear-Chan":1jrj2pe9 said:

ronhill tracksters rule! i still ride in em
hooray for fred salmon as well - anodising for the people (even if it was a bit pink rather than red - uno, and trans-x, tektro etc included!)

Click to expand...

One day I'll build a proper 'Retro bike' - no-name alloy frame anodised electric blue with an Uno seatpost and stem, fred salmon bars, tioga psycho tyres (always on sale it seemed) a velo flite copy saddle (same low weight, none of the comfort) and a mismash of shimano parts cobbled together with whatever you could afford that month.

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Sounds familiar. It would also have to weigh about 32lbs to be truely like my first 'mountain bike'.

stevet1":1nfc58oo said:

One day I'll build a proper 'Retro bike' - no-name alloy frame anodised electric blue with an Uno seatpost and stem, fred salmon bars, tioga psycho tyres (always on sale it seemed) a velo flite copy saddle (same low weight, none of the comfort) and a mismash of shimano parts cobbled together with whatever you could afford that month.
.

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and clear grips that were stained a horrible brown colour...!
oh - and the quadra 10's/marzocchi zokes that didnt go boing any more!

... or a set of them strangely coloured bargin judys that appeared around 96/7 - dark blue surpless ones from dekerf or something like that!

Early '90's for me.

Not the 'best' era, that would be too contentious to call, but it is what I remember and love the bikes from that era the best.


On the road it would have to be 1988-1992.

Anything before indexing and Hyperglide was (for me)......well crap.
The early 90's were fantastic, things actually worked. You could go on a ride and make it back without full on major mechanicals.

I'm the only vote for 95-99. Its the time when i really started to get into bikes, i like the older stuff, but its this time for me

Early 90´s for sure. We all wished for suspension forks, but still only raced with rigid forks because suspension made us loose power :? . Flourescent Bell Image helmet with matching Sidi socks.